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"This website is the Wikipedia of Indian Cyber Laws".. A Visitor's remark



 

UID Data Stolen

May 30: It is reported that two laptops containing UID data were stolen from a school in  Pune. Naavi.org had suggested earlier that UID should follow a techno legal information security plan under IISF 309 framework. In case they have followed the principles of IISF 309 (Version 3), they might be able to counter the data loss suffered through the theft. Otherwise it indicates that UID system will continue to suffer in future also from security issues and may get abandoned as a project midstream. Article in TOI

Call Records to be stored for 5 years?

May 30: The IB is reported to have demanded that call records must be kept by Mobile Service Providers for a minimum period of 5 years. This has been opposed by the Telcos on grounds of cost. The requirement can be specified both under Sec 67C of ITA 2008 as well as under the recent rules released by DIT under Sec 79. Related Story in ET

Obama Creates a Cyber Law Controversy

 

May30: US President has created a controversy involving Cyber Laws by using "Autopen" to sign an important constitutional document from afar. It is reported that the "PATRIOT Act" was due for renewal and required the  President's signature which could not be physically obtained within the stipulated time since Mr Obama was abroad. He authorized the use of "Autopen" to sign the Bill. Report in NDTV : NewYorkTimes. :

The decision opens up a Pandora's box as to the legality of "Signatures". ... More

Corporate AGM online

May 29: Ministry of Company Affairs has been one of the most ardent promoters of ITA2000/8. It was MCA which made digital signatures mandatory and gave a lease of new life to Certifying authorities in India. Now MCA  has also clarified that it is possible to conduct shareholder's meetings virtually. Naavi's CEAC in conjunction with Arbitration. in provides a cyber law compliantvirtual meeting solution for companies. Hopefully companies take advantage of the provision. Related Article

Role of Media in ensuring that Justice Reaches People

May 27: The fact that the President of India cleared a mercy petition of a victim who had been convicted 7 years ago by the highest Court of the land has naturally made news. If the Executive which has to only review the facts and circumstances based on the trials already conducted in three or four different Courts needs 7 year’s time to decide yes or no on the mercy petition, no body can blame the Judiciary which takes ages to decide on the underlying cases.

It is in this context that the role of Media in highlighting certain cases becomes useful to the society. Though we may call it as “Trial by Media”, it often quicker decisions. The need for such media intervention is therefore necessary to ensure that the judicial system is not rendered more and more inefficient due to lack of timely delivery of justice...More

Cyber Appellate Tribunal Sitting in Chennai again

May 27: In only the second such instance the Cyber Appellate Tribunal (CAT) which is the appellate authority over Adjudication of contravention of Information Technology Act 2000/8(ITA2008) will be sitting in Chennai on 1st June 2011. The CAT will hear proceedings on three pending cases of Phishing one of which is on ICICI Bank and two on Punjab National Bank.

NewYork Police Blunders in Cyber Crime Investigation

May25: In a case of a shocking blunder, the New York Police have committed a grave blunder by misreading the IP address and addressing a wrong person who happened to be arrested, handcuffed and humiliated for an offence not committed by her. On the other hand when the real culprit was later identified, it appears that he was not arrested or handcuffed. The arrested girl, Ms Krittika happened to be a daughter of an Indian diplomat and even her claims of diplomatic privilege was ignored. The offence itself was trivial and concerned sending abusive e-mails to the teacher. In the whole episode, New York Police come out as inefficient and racist. Related Article

Regional Consultation on Cyber Laws

May 23: National Legal Service Authority (NALSA) conducted a Regional Consultation meet on Cyber laws in Hyderabad on 21st and 22nd of May 2011. Honourable Justice Sri Altamas Kabir, a Judge of Supreme Court of India and Executive Chairman NALSA presided over the event. Several eminent Judicial personalities including Chief Justice of Gauhati, Honourable Sri Madan Lokkur, Chief Justice of Orissa, Honourable Sri Gopala Gowda, Chief Justice of AP and Executive Chairman AP State Legal Services Authority, Honourable Sri B.Prakash Rao, Presiding Officer of Cyber Appellate Tribunal, Hnourable Sri Rajesh Tandon and several others participated in the event. Honourable Minister of Law of the Government of AP, Sri  E.Pratap Reddy was also present.

The meet represented a grand summit of the Judicial authorities in the States of Orissa, West Bengal, Jharkand, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Sikkim and Andaman and Nicobar and Hyderabad appears to have emerged as the preferred center for this group of Eastern States to deliberate on Cyber Law and Cyber Crime related issues.

Naavi participated in the program as one of the speakers during the session on "Challenges and Issues in Cyber Laws "and placed the Netizen's perspective of the issues focussing the issues surrounding Cyber Judiciary. A summary of Naavi's presentation made during the event is available here.

New Regulations Under ITA 2008

May23: A copy of the new notifications dated April 11, 2011 under Sec 6A, Under Sections 43A and 79 along with a notification on Cyber Cafes is now available here. All notifications under ITA 2000/8 are to be placed before the Parliament before notification. It is not clear when these notifications have been placed before the Parliament. Information on this is awaited. Copies of the  Notification are available here.  Sec 6A, Sec 43A and 79, Cyber Cafe:

The notifications have been a subject of criticism on several grounds. More discussions on these will follow.

New Adjudicator for Tamil Nadu

May20: With the change of Government in Tamil Nadu, there has been a shuffling of the IAS officers. In the process the Principal  Secretary IT of Tamil Nadu has been replaced and Dr Sathosh Babu who was presently the Managing Director of ELCOT has been appointed as the new IT Secretary of the State. It is to be recognized that the post of IT Secretary in a State also carries the responsibility of the Adjudication under ITA 2000. In effect the IT Secretary is the Chief Civil Judge of the State for adjudicating against any contravention of ITA 2000.

Mr P W C Davidar had been an exceptional officer who held the post of Adjudicating officer with dignity and a kind of expertise which is rare. It was during his tenure that four cases of Phishing were resolved. His landmark judgment in the case of S.Umashankar Vs ICICI Bank has made it into all Cyber Law text books and will remain as the trend setter in the development of Cyber Judiciary in India. It was not surprising that after the Umashankar verdict the presence of an office of Adjudication became known and nearly 16 other cases came to be registered with him. At the time of his transfer nearly 14 cases are pending of which two cases against PNB are significant. These cases are significant since the Bank tried all tricks ethical and unethical to ensure that the case could not be completed on schedule and got adjourned on several pretexts only to ensure that the case does not get decided before the change of guard.

As a result, the new Adjudicator will need to take stock of the developments of last 6 months before proceeding with the adjudication and inevitably the poor victims of Cyber Crimes who were hoping that their cases would be decided within the statutory period of 4 months will now have to wait much longer.

We hope that the new Adjudicator would quickly get into operation and continue with the case from where it was left off. The situation is a test for Cyber Judiciary system as it would determine how the system functions when there is change of the Adjudicator midstream in an ongoing case. The advocates representing the parties would perhaps demand a fresh enquiry where has the victims feel done in by the system and the delays which are common in Civil Cases but were sought to be removed in the Cyber Judiciary system. Since the Adjudication system is an "Enquiry" process and is not bound by the Civil Procedure Code, it is open to the Adjudicator to device his own system for continuance of the pending proceedings to uphold the principle of natural justice which is the driving principle of Adjudication under ITA 2000/8

International Perspective of Rules under ITA 2008

May19: Here is an international perspective of the proposed rules under ITA 2008 draft of which were released on April 11th 2011. The rules need to be Gazetted. There are several objections raised regarding the rules and a final word has not been said as yet... Article

Will Banks take note of this flaw in their security system?

May17: Banks have been claiming that internet banking is safer with SMS alert systems being in place. RBI seems to innocently agree with the same. Now this warning from Delhi Police should open the eyes of RBI and the Banks. The Delhi Police has pointed out to the modus operandi of fraudsters to divert the SMS alerts to cloned SIM cards preventing the account holder from getting any alerts. This diversion of SMS alerts are used in conjunction with phishing to commit frauds.The so called 2F authentication through OTP also suffers from the same weakness since OTP can be obtained through the cloned SIM. RBI should therefore consider 2F authentication though SMS as inadequate security.. HT News

One More Phishing Complaint upheld in Chennai
 

May 17: After the Landmark judgement in April 12, 2010 in the case of S.Umashankar Vs ICICI Bank, the adjudicator of Tamil Nadu has delivered another judgement in the case of Thomas Raju Vs ICICI Bank holding the Bank liable to repay the loss sustained by the customer on account of unauthorized access to his account. Though these cases are generally termed as "Phishing" cases, it is always the Bank that claims that no body can access the account without the customer sharing his password and try to paint all cases as cases of negligence by the customer. However in the case of Thomas Raju, the customer claimed not to have received any phishing mail at all. In two other cases before the adjudicator of Tamil Nadu involving PNB, the customers have claimed not to have divulged one of the two passwords required for passing the transactions. It therefore appears that these are not strictly phishing cases but are cases where there is a prima facie failure of security in the Banking system.


It may also be noted from the website of TN Government that in the last year ICICI Bank has entered into compromise in two more cases where ICICI Bank was involved. Thus to 4 customers of ICICI Bank in the last year have found relief through adjudication. I hope that the legal community would consider making use of the adjudication system in every State in appropriate cases in future. Copy of Judgement
 

Why top law students in India donot want to practice?

May 16: Legal profession has in the past been considered as a noble profession where public spirited persons may serve those who need the support of the judiciary for relief when they were victims of some contravention of law. ....It is therefore heartening to note that bright young people are showing some interest in the profession as is indicated by the response to the competitive examination, CLAT 2011 which determines the qualifiers to enter into the prestigious National Law Schools. ...More

RTI Appeal with RBI remains unanswered

May15: Naavi had filed an RTI application with RBI regarding the G Gopalakrishna Working group report. The information officer had rejected the information on grounds of national security interests.  An appeal had been preferred on the same on April 1st. Even after 45 days, there is no response from the appeal authority. A reminder has been sent today. The application and the RBI reply is being  made available through this site so that somebody in Mumbai can assist me in pursuing the request. RTI Application : Reply received: Appeal

Unauthorised Blocking of websites is also an offence

May10: It is observed that many websites and articles are being blocked by ISPs. It is presumed that at least some of these are done on the basis of informal orders from the DIT. If ISPs donot have a formal written order to block a website then their action can be termed as "Denial Of Service" under Section 43 and 66 of ITA 2008. ISPs should therefore clarify if the blocking of websites such as bloggernews.net have been properly authorized. Since some of the articles of Naavi which have been blocked cannot be justified under national interests, the blocking of the sites can only be termed illegal. If action is initiated, some officials of ISPs may find themselves answerable to law...provided law cannnot be bent by the influential !

The end of Naavi.org in sight?

May 10: Given the trend of website blocking resorted to by the Government of India, DIT, it will not be surprising that Naavi.org may be the next target for being blocked by the Government of India, DIT. In the recent days there have been so many objectionable happenings in the Indian Cyber space that it becomes impossible not to express opposition through the website. However this makes many in the administration unhappy. The current approach of the GOI is tending towards the "emergency day arrogance" and hence there is a reasonable expectation that Naavi.org would be forced to close down.

If this happens, the nearly 14 year old crusade on "Creating a Responsible Cyber Society" being pursued by Naavi may come to an end. In the past whenever websites are blocked, they have remained blocked for an indefinite time and hence our communication with the readers may get cut off. I therefore would like to to place this contingent obituary on the site and thank all those who were supportive of Naavi.org in the past.

Even if Naavi.org is blocked in India it is intended to continue the publication for the international audience and those who can access the site from outside India may still continue to receive the site.

Is Bloggernews.net blocked?

May10: It appears that not being satisfied with the blocking of a selective article on bloggernews.net, the Government of India has now blocked the entire URL www.bloggernews.net. It is not clear if this was a result of any Court action. There is a possibility that this could be because of this article on "Calling attention of CVC.." or it may be due to this article where a copy of the letter sent to RBI Governor is published though in such a case it is likely to be an administrative order not backed by any  Court order. Related Article in Statesman. Related Article in techgoss.com

Fake EVMs in West Bengal

May10: Fake EVMs have been detected in Midnapore, West Bengal where Trinamool Congress workers have also been accused of having prevented voters from casting votes. It would be interesting to observe if cases will be booked under ITA 2008.... IE Story

Beware of Osama related Cyber Frauds

May4: With a high interest in the cyber space to know more about the killing of Osama Bin Laden and view the photographs,  it is expected that Cyber Crime perpetrators will exploit this interest in enticing Netizens to visit malicious websites and implant trojans and viruses. Sympathizers may also be lured into advance free frauds in the form of donations. Netizens may therefore refrain from visiting any site not known to be an official website of a reputed agency. If a search is thrown up on Google, Netizens should verify the hyper link and check if the URL is correct. It is preferable to type the URL where known. Related article in Chicago times

G Gopalakrishna Working Group Report notified

May1:RBI has notified Banks on information security guidelines in e-Banking based on the G Gopalakrishna working group report. It would be interesting to analyze the RBI notification in comparison with the original report and its recommendations. Naavi.org would provide its views in due course. Copy of RBI Circular


 

 

PR Syndicate honours 'Cyber Law Guru of India', Na.Vijayashankar

PR Syndicate, (an organization of Corporate PR Professionals in Chennai,)  celebrated its First Anniversary on 20th January 2007 at Russian Cultural Centre. On the occasion, "Award of Excellence in Public Life"  was presented to 'Cyber Law Guru of India' Na.Vijayashankar...More

 

  What is Naavi.org?

Naavi.org is India's premier portal on Cyber Law. It is not only an information portal containing information on several aspects concerning Information Technology Law in India but also represents the focal point of several services around Cyber Law carried on by Naavi.

The first such service is the Cyber Law College a virtual Cyber Law education center in India which provides various courses on Cyber Law.

The second key service is the Cyber Evidence Archival center which provides a key service to help administration of   justice in Cyber Crime cases.

The third key service is the domain name look-alikes dispute resolution service which provides a unique solution for websites with similar looking domain names to co exist.

The fourth key service is the online mediation and arbitration service another unique global service.

The fifth key service is the CyLawCom service which represents the Cyber Law Compliance related education, audit and implementation assistance service.

Additionally, Naavi.org is in the process of development of four sub organizations namely the Digital Society Foundation, Naavi.net, International Cyber Law Research Center and Cyber Crime Complaints and Resolution Assistance Center. Digital Society Foundation is a Trust formed with the objective of representing the voice of Netizens in various fora and work like an NGO to protect their interests. Naavi.net is meant to develop a collaborative distributed network of LPO consultants. International Cyber Law Research Center would support research in Cyber Laws and Cyber Crime Complaints and Resolution Assistance Center would try to provide some support to victims of Cyber Crimes.

Together, Naavi.org represents a "Cyber Law Vision" that goes beyond being a mere portal. Started in 1997, when the concept of Cyber Law was new across the globe, consistent efforts over the last decade has brought Naavi.org to the beginning of "Phase 2" in which the services are ready to reach out to a larger section. This is recognized as the phase of collaborations and growth by association. Naavi.org will therefore be entering into a series of associations to develop each dimension of its vision with an appropriate partner. Individuals, Organizations and Commercial houses which have synergistic relationship with the activities of Naavi.org are welcome to join hands in commercial and non commercial projects of Naavi.org.

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