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Speaking at the National Conference on Cyber Space Security at Bangalore today, Dr K.D.Nayak, DS & DG, DRDO highlighted the importance of “Make in India” concept from the point of view of the need to protect IPR. He recalled that the manufacturing cost of an Apple i-Phone which costs around US$ 650 in the retail market is only around US $ 200 and attributed the differential profit earned by Apple to the IPR developed by Apple. He therefore urged that while for security reasons we do recommend “Make in India” in cyber space, the benefit of IPR should also be taken into account and we should focus on “Design and Make in India” rather than only “Make in India”.

We fully endorse this view and wish that this is taken note by the policy makers in Delhi.

While it is interesting to note the collateral benefit of the IPR as evident in the Apple i-Phone case, it also indicates the darker side of the IPR law which is assisting in the exploitation of the consumer. The Apple’s profit of over 100% on its manufacturing cost should be considered as a “Usurious Profit” which is anti consumer.

IPR particularly the “Patent” is the main cause of increasing the cost of services despite increased use of IT in business.

We have seen this in the Banking segment in particular as well as in the E Governance sector where IT sneaked in as a means of economic and efficient delivery of services but over time increased the cost of services.

Now when we speak of security as well as cyber law compliance, many in the industry would only focus on the cost and load it on the consumers.

As the Government pursues the concept of “Digital India” and we the cyber security specialists pursue the need for security, we need to ensure that services donot become too expensive over a period of time creating an unrest in the society.

I would urge the Government to therefore keep an eye on how foreign companies manufacturing in India would load
their research expenses in the form of IPR. At the same time we need to increase the investment in Research several folds to ensure that a fair share of future IPR is held by Indian citizens.

I also urge the Government to ensure that the FDI policy in general should also include a clause that whatever is discovered/designed in India ultimately creates IPR value for the country.

Naavi

It is reported (Refer article in ET) that Dr Gulshan Rai who has been a veteran in Cyber Security and part of MCIT for a long time has been drafted by the PMO as head of Cyber Security.

In the recent days, PM has been expressing some concern on Cyber Security and there was no better person to take this forward. In the Corporate world, we say that a designation/appointment of a person as CISO is a significant development in the road to Information Security implementation. Similarly this appointment is a significant step to demonstrate the commitment of the Government to address Cyber Security Issues.

We take this opportunity to congratulate Dr Gulshan Rai and wish him all the best. We hope necessary support would be made available by the Government to Dr Rai to ensure that his mission would be successful.

At the same time we need to remind that Dr Gulshan Rai was the Head of Department overseeing the Cyber Appellate Tribunal (CAT) which is still crying for appointment of a Chair Person. Our repeated requests to Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad as well as the PMO has not elicited any response.

Since Dr Rai is fully aware of the past issues involved in this aspect, we trust that CAT would soon get activated.

During the previous time when CAT was active, there was a move to set up a bench of CAT in Bangalore.

I request Dr Rai to take up this suggestion once again so that litigants from South India need not travel to Delhi every time for hearings.

I also draw the attention of Mr Siddaramaiah, the honourable Chief Minister of Karnataka with a request to take up the issue to the logical end.

Naavi

After the recent incidents involving corporate employees engaging in terrorist activities, there is an increasing necessity for companies to monitor the employee’s internet activities.

The Hyderabad police have reportedly advised companies to monitor the social media activities of their employees as a part of anti terrorist measures.

From the Information Security point of view it therefore becomes mandatory for companies to put in place appropriate technology measures to monitor the activities of their employees at least when they use the IT assets of the company.

Further the HR department needs to device methods to monitor the behavior of their employees that indicates any pattern of activities that indicate radical leanings of the employees towards ideologies that may nurture terrorism.

This is the new challenge to CISOs following the Mehdi Masroor incident in Bangalore.

Naavi