Naavi.org

Artificial Intelligence is hailed as one of the greatest developments in technology in our era after the invention of Internet and WWW. But the recent incidents of use of AI for creating viruses, sending phishing messages, Voice Cloning and now Deep fake video raise an alarm which opens up a debate on how reliable is Internet in general.

If Rashmika Mandanna video can be deep faked, it is also possible for deep fake of Narendra Modi by the unscrupulous opposition to create false narrative and alter the course of an election. It will be naive to assume that such an attempt is not already in place in the labs of the opposition.

If we recall the growth of Internet as an information superhighway, we can note that the history of Internet , suggests that Internet was officially born on January 1, 1983 when the TCP/IP protocol was officially adopted by ARPANET and expanded into the WWW network and became a global information exchange system on 30th April 1993 when the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) placed it in public domain.

Since then, the Internet has been adopted by the world as a way of life.

When Internet was adopted for E Commerce the need for identity of internet actors became paramount. In this phase of development, “Trust” was the key for Internet activity. Digital Signatures and KYC are products of this phase.

This phase of growth of “Identified human beings acting on the Internet” converted the Netizen population to a Netizen-Citizen population with every netizen identifying himself as a citizen of a sovereign country. This gave birth to the concept of Cyber Space being recognized as an aggregation of Cyber Spaces belonging to the individual sovereign states with separate Cyber Laws.

In the meantime, Social Media became a society of its own with a direct user to user interaction and purveying news across the globe. Social Media was a mix of self declared identified activities in physical space and “Pseudonymous” internet activity. In this phase the Cyber Crimes grew as criminals used the pseudonymous nature of Social Media to commit crimes on identified users of the Internet.

As Internet took this journey of Anonymity to Identity and reverted back to Pseudonymity and a mix of population on the Internet with Citizens, Netizens working along together, came into existence, the need for a new set of Cyber Laws in the “Privacy” area emerged.

This is the era in which we now live in at the end of 2023. Now a new era of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is coming up which is set to re-write the nature of information on the Internet.

AI as a technology has its inherent “Bias” created out of the learning data used for the development which renders every AI algorithm as a creature with a specific cultural background in which the AI was developed. For example, an AI algorithm developed out of data in US will reflect the US culture while AI algorithm developed in Gaza will carry the Gaza culture and an AI algorithm developed in India will carry the Indian culture. Just as the “Upbringing” of an individual in a family and society has profound influence on the character of an individual, AI will develop a character which reflects the learning environment.

This can be considered as “Bias” when the algorithm is used in a jurisdiction outside the place from which the learning data was sourced. But this is nothing different from a Japanese or a Chinese having a different perspective on life from an Indian Hindu or a Taliban Muslim. It is part of the development process of the AI.

In other words, we need to recognize that AI which in the coming days express through humanoid robots will reflect the culture of the society in which the AI was developed. Hence a “Sophia” may have a western culture while a “Laxmi” may have an Indian culture.

An incident was reported recently that when a Chat GPT version of the Microsoft was posed a question in India to create a poem, it created a poem which could be considered as derogatory of the Indian women highlighting the inherent bias of the algorithm. It is probable that the poem might not be considered derogatory in the US society where the algorithm was developed.

This recognition of the “Cultural Bias” in the AI algorithms is a significant factor to be taken into consideration by countries like India when they form their AI regulations by providing a “Culture Tag” to the AI.

One of the unusual problems that AI has brought in to the society is the development of fake news and the problem of Voice cloning and Deep fake Video.

These problems are set to grow in the future and the recent incident of a deep fake involving an actress Rashmika Mandanna is a serious issue to take note. While we can appreciate deepfake being used to re-create a Kannada actor Rajkumar or a Tamil actor MGR and bring them back into the film world, use of deep fake to present a false identity of a living person in the manner it was used in the case of Rashmika Mandanna is criminally defamatory.

Government of India has to now show that the Indian Cyber Law in the form of “Information Technology Act 2000 (ITA 2000)” has the necessary teeth to punish those who created the deep fake video of Rashmi Mandanna.

Under the law, Creation of Deepfake video is an offence under Section 66 of ITA 2000 and could be defamatory under Section 499/500 of IPC. It is also an unauthorized act of the data fiduciary under DPDPA 2023. Additionally the “Unauthorized modification” is a contravention under section 43 of ITA 2000 which provides for compensation which can be invoked against the Intermediaries for their negligence under sections 79 and 85 of the ITA 2000.

There is no need to seek the new Digital India Act to consider a modified video as an offence under ITA 2000 nor wait for the formation of DPB under DPDPA 2023. Action can be taken now if the Government has the will to do so.

Despite the noises being made, and the law enabling stringent punishment being available, we cannot be sure if the Government will really take action against the Rashmi Mandanna deepfake case.

I have a specific experience of bringing a Cyber Terrorism incident to the attention of the Meity and CERT-In with no action being taken. The proverbial Kid-glove approach to Cyber Crimes is one of the reasons why Cyber Criminals have got emboldened in India.

Let us see if the Government has learnt its lessons that for rooting out Cyber Crimes, a strong will is required by the Government besides the law.

In this incident, Government should put an inter-state investigation team to identify where the deepfake originated and charge all persons involved in the crime starting from the software person who created the deepfake, to the companies involved in production, distribution and display of the video charge. The software developer may be called upon publicly to be an approver so that he can be granted remission while the other parties involved my be suitably punished.

If the Government has a reward system to recognize whistleblowing in such instances, perhaps more such instances could be brought to light.

I would like to warn MHA that if they donot put down the perpetrator of Rashmi Mandanna deep fake video creation team with iron hand, treating it as an “Attempt” corrupt the the social media and a national security threat, we should be ready to see the fake videos of Mr Modi during the election campaign stating things which could sway the voters against him.

At the same time, Naavi.org invites any person having knowledge of when, where and how the Rashmika Mandanna deepfake was created to share the information with or without revealing their identity to the undersigned. Naavi.org would be happy to recognize such person with a special award for the same in a public event. Any information for this purpose may be shared before 15th November 2023.

Naavi

On November 7, 2023, Reserve Bank of India has made a major announcement related to Information Security Governance applicable to all Regulated entities (RE) . These guidelines will henceforth be considered as “Reasonable Security Practice” requirements and “Due Diligence” for all the entities covered under the notification for the purpose of ITA 2000 as well as DPDPA 2023.

This “Master Direction on Information Technology Governance, Risk, Controls and Assurance Practices” will replace all earlier guidelines issued since 2002 including the GGWG guidelines of April 29, 2011 and the Cyber Security Framework of 2017.

The directions titled Reserve Bank of India (Information Security Governance, Risk, Controls and Assurance Practices) Directions 2023, will be effective from 1st April 2024.

These directions will be applicable to all Banking Companies, Corresponding New Banks, SBI, NBFCs, Credit Information Companies, Exim Bank, NABARD, National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development, NHB and SIDBI,

The directions are not applicable to Local Area Banks, NBFC Core Investment Companies.

The guidelines consist of the following 7 chapters.

Chapter I: Preliminary

Chapter II: IT Governance

Chapter III: IT Infrastructure & Services Management

Chapter IV: IT and Information Security Risk Management

Chapter V: Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and Disaster Recovery Management

Chapter VI: Information Systems (IS) Audit

Chapter VII: Repeal and Other provisions

The IT Governance Framework under Chapter II indicates five key focus areas namely

a) Strategic alignment

b) Risk Management

c) Resource Management

d) Performance Management and

e) Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery Management.

Under the guidelines, the REs shall put in place a robust, comprehensive and accountable framework of Governance specifying the responsibilities of the Board of Directors, Board level committee and Senior Management.

Under the guidelines, the REs shall appoint a sufficiently senior technically competent and experienced official in IT related aspects as head of IT function who will be responsible for

(i) Ensuring that the execution of IT projects/ initiatives is aligned with the RE’s IT Policy and IT Strategy;
(ii) Ensuring that there is an effective organisational structure to support IT functions in the RE; and
(iii) Putting in place an effective disaster recovery setup and business continuity strategy/ plan.

Under Chapter III on IT Infrastructure and Services Management, one of the guidelines indicated is that REs shall avoid using outdated and unsupported hardware or software and shall monitor software’s end of support date and AMC dates on an ongoing basis. This could mean that there would be an immediate refreshing of hardware and software facilities in all REs.

In third party arrangements for outsourcing, REs shall apply the RBI outsourcing directions 2023 and further put in place measures to assess and mitigate risks, including compliance of all applicable legal, regulatory requirements and standards to protect customer data.

While adopting new or emerging technologies, REs need to align the strategies with the risk appetite of the organization.

It is also specifically indicated that REs shall obtain the source codes of all critical applications from the vendors and put in place a source code escrow arrangement. REs shall also obtain a certificate or a written confirmation from the application developer or vendor stating that the application is free of known vulnerabilities, malware, and any covert channels in the code. Such a certificate or a written confirmation shall also be obtained whenever material changes to the code, including upgrades, occur. Any new IT application proposed to be introduced as a business product shall be subjected to product approval and quality assurance process.

The REs shall put in place a system for collecting and monitoring audit trails of all critical applications.

The guidelines suggest use of cryptographic controls which are internationally accepted and not deprecated and adopt a straight through processing when data is transferred from one process to another.

The access control is expected to be on a need basis and personnel with elevated access shall be based on multifactor authentication and closely supervised.

Chapter IV covers the IT and Information Security Risk Management. The guidelines require an appropriate policy that shall be reviewed at least once a year and a Cybersecurity Policy and Crisis Management Plan (CCMP) .

A senior level executive (preferably General manager level) shall be designated as the CISO who shall not have direct reporting relationship with the head of IT functions and shall not be given any business targets.

The guidelines recognize the need to report incidents to CERT-IN but no mention has been made on Data Protection Board under DPDPA 2023. This indicates that these guidelines have been developed before DPDPA 2023 was passed and hence DPDPA 2023 compliance need to be built over this Information Security guidelines.

Under Chapter V, the BCP and DR policy requirements are indicated and shall include the interconnected systems of vendors and partners. It is expected that REs shall achieve minimal RTO (Recovery Time Objective) as approved by the IT Security Committee and near zero RPO (Recovery Point Objective) for critical information systems.

Information Systems (IS) audit under Chapter VI indicate that there shall be an IS audit policy along with a governance mechanism.

An annexure along with Chapter VII ensures that multiple regulations of the earlier years are promptly repealed so that this guideline will become an unambiguous guideline applicable from 1st April 2024.

Information and Data Security professionals need to take note of this guideline not only for sectoral regulations but also as a general guideline on industry practices.

Naavi

Indian Data Protection Summit (IDPS), is FDPPI’s flagship annual event, which brings together experts and speakers from India and abroad to delve into various facets of data protection in India.  IDPS 2023, the fourth edition, is jointly organized with Manipal Law School, a constituent institute of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), an Institution of Eminence Deemed to be University.

Theme: This year, IDPS 2023 is set to explore the profound impact of emerging technologies, including AI, Meta Verse, Blockchain, Quantum Computing, and Neuro Science, with a unique focus on privacy and data protection.

Event Highlights: Key note addresses, Panel Discussions, Industry Awards, paper presentation from academia and exhibition opportunity for organisations to showcase their products and services. The participation to the event is by delegate fee and invitations. The program will also be webcast and recordings made available for access post the event.

Date & Venue: Nov 24 & 25, MAHE Campus, Yelahanka, Bangalore

Participation Fee:

Physical Participation for two days – Rs 3,000

Virtual Participation for two days – Rs 1, 500

For Queries: Write to fdppi4privacy@gmail.com

We refer to the newspaper reports about the data leak at ICMR. It is stated that data of 81.5 crore citizens is up for sale in the dark web.

While there can be a separate discussion on the possible security failure at ICMR and how such data breaches will be handled in the post DPDPA 2023 scenario, I would like to bring to the discussion table an entirely different perspective.

When such data breaches occur and the victim is a Government body, all professionals end up blaming the Government. Media by their nature also blames the Government and probably Mr Modi for batting for digital India.

But has any body blamed the hackers who have made it a habit to attack Indian Government assets to display their hacking skills as if it is a fair game and no adverse consequences to follow?

Just as Lutiyan media, Left liberals and UN blames Israel without condemning the Hamas attack, media only blames the Government without condemning the hackers who steal data and post it in the DarkWeb as if it is their right to do so. Crime is not a right and we need the society to understand this.

According to the report in news 18 CERT IN has roped in multiple agencies of the Government and considering the breach as a sensitive data breach involving Aadhaar and Passport data.

I hope this report is true because in the past CERT IN or MeitY has not shown the necessary concern to address such data breaches. When a Government asset is breached, CERT IN feels shy thinking that it is guilty of lack of its own inability in enforcing information security within the Government bodies and would be inclined to underplay the incident.

The tendency of the Government/CERT IN/MeitY is similar to a corporate executive who tries to delay reporting of an incident because he is shamed by a data breach in his company and unable to go to his CEO immediately and say… Sorry, I made a mistake. Instead, he tries to resolve the issue first and in the process create more damage than what was necessary.

In the ICMR Case, it is evident that the scale of data breach and the nature of personal data and the intention of making it available on the Darkweb to any enemy of the country indicate that this incident reflects an unauthorized access and a Section 66F offence under ITA 2000.

If the Government is serious, they have to put the fear of God in the hackers who attempt at hacking Indian Government websites and data bases and steal the data.

I would have loved to read in the News18 report that ICMR is filing an FIR under Section 66F against unknown hacker who has placed the data for sale and in conspiracy with others who must have assisted him. Further investigations would reveal whether it was an information security gap or there was any insider involvement or whether it had any involvement of the supply chain system.

Government/ICMR need to announce an attractive reward for any information leading to the finding of the source of the ICMR hacking and some security expert may be able to find out the identity of the person who has posted the data for sale in the dark web.

I donot think that hacking into Government data assets is different from Chinese intrusion into Ladakh or Pakistan intrusion into Kargil. The Government should not be soft to such activities and take such action which would deter them from trying such things once again.

It appears that many hackers are using Government assets as target practice for honing their hacking skills and we need to put an end to such a practice.

We often hesitate to use the available laws and this attitude needs to change.

I am stating this with my own personal experience of instances when Cyber Terrorism instances were brought to the attention of CERT In and MeitY and they failed to take it to a logical conclusion.

One was a case of Digilocker which was hacked and unauthorized access was gained to around 3 billion documents and the hacker boldly published his exploit on the web. When CERT In and Digilocker came to know if it, they did not lodge any FIR on the hacking irrespective of whether there was any vulnerability in the security or not.

Such softness create an impression that Indian enforcement system is not good enough to be feared by hackers.

Let us now wait and see if the MHA wakes up at least in the case of ICMR hacking and file a Section 66F complaint. Even in other cases, MHA should at least send notices and demand admitted hackers to show cause why a Cyber Terrorism complaint cannot be launched against them.

If MHA is watching this website as they should, they can respond with filing a Cyber Terrorism case in this instance and have a NIA-CBI investigation.

Naavi

ISO auditors have been one of the class of professionals who have been productively engaged in the audit and assessment services. ISO gives many opportunities for certification but one of the major activities has been ISO 27001. Now as the ISO 27001:2019 moves to ISO 27001: 2022, post 1st November, auditors have to gear up for the new framework. A few of these auditors had stepped into ISO 27701 and offering their services for GDPR compliance to Indian companies.

So far, we could tell a company that India does not have a data protection law and therefore go for GDPR compliance and implementation of ISO 27701 which along with ISO 27001 can be certified.

But the scenario has now changed. India has passed DPDPA 2023 which is applicable to collection of personal data in India. It will therefore be foolish to apply GDPR to Indian Personal Data and feel that compliance is achieved.

If so, how can an Indian Data Fiduciary go for compliance? particularly if it intends to get third party certified?

Enter DGPSI the Futuristic framework

Thanks to forward looking organizations like FDPPI, an unique framework for implementation of Compliance by Design, Certifiable third party audit and Maturity assessment is now available for organizations.

The framework is called DGPSI (Digital Governance and Protection Standard of India) and the system built under DGPSI guidance is the DGPMS or Digital Governance and Protection Management System.

So, DGPMS is now the organizational goal pushing aside ISMS and PIMS.

In this scenario, ISO auditors cannot depend on ISO 27001/ISO 27701 audit for their bread and butter. They need to find new avenues to leverage their years of experience.

DGPSI is the biggest disruptor in the IT audit domain. It brings three kinds of professionals namely the Business Managers, the CISOs and the DPOs into one platform and own the implementation.

Audit or implementation s no longer a proposal from CISO or DPO which the CFO or CMO shoots down. It is a proposal in which the CFO and CMO have equal interest along with CISO or DPO or even the CRO or CCO.

DGPSI directly addresses the compliance of DPDPA 2023 with about 35 controls.

At the same time it also picks up the 25 compliance requirements related to Privacy Risks identified by the Bureau of Indian Standards in their draft standard document released at the same time when DPDPA 2023 was passed by the Parliament and 33 controls required for ITA 2000 compliance.

The DGPSI additionally addresses the requirements of 93 controls of ISO 27001 and 49 controls of ISO 27701 which are suggested for application to Personal Data protection.

Thus, a Total of 200 non DPA controls are merged with 35 DPDPA specific controls and addressed through only 50 Model Implementation specification under DGPSI.

It is simpler but effectively includes the essence of the essence. More over the DTS component of assessment provides a maturity assessment of the organization’s compliance status also.

DGPSI is therefore likely to be the only choice of wise Business Managers in the industry.

Before organizations gear up to opt for DGPSI compliance, professionals need to transform themselves from their current expertise to DGPSI expertise and an opportunity is flying past you.

On October 28/29 and November 4 and 5, FDPPI/Naavi is conducting a 12 hour Virtual program to impart the necessary requirements of this DGPSI framework the best practices of the industry.

Visit www.fdppi.in and register yourself today .

Don’t miss the bus… board the C.DPO.DA band wagon today….

Naavi

FDPPI has been in the forefront of empowerment of Professionals and Organizations for Personal Data Protection in India.

During the five years since its inception, FDPPI has introduced India specific Certification Program for Data Protection Professionals and today if any person is aspiring to be a DPO or undertake the profession of a Data Auditor, the clear destination is FDPPI.

Similarly if any organization is looking for a framework for compliance of DPDPA and Indian Data Protection Regime, the clear and only choice is DGPSI or Data Governance and Protection Standard of India.

While FDPPI’s C.DPO.DA. Certification program is the preferred choice for professionals over every other certification program on the basis of content and DGPSI based audit and assessment is the only choice for organizations for Certification for DPDPA compliance, FDPPI would like to be an organization that takes along all organizations and professionals with similar objectives to come together as a “Federation of Data Protection Professionals” in India.

FDPPI therefore has introduced a “Cross Certification Program” to recognize the efforts and investments made by professionals in acquiring qualifications like CIPP or CDPSE Certification and provide them an exemption from part of the training of C.DPO.DA. Though these programs only focussed on GDPR and not on DPDPA, considering the general training they have received in Privacy, we would provide them a short cut to completion of C.DPO.DA.

Currently auditors certified as “Lead Auditors” of ISO 27001 or ISO 27701 or PCI DSS, undergo intense training in audit aspects but not necessarily in any law since these audits are purely technical in nature and not Techno Legal in nature. However, considering their exposure to the industry, Accredited ISO lead auditors will be provided an accelerated path to becoming C.DPO.DA. auditor.

This is an attempt to follow the principle of “Sab Ka Sath-Sab Ka Vishwas” .

The accelerated path to C.DPO.DA. works as under.

Currently C.DPO.DA consists of three parts namely Module I, Module G and Module A.

Module I covers DPDPA and ITA 2000 (DIA when available)

Module G covers GDPR, US Data Protection laws, Singapore/DIFC laws

Module A is sub divided into two parts namely the first part consisting of essence of Audit Principles, ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 and second part which consists of DGPSI framework.

In what is proposed, professionals with current active certifications from IAPP and ISACA can directly take up Module A (both Part 1 and part 2 required). The Accredited ISO auditors can directly take Part 2 of Module A.

All professionals need to take the online examination for C.DPO.DA and pass through in one or more attempts. They can opt to take the training if required at any point of time though video streaming.

The Cost of the these accelerated programs from 1st November will be as follows:

Module A: Both Part 1 and Part 2: Rs 24000/- Plus GST of 18%

Module A-Part 2 only: Rs 12000/- plus GST

Examination fee: Rs 10000/- for first attempt and Rs 5000/- for second and subsequent attempts (plus GST)

Next Program for Module A will commence on October 28,29 and November 3/4

Naavi