In a rapidly changing landscape of the cyber security, the world today is in quest for ways to set things right out there. Indeed, India is not an exception.
Cyberspace, the natural extension of the physical world into an infinite world- a virtual medium with no boundaries characterized by dynamism and anonymity, is a world run not by weapons, energy or money, but by little ones and zeroes. It can no longer be protected with high walls and long range missiles, but only through the development of layers of defences accompanied by improved awareness of adversarial capabilities and intentions.
Cyberspace has now come to denote anything related to computers, the internet, websites and even devices such as ATM machines and cell phones. The New Oxford Dictionary of English defines cyberspace as the notional environment in which communication over computer networks occurs. Thus, while internet is a fact, cyberspace is a fiction- a man made machine world.
Cyber law that governs the cyberspace has three building blocks- netizens, cyberspace and technology. This law covers issues like cyber crime, e-commerce, online contracts, e-governance, data protection and privacy, intellectual property in cyberspace and so on.
The Convention on Cyber Crime of the Council of Europe is at present the only binding international instrument on cyber crime. However, different countries have their own legislations related to the cyber law. The USA for instance has enacted the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1987, the No Electronic Theft Act of 1997, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, the Child Online Protection Act of 1998 and the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act of 2000 - to name a few.
India and its cyberspace
Sections 43 (a) to (j) of the Act deal with cyber contraventions whereas sections 66, 66A-66D refer to cyber offences. (It needs to be mentioned here that the Supreme Court has declared Section 66A of Information Technology Act as unconstitutional and struck it down.)
Internet and cyber crime
The internet is not just a world of information, friends, fun, education and sports, but also a world full of drug dealers, cyber stalkers, psychopaths and even recipes to make bombs. The billion dollar question that arises is: are the legislative and judicial efforts that have been made sufficient enough to stop this technological epidemic? For instance, unlike real world crime, cyber crime is not physically grounded. It increasingly tends not to occur in a single sovereign territory. With the click of a mouse or a keystroke, cyber criminals are in a position to disrupt any computer network located anywhere in the world. It is hydra headed and difficult to be contained through the agency of law.
The complexity of the problem of cyber security can be amply seen from the following scenario:
a. Cyber war is now a reality and we stand on the brink of a cyber calamity. In the fall of 2010, the world learned about the Stuxnet worm - a highly sophisticated computer attack tool that disrupted centrifuges processing nuclear fuel for the Iranian nuclear bomb program. This event was the first tangible illustration that cyber attacks can disrupt not just computers, but also physical processes in the real world.
b. Quietly, but with serious consequences, the internet’s model of "governance by no governance" is failing to keep the internet running. Quite simply, the internet has run out of IP addresses. Moreover the transition from one global internet protocol to another is challenging and the lack of any effective governance of the internet makes this transition even more daunting.
c. Every few months brings the latest "worst ever cyber theft" such as the successive thefts of over 100, 000,000 user accounts from Sony in April 2011.
d. Most cyber networks are in private sector hands. Thus the government and cyber security policy have only limited and very indirect influence on cyberspace.
To quote Fridtjof Nansen, "we need courage to throw away old garments which have had their day and no longer fit the requirements of the new generation. “ To put it a bit differently, proactive steps are needed so that the Act can have sufficient 'byte' with the better part of both wisdom and valour. Needless to say, these measures must be accompanied by a sustained effort towards awareness promotion so that risk management in virtual space becomes a reality. For this Utopia to come time, what is needed is deeds, not words and political will to plan accompanied by administrative competence to execute.
(Raju Narayana Swamy is an officer in the Indian Administrative Service. The views expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the columnist)