Saturday, November 6, 2010

Indian Cyberspace Is Vulnerable To Cyber Attacks

Cyber security and cyber forensics are two essential components of cyberspace. At the same time, cyber security and cyber forensics must be supplemented with strong cyber law. Unfortunately, India has none.

India has a weak and cyber criminal’s friendly cyber law legislation known as information technology act, 2000 (IT Act 2000). Though originally it was somewhat stringent yet with the passage of the information technology act 2008 (IT Act 2008) it has become an impotent and useless law in this regard. Now cyber criminals can commit almost any cyber crime in India and go free. This is so because the IT Act 2008 made almost all the cyber crime bailable.

As far as cyber security is concerned, Indian cyberspace has been continuously targeted by cyber criminals. The computer systems located at sensitive and strategic locations are frequently breached and compromised. Even the prime minister’s office (PMO) has been attacked and successfully compromised by cyber criminals. India urgently needs effective cyber security measures.

On the front of cyber forensics as well, India has performed poorly. There is an absence of cyber forensics capabilities in India. We have to depend upon foreign corporations and universities to do cyber forensics job for us. Even the police force in India is ignorant about cyber crimes and cyber forensics basics.

It is high time to make effective cyber law, ensure good cyber security and develop sufficient cyber forensics capabilities in India.

E-Governance In India Has Failed

E-governance is an effective tool for bringing transparency and productivity in governmental and private sector workings. However, implementing an e-governance strategy require good planning and effective implementation.

The success of any e-governance initiative can be measured by the e-infrastructure it has created. In India e-infrastructure is in a big mess. Take the example of e-courts in India. India is claiming to have established many e-courts all over India. However, there is not even a single e-court in India till now. The e-infrastructure woes of Indian judicial system are well known.

Further, India has still to enact a versatile and robust ICT policy. In the absence of an ICT policy in India, the e-governance initiatives of India have failed to materialise. Whether it is national e-governance plan (NEGP) or other schemes launched by the department of information technology (DIT) India, none of them have materialised so far. Whatever achievement in this regard has been obtained, the same is on papers alone.

Red tape and corruption are the main reason for the failure of e-governance in India. Also there is no transparency and accountability in India that results in wasting of crores of public money. The commonwealth game scam, 2G spectrum scam and many more unrevealed scams have happened and are presently happening in India.

Instead of bringing the culprits before justice, the Indian government is just portraying an India shining picture. The true face is, however, very gruesome and ugly that our prime minister has failed to see.