Plea In SC Seeks Guidelines On Cyber Security: Cyber Security Has Been Neglected In India

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The Supreme Court today postponed the hearing on a writ petition seeking new guidelines to combat hacking, cyber crime, data theft, and other related issues until November 26, 2021.
• The bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and CT Ravikumar ordered that the petitioner's lawyer, Advocate Vivek Narayan Sharma, serve an advance copy of the plea on the Centre's Standing Counsel (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology).

ABOUT THE PETITION

• The petition asked for guidance on how to create:
• Toll-free complaint and redressal centres for cases of social media hacks, cyber crimes and data breach New posts in cyber cells
• New posts in cyber cells Filling cyber cells with technical experts at the District level in every State
• A temporary body with extensive powers to look into data breaches and redressal
• Data Protection Rights and Cyber Security measures which would strengthen public trust
• It was contended that the lack of a central authority or a central organisation with pan-India jurisdiction to deal with cases created major impediments for cyber cells to operate smoothly.
• In this context, petitioners argued that having cyber cells undermined the purpose of having them because cyber crimes and data theft occurred across multiple states and jurisdictions, causing concerns such as jurisdiction and infrastructure scarcity.
• The petition, which was favoured by Advocate Shubham Awasthi, also asked for directives to the Centre to develop Data Protection Rules and Policies for international firms.
• The petitioner further claimed that India's current legal system had no knowledge of personal data, and that the IT Act merely mentioned Personal Information, which might be interpreted in a variety of ways.

QUESTIONS

• What do you think is the importance of cyber security?
• What have been the impacts of neglecting cyber security in India?

Let us know your views on the issue in the comment section below!