It is government’s obligation to strengthen cyber laws: SC judge

The government needs to strengthen laws in view of huge rise in cyber crimes threatening the country, Supreme Court judge Justice Dipak Misra on Thursday said.

“When the good exists, the evil has to be around. That idea has provoked some to abuse the Internet. Instances of cyber crime are on the rise and that is quite threatening.

“The growth of registration of cases under Information Technology (IT) Act along with the offences under other penal laws has become a menace to the society. The rate of offences has grown by 350 per cent from 2011 to 2015,” Justice Misra said while addressing the ‘International Conference on Cyberlaw, Cybercrime and Cybersecurity’ here.

Noting that various countries have taken manifold steps to strengthen laws to prevent Internet crimes, the judge said, “It is the obligation of the state to strengthen its cyber law and effective legal frameworks are absolutely essential. There is need for international bondage which shall have singular aim to preserve cyber security. There is need for developing the requisite jurisprudential principles concerning cyber law.” Expressing concern over growing instances of cyber crime, he said more than 32,000 cyber crimes were reported across the county between 2011 and 2015.

“According to the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), organisations around the world suffered over 700 data breaches in 2015.

“The growth of registration of cases under the IT Act along with the offences under other penal laws has become a menace to the society. The rate of offences has grown by 350 per cent from 2011 to 2015. There was almost 70 per cent increase in the number of cyber crimes under the IT Act between 2013 and 2014,” Justice Misra said.

Welcoming his views to tackle cyber crime, Tribhuvan Lal Darbari, Director General of Chindia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), said there is a need to collate and synchronise recommendations and get these endorsed by the ministries concerned. 

“There is a need to collect and collate recommendations and get them endorsed by the Law Ministry and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology which will be a tangible way from this conference,” Darbari said.

“Chinese ambassador is keen on working with Indian government and can play a pivotal role in tackling cyber issues,” he added.

Pavan Duggal, advocate and organiser of the conference, stressed on the need for stringent cyber laws to tackle the crimes on the Internet due to the demonetisation which is pushing people towards cashless transactions.

“There is a need to secure online transaction in the scenario of demonetisation when people are switching to cashless transaction. Banks must act responsibly by updating their information timely and users should also be careful and not share their passwords or card information with anyone because there is no remedy as of now to tackle the abuse of information,” he said.