The Role of Cyber Law in Cybersecurity in India

 The Role of Cyber Law in Cybersecurity in India

Cyberspace is the computer-generated world of the internet, and the rules that govern it are known as Cyber laws, and all users of this space are subject to these laws since it has a form of global jurisdiction. Cyber law is a field of law that deals with legal concerns arising from the usage of interconnected information technology. In a nutshell, cyber law governs computers and the internet.

The expansion of electronic commerce has prompted the need for more active and effective regulatory procedures to further enhance the legal infrastructure that is so important to its success. Cyber law encompasses all of these regulating systems and legal frameworks.

Cyber law is important because it touches almost all aspects of transactions and activities and on involving the internet, World Wide Web and cyberspace. Every action and reaction in cyberspace has some legal and cyber legal angles.

Cyber Crime is not defined in Information Technology Act 2000 nor in the National Cyber Security Policy 2013 nor in any other regulation in India. Hence, to define cyber-crime, one can say, it is just a combination of crime and computer. In other words ‘any offence or crime in which a computer is used is a cyber-crime’. Even a petty offence like stealing or pick pocket can be brought within the broader purview of cybercrime if the basic data or aid to such an offence is a computer or an information stored in a computer used (or misused) by the fraudster. The I.T. Act defines a computer, computer network, data, information and all other necessary ingredients that form part of a cybercrime.

Cyber law encompasses laws relating to:

· Cyber crimes

· Electronic and digital signatures

· Intellectual property

· Data protection and privacy

Cyber space includes computers, networks, softwares, data storage devices(such as hard disks, USB disks etc), the internet, websites, emails and even electronic devices such as cell phones, ATM machines etc.

The Information Technology Act, 2000 ("IT Act"), which went into effect on October 17, 2000, contains cyber legislation in India. The Act's principal goal is to provide electronic trade legal status and make it easier to file electronic records with the government.

Even with the most compassionate and liberal interpretation, India's current laws could not be read in light of the emergency cyberspace to embrace all elements pertaining to various internet activities. In reality, actual experience and wisdom of judgement have revealed that interpreting existing laws in the context of evolving cyberspace without establishing new cyber laws would not be without substantial hazards and difficulties. As a result, enactment is required.

None of the existing laws gave any legal validity or sanction to the activities in Cyberspace. For example, the Net is used by a large majority of users for email. Yet till today, email id not “legal” in our country. There is no law in the country, which gives legal validity, and sanction to email. Courts and judiciary in our country have been reluctant to grant judicial recognition to the legality of email in the absence of any specific law having been enacted by the Parliament. As such the need has arisen for Cyber law.

To summarise, while a crime-free society is ideal and merely a dream, there should be a continuing effort to keep criminalities at a minimum by the application of regulations. Crime based on electronic law-breaking is expected to rise, especially in a society that is becoming increasingly reliant on technology, and law makers will have to go the additional mile to keep impostors at bay.

Technology is always a two-edged sword that may be utilised for both good and evil reasons. Steganography, Trojan Horse, Scavenging (and even Dos or DDos) are all technologies that are not crimes in and of themselves, but when they fall into the wrong hands with a criminal intent to abuse or misuse them, they become part of the array of cyber-crime and become punishable offences.