State to set up regional chapter of cyber appellate tribunal

The Karnataka government is likely to get the first regional chapter of the cyber appellate tribunal within the next couple of months. State IT secretary M N Vidyashankar said, a proposal to this effect given to the Centre, was in the advanced stages of getting approval.

Cyber appellate tribunal was set up as per the Information Technology Act in 2009 to address various cyber crime cases. The tribunal is presently operating out of New Delhi. According to Vidyashankar, the bench would save a lot of time and money of people from South India to travel to Delhi for settling cases relating to cyber crimes.

Earlier, the Union government had said IT secretaries of the state governments would function as an Adjudicating Officer in the Cyber Appellate Tribunal and hold inquiries on cyber crimes within their state jurisdiction.

“The rate of cyber crimes are increasing because of lack of awareness. Cyber security now has assumed centrestage and the words like ‘Jihad’ and ‘Terrorists’ are now substituted by Cyber Terrorism, and Cyber Terrorists,” added Vidyashankar.

The state government is also planning to set up a Cyber Lab in Mangalore at a cost of Rs 25 lakh. The lab which will be set up with the help of Keonics, would be engaged in education and spreading awareness on various issues of cyber attacks and the legal procedures.

“When it comes to cyber security, there is no ‘magical silver bullet’ to address the issues concerning individuals, institutions, businesses, governments. Going forward, the only way to tackle the problem will be through collaboration,” he said.

The state is also planning to organise the second edition of Bangalore Cyber Security Summit on March 17 and March 18.

The summit will focus mainly on three key themes - defence against cyber attacks, responding to cyber attacks, and education/awareness about cyber attacks. The summit is expected to bring together professionals from industry, officials from various state governments, police departments, and cyber law experts, he added. The two-day summit is jointly organised by the Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation Limited (Keonics) and supported by Nasscom, Infosys, 3i Infotech, among others.