IT Act amendments to be in line with European Cyber Convention

The proposed amendments in the legal framework of the IT Act 2006 will be in line with the European Cyber Convention, said Gulshan Rai, director-general of the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In).

“We are in the process of amending our legal framework to address issues posed by new technologies and new crimes being observed in the cyberspace. The Parliament standing committee has made a number of suggestions to make the legal framework of the IT Act 2006 more comprehensive. Based on the suggestions, we have made amendments in the Act. These amendments deal with data security and data privacy, identity theft, cyber terrorism, child pornography, Spam, phishing and online frauds,” he said at the Internet Governance Forum 2008 in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

Post the amendments, corporate bodies will have to implement best security practices to secure data collected by them while providing services. Any leakage of the data of their account will result in payment of compensation to the victim, he said, adding “We will be moving these amendments in the Parliament session which is being convened shortly.”

“The challenge, however, still remains in training police and judicial officials to collect, analyse and present digital evidence in courts. We are working in this direction,” he added.