India’s digital footprint leapfrogging due to lack of conventional infrastructure: Aruna Sundararajan

At a two-day international conference on cyber law, cyber crime and cyber security, Sundararajan said that the “huge digital footprint” was “extraordinary” but makes India “extremely vulnerable” to online crimes.

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“We need to be conscious that most advanced technology is being used by those who have very little understanding of technology,” said the IT Secretary, who added that there was a “lot of work” required to build a cybersecurity regime. She also called for collaboration and cooperation “between states, academia, private sector and ordinary citizens” to develop the mechanisms, including “cross national policing.”

Meanwhile, Supreme court Justice Dipak Misra pointed out that cyber crime had increased “proportionately” with the increase in mobile and internet penetration in the country.

“Rate of offences registered under IT Act and other penal laws for cyber crime increased by 350 per cent from 2011 to 2015,” said Misra, adding that with the jump in mobile internet penetration, there was a “70 per cent increase in cybercrimes under IT Act between 2013 and 2014.”

“There is need for international bondage which shall have the singular aim to preserve cyber security. The governments and stakeholders need to be more flexible.There is also need to develop jurisprudential principles concerning cyber law,” said Justice Misra.

Advocate Pavan Duggal, organiser of the conference, also mentioned the need for creating better mechanisms to regulate “abuse of information”.

“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.