Breach by Nirmal John

Author:Nirmal John
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789387326606
Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited
Published: 2017-12-05T00:00:00+00:00

It is a smart idea. Countries around the world have succeeded in controlling many diseases, and the fight against cybercriminals could draw inspiration from it.

The closest effort in this direction has been the Budapest Convention. Formally called Convention on Cybercrime of the Council of Europe, it was one of the early efforts to harmonize laws and investigation in different countries to counter the borderless criminal. But, fifteen years after it was initially instituted, its adoption is still not universal. Far from it. Just about sixty-nine states are parties to it or have signed it or have been invited to join it. India is not yet a signatory, and among the reasons keeping the country from signing it is that it wasn’t involved in the original negotiations to frame the Convention back in 2001.

With the increase in cross-border cybercrime, India cannot possibly afford to sit on the sidelines for much longer. It needs to be part of and indeed lead multilateral efforts, sooner than later. This is even more important as the sheer scale of the networked community in India—second only to China’s—increases further. The success of the Digital India campaign of the Government of India will only intensify the lure of India as a market with potential for mischief makers beyond borders—whether state sponsored or the proverbial black hat hacker sitting in a basement in eastern Europe.

In early March 2017, in response to a question in the lower house of the Parliament, minister of state for home affairs, Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, said:12 ‘India is working for bilateral cooperation with around fifteen countries for exchange of information and data pertaining to cybercrimes and related operation in law enforcement.’ That is certainly a start, but it is time for India to take the leadership in initiating multilateral mechanisms to go along with the bilateral partnerships that the minister was referring to.

What makes matters even more complicated for India is that the country’s existing law enforcement network is far from being able to tackle, or even understand, investigation of financial cybercrime. India’s law enforcement system is criticized often enough for being a crumbling, creaking institution when it comes to investigating traditional crimes, let alone crimes of the newer ilk. Financial investigations require the law enforcement to be nimble on its feet as well as technologically proficient, but that is often not the case. When faced with financial crime and theft of money through data breaches, the police often don’t really grasp the nature of the complaint itself, and those who are victims, like Gupta, have to explain the issue in detail before cops take cognizance of the crime.

Adding to the number of cybercrime police stations is a step in the right direction. With the sharp rise in tech-related crimes, the existing stations are being stretched to the limits. The crux of the problem is that addition of cops with the skills and the nous necessary to solve technology-led crimes is not able to keep pace with the blistering growth in such crimes.

In mid-November

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