The Hindu : Kerala News : Police in pursuit of systematic means to tackle cyber crime Law & order

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Police in pursuit of systematic means to tackle cyber crime Law & order

The police believe that two new rules drafted by the Centre will help deal with cyber crime, writes Biju Govind.

The proposal of the Department of Information Technology under the Union Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to introduce two rules will help curtail the rising number of Internet crimes, according to senior police officers.

These are the Information Technology (Directions for Interception, Monitoring and Decryption of Information) Rules, 2009 and the Information Technology (Directions for Interception, Monitoring and Decryption of Information) Rules, 2009.

They said the proposed rules generally give an impression that they infringe upon the privacy of the individual following the enforcement of the orders for interception or monitoring or decryption of any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer resource.

However, these orders will be given by the competent authority concerned who is the Union Home Secretary, Secretary in-charge of Home Department in a State government or Union Territory.

Only in any unavoidable circumstances, such order will be issued by an officer, not below the rank of a Joint Secretary at the Home Department at the Centre and State government respectively.

The agency authorised by the competent authority will designate one or more nodal officers not below the rank of Superintendent of Police or Additional Superintendent of Police or an officer of equivalent rank to authenticate and send the requisitions conveying direction for interception or monitoring or decryption to the designated officers of the intermediaries concerned or person in-charge of computer resource.

Such requisition have to be delivered to the designated officer of the intermediary concerned by an officer not below the rank of Inspector of Police or officer of equivalent rank, according to the proposed rules.

Besides, the contents of intercepted or monitored or decrypted information will not be disclosed or reported in public by any means, without the order of the competent court.

Officers in north Kerala said cyber crimes usually pertained to sending obscene Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) and Short Messaging Service (SMS). These cases are charged under Section 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 67 (publishing of information which is obscene in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act.

However, Internet-related crimes such as phishing, e-mail spam, piracy, data theft using Internet services have increased.

Besides, the law needed to be more stringent in cases relating to e-mail threats, explicit messages through instant messaging services, ATM card fraud and spoofing, they said.

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