Importance Of Cyber Forensics For India

Cyber forensics in India is one of the most important fields for effective legal and judicial system of India. Indian Approach towards cyber forensics has been lukewarm so far. It is only now that India has started paying attention to cyber forensics.

There are very few cyber forensics firms and companies operating in India. Cyber forensics is a dynamic field that requires continuous updates and modifications. Thus, cyber forensics companies and firms in India must innovate.

Further, cyber forensics research centers in India must be established to meet the research and development needs of India in the field of cyber forensics. The distance learning courses for computer forensics in India must be encouraged to develop cyber forensics skills in India. The cyber forensic investigation solutions in India are needed to establish cyber forensics procedures and best practices in India.

World over stakeholders are planning to use technology to fight drugs, human trafficking and illicit networks. Cyber forensics can play a crucial role in order to achieve this objective.

Cyber forensics professionals must be aware of the basics of Internet protocol (IP) address system as that is the starting point for all cyber forensics and cyber security related exercises. IP address tracking methods and techniques for e-mails must also be well understood. A special care must be taken of IP address spoofing and its defenses.

There are certain challenges that cyber forensics professionals may face in their day to day affairs. For instance, cyber forensics of hidden Internet is a challenging and daunting task.  Cyber forensics professionals must be well prepared to tackle new and unexplored challenges from cyberspace.

Further, legal and judicial fraternity of India needs scientific knowledge. Police, lawyers and judges must be aware about the basic level knowledge of cyber forensics. Technology laws like cyber law must also be well known to legal and judicial fraternity in India.  While undertaking a trial, the judges in India must realise that IP address should not be the sole criteria for arrest and conviction.

Perry4Law and Perry4Law Techno Legal Base (PTLB) hope that India would consider these aspects and various stakeholders would work collectively in this crucial and much needed direction.

Cyber Crimes Trends In India 2012

Perry4Law and Perry4Law Techno Legal Base (PTLB) have been providing ICT trends in India since 2005-06. The ICT trends in India 2009 and subsequent trends have discussed both the positive and negative aspects of Indian ICT policies and strategies.

We have also been providing cyber law trends in India and cyber security trends in India for long. The cyber law trends of India 2012 and cyber laws and cyber security trends in India 2011 are the latest in this regard.

In this work, Perry4Law and PTLB are discussing the existing and potential cyber crimes trends in India 2012 and onwards. In India cyber crimes are mostly confined to identity thefts, obscene fake profiles at networking sites, threatening e-mails, websites defacement, cracking incidences, etc.

These cases are mostly crimes committed by novice and script kiddies. However, India has been facing growing cases of cyber attacks against its critical infrastructure and strategic computers. Further, the abuse of Hidden Internet is also going to increase in India in future.

Perry4Law and PTLB believe that we need to pay a special attention to critical infrastructure protection in India, homeland security of India, cyber security of India, etc. Similarly, critical ICT infrastructure protection policy of India and cyber security policy of India are also required to be formulated as soon as possible.

We also believe that technology can play a more direct and pro active role to fight against illicit networks, transnational crimes, white collor crimes, etc. Naturally, law enforcement technologies in India must be upgraded and law enforcement official must be imparted techno legal trainings so that they can tackle technology related crimes effectively and efficiently in India.

Modernisation of law enforcement agencies of India is need of the hour. In short, we need cyber police reforms in India where cyber skills of police personnel of India must be urgently developed. Further, cyber forensics skills developments of police in India also need to be taken seriously.

We would provide more detailed cyber crimes trends in India and worldwide subsequently. If you are part of an international organisation, law enforcement agency or any other organisation that is dealing and fighting with cyber crimes, feel free to contact us and have professional relationship with us in this regard.

Use Of Technology To Fight Cross Border, Transnational And White Collor Crimes

Technology has increasingly being used to commit cross border, transnational and white collor crimes. As law enforcement technologies evolved even cyber criminals devised novel and undetectable methods to indulge in their nefarious activities.

Use of Hidden Internet for committing cross border, transnational and white collor crimes has increased a lot. Since the activities are not available and accessible to ordinary search engines and net surfers, the Hidden Internet has become a breeding ground for cyber criminals.

Now it has been proposed to use technology to fight drugs, human trafficking and illicit networks. Technology is also been used to prevent and tackle cyber crimes and cyber attacks. Now even Google and Interpol have decided to use technology to fight these crimes.

We at Perry4Law and PTLB welcome this move of Google and Interpol. We also believe that Hidden Internet would post tremendous challenges before Google and Interpol in their drive against white color crimes and transborder crimes. It would be a good idea to explore methods to take care of crimes originating at Hidden Internet as well.

Natgrid Project Of India: The Do Or Die Stage

The National Intelligence Grid (Natgrid) Project of India is one of the most ambitious Projects of India. It has been passing through rough weathers in the past. The good news is that the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) has approved an Rs 1,100-crore allocation for the NATGRID and has also granted an extension to it. The CCS has also allowed NATGRID to acquire certain technological items mentioned in the Detailed Project Report (DPR).

The bad news is that till now we have no Accountability and Transparency about the NATGRID Project. Another major lacuna of NATGRID Project is that it is beyond the reach of Parliamentary Oversight in India. Similar problems are also plaguing the National Counter Terrorism Centre of India.

Recently the Department of Telecommunication (DOT) refused to allow the Home Ministry of India to intercept private communications disregarding individual Privacy under the pretext of National Security. Civil Liberties Issues have been raised from time to time in India vis-à-vis National Security Projects like NATGRID. They cannot be ignored in India any more.

I hope these “Shortcomings” of the NATGRID Project and NCTC would be removed very soon and NATGRID Project and NCTC would be a valuable tool for strengthening National Security of India. I also hope that Indian Government would maintain a “Balance” between National Security and Privacy Protection requirements in India while implementing Projects like NATGRID.

Now coming back to the recent new lease of life that has been given to NATGRID by CCS. The funds granted to NATGRID would be utilised for procuring equipment, technology and for building a data centre. We need to have High Security Infrastructure and Secured Communication Lines, opined NATGRID Chief Raghu Raman.

I also believe that this “Technological Upgradation” is a must for NATGRID Project to successfully complete the next stage. However, this is not an easy task especially keeping in mind the Red Tape that is hindering the successful implementation of NATGRID Project of India.

Law Enforcement Technologies In India

Law enforcement plays a crucial role in maintaining law and order situation in a region. In India, the law enforcement responsibility is managed by numerous law enforcement agencies. Indian Constitution has demarcated law enforcement subject as a matter of State List. This means that a majority of law enforcement functions in various States are performed by respective State.

There are some functions that are closely related to law enforcement responsibilities and that require a unified approach. To take care of such issues, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs acts in a centralised manner.

The Union Home Ministry of India has prescribed many intelligence and law enforcement related projects that rely upon information and communication technology (ICT). These include projects like national intelligence grid (Natgrid), crime and criminal tracking network and systems (CCTNS), national counter terrorism centre (NCTC), etc.

Besides, projects like central monitoring system, centre for communication security research and monitoring (CCSRM), Aadhar/UID, national cyber coordination centre (NCCC) of India, national critical information infrastructure protection centre (NCIPC) of India, etc are also in pipeline.

All these efforts are praiseworthy and deserve public support. However, all of these projects are suffering from a common constitutional problem. None of these projects are governed by any constitutionally sound legal framework. These projects must maintain a balance between civil liberties and national security requirements. This balance is presently missing and these projects are operating with great disregard to constitutional rights and freedoms and human rights.

Similarly, we have no constitutionally sound legal framework for law enforcement and intelligence agencies of India. Parliamentary oversight of intelligence and law enforcement agencies of India is missing. After all intelligence gathering is not above right to privacy in all circumstances.

Take the example of the central bureau of investigation (CBI) and intelligence agencies like intelligence bureau (IB) of India. The Indian government is not willing to bring transparency and accountability regarding law enforcement and intelligence agencies of India.

The recent private bill titled intelligence services (powers and regulation) bill, 2011 was shelved out by none other than the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh who announced that law on intelligence agencies would be formulated soon. However, it proved nothing but a “time gaining tactics” and so far intelligence agencies of India are not governed by any legal framework and parliamentary oversight. Interestingly, even the central bureau of investigation (CBI) is riding the same boat. The draft central bureau of investigation act, 2010 is another example where the Indian government is just interested in making “declaration” with no actual “intention” to implement the same. It is high time to show political will to tackle these crucial and controversial issues as they cannot be ignored any more.

In our subsequent posts, we would cover the techno legal aspects of intelligence and law enforcement agencies of India.