Cybersecurity bill to clearly define contours of online safety, security

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

online safety and set down objective parameters and rules spelling out what constitutes cyber fraud, providing a contemporary legal framework to tackle 21st century crime hitherto handled by amended provisions of 19th century British-era laws. The proposed legislation, which could either act as a supplement or be part of the larger Digital India Bill, will also likely detail the penal provisions in cases of cyber breaches while specifying who is a cybercriminal under provisions of the new law, multiple sources aware of the development told ET.

“It is important to have objective parameters. Most of the penal provisions for all things related to cybersecurity are currently drawn from the Indian Penal Code,” a senior government official said.

“While that will continue to remain, there must be provisions defined for specific cases as well.” The ministry of electronics and information technology has entrusted Management Development Institute in Gurugram and Supreme Court advocate N S Nappinai's Cybersaathi Foundation to work on the finer details of the draft of the Bill, a source said. Mails sent to MDI and Cybersaathi Foundation did not elicit any response until the publication of this report.

The first meeting of the committee formed to examine various aspects was held earlier this year in February, while a second meeting was held earlier this month in New Delhi, sources said. “It is at a pre-drafting stage right now.

The government has not yet decided on whether the bill will be an independent regulation or be a part of the Digital India Act. The next meeting is sometime in September,” a source said.Proposed Comprehensive Bill ET had earlier reported that in the draft of the Digital India Bill, the government may prescribe