Cybersecurity Education And Research Centre (CERC) Of India

Cyber security is a specialised field that requires a totally different orientation unlike the traditional educational system. India is a slow mover when it comes to cyber security adoption. It is only in the year 2013 that the cyber security policy of India was announced. 

As India has ignored the cyber security field for a very long period, both technically as well as legally, India is finding it difficult to regulate cyber security related issues. Neither individuals nor companies are interested in fulfilling with additional cyber security obligations. The shortcomings of Indian cyber security initiatives have been marvelously covered by the cyber security trends of India (Pdf) as provided by Perry4Law Organisation.

Not only there is a lack of cyber security awareness in India but even cyber security capabilities of India need to be enhanced. There are very few cyber security research and educational centres in India. Further, we have a single techno legal cybersecurity education and research centre (CERC) of India managed by Perry4Law’s Techno Legal Base (PTLB).

The CERC of PTLB would play a crucial role in meeting the training objectives of the cyber security policy of India that has clearly mandated that Indian needs a cyber security trained workforce. However, there is a big problem in achieving this objective of Indian government. Presently there are very few institutions in India that are providing cyber security trainings and skills development in India.

This has increased the importance of institutions like PTLB that provide online cyber security trainings and skills development in India. Not only this, PTLB is also providing the exclusive techno legal skills development and trainings in India through its distance learning and e-learning model.

What is unique about these initiatives of PTLB is that they provide both technical and legal inputs to Indian government and private sector. These techno legal cyber security inputs can be readily adopted by Indian government. In fact, many of the suggestions and recommendations of perry4Law Organisation and PTLB have already been accepted and incorporated into various cyber security initiatives declared by Indian government from time to time.

It is only natural that the initiatives of Perry4Law and PTLB would be essential part of the cyber security policies and strategies of Indian government from time to time to ensure that they become really successful.

Indian Cyber Command Contemplated Once Again!

India has reiterated its desire to constitute a cyber command covering all the three segments of armed forces of India. Previously the proposal was mooted in the month of May 2013. Now fresh interest has been shown in this crucial are by the armed forces of India.

The Centre of Excellence for Cyber Security Research and Development in India (CECSRDI), the exclusive centre of its kind managed by Perry4Law Organisation and Perry4Law’s Techno Legal Base (PTLB), has reported that a tri service cyber command for Armed Forces of India is in pipeline.

This is a good step in the right direction as Indian cyber security is lagging far behind as compared to other countries. India is still struggling to deal with issues like cyber warfare, cyber espionage and cyber terrorism, etc. The critical infrastructure protection in India and its problems, challenges and solutions (Pdf) are still to be managed by Indian government. In a good step in this direction, the NTRO would protect the Critical ICT Infrastructures of India.

According to cyber security experts, a dedicated cyber warfare policy of India (Pdf) must be formulated as soon as possible. The present effort of Indian government seems to be a step towards that objective.

However, the main thing is the implementation of various policies formulated from time to time. Till now Indian government has not been able to implement the objectives of the National Cyber Security Policy of India 2013 (NCSP 2013). Further, India government has also failed to integrate the NCSP 2013 with the National Security Policy of India.

Another major failure of Indian government in this regard is the failure to enact a legislation mandating strict cyber security disclosure norms in India. Although proposed almost a year ago, the disclosure norms for cyber security breaches in India are still not implemented. This would prevent actual and effective implementation of cyber security norms in India. This would also affect the cyber security legal practice in India.

It is high time for Indian government to move beyond simple policies formulations to their actual implementation. Without implementation everything is just a dream.

Cyber Security Updates Of India On 09-01-2014

There are many crucial cyber security updates for the period in question. These includes the analysis of the National Cyber Security Policy of India 2013 (NCSP 2013) formulated by the Indian government. However, the NCSP 2013 has been criticised for many reasons including lack of privacy protection and absence of integration with the National Security Policy of India.

The data protection laws in India and privacy rights in India (Pdf) are still in a state of abysmal. The privacyrights in India in the information age (Pdf) are still ignored by Indian government. Indian government has started many e-surveillance oriented projects without any legal framework and an e-surveillance policy of India (PDF) must be urgently formulated by Indian government.

India is still grappling with the issues like cyber warfare, cyber espionage and cyber terrorism, etc. For instance, recently Huawei was accused of breaching national security of India by hacking base station controller in AP.  Thus, the critical infrastructure protection in India and its problems, challenges and solutions (Pdf) are still to be looked into with great priority.

A dedicated cyber warfare policy of India (Pdf) must be formulated as soon as possible. All these issues have been meticulously covered by the cyber security trends and developments in India 2013 (PDF) released by Perry4Law and Perry4Law’s Techno Legal Base (PTLB).

Cyber security experts in India believe that cyber security must be an international issue (Pdf) and in order to ensure the same an international cyber security treaty is required (Pdf).

The year 2013 was a tough one for the India cyber security and the year 2014 would bring its own share of problems for Indian cyberspace. Let us hope that Indian government would be well equipped to deal with the same.