The Hindu Business Line : Nasscom draft to amend IT Act to tackle cyber crime

(From left) Mr Raman Roy, Chairman and MD, Wipro Spectramind, along with Mr Joseph W. Duffy, Global Leader - Technology, Security & Privacy Services, PricewaterhouseCoopers Global, and Mr Darren Leffler, Nortel Networks, after a session on `Leadership challenges for building and scaling a successful BPO', at Infocom 2004, in Kolkata on Thursday. — Parth Sanyal

Kolkata , Dec. 2

NASSCOM, in partnership with the Union Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, and in association with a group of lawyers, is working on amendments that would be needed to be incorporated in the IT Act to effectively address the issue of cyber crime.

A concrete draft in this regard is expected to be ready and will be submitted to the Ministry within the next two months, according to Mr Kiran Karnik, President of Nasscom.

Addressing a news conference on the sidelines of the Infocom 2004 Conference & Exhibition here on Thursday, Mr Karnik said cyber security, including data and network security, was an area of major concern for Nasscom. While the present IT Act was good, there were possible loopholes which require a fresh look. As such, Nasscom, in partnership with the Union Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, was keen to address the issue. US laws were being studied and a group of lawyers has been roped in for providing the necessary inputs.

To help tackle cyber crime, Nasscom had taken up a pilot project with the Mumbai Police whereby a cyber crime laboratory has been set up in Mumbai. Equipment for the laboratory has been provided by the industry even as Nasscom has provided training to the police personnel who would work in the cyber crime laboratory.

According to Mr Karnik, the pilot project has been a success and the idea in the year ahead would be to roll out the initiative in other cities that are of importance to the IT industry, such as Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, etc. "We are working out the legal requirements in this regard", he said, and added that it would be the Mumbai Police who would train their counterparts in these cities. Nasscom would provide the necessary back-up support.

On the uproar over outsourcing, Mr Karnik said the issue "has not gone away" as yet and there would be concerns over the shifting of jobs in countries which outsource. However, "for business to be competitive, it has to go to where there will be more value", he said.

As regards the performance of the industry, Mr Karnik said software exports in the current fiscal would go up by 30-32 per cent from $12.5 billion recorded in 2003-04. The domestic market was likely to register a growth of 10-12 per cent from last year's levels, he added.