Friday, January 21, 2011

Cracking And Website Defacement Increasing In India

Password cracking and e-mail account cracking has increased significantly in India. Similarly, websites defacement, both governmental as well as private, has become a norm in India. This is happening because the cyber law of India, i.e. information technology act, 2000 (IT Act 2000) almost gives a clean chit to such cyber criminals.

After the information technology amendment act, 2008 (IT Act 2000), almost all cyber crimes, including website defacement and cracking, have become bailable. Even if a cyber criminal is apprehended he must be released on bail as a matter of right.

A pertinent question arises why such a stupid legislation has been enacted by India? The answer is not difficult to find. Industrial lobbying and desire for complete e-surveillance capabilities have made Indian cyber law a cyber criminal friendly legislation. Consequently, India has also become a safe heaven for cyber criminals.

Anybody can commit almost any cyber crime in India and move free. Consider few examples in this regard. The website of India's premier investigation agency the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was defaced and it remained down for more than a month. Till now no person has been arrested and even if a person would be arrested, he would be released on bail.

A group of crackers, claiming to be from Kashmir, recently cracked a website’s password dedicated to the Bollywood superstar, Amitabh Bacchan and defaced it. Similarly, India Blooms site was also compromised by crackers. The website of Cochin Port Trust (CPT) came under attack on Thursday by a group identified as 'Xtremist and DonZ company' that gained access to site and defaced it. The latest to add to this list is cracking the official e-mail address of the education office of Hoshiarpur from which pornographic material was sent to many schools in this district.

There is an urgent need on the part of prime minister’s office (PMO) India to consider this matter urgently and repeal the troubled cyber law of India. Instead of the present cyber criminal friendly legislation, PMO must come up with an effective and strong cyber law of India. The present cyber law of India is flawed in many aspects that is going against the interests of India at large.