Cyber laws, as elusive as ever

The boom in the virtual world seems to have caught legislators on the wrong

foot the world over. Much as they try to get on with the work of regulating

technology, there will always be loopholes to exploit. Yet, we must regulate and

learn from each other's mistakes. Jurists, academicians and thinkers who

gathered in the Capital for a two-day seminar were unanimous in their opinion

that although countries that have taken the initiative in legislating IT laws

need to be applauded, there was still this urgent need to plug the loopholes.

The seminar–Information Security and its Managerial and Technological

Challenges–was organized by Forum Engelberg of Switzerland in collaboration

with the Management Development Institute, IIM, Lucknow, and the National

Institute of Urban Affairs.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the seminar, N Vittal, Chief Vigilance

Commissioner of the Government of India, warned that most of the security lapses

in organizations were due to their own employees. Thus, a very important

screening point is the hiring process. Besides looking at the qualification and

background of the employees, it was very important to assess the technical

expertise and the integrity of new people. Related to this is the issue of

employee retention. A lot of information gets leaked due to the natural

migration of employees outside the organization. As these are closely linked to

security, the approach to security has to be holistic. The other aspect to

security is the issue of technological investment. It is essential that we make

sure that these investments are future-proof. With the rapid development of

technology, it may not always be possible to protect investments, nonetheless it

is important to invest in open systems where at least upgradation is possible.

The first day of the seminar had two sessions, the first of which focused on

the technological aspect while the second session focused on the regulatory

aspect. The first session was on the technology choices and challenges in

information security while the second topic focused on the legal and regulatory

aspects of information security.