It is time the government did something to enhance the level of information exchange and co-ordination among the various agencies that are involved in information security, cyber crime prevention, investigation and other related areas. At the apex level at the Government of India, say the PM’s office or some such higher level, there must be a common repository of cyber crime related information, from which authentic data can be taken by all the stake holders say the state police department, Intelligence Wings of various state police, Crime Branch sleuths and others. This may be monitored, controlled and checked for any possible misuse.
Quite often there is a big hue and cry that Sec 66A of the IT Act should be repealed. There is a writ petition in the Madras High Court on this. Some people are always of the opinion and vehemently too, that individual privacy, liberty and freedom of opinion and expression is supreme. Let it not be mistaken that even the constitution-protected individual rights to life and liberty and expression is always with reasonable restrictions, as interpreted in many judgements. Individual right of expression should never be above the national interest. When the nation’s supremacy is questioned or the national sovereignty is sought to be impacted, there is no question of individual right of expression or freedom. Under such circumstances, it is not the right but the duty of the powers that be to protect communal harmony even at the cost of curbing individual right to freedom.
Views on Blocking of websites and monitoring of SMS appeared in “The Hindu” 29 Aug 2012. Click for the news item