Improvements in Cyber Security Law 2022: What’s New

With India’s explosion into the digital world, the laws of the country have had to keep moving in order to protect users of the internet. The new cyber security direction from the Computer emergency response team(CERT) lay out a new cyber security frame. The service providers, who work as a person between two parties (intermediaries), body corporate, data centres and government bodies will face challenges. .  The harm that happens online or through the internet. Threatening a person or breaking the trust of individuals. Cyber security addresses gaps in the cyber security performances in the country. 

We will take the most recent example of the Whatsapp social app who is working to double verification code security in India. The feature will release to both Android and IOS beta users in future. Whatsapp is working on adding an extra layer of security. The other example of the recent changes in cyber security is the action taken by the Ministry of New and Renewable energy which issued an advisory to the general public to warn them about the fraud websites that claim to be registration portals for the PM schemes.

The direction of cyber security is to ensure that India and the users in the country continue to get benefit from the internet to contribute to the national technology sector. The cyber security directions must attach to those who make the internet globally-connected, secure and a trustworthy resource for all. 

The new cyber security direction was issued with the help of the Internet computer emergency response team in Information technology, 2000 under section 70B. The stated section means the Central Government shall by notification in the official gazette appoint an agency which is the Internet computer emergency response team for the collection, analysis and action of spreading information on cyber incidents, forecast and alert on cyber security incident emergency measures for handling cyber security, coordination of cyber repose activities, issue guidelines, advisory and such other function related to cyber security. 

Following are the direction laid out under  cyber security direction, 2022:

1. Cyber security incidents need to be reported within 6 hours.
2. Information and communication technology maintain all the data with the Indian jurisdiction for 180 days 
3. Cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets will be attached with the customer’s KYC details. 
4. Service providers such as VPN virtual private servers and networks are required to maintain or register the details of customers or subscribers for 5 years. 

In the past few years, we have seen a number of cybercrime or data breaches. As a result of these breaches, the data of Indian users may be available to third parties over the internet for misuse. Such cyber incidents have not just been restricted to private enterprises but to the whole world.