Cyber Law-A Critical View on Existing Cyber Laws in India: Do they Suffice in Today’s World?

Abstract

In the 21st century, numerous technologies have become fundamental elements of one’s life. Although, these technologies are immensely functional and informative but often leads to certain cybercrimes which would not only affect individual but also society at large. Secure cyberspace is very crucial for a nation to defend itself from any cyber-attack. Nowadays, cyber-crime has become a major concern in India and the existing laws related to cyber-crime are insufficient to deal with the increase in the number of crimes related to cyberspace. These policies were designed to eliminate or rather reduce such crimes but clearly, these policies need to be revised and reworked thoroughly to suffice in today’s world. There are several laws and policy relating to cyber security in India such as the Information Technology Act, 2000, the Indian Penal Code 1860, and the National Cyber Security Policy, 2013 (a framework of DeitY) which protect and penalizes numerous cyber-crimes. The paper primarily focuses on the critical review of cyber security in India. As per reports, India, in the year 2022, have more than 658 million internet users which are nearly 47% of the total population of India. It denotes that all these millions of internet users are under threat of cyber-attack in one or the other way. Furthermore, the recent it could be very well documented that many governmental agencies have become a target of cyber-attacks; even neighbouring countries are mounting cyber- attack on the Indian army as well. In these situations, India should make strong and viable cyberspace for the safety of governmental agencies as well as for every individual to protect the cyber sovereignty of India. More than that attack on the government, many individuals and hacking groups are there in India which has become a possible reason for cyber threats and attacks in India. Hacking groups conduct such activities for personal gains likely to be fraud through the internet and individual do so for some personal goal as to harass another individual. But overall cyber-attacks and threats must be dealt with utmost strictness to preserve and protect cyberspace in India. The
article also discusses how a mechanism can be built, or the foundation of cyber security be made effective for the public at large as cyber sovereignty is of utmost importance in today’s world to defend a country from any possible cyber-attacks. The acknowledgment of a weak and meagre framework should be done and preventive measures should be taken as soon as  possible. Since in this time a nation to be a superpower must have a proper defense on cyber security and tools to attack the
country when needed. This paper aims to critically and comprehensively review the existing cyber laws in India and propose a  standard mechanism and framework for the same. In addition, the various method proposed by the stakeholders of cyber security to prevent cyber threats, attacks, and cyber-crimes are also studied in the paper.