Telangana Takes Steps to Create Cybersecurity Ecosystem, Including Legislation to Tackle Modern Crimes
The Telangana government is taking steps to establish a secure cybersecurity environment by establishing a Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence and collaborating with the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR) to introduce the first cybersecurity law in the country. Additionally, the state is becoming a favored IT destination, with numerous multinational companies setting up data centers.
Speaking about the state government’s vision, Principal Secretary, I&C and Information Technology (IT) Jayesh Ranjan told ReturnByte, “The rapid development of new technology and rapid digitization has given India a great opportunity. I see this as another Y2K where global companies increasingly rely on Indian capability. In India, we have successfully established Hyderabad as a destination for all possible technology related jobs. However, we also know that whatever progress we make can be undone by cybersecurity weaknesses. It is said that the forces of evil are always one step ahead, constantly looking for weaknesses to exploit. For the past few years, we have felt our responsibility to create a strong cybersecurity ecosystem that provides comfort to companies that want to operate here.”
He further said that the ecosystem consists of large technology companies and niche companies working on cybersecurity product development, a state-of-the-art Security Operations Center (SOC) with advanced incident monitoring tools, cybersecurity skills and innovation. “Many tech companies are choosing Hyderabad as their location preference, among other things, because of this robust cyber security ecosystem and because they can easily become part of and benefit from the ecosystem,” he added.
Why we need new cybercrime laws
Mathew Chacko, partner at Spice Route Legal, explained why the new cyber security legislation is a good idea: “India’s cybercrime laws were created with the Information Technology Act 2001. However, since then there have been major changes in how technology can be used to commit crimes. They have also exposed the flaws in our laws. Our legal system is flexible because of our common law heritage. Criminals are now more sophisticated on the Internet, so we need a stronger legal system to deal with this new era of crime.”
He emphasized that the country also needs a cybercrime regulator to formulate rules based on the law. The regulatory authority should have the authority to issue instructions to the police defining what is a crime and what is not.
Explaining the inadequacy of the current laws, the lawyer said: “The way evidence is examined in cybercrime cases is complex. When the existing laws were framed, no one was using smartphones. How do you expect them to provide protection now? For example, if there is a crash incident, the laws that fall under it are, which are formulated to deal with impersonation. If I do a complex hoax, the law dealing with it is a 19th century law. There is also no clarity in the laws regarding deepfake videos. I think the Telangana government’s initiative to bring new cybercrime legislation is commendable.
Capacity development
Telangana is also focusing on cyber security capacity building. Rama Devi Lanka, Director, Emerging Technologies, Government of Telangana, speaking about the Cyber Security Center of Excellence said, “We set up the Cyber Security Center of Excellence in 2019 in collaboration with the Information Security Council of India. We had the foresight to realize that cyber security is an area that the government needs to focus on. We came up with a Cyber Security Policy way back in 2017. One of the reasons for that was to attract investment to this area,” said Rama Devi.
In this context, it is to be noted that CyberArk, a global leader in cyber security research, expanded its presence in Hyderabad by setting up a new R&D center.
“Capacity development is one of the key areas we focus on. As hackers adopt new techniques, we need people who can handle them. We have training programs for professionals already working in this field, students interested in the field, and law enforcement officers (police). We identify problem areas that need solutions in cooperation with industry and academia. We also support startups in this field,” he added.
