Indian IT Act: Part 1 – What everyone should know !

The Information Technology Act – called the Information Technology Act (2000) or ITA 2000 –  was enacted on 17th October 2000 by the Indian Parliament. The act amongst other things, gave legal sanction to electronic transactions, electronic signatures and filing & storage of electronic records. The ITA 2000 also codified offences emanating from the use of information technology. The ITA 2000 was majorly amended in 2008. 

The 2000 act showing changes on account of 2008 amendments can be downloaded from the Ministry of Information Technology Website.  I invite the readers of this post to please go through the act which, I am sure, should be interesting and informative. At the minimal, I recommend that the reader first looks up some definitions like Computer System, Computer Resource, Computer Network, data, information etc. in the Preliminary Chapter and then go straight to Chapter XI - Offences. A small interesting bit detailing power of police officers to search and seize is in Chapter XIII (section 80). As managers dealing with IT administration or managing a workforce that uses IT, familiarity with the IT Act is very important. 

While the IT Act 2000 is an empowering and important piece of legislation, it has been criticized for the asymmetry that it creates between the power of the state to surveil (substantial) and the protection that the act provides to citizens against such surveillance (minimal). Section 66A of the act which pertains to sending offensive electronic messages uses many ambiguous terms like 'causing annoyance' , 'grossly offensive' 'menacing in character' , 'causing inconvenience' , 'ill will' etc. which can be interpreted very loosely and can result in a three year jail term. Many people have been controversially booked under 66A. Alarmed by such convictions, a  PIL was filed in the supreme court against provisions of section 66A and in 2015, the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India quashed section 66A of the IT Act calling it unconstitutional. 

However, shocking as it may sound, even after the Hon’ble Supreme court struck down this section from the IT act in 2015, years later the police in various parts of the country continues to prosecute people under the struck down section 66A!  Taking serious cognizance of this, the Hon’ble supreme Court in January 2019 has issued an order that any official booking people under the struck down section 66A will be jailed.

With digital technology becoming all pervasive, many challenging battles are likely to be witnessed in the legal arena as law tries to catch up with fast paced digital disruption.

Digital Twins

Figure 1 
Image source : credits: GE Power & Water - www.ge.com

The world , thus far, had only heard about human twins. However, of late, technology circles are captivated by the idea of a 'Digital Twin'. Siemens defines a digital twin as follows [1] :

"A digital twin is a virtual representation of a physical product or process, used to understand and predict the physical counterpart’s performance characteristics. Digital twins are used throughout the product lifecycle to simulate, predict, and optimize the product and production system before investing in physical prototypes and assets."

The concept of digital twin can be broadly understood using the Figure 1. General Electric manufactures wind turbines as part of their clean energy solutions. As can be seen in the figure, the physical wind turbine has a digital replica - its digital twin that behaves and works exactly as its physical counterpart . The great idea of the digital twin is its use of  Internet of Things (IoT) and AI where real data from IoT sensors installed inside the physical turbine flows to the digital twin and something adjusted, optimised or calibrated on the digital twin can flow back to the physical device seamlessly. This way, digital replicas can be used to diagnose problems, simulate scenarios (like digital winds in figure above) and then calibrate the physical devise for optimized performance or maybe undertake preventive maintenance as predicted by the digital twin. This is a really transformational idea for many businesses and is likely to be adopted in many areas in the time to come. Gartner has identified the 'Digital Twin' concept as one of the top 10 strategic technology trends in 2018 [2] .

Read more about the 'Digital Twin' concept in this detailed recent article by Keith Shaw and Josh Fruhlinger. You can also watch this introductory video explaining the concept and this short video by Philips on how the idea of the 'digital twin' is slated to revolutionalize next generation healthcare. 

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[1] Siemens - Digital Twin
[2]Gartner Identifies the Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2018

4 Compelling 2019 cybersecurity stories that will make you think!

Robert Mueller, former Director of the FBI famously said : "There are only two types of companies. Those that have been hacked, and those that will be" . Mueller's statement is a poignant reminder of the great irony of our digitally connected world — a world that is all empowering, transforming, enabling and yet at the same time, extremely fragile, vulnerable and destructible. 

With digital systems becoming ubiquitous, the importance of keeping them secure can hardly be overstated.  The onset of the new year marks the beginning of open season for cyber criminals who return better armed and better equipped. I lead my readers to the following four recent stories that should convince even hard core skeptics that digital security breaches can not only victimize individuals, but can cause irreparable harm to even nation states:

January  17, 2019: Largest Collection of Breached Data Found

February 19,2019: Aadhaar leaks again: Indane Gas  leaks data of 6.7 million subscribers

February 20,2019: Aadhaar Operator's Biometrics Stolen & Misused    (Fingerprint Theft?) 

February 22,2019: I think we should be very concerned  (Phishing) 

American politician Dutch Ruppersberger when asked what kept him awake at night promptly responded - "Spicy Mexican food, weapons of mass destruction and cyber attacks". 

If the above is any indication, Ruppersberger should be ready for many sleepless nights this year for the year has just begun and winter is coming !