Friday, November 14, 2014

It’s confirmed!!!! Social Media is additive for Communal Tension!!!!!

State Intelligence Department of Maharashtra has confirmed through its findings that Social Media is playing very significant role in creating communal tension. Be it inciting communal tensions or creating hatred between political or social groups role of social media is most momentous .Rather social media is used for adding fuel to trivial issues which can flare up instantaneously.
According to reports in last 10 months 482 cases were registered in state due to derogatory remarks posted on social media. I presume that these cases must be registered only in context with the original creator of the post and those persons who subsequently commented on the original posting in more derogatory or offending manner or those persons who liked and shared such derogatory postings more vociferously would have been spared. Even there would have been more derogatory contents on such liking and sharing and tagging.
Another interesting statistics published is as below. 125 cases were registered for hurting Hindu religious sentiments against which 182 reactions occurred in State which led to reporting 271 cases. 37 cases were registered for hurting Buddhist religious sentiments against which 290 reactions occurred in State which led to reporting 96 cases. 76 cases were registered for hurting Muslim religious sentiments against which 38 reactions occurred in State.
This statistics makes role of social media evident in escalating the crimes and use of social media as additive for acceleration of overall crimes. This must be the first ever incident where any of the existing Government agencies have shown courage to openly expose the nexus between Social Media and growth in crimes though in specific domain of Communal hatred crimes.
As an old saying “WELL BEGUN IS HALF DONE” I congratulate SID for publication of such report. The report further acknowledged that delay in apprehending of culprits has created resentment about police machinery.
Here I would like to make few suggestions.
1)      There should be proper understanding in Police machinery about destructive capability of Social Media and this is possible only through trainings by the Cyber Security Specialists.
2)      There should be proper understanding about the available legal provisions for such mishappening in Cyberspace and procedural knowledge about How to stop such social media postings, How to block websites or Defamatory contents etc. must be provided to police personnel.
3)      There should be effective mechanism for monitoring social media through extended arms like professionals actively working in similar domain, Go’s and other information sources.
4)      There should be Cyber Awareness Campaign amongst netizens about Myths and Facts of Social Media and Do’s and don’t on Social Media or online behavior in general.

I, on behalf of CYBER AWARENESS ORGANISATION, extend my support and active participation in any such programs organized by any organization.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

MOCKERY OF JUSTICE IN INDIA (In reference to Cyber Litigation's)

In the beginning I would like to apologies those, who were felt offended by the title of this blog.As an extended arm of Justice i.e. being an Advocate myself , I am also a part of this Indian Judicial System which is making Mockery of Justice for those who are availing justice in matters of Cyber Litigation.

Very few people and very few lawyers are aware about the remedial measures in case of Civil matters related to Cyber Crimes.Where the civil dispute in cyberspace is between two individuals or body corporate and individuals there is Civil Remedy under Information Technology Act.

Under Information Technology Act Section 46 Government is empowered to appoint Adjudicator and Under section 48 Government is empowered to appoint Cyber Appellate Tribunal and chairperson to CAT.

If any person is aggrieved by decision of Adjudicator he can move to Cyber Appellate Tribunal for appeal.

The real mockery of Cyber Litigation starts now.

In most of the states in India office of Adjudicator is almost non-existent or non-performing. The reason behind the same is either the person who is supposed to be Adjudicator is not aware about his duties or the office staff of the said supposed to be Adjudicator is not aware about the procedure of the office of Adjudicator and above all most of the cyber crime victims/ lawyers /police officers are not aware about this CIVIL REDRESS MECHANISM.

Recently I mailed to most of the I T Secretaries in India to ascertain whether they have received any complaints for Adjudication and was shocked to discover that Most of the I T Secretaries offices responded that matter is to be filed with Police and I T Secretary has no role to play in Cyber Crimes adjudication.

Do you consider this as a Mockery? I certainly do!!!!!!!

The story does not end here. Few adjudicators(which can be counted on fingers) in India who are deciding the matters,have not set up any formal procedure for the Adjudication.No specific dates of month are reserved for the hearings nor there is any limitation within which parties are supposed to reply or police are supposed to submit there investigation report etc.Though as per provisions of 4k Adjudicator is supposed to hear application within 4 months and dispose within 6 months.

 Do you consider this as a Mockery? I certainly do!!!!!!!

To top all the mockeries The Cyber Appellate Tribunal is without any Chairperson since last 3-4 years.Matters filed before CAT since 7 October 2010 have never came up for hearing since there is no Chairperson appointed to CAT.

Till date 1 matter of 2009,2 matters of 2010,6 matters of 2011,4 matters of 2012 ,10 matters of 2013 and 8 matters of 2014 have never moved a step further after their filing.

We very proudly say that JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED and our directive principles also emphasis for Speedier Justice to all and look the situation in Cyber Crime Civil Justice Mechanism.Here neither of the above are applicable and which in my view is Really Mockery of Cyber Litigation.

Recently even Government of India has given undertaking before Hon.High court that CAT chairperson will be appointed soon as all the procedural formalities are completed but the day is yet far away!!!!!

The growth in cyber crimes is amazing and the very message send to criminals by our Judicial system that we are not performing is adding Cherry on the top!!!!!!!


The only intent is to create some serious thought process churning and do whatever we can to prevent this Mockery!!!!!! 

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Mumbai High Court's decision boost to CYBER AWARENESS ORGANISATION’S mission and vision.

Cyber Crimes are significantly reported by all newspapers. It might be lottery fraud or withdrawal of money even if Credit / Debit card is with the card owner or sending abusive message or creating fake profile or data theft etc. It’s really alarming the way Cyber crimes are growing and people are losing their hard earned money or reputation.

But unfortunately when victims try to report the matter to police or concerned Bank, the way he is treated and questioned about his illiteracy of the subject matter and make him feel that instead of complainant he is in fact criminal himself, the victim gives up. Cyber Awareness Organisation has raised this issue of apathy of LEA’s towards victims of Cyber Frauds many times.

In a significant verdict recently delivered by Mumbai High court, court has directed all mobile service providers to issue messages cautioning citizens against falling for such fraudulent messages and emails. The court also directed the Maharashtra government to create awareness, including by putting out advertisements, "asking citizens to be cautious of such messages and emails". This is major boost to CYBER AWARENESS ORGANISATION’S mission and vision of creating cyber awareness, which it was spearheading single handedly till date.

Among its public welfare directions was one for banks too; banks have been asked to ensure that Know Your Customer guidelines are followed by the Court."It is common knowledge that such messages and emails are received by a number of people," said a division bench of Justices V M Kanade and Anuja Prabhudessai. 

The court was hearing a plea by Nashik farmer Namdeo Warade, 47, for an order for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe how he was cheated of Rs 29 lakh. On September 15, 2010, Warade received a message on his phone saying he had won $5 lakh at a purported Coca-Cola competition held in London and asked to contact an email address. 

CAO feels that its collective responsibility of all the stake holders in fighting such cyber criminals and making netizens well prepared to protect their money/information/data/reputation /intellectual property etc.

As cyberspace user’s we are the one who should take a first leap by learning about How to use cyberspace securely. We must learn about security guidelines while carrying out online activities, chatting with the unknown people, carrying out baking/shopping transactions, uploading or sharing photographs/information etc. We should also learn about how to protect our sensitive personal information and how to protect data residing in our gadgets.

Similar responsibility lies on Banks, Telecom Service Providers, Corporate, NGO’s and other institutes which are devoted / mandated under CSR to take up certain noble cause which could be of creating CYBER AWARENESS. They can achieve this by organizing Cyber Awareness Quiz, Poster competition, Guest Lectures, Debates, Display Cyber awareness hoardings etc.

Cyber Awareness Organisation is relentlessly working for creating awareness about CYBERSPACE/SOCIAL MEDIA/EXCESSIVE DEPENDANCE ON FREEWARES AND MOBILES ETC. For this purpose CAO has initiated CYBER CRIME HELPLINE with help of Big-V Telecom (P) Ltd. The victims may dial 09225109900 and register their complaints which will be taken up by CAO.