Post demonetization: Era of cyber law and security

Companies need to come up with out of the box thinking and creative legal approaches while dealing with Cyber law and Cyber security law challenges post-demonetization. This amongst others was one of the key learnings that emerged at the Conference on Cyber law & Cyber security Law strategies to be adopted by Companies in the Post-Demonetization Era, which took place on 2nd March, 2017 at New Delhi.

The said Conference was organized by Cyberlaws.Net and Pavan Duggal Associates, Advocates, Supreme Court of India.

The Conference was addressed by Pavan Duggal, Advocate, Supreme Court of India and internationally renowned expert and authority on Cyber law who highlighted the various increasing cyber security law challenges in today’s scenario. Pavan Duggal further focussed on the need for companies to comply with statutory provisions under the Indian Cyber law as also with new notifications of the Government of India dealing with Cyber security breach notifications. He further highlighted the need for companies to ensure due diligence while exercising their duties as stipulated under the law.

The Conference was attended and addressed by more than 40 experts from different sectors and verticals including ITES, BPO, Telecom Service Providers, Network Service Providers, Internet Service Providers, Web Hosting Service Providers, Search Engines, Online Payment Sites, Online-Auction Sites, Online Market Places, Automobile, Supply Chain Solutions and also Embassies of different countries.

One of the key deliberations that came across in the Conference was that there is absence of national industry platforms to represent the cumulative interest of intermediaries. Technology companies have become innovators and disruptors who are ushering in new technological developments. It was further pointed out that the Government needs to give far more support and encouragement to intermediaries as innovators and technological disruptors, as these companies would further help the pace of adoption of cashless digital economy in India.

The conference further came up with specific recommendations of specific areas where further legislative and policy action is required in India to support India’s march towards cashless digital economy. These include areas pertaining to data protection, privacy, cyber security as also amendments to the Indian Information Technology Act, 2000.

The Conference ended with the recommendations that while cyberlaw as a discipline is integral to today's corporate operations, stakeholders need to understand the nuances of cyber legal frameworks, the knowledge of which is currently very limited. It was agreed by the cyber experts that far more awareness needs to be created amongst companies in India about their legal exposure under the law and the need for companies to adopt culture of proactively complying with the law.

The Conference was distinctive in its approach as it sought to examine Cyber law and Cyber security ramifications of corporate India post-demonetization and further sought to deal with corporate response mechanisms of how to deal with such emerging challenges.