Lok Sabha Question No. 117 (STARRED), answered on 2016-11-23
Subject: Anti-National/Social Elements on Social Media
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: RAM KUMAR SHARMA KUSHWAHA, RADHESHYAM BISWAS

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA

## STARRED QUESTION NO. *117

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 23.11.2016

## ANTI-NATIONAL/SOCIAL ELEMENTS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

## *117 SHRI  RAM KUMAR SHARMA: SHRI RADHESHYAM  BISWAS:

Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:-

- (a)   whether anti-national and anti-social elements are taking undue advantages with impunity in committing  crimes  using  state  of  the  art  communication  techniques  like  social  media,  mobile apps etc.;
- (b)   if so, the details thereof and measures taken to restrict their use so as to prevent crime and anti-national activities;
- (c)   whether the Information Technology Act, 2000 take care of cyber security, mobile crimes and misuse and abuse of the social media;
- (a) whether the Government proposes to amend the Act in the light of newer developments and if so, the details thereof; and
- (b) whether AP Shah Expert Group in their recommendations urged privacy safeguards to be made applicable to both Government and Private Sector entities and if so, the details thereof and the reaction of the Government thereto?

## ANSWER

MINISTER FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

- (a) to (e): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

## STATEMENT REFERED TO IN REPLY TO LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION *117 FOR 23.11.2016 REGARDING ANTI-NATIONAL/SOCIAL ELEMENTS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

(a) and (b): With widespread proliferation of new technologies like social media and mobile apps, etc. there are some negative elements who are misusing these technologies for committing cyber crimes. Such behavior is facilitated by virtual and borderless nature of cyber space, where anyone can open an account in any name including fake name from any part of the world. Most social networking sites do not do background information check and have their servers abroad.

As per National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), a total of 5693, 9622 and 11592 cyber crime cases were registered during the years 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively.

Government has taken various steps in the form of legal framework, emergency response, awareness, training, and implementation of best practices to prevent occurrence of cyber breaches and cyber crime.  These include:

- i) The Information Technology (IT)  Act, 2000 as amended in 2008 provides a legal framework to address the issues connected with cyber crime, cyber attacks and security breaches of information technology infrastructure.
2. ii) Cyber Crime Cells have been set up in all States and Union Territories for reporting and investigation of Cyber Crime cases.
3. iii) Government has set up cyber forensic training and investigation labs in the States of Kerala, Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur and Jammu & Kashmir for training of Law Enforcement and Judiciary in these States.
4. iv) A  number  of  Cyber  forensics  tools  for  collection,  analysis,  presentation  of  the  digital  evidence  have  been  developed indigenously and such tools are being used by Law Enforcement Agencies.
- v) Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) are involved  in  providing  basic  and  advanced  training  to  Law  Enforcement  Agencies,  Forensic  labs  and  judiciary  on  the procedures and methodology of collecting, analysing and presenting digital evidence.
6. vi) Reserve  Bank  of  India  (RBI)  issues  Circulars/advisories  to  all  Commercial  Banks  on  phishing  attacks  and  preventive  / detective  measures  to  tackle  phishing  attacks.    RBI  also  issues  advisories  relating  to  fictitious  offers  of  funds  transfer, remittance towards participation in lottery, money circulation schemes and other fictitious offers of cheap funds.
7. vii) CERT-In issues  alerts  and  advisories  regarding  latest  cyber  threats  and  countermeasures  on  regular  basis.    CERT-In  has published guidelines for securing IT infrastructure, which are available on its website (www.certin.org.in).  In order to detect variety of threats and imminent cyber attacks from outside the country, periodic scanning of cyber space is carried out.
8. viii) Cyber security mock drills are being conducted regularly to enable assessment of cyber security posture and preparedness of organizations in Government and critical sectors.
9. ix) CERT-In,  is  setting  up  a  Botnet  Cleaning  and  Malware  Analysis  centre  for  detection  of  computer  systems  infected  by malware and to notify, enable cleaning and securing systems of end users to prevent further malware infections.
- x) Industry associations such as Data Security Council of India (DSCI), NASSCOM, Cyber Forensic Labs, set up in certain States, have taken up tasks of awareness creation and training programmes on Cyber Crime investigation.  Academia like National  Law  School,  Bangalore  and  NALSAR  University  of  Law,  Hyderabad  are  also  engaged  in  conducting  several awareness and training programmes on Cyber Laws and Cyber crimes for judicial officers.
11. xi) Ministry  of  Electronics  &  Information  Technology(MeitY)      is  implementing  'Information  Security  Education  and Awareness  (ISEA)'  project  to  train  professionals  /  Government  officials  and  create  mass  information  security  awareness among  citizens.  The  project  is  implemented  by  51  institutions  across  the  country.  So  far,  11,110  persons  have  been trained/undergoing training in various formal/non-formal courses focusing on Cyber Security. 2,384 Government personnel have been trained in direct training programs. CDAC Hyderabad has conducted 377 Awareness workshops for various user groups covering 42,379 participants from 22 States/UT.
12. xii) Government has established National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) as per the provisions of Section 70A of the Information Technology Act for protection of Critical Information Infrastructure in the country.
13. xiii) Government has formulated Crisis Management Plan for countering cyber attacks and cyber terrorism for implementation by all Ministries/ Departments of Central Government, State Governments and their organizations and critical sectors.
14. xiv) Government has initiated setting up of National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC), under CERT-In to generate necessary situational  awareness  of  existing  and  potential  cyber  security  threats  and  enable  timely  information  sharing  for  proactive, preventive and protective actions by individual entities.
15. xv) Government  has  notified  the  Information  Technology  (Intermediary  Guidelines)  Rules  2011  under  Section  79  of  the Information  Technology  Act.  These  rules  require  that  the  Intermediaries,  including  national  and  international  social networking sites and matrimonial sites, shall observe due diligence while discharging their duties and shall inform the users

of  Computer  resources  not  to  host,  display,  upload,  modify,  publish,  transmit,  update  or  share  any  information  that  is harmful,  objectionable,  affect  minors  and  unlawful  in  any  way.  The  said  rules  also  require  the  intermediaries  to  appoint Grievance  Officers  to  address  the  grievances  received  from  users  and  affected  individuals  /  organizations  as  and  when received by them.

- (c) and (d): The IT Act, 2000 as amended in 2008 provides legal framework to address various types of prevalent cyber crimes including mobile related crimes and misuse of the social media.  Presently, there is no proposal with the Government to amend the Information Technology Act 2000.
- (e): A Group of Experts chaired by Justice A P Shah submitted a report in October 2012 to the then Planning Commission covering international privacy principles, national principles, and emerging issues. A copy of the report is available on the archived website of erstwhile Planning Commission at http://planningcommission.nic.in/reports/genrep/rep\_privacy.pdf. No decision to accept the recommendations of the Report has so far been taken.

*********