National security and Right to Privacy have often been seen as two sides of the spectrum, but is it? On one hand, the digital boom and the pandemic which forced half-of the population to go online has come at a cost of loss to privacy and agency. On the other hand, the recent ban of Chinese apps by the Indian government enforces the need to protect personal data and enact a data protection law.
To address this and more, for the first time a former Indian intelligence chief, Mr PV Kumar talked about how the increase in online activity due to pandemic, spiked generation of data bringing with it cyber war risks at national level and how there is a need for a surveillance law.
In the first episode of the #SecDevTalks by The Dialogue in partnership with Nullcon and CNN News18, the former NTRO chief explained how privacy and security can be balanced.
The #SecDevTalks (Security Development Talks) is a series of video interviews and discussions with leading security officials and experts who will be sharing their experiences and learnings on issues of Privacy and Tech policy.
Covid19 forced half of the world population to go online, spiking generation of data. This significantly increased chances of cyberattacks at national level. Many countries accused others of Cyber Warfare in which India stands to be vulnerable. Mr Pv Kumar said, “While, India has taken steps by introducing a cybersecurity policy in 2013 but it does not envisage an umbrella organization resulting in 36 central bodies with each state having its own CERT.”
He further reiterated, “The intermediary guidelines mandates traceability requirements which undermine strong encryption.” The backdoor access to government agencies can lead to foreign surveillance and/or other ‘non-state actors’ to exploit this vulnerability. Moreover, in the absence of surveillance law reforms, strong encryption will protect users from cyber espionage and cyber-attacks. Encryption lies at the heart of data.
He was of the opinion that India needs to look away from the Chinese Model and moving forward it must adhere to the American Model of development in internet-based technologies and communications which aligns more with the ideals of the Indian Constitution.
Watch the full episode here: https://www.news18.com/news/tech/how-strong-should-surveillance-laws-be-we-are-not-offline-even-when-we-think-we-are-2818481.html
