Continued from part 1 …
Regulation of Certifying Authorities
- Central government may appoint a controller of certifying authorities, and also deputy controllers and assistant controllers
- Lays down the functions of the controllers, especially certifying the public keys of the certifying authorities themselves and the form and content of the digitial signature certificate and the keys
- Lays down procedure for grant, rejection, renewal, display, surrender and suspension of license to issue Digital Security Certificates
- Grants the controller or anyone authorized by him, the power to investigate contravention
Digital Signature Certificates
- Process of application, grant and rejection of a digital signature
- Allows for different fees to be applicable for different class of applications, not exceeding 25 thousand rupees
- Talks about when can a certifying authority revoke/suspend a digital signature
Duties of subscribers
- Use of the digital signature means acceptance of the same
- The subscriber certifies to all who depend on the digital signature that he is the right party to use the signature and has the private key, etc.
- Safekeeping of the private key and informing the certifying authority in case the private key has been compromised
- Hacking, access without permission, causing denial of service etc. is punishable upto the maximum extent of 1 crore Rupees
- The act lays down as to who can be an adjudicating officer for cases involving contravention to any provisions of the act and the factors that need to be taken into account by the adjudicating officer
The Cyber Regulations Appelate Tribunal
- Authorises the central government to establish one or more appelate tribunals for matters related to the act which will be called cyber appelate tribunals. The central govt. also to specific the matters to which this CAT will exercise jurisdiction
- The tribunal to have only one person, to be known as the Presiding Officer, whose term will be 5 years or age of 65, whichever is earlier.
- A person shall not be qualified for appointment as the Presiding Officer of a Cyber Appellate Tribunal unless he- (a) is, or has been, or is qualified to be, a Judge of a High Court; or (b) is, or has been, a member of the Indian Legal Service and is holding or has held a post in Grade I of that Service for at least three years.
- Most other sections here talk about the position, powers of the tribunal, resignation of members, recovery of penalty etc
Offences (under the Information Technology Act)
- Tampering with computer source documents knowingly and/or intentionally (3 years imprisonment or 2 lakh fine or both)
- Hacking a computer system (penalty same as above)
- Publishing of information which is obscene in electronic form (publishes, transmits or causes to be published) – information which is lascivious or appeals to pririent interest (5 lac and/or 1 year imprisonment on first conviction, 10 years and/or 2 lac second conviction)
- The controller can direct any agency of the government to intercept and/decrypt any information on a computer/passed through a computer network in the interest of the sovereignty of the country, cordial relations with neighbours, and to prevent incitement to the commission of a cognizable offence.
- Misrepresentation or hiding facts from certifying authority for getting a license/digital signature (2 years imprisonment/1 lakh/both)
- Other cases of offece and their penalties
Network service providers not to be liable in certain cases
- Network services providers will not be liable if any of the cyber crimes is committed on/through/using theoir network provided they can demonstrate that the contravention was committed without his knowledge or he had exercised due deligence to prevent such contraventions from happening
Miscellaneous
- Among other things in this chapter, the most important is that if a company is found to commit a contravention of the act, then all employees who were in charge for the conduct of business at that time could be liable unless they demonstrate that the contravention was committed without their knowledge or they had exercises due deligence to prevent such incidents from happenning
Discussion
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