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Unit 14: Information Technology Act, 2000

 The appropriate Government may, by order in writing, authorise the persons who are Notes
authorised to access protected systems notified under sub-section (1).

 Any person who secures access or attempts to secure access to a protected system in
contravention of the provisions of this section shall be punished with imprisonment of
either description for a term which may extend to ten years and shall also be liable to fine.

Penalty for Misrepresentation

Whoever makes any misrepresentation to, or suppresses any material fact from, the Controller
or the Certifying Authority for obtaining any license or Digital Signature Certificate, as the case
may be; shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with
fine which may extend to one lakh rupees, or with both.

14.8 IT Act, 2000 & Amendments 2008

The IT (Amendment) Act, 2008 (ITAA 2008) has established a strong data protection regime in
India. It addresses industry’s concerns on data protection, and creates a more predictive legal
environment for the growth of e-commerce that includes data protection and cybercrimes
measures, among others. Sensitive personal information of consumers, held in digital
environment, is required to be protected through reasonable security practices by the corporate.
Additionally, ITAA 2008 makes it obligatory for them to protect data under lawful contracts by
providing for penalty for breach of confidentiality and privacy. Privacy protection, a long felt
need of consumers in India, and of clients overseas who are outsourcing their operations to
Indian service providers, is now on a sound footing. It will go a long way in promoting trust in
transborder data-flows to India. A strong data protection regime also requires that cybercrimes
such as identity theft, phishing, data leakage, cyber terrorism, child pornography etc. be covered
to ensure data security and data privacy. It has adequate provisions for data storage and audits
to ensure that cyber security breaches can be handled through investigations and cyber forensics
techniques. The Act also provides for security of critical infrastructure, by terming such cyber-
attacks as cyber terrorism; and for establishing a national encryption policy for data security.
ITAA 2008 thus enhances trustworthiness of cyberspace. In our interactions with the IT/BPO
industry, banks, public sector, government organizations and others, we have found that
knowledge about the ITAA 2008 is rather low. In addition to conducting several seminars and
workshops on ITAA2 008, we decided to promote better understanding of the Act through FAQs.
There could not have been a more qualified person to write the FAQs than Mr. Vakul Sharma,
Supreme Court Advocate, who was an expert member of the committee that drafted these
amendments. I hope the reader will find the FAQs useful.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
13. Chapter .............................. Provides for penalties and adjudication under the IT Act.
14. IT act facilitates electronic .............................. with the government agencies.
15. Not obeying the direction of Controller is an .............................. under the IT Act.

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