A seminar on the topic of cybercrime and cybersecurity in India has heard that current and proposed new laws that cover the issue are inadequate. Additionally, the overall situation regarding cybercrime in the country is getting worse. The Information Technology Act 2000, India’s single piece of anti-cybercrime legislation, is now well out of date. However, an amendment proposed by the government and presented to India’s parliament last December has received widespread criticism due to its many shortcomings.

The billion-strong nation is currently experiencing a technology boom, but apart from wealth this has also resulted in an increased number of computer crimes being reported to the police. The latest figures for 2005 show that a total of 481 cybercrime cases were registered, rising from 347 incidents in 2004. However, experts feel that only a tiny proportion of cybercrime is actually reported and such low official figures may lull people into a false sense of security.

India’s government has recently tabled amendments to the IT Act 2000 in order to address the problem. Some of the proposals have been widely reported in the world’s media. For instance, one measure to control cybercrime would be the introduction of stringent controls within the Internet café industry. According to the proposals, children under 12 would be banned from entering such establishments, while café owners would have to keep clients’ personal records, including home addresses, and in some cases even fingerprints, for three years. This has been introduced in response to the growing problem of hate email and cyber-harassment, but experts decry the fact that other more important areas such as hacking, phishing and other more prominent cybercrimes did not even get a mention.