India will have cyber security policy soon: Sibal

India will soon have a cyber security policy that will ensure preventive measures against cyber crime and fraud, according to the Communications and Information Technology ministry.

"We are working on a cyber security policy... we need more work to curb cyber crimes," Minister for Communications and Information Technology Kapil Sibal told the Lok Sabha during Question Hour. "It's a new medium. We need to understand it and take preventive measures," he said.

Cyber security is the need of the hour, according to Kapil Sibal

According to the minister, the computer emergency response team in India, CERT-In, was monitoring any suspicious move on the internet in order to checkmate potential cyber attacks from hackers. The minister said that if any instance of fake calls on mobiles or emails promising a big award in exchange of personal information of a user is reported to his ministry, it will take action.

Sibal stressed the need for international agreements, saying that the intermediaries of various internet service providers were located outside India, making it difficult to seek information from them.

He supported the demand made by Congress MP Jai Prakash Agarwal that more public awareness campaigns must be run on the issue. Mentioning also the misuse of Section 66-A of the IT Act (pertaining to sending messages on communication services that are false or offensive), the minister said the police were not aware of it.

"We are for freedom of speech but it should not hurt others," Sibal said, mentioning the misuse of social networking sites like Facebook, on which people post offensive text and pictures.

IANS