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IT Act to be made stringent to prevent hacking

Bipin Chandran

The Information Technology Act 2000 is likely to be made more stringent to prevent hacking and unauthorised access to a computer data base and programming.

The government is in talks with infotech experts to finalise the modalities to add more teeth to the Act to make punishments and penalties stricter.

The government, according to sources, is considering to amend Section 43 and Section 66 of the IT Act, which deal with hacking.

As per the provision in the IT Act, the maximum penalty for an unauthorised access (hacking) is Rs 10 million.

The government is planning to amend the Act and make the hacker liable to pay the entire damage caused by hacking.

Section 43 of the Act, which deals with punishments for hacking, is also likely to be amended.

The government is planning to increase the imprisonment and fine limit from three years and Rs 200,000 respectively. The move has come at a time when incidents of hacking Indian websites have increased considerably.

"We want to make changes in the Act so that the hacker would be required to pay the entire damage caused by hacking or unauthorised access to a computer. We expect it to act as a preventive step against hacking," said an official.

"The IT Act 2000 has provisions to deal with hacking, but the punishments are not strict. We want to make it stricter," said an IT ministry official. The Union government may also ask the state governments to develop expertise in police department to prevent and deal with cyber crime.

"Some states have a wing to deal with cyber crimes. We want these state governments to spruce up these wings and build expertise in detecting the hackers effectively," the official said.

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