INFORMATION AND TECHNOLOGY ACT, 2000 Introduction to the Act: The Information Technology Act 2000 (ITA-2000) (IT

ACT) is an Act of the Indian Parliament notified on October 17, 2000.

The Information and Technology Act, 2000 is the first kind of legislature created in the Indian Legal system that addresses the need of the information technology age. In the past 10 years, the revolution in the information technology world has set new standards for people in the society. It has led to a change in the latently of people, communities and business thus the measures needed from law are also increasing. The need to have an updated legal structure in lieu of the changes in the technology was felt especially during the 90s as there was rapid development especially in the post-internet era.

Aims of IT Act 2000

i) ii) iii) iv) v) vi) Provide the legal infrastructure for e-commerce in India. Legal Recognition of Electronic Documents Legal Recognition of Digital Signatures Offenses and Contraventions Justice Dispensation Systems for Cybercrimes Establishment of Cyber regulations advisory Committee and the Cyber Regulations Appellate Tribunal

Objectives of IT Act -2000

i) To provide legal recognition for transactions: Carried out by means of electronic data interchange, and Other means of electronic communication, commonly referred to as "electronic commerce", involving the use of alternatives to paper-based methods of communication and storage of information, ii) To facilitate electronic filing of documents with the Government agencies. iii) To amend the Indian Penal Code, the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, the Banker's Book Evidence Act, 1891 and the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. iv) Aims to provide for the legal framework so that legal sanctity is accorded to all electronic records and other activities carried out by electronic means. v) Acceptance of contract may be expressed by electronic means of communication and the same shall have legal validity and enforceability.

CYBER CRIME: Cyber crime refers to all the activities done with criminal intent in cyberspace. Because of the anonymous nature of the internet, it is possible to engage into a variety of criminal activities with impunity and people with intelligence, have been grossly misusing this aspect of the internet to perpetuate criminal activities in cyberspace. Cyber crime can basically be divided into 3 major categories being:
i) ii) iii) Cyber Crime against Persons Cybercrime against Property Cybercrime against Government

E-GOVERNANCE E-governance is the use of information and communication technologies by government agencies to transform relations with citizens, business and other arms of the government. It involves information technology enabled initiatives that are used for improving (1) The interaction between government and citizens or government and businesses. (2) The internal government operations government operations also known as eadministration.
E-Governance: Focus
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Greater focus is on improving the service delivery mechanism Enhancing the efficiency of production Emphasis upon the wider access of information

E-governance: An Indian Perspective: In India, concept of e-governance has more to do with the facilitation rather than regulations. More and more state governments are in the process of creating a network of e-service and e-administration. It is remarkable that initial forays are more rural centric than urban centric. The idea is to give the very basic services using indigenous information technology. The e-governance models that have so far emerged in India have been utility driven and community based. They are meant to be used by a specific community residing in municipal area/town/tehsil or district. E-governance and Law: E-governance represents new form of governance, which is dynamic and exponential. It needs dynamic laws, keeping pace with the technological advancement. But this new dispensation of e-governance requires new set of laws to redefine the old structure of the web. The e-governance is about extending the Rule of Law in the cyberspace. The idea is to facilitate efficient government-citizen interface by giving due-legal recognition to digital signatures and electronic records.

DIGITAL SIGNATURE: It is defined as a persons name written in a distinctive form of identification in authorizing a cheque or a document or concluding a letter. The purpose of the signature is to authenticate the message as originating from the purported signature. Whereas, the digital signature establishes the principles that in an electronic environment, the basic legal functions of a signature are performed by way of a method that identifies the signer of an electronic message and also confirms that the said signer approved the content of that electronic message. Adoption of Digital Signature: It has been realized that internet being a public network would never be secure enough and there would always be a fear of inception, transmission errors, delays, deletions, authenticity or verifications of an electronic message using internet as a medium. Hence the goal was to protect the message, not the medium.

Characteristics of Digital Signature:

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Easily transportable Cannot be imitated by someone else Can be automatically time-stamped

A digital signature can be used with any kind of message, whether it is encrypted or not, simply so that the receiver can be sure of the sender's identity and that the message arrived intact. A digital certificate contains the digital signature of the certificate-issuing authority so that anyone can verify that the certificate is real. Working A digital signature scheme typically consists of three algorithms:
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A key generation algorithm that selects a private key uniformly at random from a set of possible private keys. The algorithm outputs the private key and a corresponding public key. A signing algorithm that, given a message and a private key, produces a signature. A signature verifying algorithm that, given a message, public key and a signature, either accepts or rejects the message's claim to authenticity.

Uses of Digital Signature: i) Authentication - Digital signatures can be used to authenticate the source of messages. ii) Integrity Ensuring that the message is not tampered while transmitting the data. iii) Non-repudiation - Ensuring that an entity that has signed some information cannot at a later time deny having signed it.