The Indian Parliament officially granted the Information Technology Act in July 2000. It came into action in October month of the same year. The primary objective of the Information Technology Act 2000 is to restrict cybercrime across e-commerce sites that operate throughout the country. This article will describe the characteristics of the Act and key amendments that have been made to ease the processes of scrutiny on the Government’s end. An international association under the name United Nations Commission recommended all the nations standardize a constitutional model to monitor transactions involving electronic sales and purchases in 1996. Further in 2000, the commission suggested the remodelled format which may help to reinforce global cyber security. India appeared as the 12th nation to accept the proposal. In 1998, a preliminary draft was introduced in Parliament tagged as the E-commerce Act. Its scope and authority were further intensified in the IT Bill, 1999. The bill got approval in June 2000.

The objective of Information Technology Act 2000

The Information Technology Act 2000 protects internet users from identity theft, monetary loss, exposure to obscene content, online confiscation of assets, and other severe cybercrimes by exercising legal protocols to monitor and control the activities of computer devices accessing the internet. Apart from supervising monetary transactions, communication between individuals and institutions is also controlled by this act. The Act enforced the revision of the Indian Penal Code that came into action in 1860. The objective of Information Technology Act 2000 is brought forward in the following discussion:

  1. Approve lawful recognition through authorization codes to all the business deals that are solemnized via computational interchange of Information. It also encompasses communication via online applications. It safeguards the electronic method of communication which evolved from its paper-based precursor.
  2. The IT act 2000 granted the authenticity of digital autographs as a trademark of Identification. It also approved the idea of digital safes.
  3. Facilitated the digital record-keeping of files and attachments in association with the Government law enforcement commissions and other private bodies that are authorized to provide such services.
  4. Allowed the storage of user’s information in a central database or hub.
  5. Authorize banks and other financial institutions to execute transactions between multiple parties.
  6. Grant warrant to bankers under the RBI act of 1934 for recording the folios of account holders in the online ledger. Transparency has to be offered for all such data to the concerned Government authorities.

Purpose of section 43 of the IT act

Section 43 safeguards the identity of computer users across the web world. The primary purpose of section 43 of the IT act is to refrain Institutions or individual malicious entities from destroying, altering, and concealing the source code of a computer system or an entire computer network. Such actions shall not be commenced without the approval of the computer owners. Breaching this law subjects the guilty person to punitive charges as compensation to the owner or developer of the system. Section 43A of Information Technology Act, 2000 takes action against private limited companies who fail to offer the minimum standard cyber security of the electronic assets of their clients. Disability to safeguard sensitive data of the clients can lead to unimaginable losses. Compensation has to be furnished to the affected individual or organization if a corporate body is found guilty under section 43A of the act.

Different types of cyber contraventions under section 43 of the IT Act

Section 43 of the IT act penalizes legal entities who try to tamper with computer systems distributed over the web. Different types of cyber contraventions under section 43 of the IT Act apply to any internet user who miscues computer resources without the approval of the owner. Some penalty criteria are cited as follows:

  • If a trespasser downloads implicit resources or extracts any private information from a computer without the consent of its keeper
  • If a person installs virus software on a computer by tricking the user through a third-party website interface
  • Disruption of a computer’s functionality across the web is also considered a crime
  • Denial of resource access to the original user by hacking into the system is subject to a monetary penalty as means of compensation
  • If a person is wrongly charged for any step involved in an eCommerce transaction, then the guilty party is liable to pay for monetary loss

Conclusion

IT Act 2000 faced crucial amendments which further strengthened its legislative execution. The objective of Information Technology Act 2000 is to grant the license to all the communication and transaction affairs that take place across computing devices. The data of all the internet users are safely recorded through decentralization in the registers of the Ministry of Information and Technology.