Centre for Internet and Society

Cyrus Mistry

praskrishna — 2012-11-30T04:41:50Z

Cyrus Mistry

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/home-images/CyrusMistry.png

CyFy Agenda

praskrishna — 2015-10-16T03:01:13Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cyfy-agenda

CyFy 2016 Agenda

praskrishna — 2016-09-13T15:06:16Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/cyfy-2016-agenda

CYFY 2016 - The India Conference on Cyber Security and Internet Governance

praskrishna — 2016-09-13T15:23:59Z

Sunil Abraham will participate as a panelist at CYFY 2016 event organized by Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi from September 28 to 30, 2016.

Into its fourth edition this year, CyFy: The India Conference on Cyber Security and Internet Governance has emerged as a global platform to discuss, debate and deliver digital policy solutions. CyFy 2015 featured nearly 110 participants from over 33 countries, with nearly 800 delegates in attendance. Prominently, the conference sessions featured several experts from Africa and the Asia Pacific, who addressed the policy priority of connecting the next billion. The 2016 iteration of CyFy will highlight the political, economic and strategic questions that underpin this imperative.

Download the Agenda

See the announcement on CYFY website or write to Samir Saran at ssaran@orfonline.org or Arun at arun.sukumar@orfonline.org for more details on the conference.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/cyfy-2016-the-india-conference-on-cyber-security-and-internet-governance-4th-edition

Cyfy 2015: The India Conference on Cyber Security and Internet Governance

praskrishna — 2015-10-17T14:44:42Z

In its third year, Cyfy; South Asia’s biggest internet policy conference is being held in New Delhi, from 14-16 October, 2015. The event is organized by Observer Research Foundation at Hotel Taj Mansingh. Sunil Abraham is a panelist in the session "Protection of Intellectual Property and Business Secrets in the Knowledge Economy".

Building on its scope and scale of the previous year — over 55 speakers, from 12 countries, with 350 attendees — the conference discusses issues that affect the emerging world and developed world alike. The conversations will further and widen the debate around internet governance, security, surveillance, freedom of expression, norms of state behaviour, technology and specific societal challenges that emerging and developing countries seek to address by the effective design and deployment on these technologies. In 2015, Cyfy will bring together more experts from South Asia, in order to present new thought on the specific challenges of internet access, policy and regulation, e-governance, financial inclusion, and bottom of the pyramid solutions.

Along with its growing network of both Indian and international partners, ORF looking forward to hosting another thought-provoking and productive few days, and bridging some digital divides in contemporary internet cyber policy debates.

Protection of Intellectual Property and Business Secrets in the Knowledge Economy

Over the past decade, there has been an exponential rise in cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property, and it has been recognized as an unfair predatory practice. With the rise of the globalized knowledge economy, the stability of open trading systems increasingly depends on cross-border IP protection. What is the relevance of the protection of intellectual property and business secrets for economic development and stability of the international trading system?

Download the agenda For more info visit here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/cyfy-2015-india-conference-on-cyber-security-and-internet-governance

CYFY 2014 Event Programme

praskrishna — 2014-10-13T06:59:09Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cyfy-2014-event-programme.pdf

CYFY 2014 Brochure

praskrishna — 2014-10-13T07:03:52Z

The brochure of the event.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cyfy-2014-brochure.pdf

CYFY 2013: India Conference on Cyber Security and Cyber Governance

praskrishna — 2013-09-26T06:50:15Z

The Observer Research Foundation in collaboration with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry is holding the India Conference on Cyber Security and Cyber Governance at the Oberoi Hotel in New Delhi on October 14 and 15, 2013. Sunil Abraham will participate in this event as a speaker.

Click to download the full details in the event brochure.

Shri Kapil Sibal, Minister of Communications & Technology will give the inaugural address. Shri Shivshankar Menon, National Security Advisor, Government of India will give the keynote address. Shri Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State, Human Resource Development, Government of India will give the dinner table address on October 14.

On the second day, October 15, Minister Jaak Aaviksoo will give the keynote address and Shri Nehchal Sandhu, Deputy National Advisor, Government of India will give the valedictory address.

List of Speakers

Kapil Sibal, Minister for Communications and Information Technology, India
Shivshankar Menon, National Security Advisor, Government of India
Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for Human Resource Development, India
Nehchal Sandhu, Deputy National Security Advisor, Government of India
A.P. Shah, Former Chief Justice, Delhi High Court
Arvind Gupta, Director General, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, India
Ashish Chauhan, CEO, Bombay Stock Exchange
C. Raja Mohan, Distinguished Fellow, ORF
Christopher Painter, Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues, Department Of State, USA
Dirk Brengelmann, Commissioner for International Cyber Policy, Federal Foreign Office, Germany
Eric H. Loeb, Vice President, International External Affairs, AT&T
Gabriel Siboni, Director, Cyber Warfare Program, Institute for National Security Studies, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Jaak Aaviksoo, Minister of Education and Research of the Republic of Estonia
Jamie Shea, Deputy Assistant Secretary General, Emerging Security Challenges, NATO
Joe Sullivan, CSO, Facebook
John Mallery, Research Scientist, MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, USA
Maurizio Martellini, Secretary General, Landau Network-Centro Volta and IWG Executive Secretary, Italy
Michael Cheatham, Head U.S. Representative Office, Indo-US Science and. Technology Forum, USA
M.M.Oberoi, Indian Police Service, Joint commissioner of Police, Delhi Police, Government of India
Oleg Demidov, The Russian Center for Policy Studies, Russia
Peter Grabosky, Researcher, Australian National University, Australia
Prakash Nagpal, Senior Vice President, Product Marketing and Marketing, Narus
Rajan Mathews, Director General, Cellular Operators Association of India
Ram Narain, Deputy Director General (Security), Department of Telecommunication (DoT), Government of India
Sandro Gaycken, Freie Universität Berlin, Institute of Computer Science, Germany
Sean Kanuck, National Intelligence Officer for Cyber Issues, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, USA
Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore
Vijay Madan, Chief Mentor, Tata Teleservices (former Director, C-DOT), India
Vivke Lall, President & CEO, Reliance Industries Limited

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/india-conference-on-cyber-security-and-cyber-governance

CYFY 2013 Event Brochure

praskrishna — 2013-09-26T06:49:18Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cyfy-brochure.pdf

Cyberstalkers, the new bullies in town

praskrishna — 2016-07-04T02:44:39Z

The advent of social media and an increase in accessibility has led to increasing concerns with regard to cyber safety.

The article by S. Poorvaja was published in the Hindu on July 4, 2016. Pranesh Prakash gave inputs.

Bombarded with messages, poems and photographs from a cyber stalker across multiple social networking platforms, Shradha Muralidharan, a consultant in the city, said that being curt and asking the stalker to stop bothering was of no use.

“I initially did not want to engage with him as I was afraid that it would only provoke him more. But then ignoring him did not help as well and I was forced to speak to him. He, however, went ahead and contacted a host of my friends on these sites and asked them if they could introduce me to him,” she recalled.

Cyberstalking is now on the increase with people being flooded with messages and having their information online manipulated and used to threaten them with.

Vandhana,* an engineer from the city, says she thinks twice before posting content online — be it on her Instagram or her Facebook profile.

“Despite having adequate privacy tools, I later found that my photos and other information were being shared by a colleague who was on my friends’ list to his friend, who then proceeded to cyberstalk me,” she said.

What to share?

While multiple tools that social media sites offer do allow people to mute, block or even report people, Pranesh Prakash, Policy Director for the Centre for Internet and Society, said technical restrictions didn’t play much of a part in a situation where information one posts to a private audience is shared further, without their consent.

“Trust plays a large role in what you share online since someone can find a way to get around technological restrictions. While there are some violations that can be addressed by the law, a few cannot be, and it is important for people to be aware of the legal provisions that exist,” he added.

Be it social media meet-ups, Facebook friends catching up outside of the virtual world or web writers meeting to brainstorm ideas, the last five years have seen a gradual increase in such socialising and new safety concerns have cropped up.

Karthika, a chartered accountant from the city who went through an unpleasant experience of being stalked on social media sites and cyber-bullied, said that while the police were helpful when she sought them out, she was also constantly questioned as to why she was befriending people online in the first place.

“I tried not to keep mum about what was happening to me but was also simultaneously told by people that it would seem like I was drawing unnecessary attention to myself if I made public what was happening to me. More people should come forward and support the person who is getting stalked, rather than be intimidated,” she said.

The use of internet, email or any form of electronic communication to contact and harrass a person who has expressed disinterest, and to cause them trauma is what qualifies as Cyberstalking

To prevent misuse of information, social media users can use privacy tools and settings that enable them have a control on who vies their information

With smartphone apps for social media sites that have access to the user's location, caution must be exercised by the user in knowing who is privy to such information

With children being active online as well, the use of parental control softwares that helps monitor the content they share is necessary as they are vulnerable victims to stalking and cyber bullying

Knowledge about the cyber crime laws and where/whom to report incidences of the same to.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-hindu-s-poorvaja-july-4-2016-cyberstalkers-the-new-bullies-in-town

Cyberspying: Government may ban Gmail for official communication

praskrishna — 2013-09-02T04:19:53Z

The government will soon ask all its employees to stop using Google's Gmail for official communication, a move intended to increase security of confidential government information after revelations of widespread cyberspying by the US.

This article was published in the Times of India on August 30, 2013. Sunil Abraham is quoted.

A senior official in the ministry of communications and information technology said the government plans to send a formal notification to nearly 5 lakh employees barring them from email service providers such as Gmail that have their servers in the US, and instead asking them to stick to the official email service provided by India's National Informatics Centre.

"Gmail data of Indian users resides in other countries as the servers are located outside. Currently, we are looking to address this in the government domain, where there are large amounts of critical data," said J Satyanarayana, secretary in the department of electronics and information technology.

Snowden fallout

The move comes in the wake of revelations by former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden that the US government had direct access to large amounts of personal data on the internet such as emails and chat messages from companies like Google, Facebook and Apple through a programme called PRISM.

Documents leaked by Snowden showed that NSA may have accessed network infrastructure in many countries, causing concerns of potential security threats and data breaches. Even as the new policy is being formulated, there has been no mention yet of how compliance will be ensured.

Several senior government officials in India, including ministers of state for communications & IT Milind Deora and Kruparani Killi, have their Gmail IDs listed in government portals as their official email.

A Google India spokeswoman said the company has not been informed about the ban, and hence it cannot comment on speculation. "Nothing is documented so far, so for us, it is still speculation," Google said in an email response.

A senior official in the IT department admitted on condition of anonymity that employees turn to service providers such as Gmail because of the ease of use compared with official email services, as well as the bureaucratic processes that govern creation of new accounts.

"You can just go and create an account in Gmail easily, whereas for a government account, you have to go through a process because we have to ensure that he is a genuine government user."

Last week, IT Minister Kapil Sibal said the new policy would require all government officials living abroad to use NIC servers that are directly linked to a server in India while accessing government email services. Sibal said there has been no evidence of the US accessing Internet data from India.

Sunil Abraham, executive director of Bangalore-based research firm Centre for Internet and Society, said he agrees with the government's decision to ban Gmail for official communication and that any official violating this needs to be punished.

"After Snowden's revelations, we can never be sure to what extent foreign governments are intercepting government emails," he said. Abraham, however, called the government's decision a "late reaction", as the use of Gmail and other free email services by bureaucrats has increased in the past.

"Use of official government email would also make it easier to achieve greater transparency and anti-corruption initiatives. Ministers, intelligence and law enforcement officials should not be allowed to use alternate email providers under any circumstance."

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/times-of-india-august-30-2013-cyberspying-govt-may-ban-gmail-for-official-communication

CyberSecurityAgreements_Infographic_04.pdf

praskrishna — 2017-04-27T14:57:45Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/CyberSecurityAgreements_Infographic_04.pdf

Cybersecurity and the Internet of Things

praskrishna — 2015-03-13T02:14:59Z

US Consulate Chennai formally Invite you for a talk by David F.Heyman on March 19, 2015 in Hotel Atria, Palace Road, Bangalore. The event is being organized by the US Consulate, Chennai, Cyber Security & Privacy Foundation (CSPF) and the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS).

Note: Please register to come to the event, if you are not attending please inform us.

David Heyman, former Assistant Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and retired Software Engineer Reimagining and Transforming Cities, Governments, and Lives with the Internet of Things For the first time in human history more people live in cities than anywhere else.

By 2050 three-fourths of the world’s population will live in cities. As more and more people move to cities, more of the world’s challenges, from emerging infectious diseases, crime, economic growth, and environmental degradation, will be concentrated in cities. Citizens will expect and demand more from their leaders; and governments will face greater pressure to provide services better, faster, cheaper to more and more, potentially with less and less resources.

More than any other force driving change over the horizon, the Internet of Things (IoT) holds the potential to connect and infuse devices, business assets, infrastructures, and other elements of a city with greater intelligence and efficiencies to drive a new era of innovation and performance. And yet, this potential is juxtaposed against a backdrop of an explosion in cybercrimes and threats facilitated by the increased linkages between the physical and cyber world that is at the heart of IoT, and which affords malicious actors anywhere in the world the potential to disrupt services and lives on a far more consequential level than ever before.

In his remarks, David Heyman, former Assistant Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and retired software engineer, will discuss the extraordinary potential of the IoT, the barriers to adoption, and how governments and businesses can navigate this new frontier, work together, and re-imagine and transform cities—and nations—for tomorrow.

David F. Heyman

David F. Heyman has over two decades of experience as a leader in spurring innovation, risk management, and strategy development in the public and private sector. He is a leading expert in national security and international affairs, counterterrorism, cybersecurity, building resilience, and critical infrastructure protection, with broad experience in the U.S., Europe, Middle East and Asia. Heyman’s career includes service at the highest levels of the U.S. government, working in senior positions at the White House, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, as well as in the private sector.

Most recently, Heyman concluded five years of service as Assistant Secretary of Policy (operating as an Under Secretary equivalent) at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). As a member of the senior management team at DHS, Heyman was responsible for the Department’s strategic planning, risk and decision analysis, policy development, and thought leadership across all five departmental mission areas: counterterrorism, border security, immigration,
cybersecurity, and building resilience to disasters. During his tenure, Heyman helped transform the Department from a budget-driven to a strategydriven organization, and instituted an enterprise risk-management architecture for managing the Department’s $60 billion budget. He oversaw and initiated the Department’s largest expansion in global engagement, and in this role, led efforts to build new strategic partnerships with the World Customs Organization, the World Economic Forum, and some of the most consequential and complicated geopolitical relationships facing the United Stated today, including China, India, the European Union, and others. Heyman designed and launched multiple domestic, bilateral, and global initiatives to bolster U.S. security and prosperity. He was the chief architect of the nation’s first National Strategy for Homeland Security—the Quadrennial Homeland Security Review—which elevated and established cyber security and building national resilience as core homeland security missions. He led efforts around five Presidential Initiatives
to: empower communities to counter violent extremism; strengthen global supply chain security; expand travel and tourism to the United States; streamline and modernize the U.S. import and export system; and develop and implement a new perimeter approach to North American Security which resulted in the Beyond the Border Initiative signed by President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Carper.

He led the creation of the Resilient STARTM program and the Rick Rescorla National Award for Resilience, and is wellknown for drafting the policy to eliminate the color-code Homeland Security Advisory System and replace it with a more disciplined National Terrorism Advisory System, now used by the U.S. government. Previously, Heyman founded and directed the Homeland Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), one of the nation’s leading and most influential think tanks in international security and taught security studies and science and technology policy as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. Heyman also served as a senior advisor to Energy Secretary Bill Richardson and oversaw development and implementation of a number of energy, infrastructure and technology initiatives, including leading and establishing a new portfolio approach to manage DOE’s $7 billion in research and development (R&D) investments.

Earlier in his career, Heyman was a senior policy advisor in national security and international affairs at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), and was responsible for providing science, technology, and foreign policy advice to the President’s Science Advisor and the Vice President’s National Security Advisor. Before entering government, Heyman worked for nearly a decade as a computer systems software engineer, and head of international operations for a firm developing and deploying industrial automation, robotics, and supply-chain management systems for Fortune 100 companies. Heyman holds a Bachelor’s degree in biology from Brandeis University and a Master’s in international relations and economics from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, where he graduated with the highest level of distinction. He is currently a member of the Aspen Homeland Security Strategy Group, Aspen’s U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue, and serves as co-chair of its Cyber Task Force.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/talk-on-cybersecurity-and-internet-of-things

Cybersecurity - Threat or Opportunity

praskrishna — 2017-07-07T02:42:28Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/cybersecurity-threat-or-opportunity

Cyberscholars Working Group at MIT

praskrishna — 2014-01-09T06:41:31Z

Malavika Jayaram is giving a talk on Biometrics or Bust - India’s Identity Crisis at this event organised by Berkman Center for Internet & Society on December 12 at 6.00 p.m.

Read the original published by Harvard University here.

The Cyberscholar Working Group is a forum for fellows and affiliates of MIT, Yale Law School Information Society Project, Columbia University, and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University to discuss their ongoing research. Each session is focused on the peer review and discussion of current projects submitted by a presenter. Meeting alternatively at Harvard, MIT, Yale, the working group aims to expand the shared knowledge of young scholars by bringing together these preeminent centers of thought on issues confronting the information age. Discussion sessions are designed to facilitate advancements in the individual research of presenters and in turn encourage exposure among the participants to the multi-disciplinary features of the issues addressed by their own work.

This month's presentations include:
(1) "Lines of Control: Networks of Imperialism and Independence in India (1840-1947)"
Abstract: This paper examines the history of communications networks in India and the relationship between communications and second-order networks. It draws attention to the wave of colonial network development that took place in India between 1840 and 1948. During these years, Britain constructed a series shipping, rail and telegraph networks to achieve a set of military and commercial goals. This paper studies how first- and second-order networks developed, and the intended and unintended effects of these networks on Indiaʼs economics, politics, and identity. The paper draws on economic and social studies of colonial communications networks in India, original reports by British officials and the Colonial Office, and the literature focusing on the role of technology in British imperialism. It shows how Indiaʼs colonial communication networks, built to augment and extend British control over the subcontinent, became conduits for Indian resistance and nationalism.
Keywords: shipping, telegraph, railroads, imperialism, nationalism, network theory, India

Colin Agur is a PhD candidate at Columbia University and Visiting Fellow at Yale Law School's Information Society Project. His research examines India's telecommunications, focusing on mobile network formation and second-order effects of network growth. He spent the 2012-13 academic year in Delhi and Chennai, conducting document analysis, interviews with industry figures and participant observation related to mobile phone usage. He has published articles about Indian media and culture in Harvard's Nieman Lab, the Journal of Asian and African Studies and Journalism (forthcoming), and about telecommunications history in Information and Culture.

(2) Big Data Dramas in the 1960s and 1970s
Abstract: The recent frenzy in discussing NSA activities and the collecting of Big Data show a widespread critical concern for the current practice of gathering and using personal data. These concerns have their history. In my presentation, I track the beginnings of a growing public awareness and sensitivity towards the societal handling of personal data. I argue that the early computerization phase during the 1960s and 1970s played a crucial role in discussing these issues. Media reports, popular books, scientific publications, and political hearings all of a sudden began – often in quite different ways – to address and question contemporary practices of collecting, sharing, and storing of personal data. Their authors explored and negotiated all kind of societal settings where personal data played a significant role at that time. There have been concerns about these issues with personal data before, but – as I will show in my presentation – not on this broad societal level and to this extent as in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I argue that during that time, the usage of personal data became a highly controversial matter not only of public, but also of private interest.My inquiry examines how the term “data“ and in particular the collection of personal data became loaded with cultural and emotional significance in scientific and media discussions in the 1960s and 1970s in the United States and in Germany. Furthermore, it explores how the early computerization affected our societal handling of data long before the personal computer entered our private lives.

Julia Fleischhack is a visiting postdoctoral research fellow in the program in Science, Technology, and Society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She holds a PhD in anthropology from Zürich University. Her current research is on data centers from the private sector and funded by the Fritz Thyssen foundation.

(3) Biometrics or Bust - India’s Identity Crisis
Abstract: India's identity juggernaut - the Unique Identity (UID) project that has registered around 500 million people and is yet to be fully realized - is already the world's largest ever biometrics identity scheme. Grounded in the premise that centralized de-duplication and authentication will uniquely identify people and eliminate fraud, it is hailed as a game changer and a silver bullet that will solve myriad socio-economic problems, yet its conception and architecture raise significant concerns. Its implementation as a techno-utopian project in a legal vacuum, despite the potential for abuse and exclusion, give pause to the much-vaunted claims of transforming welfare delivery and galvanizing financial inclusion. I will provide an overview of the identity project and highlight some of the key implications for privacy and free speech, and more broadly, democracy and openness. I will also unpack some of the narratives being constructed, describe the current public discourse and legal developments, and locate the project within the broader surveillance state and database nation that India is morphing into.

Malavika Jayaram is a Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, focusing on privacy, identity and free expression. A Fellow at the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, she is one of 10 Indian lawyers in The International Who's Who of Internet e-Commerce & Data Protection directory. In August 2013, she was voted one of India's leading lawyers - one of only 8 women to be featured in the "40 under 45" survey conducted by Law Business Research, London.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/cyberscholars-working-group-mit