Economic Reporter :
Digital Security Act is likely to get final approval in early next year which was attempted with an aim to prevent cyber crimes in the country, sources said.
Digital Security Act, 2016, prepared by the ICT Division to prevent cyber crimes, has not yet been finally approved by the law ministry.
Earlier on August, the draft of the Digital Security Act has been approved at the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The ICT Division sources said the act may get final approval in the upcoming year after the approval by the law ministry. BASIS President Mostafa Jabbar, who is working on cyber-security act, told The The New Nation that the Digital Security Act is probably at the Ministry of Law for approval. There is no headway beyond this.
State Minister for ICT Junaid Ahmed Palak said the Act would be submitted to the cabinet for final nod after the getting approval from the law ministry. Then it would be sent to the Parliamentary committee. After scurrility, the committee will place the act before the Parliament.
Earlier, Junaid said “We have already completed all preparations to place the Digital Security Act in the Parlia-ment. The Act will be placed in the Parliament in the winter session as the Ministry of Law has already vetted the draft of Digital Security Act in the meantime.”
Section 15 of the draft ICT digital act which got approval on August 22 said if any Bangladeshi or foreign national propagate against the father of the national Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman through electronic media it would be consider as digital crimes.
According to section the ICT Act, “If any person deliberately publishes or transmits or causes to be published or transmitted in the website or in electronic form any material which is fake and obscene or its effect is such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all
relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it, or causes to deteriorate or creates possibility to deteriorate
law and order, prejudice the image of the State or person or causes to hurt or may hurt religious belief or instigate against any person or organisation, then this activity of his will be regarded as an offence.”
If any person deliberately takes photograph of others without his or her permission and publishes it or morphs the photograph, it will be considered as violation of privacy. If anybody commits such crimes he or she will be awarded upto five years jail as well as Tk ten lakh fine.
Palak said if any case has been filed under the new law, a provision has been kept to conclude the trial within 6 months since the charge framing time.
Palak said: “Someone does not need an atom bomb to destroy a country. Cyber attack can damage an entire country – financially, administratively and in many other ways.”
The state minister said the electronic transaction is growing fast in Bangladesh. Now, 30 per cent of transaction is being carried out through online. Besides, e-commerce is expending rapidly in the country.
“We are going to formulate the Digital Security Act in response to three issues – investigating the offences, collecting evidence and bringing the offenders to trial,” Palak added. The central bank has recently come under cyber attack and the public property was robbed. In this situation it is very necessary to enactment the Security Act, thinks IT specialist Mustafa Jabbar. “If we fail to detect the incident of cyber crimes properly at the right time, we will be loser,” Jabbar told The The New Nation.
However, Barrister Sara Hossain said the existing law is sufficient to tackle cyber crimes.
According to BTRC sources, to control cyber crime, Internet Protocol (IP) surveillance guidelines will be formulated. BTRC is also working on creating an organisation for supervision and review of IP address.
Earlier, on August 18 last year, telecom secretary Sarwar Alam, said in a statement, they have sent proposed formation of an The New Nation organisation to the Prime Minsiter’s office.
Internet Assigned authority (ICNA) manages the allocation of IP addresses worldwide.
According to the ITU report, Bangladesh Computer Emergency Response Team (BD-CERT) is an official wing to combat with cyber threat. BTRC formed the BD-CERT on January 2012.
