GOING FOR THE SKY FALL: CYBER CRIME

Recently I saw James Bond movie, named “SKYFALL”.  Its basic theme or the reality simulated in the movie can be best understood with statement of Leon e. Panneta, US defense secretary who quotes as, “An aggressor nation or extremist group could use these kinds of cyber tools to gain control of critical switches”.

Movies are like simulated reality which we usually face in our real life especially talking with reference to Pakistan and cyber crime. In Pakistan we have laws for everything although the phase of implementation of these laws is very selective and sensitive. In light of my little experience as a practicing lawyer, it is job of a street guy or a rich guy to survive in Pakistan and to get through all the legal requirements for normal living and to meet the expenditures of daily routine including utility bills.

Today Pakistan is getting equipped with all the latest online payment techniques and methods similar to the one adopted in developed countries but if a state like US, is worried about the threat of cyber crime or cyber terrorism as can be seen from the statement of their defense secretary then why Pakistani Government feel so comfortable before opening this new Pandora box of online payment methods without any proper legislation. In my career as cyber laws expert in Pakistan, I have not seen cyber criminals equipped with state of the art technology or technique. I have seen mostly illiterate criminals with knowledge of loop holes in the security system which they breach for their ulterior motives. Their adopted methods are very simple but rare. We do have hackers in Pakistan but till to-date most of the hacking, defacing done by them seems to be just a show off their skills. We need to address them properly and on time before their mind get polluted with ideas of misusing their skills. We need to limit them by implementing laws through our law enforcement agencies. but unfortunately in the world of cyber, Pakistan is a like a country where there is traffic on motorway but no laws or rules to control that traffic therefore probability of  accidents is very high.

The domain of Cyber crime cannot be limited with a couple of words. It is available in every form and in today’s world every walk of life is affected from cyber crime. The basic reason for such a vast domain of affectees is due to revolutionary changes in the life style across the worldwide. Just for sake of arguments few days back, a Turkish hacker claim to deface the national website of our law enforcement agencies and got access of sensitive data. Can we make him accountable in Pakistan? Our active law dealing with cyber crime i.e. Electronic Transactions Ordinance 2002(ETO), whose preamble says that it is applicable in Pakistan only, can we go and get that hacker sitting in Turkey to make him accountable. I think it’s hard unless we couple some sections of Pakistan Penal Code with the ETO to get our desired results. It is also pertinent to mention here that this Turkish hacker claim that he simply want to show his skills to challenge some renowned Pakistani Hackers. This unwanted race of showing skills can take things to disastrous results.

I think Pakistan government must come up with some strict but good and different legislation from the previous Prevention of Electronic Crime Ordinance 2007(PECO) where the crux of the ordinance was only of penal nature. The person drafting the law must understand that he is drafting something for the betterment of the public in whole, to give good policies in their drafts so that laws can be meaningful and implementable. In this regard I found Indian ITBill 2000 very informative and comparatively applicable; with solutions to problem which one can face in the world of cyber crime. I would like to end my thoughts with some interesting canto from practically anonymous book called Poetic Justice by "J.P.C." published in 1947 which enlivens my criticism:

I am the parliamentary draftsman; I compose the country's laws.
Of half the litigation in the nation, I am undoubtedly the cause.

I am the parliamentary draftsman, and my sentences are long.
They are full of inconsistencies grammatically wrong.
I put parliamentary wishes into language of my own,
And though no one understands them they’re expected to be known.