India to crack down on cybercriminals
Last week’s information peddling scandal has thrown India into a frenzy, prompting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to meet with top software company representatives (National Association of Software and Service Companies, aka NASSCOM) headed by Kiran Karnik.
This comes on the heels of reports from British tabloid The Sun that Indian call center (Web designer Infinity eSearch) employee Karan Bahree sold confidential information to Sun reporter Oliver Harvey. Bahree was allegedly paid 3 pounds ($5.40) for each piece of data obtained from the records of 1000 British bank account holders.
Singh declared that stringent measures will be implemented in punishing perpetrators of cyber crime and urged government officials to speed up amendments to India’s Information Technology Act of 2000 to beef up data security and privacy.
The government’s Press Information Bureau (PIB) however views the scandal as a possible “sting operation directed to give Indian industry a bad name against the background of growing competitiveness.” Bahree claims he was set up by two other persons and insists that he had no knowledge of the CD he was asked to give Harvey.
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