Cyber forensics is an upcoming field in India and
Indian legal and judicial system has to adapt itself according to the
same. Till now cyber forensics is not widely and appropriately used
by the law enforcement agencies, lawyers, judges, etc in India. As a
result most of the cyber criminals are either not prosecuted at all
or they are acquitted in the absence of adequate evidence.
Cyber forensics cannot be used in isolation and
allied fields like cyber
law, cyber
security, e-discovery,
digital evidence, cyber
crime investigations, etc are also applicable in a
majority of cases. Perry4Law
and Perry4Law’s
Techno Legal Base (PTLB) have already covered the Cyber
Law Trends and Developments of India 2013 (PDF), Cyber
Security Trends and Developments in India 2013 (PDF) Cyber
Forensics Trends and Developments in India 2013 (PDF).
This is the interim cyber forensics trends of 2014
by Perry4Law and PTLB and we would come up with the complete and
annual trend and development analysis subsequently. To start with
there is urgent need to ensure cyber
forensics skills development of police force, prosecution
lawyers and judges in India. Further, modernisation
of police force of India urgently needed.
There have been incidences in India where the law
enforcement agencies of India have not conducted proper e-discovery
and cyber forensics exercises. This has made their cases weak and the
accused may escape the punishment. Some of the present cases where
effective cyber forensics could have been used are E-Bay’s
cyber breach case, enforcement
directorate’s Bitcoins investigation case, Aarushi’s
murder case by CBI, IPL
match fixing case, Nokia’s
software download case, etc. The list is just expanding as
cases of improper cyber forensics investigations are in abundance in
India.
Clearly the Indian
approach towards cyber forensics is not upto the mark and
there is an urgent need to change this mentality. The concerned
stakeholders must be well versed with techno legal concepts like
basics
of Internet protocol addresses, IP
address spoofing and its defenses, IP
address tracking methods and techniques for e-mails,
hidden
Internet cyber forensics, cloud
computing cyber forensics, social media cyber forensics,
audio,
video and media forensics, etc.
We need to develop cyber
forensics investigation solutions in India to encourage
digital and scientific evidences in India. The cyber
forensics best practices in India are also missing as on
date and they must be formulated urgently. The regulations
and guidelines for effective investigation of cyber crimes in India
must also be drafted as soon as possible. While tracking
the IP address in question is the first step in cyber
crime investigation yet IP
address should not be the sole criteria for arrest and conviction.
We at Perry4Law and PTLB believe that there is an
urgent need to formulate an effective techno
legal framework that can take care of techno legal issues
of contemporary times. Further, colonial and constitutionally unsound
laws like telegraph
and cyber
law must be repealed urgently and dedicated and suitable
laws must be enacted for the fields of cyber law, cyber
security, cyber forensics, e-discovery, etc. Presently,
neither technological not legal issues pertaining to cyber forensics
are taken care of by Indian government.
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