India is mulling a proposal for the creation of an International Convention for Cyber Crimes Cooperation which can help in simplifying procedures for Letters Rogatory (judicial requests) and act as an informal mechanism for sharing information relating to pending investigation.
The proposal is being jointly considered by the Union Home Ministry, National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) and the Intelligence Bureau amid inordinate delays in prosecution of cases, especially related to cyber crimes and financial frauds, as the servers used for communication and for commission of crimes are often located in foreign shores.
Letters Rogatory is a formal request sent by a court of law to the counterpart of foreign country to seek details of an accused entity or individual or evidence relating to an ongoing case.
The Government is also planning to improve multi-jurisdictional coordination by appointing nodal officers at various levels and online platforms for cooperation.
A collaboration mechanism with stakeholders for facilitating exchange of information on threats, trends, sharing expertise and international cooperation is also being worked out for real-time inputs on the goings on inside the dark net.
The Centre is further planning harmonisation of laws, procedures and data retention periods and address issues relating to admissibility of evidence collected under MLAT through formulation of laws. To boost the cyber infrastructure, development of physical infrastructure and specialised cyber forensic laboratories and dedicated cyber research units are being planned by the Centre.
A cyber awareness campaign for improving digital literacy of citizens is also being considered by the Government. The Centre will consult various stakeholders including law enforcement agencies relating to cyber crimes and the State Governments. The Centre will also seek to create a National Cyber Crime Investigating Agency for investigation of all important cyber crime cases having inter-State and international ramifications. In addition to this, the Government is considering a proposal to create Cyber Fusion Centres, a collaboration centre for various agencies, academia and private sector agencies besides investigating agencies at the national and State level for developing authoritative intelligence.