That privacy is at peril in cyberspace is evident from the disclosure that an Israeli group used spyware to snoop on human rights activists and journalists in India. The information has come into the public domain after the Facebook-owned platform WhatsApp filed a lawsuit in a US court. In another instance, a malware attack has been detected at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu through an infected PC, reportedly plugged into the system. Worries over information on social media getting compromised have been there earlier, leading to US Senator Elizabeth Warren call for ‘breaking up major tech companies for breach of privacy’.

Information is power. It offers the chance to preempt, manipulate or act as the situation requires, giving an advantage. The strength of information as a strategic asset has always been acknowledged with countries using it to win wars and parties in power upstaging political adversaries. Surveillance can come from different quarters. Professional hackers use knowledge tools to enter a network, assessing its vulnerability and penetration possibility. The damage they cause depends on the level of access they get. In the Israeli case, the spyware got installed on the phone with just a missed call, giving access to the phone’s operating system, compromising both privacy and security. Institutions and organisations use systems of different levels to ward off threats that could jeopardise their very functioning.

The other aspect of it is when the government decides to use surveillance to protect national interest. A case on whether social media companies can be forced to trace and reveal the identity of the originator of the message as provided under Section 69 of the IT Act is being heard by the Supreme Court. The paradox is that Facebook, which faced the heat earlier on the issue in the US, is the petitioner. WhatsApp was already in the dock for offering a platform for fake news. India plans to have social media regulations by January next year. Official agencies should not misuse it to snoop on citizens while clamping down on cybercrime.

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Courtesy: The Tribune: 1st November, 2019