The Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal suggested that India should have the jurisdiction to prosecute cyber attackers regardless of where they come from.

Addressing a conference on cyber security and cyber governance organised by the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, Sibal said, “If there is a cyber space violation and the subject matter is India because it impacts India, then India should have jurisdiction. For example, if I have an embassy in New York, then anything that happens in that embassy is Indian territory and there applies Indian law. If the impact of such a violation is on India, then Indian courts must have the jurisdiction. That should apply across the world.”

Delivering the keynote address, the National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon said, government would set up an information sharing and analysis Centre and testing and certification labs in the private sector by industry associations. They would also protect critical information infrastructures (CIIs) which have seen phenomenal increase in attacks. He said the government is in the process of notifying CIIs under the IT Act and National Political Information Protection Centre is being set up.

Warning, that we are secure only until we are attacked, Sibal said, “Governance of Internet is an oxymoron....There is an asymmetry in the laws on the Internet. And as long as there is asymmetry there cannot be equality.” The key issue here is of “identity”. But India, he said was committed to complete freedom of the Internet, though there should be a greater awareness of the threat out there in cyberspace.