The development in the field of Information Technology over the last decade is leaving very few people and sections of our society unaffected in a positive sense. And the presence of internet is all pervasive which is being looked upon as a potent instrument to make the world a global village. You think of any field where it has become an indispensable tool to perform all kinds of transactions be it social, cultural or more importantly economic. Its dominance is just complete. In this scenario the need for a mechanism to regulate and control this seemingly increasingly mind-blowing number of transactions with implications on a global scale can hardly be overemphasized.
The question is whether these transactions are being conducted in a legal and legitimate way. As its implications are global, for example if an user or a netizen of Indian citizenship based in India defames the honour of an American citizen he should be subjecting himself or herself to the provisions of the defamation of laws of both the countries. The Information and Technology Act, which came into existence on October 13, 2000 is a landmark piece of legislation the provisions of which should be kept in mind by all the users just to avoid being nabbed on the wrong side of the law. For instance Section 66 of the Information and Technology Act takes cognizance of an offence which consists in tampering with information which is stored in a computer. There are instances where words are liberally used which are apparently defamatory and the participants in public fora need to be educated about this.
One more important aspect of the Cyber laws are their jurisdictions which are of a universal nature and care must exercised of an utmost kind in this regard.
The study of cyber laws offers a good and prospective career option too. It is basically a multi-disciplinary branch and a few institutions have come up in India which are conducting regular courses in this discipline. It is ideally suited to the needs of management graduates, chartered accountants and company secretaries who can specialize in this branch of knowledge to be rewarded amply in the years to come.