CCA may lose regulator status

NEW DELHI: The Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA) may soon lose its status as an independent regulator as it would become part of the department of information technology (DIT) from November 1. If this happens, then DIT would be both CCA and a certifying authority (CA), as its own outfit National Informatics Centre (NIC) is a CA. Other companies that have been given CA licences include Satyam group company Safescrypt, TCS, Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), NIC and MTNL.
India is one of the first countries in the world to enact cyber laws and appoint an independent CCA about three years back. The role of the CCA was to authenticate digital signatures for facilitating legally authenticated online transactions over internet. Sources said DIT has asked the Cabinet Committee of Appointments to appoint its additional secretary S Lakshminarayanan as the new CCA with additional charge.
The three-year tenure of the existing CCA, KN Gupta, would end on October 30.
The industry is concerned over the move to make CCA a part of DIT, as CCA would lose its independent status. “We have already seen what happened in the telecom sector when the department of telecommunications (DoT) was both a regulator and a player,� said an industry observer. He said the current move will create confusion, and the existing players will no longer have faith in the regulator.
Mr Gupta’s three-year tenure as CCA was successful. Now, digital signature is in use in the banking sector, stock market and in other corporate transactions. Within a year of his appointment, Mr Gupta was successful in appointing the first CA, while countries like Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand took more than two years to appoint a CA. A large number of states have now shown interest in using digital signatures for e-governance, thanks to his awareness programmes.