Need to tighten treaties with US in cyber crime cases: Anil Goswami, Home Secretary

NEW DELHI: Concerned over a large number of cyber service providers based out of India, Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami today said legal treaties between India and the US need to be strengthened to speed up probes concerning crimes in the internet world.

Delivering his speech at the conclusion of the two-day India-US Homeland Security dialogue, Goswami said the burgeoning use of digital communication "poses a security threat to data and computer systems".

"...there is a need for security cooperation between India and USA which face this challenge due to a larger number of computer and internet users in the two countries.

"In the area of cyber security, he emphasized the need to strengthen the security environment to facilitate e-commerce, e-banking and day-to-day activities covering the financial services, power industry, telecommunications industry and public services," a Home Ministry statement said quoting the Secretary.

"He expressed satisfaction on the deliberations in the conference which focused on the need for a healthy combination of technology, building security infrastructure and the need to synchronize the domestic laws with the global standards.

"He said service-providers play a very important role in the investigations of cyber crimes and most of the service providers are based in USA. It would be important to strengthen the process of legal assistance so as to speed up the investigations and promote legal mechanisms that encourage co-operation in cyber crime matter," Goswami was quoted as saying.