INDIA: Dirty e-mail jokes can land you in jail

Simple office procedures and private jokes take on a whole new face under the IT Act, 2000

Times of India
Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Mumbai -- The next time you send a dirty joke to a friend in office, watch it. You could land up in jail or pay a fine of Rs 1 lakh. Under the IT Act, 2000, your little missive comes under the offence of 'publishing of information which is obscene in electronic form'.

The recent fraud case at Mphasis, where Rs 1.5 crore was taken out of three Citibank customers' accounts, has swung the spotlight on information security threats that are known to take place in all offices. The whammy here is that most of the time these offences take place without people even knowing that they are committing them.

Cases of simple office procedures that are inadvertently 'criminal' abound. Take the Jolly Technologies case where a female employee who uploaded sensitive company data on to her inbox so that she could work on it from home became an accused in the eyes of the company. Company secretaries who are privy to their boss' inboxes and passwords can also be nailed— they can be held guilty of sending out vital company information. Employees who use a colleague's computer to send out critical company information (which, sometimes, they aren't aware they shouldn't) put the person whose computer was used at risk.

Cyber lawyers aver that in order to protect themselves and their employees, companies should formulate their own policies and practices to be followed by both employers and employees. These company policies—on pornography, taking work home, personal passwords and access to e-mail—can be upheld in a civil court of law and therefore help a company protect its sensitive information from theft as well as protect the employee. But desi firms do have a lot to worry about, say lawyers. "Cyber laws in India are underdeveloped," says advocate N S Nappinai. "Information security threats need to be understood by corporate heads, and policies need to be framed to prevent the leak of critical information."

Date Posted: 4/19/2005