Disclosure of IT risks should be made mandatory for all Indian companies - Cyber experts

Dr Santhosh Babu IAS, IT Secretary of Tamilnadu Government
inagurating the Media Workshop

"Disclosure of duly audited IT risks should be made mandatory by SEBI for all Indian companies for the information of investors, as it is being done in US" said cyber experts at the Media Workshop held at Chennai Press Club on Saturday the 15th October 2011.
  
Cyber Society of India (CySI),  one of the pioneer bodies in India established in 2004 to create cyber awareness among the public, conducted a Media workshop on Saturday the 15th October 2011 at Chennai Press Club. Dr Santhosh Babu IAS, IT Secretary to Government of Tamilnadu inaugurated the workshop.  Mr Bharathi Thamizhan, Joint Secretary, Chennai Press Club delivered the key note address.  Around 30 media professionals participated in this workshop. 

While welcoming the participants. K. Srinivasan, President of CySI emphasised the need for introducing cyber related lessons at the school level itself, so that the students are prepared to understand the cyber challenges and the consequences of cyber law.  

Dr Santhosh Babu IAS explained how  Tamilnadu Government is implementing e0Governance in the state.  He also said that the Government is planning to recruit officers as 'Information Security Officers' to manage the information security.

Mr Bharathi Thamizhan, Joint Secrretary of Chennai Press Club explained how online media has grown compared to the print media.  He also explained the how the new gadgets like IPad have changed the style of communication.

The inaugural session was followed with a panel discussion.

Mr V Rajendran, Vice President of CySI and Cyber Advocate explained some of the important features of Cyber Law and the penalties involved.

Mr S N Ravichandran, Joint Secretary of CySI and Cyber crime investigator explained the risks involved in social media networks and how cyber crimes were committed using various internet media. He also explained how the investigators are able to book the culprits, wherever they are.

Mr M L Srinivasan, a well known cyber security expert emphasized the need for transparent disclosures of IT risks by all corporates in India, as it is being done in US at the direction of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  Annually, the Auditors include the financial risks in the Annual Reports for the information of invesotors.  Same way, he insisted SEBI also should  issue guidelines making the disclosure of IT risks as mandatory in the Annual Reports for the information of investors.  

Dr Muthukumaran, an academician turned cyber security expert discussed on increased security for net-Banking  transactions by way of advanced 2-Factor Authentication methods. He also stressed the need for Indian companies getting ISO 15489 certification for preservation of records.  Due to the technological changes, the data stored in the servers, become unreadable over a period of time and banks and other organizations find it difficult to provide digital data for more than 10 years. Government need to store citizen data for several decades under e-Governance model. Hence, the data should be stored in neutral digital data format, so that they could be presented even after several years.  Dr Muthukumaran said that ISO 15489 certification guides an organization  on maintenance of archived digital data in the proper format.  Unfortunately, in India, so far, only one company had gone for such certification and all other companies, including banks should go for such certification immediately, he said.

Mr Nurullah, a senior Tamil Journalist anchored the programme in an interesting manner.  Mr Shanker Kumar, Secretary, CySI proposed vote of thanks.

Please see the photo stream of this event.

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