SETS FOR PROTECTION
OF IT GENERATED WEALTH
The Society for Electronic
Transactions and Security (SETS) has become operational in a bid
to protect wealth created through the advent of information technology.
Registered last May under the Societies Registration Act of 1860
it has begun functioning from Delhi. Inaugurating the new premises
of the Society, the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government
and Chairman of SETS Dr. R. Chidambaram said, with various countries
having become information generators they are more vulnerable
to cyber attacks than before.
A number of countries
around the world have passed legislation to make attack on their
information sources as a crime to protect their own knowledge
infrastructure. In case of India, the creation of wealth in the
form of information over the decade was phenomenal. The Prime
Minister has articulated a Vision of India as a "Knowledge Superpower"
and it is essential that the IT wealth creation is accompanied
by a set of measures to protect the same, Dr. Chidambaram said.
It may be recalled
that a committee was set up under the Chairmanship of Dr. M. Vidyasagar
to look into the short, medium and long-term IT scenario by 2010
and identify specific technologies for the protection, surveillance,
monitoring and certification in the context of information security.
The committee among other things recommended the setting up of
a non-profit registered society to realise the vision and objectives
of the missions set out in its report.
