Govt Amends IT Rules For Destroying Interception, Monitoring Records; Now Home Secretaries Also Allowed To Issue Orders

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IT Ministry said that it was amending Section 23 of the IT (Procedure and Safeguards for Interception, Monitoring and Decryption of Information) Rules, 2009 by substituting “security agency” with the words “competent authority and the security agency”

The Central government has amended the Information Technology (IT) rules for destroying digital records of interception or decrypting information. As per the gazette notification issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on Monday, the Union Home Secretary or other bureaucrats in the Centre are allowed to issue directions to destroy such digital records.

Till now, the power to destroy such records was laid with security agencies, such as law enforcement bodies, according to a report by Indian Express.

“In the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Interception, Monitoring and Decryption of Information) Rules, 2009, in rule 23, in sub-rule (1), for the words ‘security agency’, the words ‘competent authority and the security agency’ shall be substituted,” Hindustan Times reported quoting the operational part of the gazette notification.

Rule 23 reportedly deals with the destruction of records of interception, monitoring or decryption of information. It says that every record pertaining to directions for interception or monitoring or decryption of information and of intercepted or monitored or decrypted information shall be destroyed by the security agency every six months except in cases where such information could be needed in future.

As per the MeitY’s gazette, the Union home secretary and the state/Union Territory home secretary must now destroy records, including orders, related to interception, monitoring and decryption of information within six months under the Information Technology Act, 2000.

The amendment will broaden the Centre’s powers to issue directions to destroy digital evidence.

As per the HT report, MeitY also notified that all computer resources used by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for its information and office management system must be protected as “critical information infrastructure” under Section 70 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

This means that the cybersecurity of the NIA will be the responsibility of the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC), a unit of the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) which is under the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).