Third Multistakeholder Consultation on Encryption
by
Prasad Krishna
—
last modified
May 19, 2017 09:42 AM
Udbhav Tiwari represented CIS at the Third and Final Multistakeholder Consultation on Encryption held at the Taj Palace, New Delhi on May 11, 2017. The event was organised by the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi. Saikat Dutta and
Japreet Grewal were also present at the round-table discussion.
The discussion centred around issues such as trust between the government and citizens, key lengths, standards for device encryption and sector-specific security regulations. The primary goal of the meeting was to influence the second iteration of the draft encryption policy, expected soon, which will have bearing on data protection policies, access of law enforcement agencies to electronic information, and the ease of doing business in India's digital economy.
The main questions in the discussion were:
- Should the National Encryption policy mandate key lengths for encryption of communications?
- Should the policy require the registration of encryption service providers to operate in the Indian market?
- What are the challenged faced in the enforcement of the policy?
- What steps can the Indian government take to encourage R&D in domestic cryptographic services and products?
Dr. Gulshan Rai, the National Cyber Security Coordinator, was also present in the meeting and provided valuable inputs.
