Not-for-profit forum to be launched to address cyber challenges

A not-for-profit techno-legal forum, primarily driven by practitioners of law and technology, will soon be launched to help address the challenges of cybercrime, privacy erosion, and regulatory gaps, said the organisers of Cyber Vidhi Sangam 2025.

The inaugural conclave of the forum was organised by alumni of Cyber Law & Cyber Forensics Programme, NLSIU. 

“Even the senior-most criminal lawyers are finding it hard to keep pace with technology and understand the nuances of cybercrimes. There are real-life situations where the existing law itself doesn’t provide clarity. When it comes to privacy law, the industry is facing challenges in terms of implementation because the guidelines are not clear. There are a lot of such gaps, and hence we thought it would be ideal to create a forum or a community which can bridge these gaps together,” said one of the organisers, who is also an NLSIU alumnus. 

Nigam Nuggehalli, Registrar-in-Charge and Professor of Law, NLSIU, delivered the keynote address. 

Noting that legal frameworks often lag behind technological advances he suggested that law needs to move from consent-based approaches to ‘privacy paternalism.’

He also pointed out that given many cyber-attacks are international and cross-border in nature, a ready legal solution was still not in the picture. 

“Signing of the UN Convention against Cybercrime is one example of trying to address that problem. The whole idea is to encourage states to cooperate with each other for investigations, evidence collection and processing, and so on,” he said. 

However, Mr. Nuggehalli noted that countries like India and the US are yet to sign the convention. 

“We need a global legal solution to the problem. It’s not apparent how that is going to happen beyond the international convention,” he said.