JP/12/Cyber

JP/12/Cyber

Law on digital signature urgent: Minister

JAKARTA (JP): Specific laws, such as a law on digital
signature, are more in line with the public's immediate needs
than a generic and comprehensive law for cyber crimes, a senior
official has said.

State Minister for Communications and Information Syamsul
Muarif said on Monday that a generic law on cyber crimes was not
needed immediately as they can be dealt with using existing laws.

"Various existing laws can also embody regulations concerning
cyber (space) or information and technology (IT). So if those
laws could deal with cyber crimes, we've no need to worry so
much," he said on the sidelines of a dialog discussing the draft
on Indonesia's first law on Cyber crime.

Syamsul said that the urgent issue was regulations regarding
the authentication of the digital signature for transactions
online, which had never been dealt with before.

"We can see that (the public) thinks digital signature is
urgent, then that is what we will put forward first," he said,
explaining that the regulation was needed to encourage growth in
IT investment and commerce.

Commerce has not been quite the same with the advent of
Internet technology, where time and space becomes obsolete in
doing business. No longer restricted to a store closing time, a
customer could order goods via the Internet at any time of the
day and anywhere in the world.

However, security has always been an issue with transactions
over the Internet, and tales of fraud have become the horror of
both the buyer and the seller. Even more so in countries such as
Indonesia, where regulations on cyber crimes are practically
nonexistent.

At the end of last year, there were approximately two million
Internet users in Indonesia, of which only 16 percent have
performed transactions through the Internet, while the remaining
are wary because of security issues.

Syamsul said that a regulation on digital signature was needed
to ensure the public that doing transactions online was safe and
that any violations would not go unpunished.

Separately, head of the University of Indonesia's institution
for studies on technology law, Edmon Makarim, said that the
government should first study the types of cyber crimes before
deciding on a comprehensive law.

"If the crimes could be sufficiently dealt with using a
governmental decree or a ministerial decree, why not use that
instead?" he asked, explaining that a new comprehensive law would
overlap existing ones and would cause confusion.

Edmon said that the fast-changing nature of technology could
easily make a comprehensive law become obsolete, "and surely we
don't want a law that is of no use to us after a couple of
years?"

He cited cyber laws in other countries such as the United
States, Malaysia, and Singapore which comprise of several
regulations for dealing with cyber crimes instead of a single
comprehensive law.

"In fact in America they have an anticybersquatting act which
is part of a law on trademarks," Edmon said.

Cybersquatting is the act of registering domain names after
famous trademarks, countries, areas, etc., with the purpose of
selling them at a higher price.

He said that the institution have drafted a law on digital
signature which he expects to be presented to the government in
January, 2002.

"The law on digital signature would not go against the
currently discussed Cyber law (law on Cyber crime), instead it
would just be a more specific law to the (Cyber law's) general
one," Edmon said, explaining that the bill would also encompass
authentication of transactions via the mobile network.

A team comprising academics from the University of Padjajaran
and the Bandung Institute of Technology, for the past year, have
been appointed by the government to draft a bill on cyber crimes.

Head of the Cyber law drafting team, Ahmad M. Ramli, said that
the academic draft has been finished and will be published for
public scrutiny and criticism by the middle of November.

Syamsul Muarif said that he hoped that before the end of his
term in 2004, the bill on cyber crimes could be passed into
law.(tnt)