The Cabinet of Ministers has approved a proposal on the formulation of laws pertaining to cyber security.
A proposal in this regard has been tabled by the President as the Minister of Defence and the Minister of Technology.
It has been proposed to draft a bill called Defence Cyber Commands Act and the formulation of a draft bill for imposing cyber protection laws.
Following are the details on the said proposals:
(a) Drafting a bill called Defense Cyber Commands Act.
With the development of electronic communication, terrorist groups and criminals have tended to use cyberspace and electronic communication for terrorist activities, organized crimes, and anti-social activities. Electronic communication across cyberspace has been recognized as a crucial factor that can directly affect national security. Therefore, it has been vital to formulate new laws today, covering all sectors for ensuring national security including the required provisions so that the operations performed by cyber protection units are established at the institutional level at present by the three – armed forces, Police, and other agencies.
(b) Formulation of a draft bill for imposing cyber protection laws.
Cyber security and the preparation of an institutional structure in the connection are coming under the scope of the Ministry of Technology. Accordingly, followed by 2 discussions held with the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Technology, and other related parties, it has been decided appropriate to formulate a respective draft bill as mentioned in (a) above including cyber protection provisions in relation to defence sector. Requirement of formulation of new laws is with the intention of creating a regulatory framework for implementing national information apart from those applicable to national defence and cyber protection strategy, formulation of provisions to establish Sri Lanka Cyber Protection Agency to act with other cooperating agencies for the fulfillment of the purpose, the introduction of legal provisions required for protecting infrastructure facilities related to decisive and essential information within the country, prevention of risk activities that affect the cyber security as well as creating a formal cyber protected environment within the country. (NewsWire)