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Columnists
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Written by Pius Muteekani Katunzi
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Sunday, 02 August 2009 19:09 |
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 So what happens when my competitor cripples my website with spam? Do I have any legal remedies or I just sit and kick my legs in anger?
The recent known victims of such cyber attacks are the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) whose website was replaced with pro-Palestinian material and condemned America and Europe for playing idle witness while Israel was killing Palestinians.
There are so many other private companies that have fallen victim to such similar attacks but have decided to suffer quietly. Others have decided to enhance their technological weapons (anti-spam software) rather than invest in legal ones.
As consumers of digital products we are excited with the news that more players are joining the market. So many internet service providers (IPS) have swarmed the market with all these sugar coated packages.
We are excited that competition is going to bring down the service prices. Indeed, some companies have taglines like: “pay less for more.”
However, we are not bothered that technology seems to be running faster than the laws. There is an explosive growth in the use of the internet in Uganda and this definitely means we are going to have huge growth in fraudulent conduct and crimes related to internet and computers.
By the way even ISPs can turn out to be cheats. Forget about these financial scams mainly from West Africans which promise online investors huge returns. Recently an online fraudster tried his luck with me.
Perhaps he had software whose spiders picked up my email exchanges with Lt. Gen Ivan Koreta, the deputy Chief of Defence Forces (DCDF). The fraudster sent an email claiming to be Ivan who is stuck in London and needed $ 3,000 to clear his hotel bills.
He advised me to send the money through Western Union. He even dared to give me his phone number, advising me to call him immediately I send the money.
I was able to frustrate this swindler because I knew that there was no way the General would appeal to me to rescue him. He is a senior government official who has unlimited options.
If it had been my brother, perhaps I would have fallen into his trap. As consumers we don’t seem to be protected from these online fraudsters by any national internet laws, especially now that internet knows no national boundaries and is accessible everywhere.
Malicious people have told lies about companies every day on the web. Others have decided to use the web to settle their personal scores. Many are making money out of copyrighted materials.
Defamation of celebrities, individual corporate heads have become the pastime of some people. With the proliferation of Weblogs, anyone can say anything, and the next thing you know the major search engines have indexed it at the top of their results.
We have a fully fledged ministry of ICT what has been its impact? We are yet to know the national ICT policy. We have not seen any Bills relating to ICT passed in Parliament.
Members of Parliament who sit on the ICT committee have not produced any private members Bill relating to ICT. So we are like pirates operating in uncharted and ungoverned water; the fittest and smartest survives.
For instance, if someone posted malicious material against me or my company what legal recourse do I take to have the indexed results and website or blog that contains statements aimed at defaming me removed from the search engine results?
Can I apply to court to have the internet service provider to identify the person or company defaming me? Do we have legal minds specialised in ICT litigation? What is my legal protection when someone sends me objectionable material by email?
Do we even have guidelines on the use of internet by children? How do I protect my right to privacy in the borderless world of internet? What do I do if I subscribe for 64kbs but the ISP ends up providing only 32kbs?
We haven’t yet established standards governing internet and ICT use. Imagine the traffic chaos we would have if we had left the use of roads to self-regulation.
We cannot stick to self- regulation in ICT, we need laws that define the breaches, crimes and outline the remedies and punishments to the culprits.
The author is the Business Development Director, The Observer Media.
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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