Transparency International Bangladesh executive director Iftekharuzzaman expressed concern on Thursday about the proposed Cyber Security Rules 2024 saying that it will be a weapon for controlling the rights of citizens.
He also termed the Cyber Security Act 2023 restrictive, mostly undemocratic, and a hindrance to freedom of expression.
Iftekharuzzaman came up with the remarks while addressing a press聽聽 conference arranged jointly by the TIB and Article 19 at the TIB office in Dhaka on 鈥楶roposed Cyber Security Rules 2024: Observations and Recommendations.鈥�
鈥業f the proposed Cyber Security Rules are finalised keeping contradictions in the CSA, it will be largely ineffective, he said.
Iftekharuzzaman said, 鈥楾he Cyber Security Act is merely the Digital Security Act in different packaging, and it is equally arbitrary.鈥�
He also said that the CSA was implemented following the DSA to be used as a weapon against free access to information and free speech facilitated by information technology.
The scope of the proposed Cyber Security Rules is very limited, as 19 rules are a verbatim reproduction of the Digital Security Rules 2020, he added.
The observations and recommendations were prepared and presented by Quazi Mahfujul Hoque Supan, an associate professor of the Department of Law at the University of Dhaka, at the press conference.
The stakeholders at the event also said that there were no provisions or sections in the main Act or the proposed rules to ensure the transparency and accountability of the national Cyber Security Agency.
Consequently, in the absence of an independent supervisory body, there are risks of violating citizens鈥� privacy rights and enabling arbitrary access by government-controlled agencies, they said.
They also said that most of the major attacks on critical information infrastructure had come from outside the country, but there was no provision in the proposed rules as to how action would be taken against them.
Schedule 2 of the proposed rules indicates that the digital forensic process has emphasised device and file system forensics while overlooking other customised apps and software, they said.
They recommended overhauling and redrafting the Cyber Security Act 2023, based on the effective participation of relevant stakeholders, before implementing the Cyber Security Rules 2024.
