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<ul><li>A whistleblower, reportedly, within the company highlighted that <keyword id="18635" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="amazon" source="Orion">Amazon</keyword>’s legal representatives were bribing Indian officials.</li><li>The whistleblower named Amazon’s senior corporate counsel and New Delhi-based independent legal counsel in this matter.</li><li>The independent lawyer has now claimed that he never worked with Amazon directly, but with corporate law firm AZB Partners.</li><li>The questions are who paid the bribe, to whom and for what, and who is authorised to ask this question and who is accountable to answer it.</li></ul>Amazon has reportedly initiated an investigation against its legal representatives for allegedly bribing Indian government officials. The development came to light early last week, after a whistleblower, reportedly, at the ecommerce platform reported that few such representatives were funneling money paid by Amazon to bribe Indian officials. The said whistleblower had reportedly named Rahul Sundaram, senior corporate counsel at Amazon, and Vikas Chopra, an independent counsel based out of New Delhi, in his complaint. According to a report by The Morning Context, Sundaram has been <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/ecommerce/news/amazon-lawyers-allegedly-paid-bribes-to-indian-government-officials/articleshow/86360262.cms">sent on leave</a> while Amazon conducts an internal investigation. Chopra, on the other hand, has claimed that he never really worked with Amazon directly. Instead, he was hired by corporate law firm AZB &amp; Partners to handle Amazon-related legal work on its behalf. However, it’s still not clear on the sort of tasks Chopra was handling. That leaves us with a few questions: who paid the bribe, to whom and for what, and who is authorised to ask this question and who is accountable to answer it. Will this make matters worse for Amazon? The Indian government and several authorities — Competition Commission of India (CCI), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and others — have already been investigating Amazon’s ecommerce operation in India for alleged malpractices that hurt small retailers on its platform, and outside, as well as for allegedly flouting the country’s foriegn direct investment (FDI) policy. It’s well within the government’s right to take up cognisance of this matter based on media reports. Well, that’s what it did when the Reuters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/amazon-india-operation/">report</a> said that Amazon had been tip-toeing around India’s FDI policies and fudging numbers. <div type="image" title="The murky case of bribery, allegedly on behalf of Amazon, has many unanswered questions" msid="86633850" hostid="261"></div> “Any allegations of this kind of serious nature — unless backed up with concrete and verifiable evidence — may not be taken seriously. There are several forums where such allegations could be sent, besides CCI, who would be legitimately concerned with such investigations,” Dhanendra Kumar, first Chair of Competition Commission of India (CCI), told Business Insider. Indus Law’s founding partner Avimukt Dar noted that bribing Indian public servants is an offence under prevention of corruption act and should be investigated by Indian law enforcement. The government and authorities like the police, Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and ED can take up the matter based on media reports. This statement was not in relation to the ongoing Amazon issue. Business Insider has reached out to Amazon seeking details about their internal investigation. The article will be updated with their response, if any. Is Amazon aware of the alleged bribery? This is what we know so far. The New Delhi-based independent counsel Chopra sent a legal notice to the Morning Context, which <a href="https://themorningcontext.com/internet/delhi-lawyer-says-azb-partners-paid-him-for-amazon-work/?utm_source=daily_email&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=TMC&amp;mc_cid=47dca011bf&amp;mc_eid=9c4b5da83b">first reported</a> the development. In the notice, he mentioned that his fee bills are raised to AZB &amp; Partners and not Amazon. Meaning, he was working in association with the said law firm and not Amazon directly. <div type="image" title="The murky case of bribery, allegedly on behalf of Amazon, has many unanswered questions" msid="86633874" hostid="261"></div> Business Insider reached out to Chopra seeking confirmation on the content of the legal notice as well as his comments on the issue. While he did not yet confirm the content of the said notice, he told Business Insider, “Matter is going before court and I don’t want to comment. But just would like to give one assurance that whosoever is pursuing this false and baseless news about me will have to face legal action and I will ensure that the legal action is taken to its logical conclusion so that person should understand that freedom of speech comes with reasonable restrictions. It’s very easy to take law into hands by publishing anything for vested interest. I know who all are behind these false news. God will take care. Thanks.” Business Insider has written to AZB Partners seeking comments and clarification. Separately, Dar noted that it is possible for a legal consultant — independent or firm — to funnel the payments for such practices, without the knowledge of the client involved. Generally, it is added as the fee paid to the consultant, as no one can really add this as an expense. “So the best way to see is if the same lawyer/law firm charged, let's say, ₹100 for a similar mandate last year and is now charging ₹1,000 — that should raise a red flag for the financial controller,” he added, without commenting on the specification in this particular matter related to Amazon. Is Amazon up to date with due diligence? The approach in such a matter should be that the client — whoever it may be — should suspend or send the person named in complaint on leave, Dar added. The company should also do an inquiry in such matters and suspend working with the said law firm until the inquiry clears them. So far, Amazon has followed such an approach by sending its senior corporate counsel on leave and by conducting the internal investigation. Notably, American companies like Amazon take such whistleblower complaints seriously as it is against the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA. The FCPA law in the US prohibits companies and individuals from paying bribes to foreign government officials in order to retain or obtain business. This is also a part of corporate governance rules for all public companies in the US. The question is whether any authority in India is going to ask the same question to those accountable to answer it. SEE ALSO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/zee-entertainment-blue-dart-irctc-and-other-top-stocks-to-watch-out-for-on-september-30/slidelist/86633138.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Zee Entertainment, Blue Dart, IRCTC and other top stocks to watch out for on September 30</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/linkedin-is-blocking-the-chinese-profiles-of-journalists-and-researchers-over-prohibited-content-not-approved-by-the-government/articleshow/86624742.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">LinkedIn is blocking the Chinese profiles of journalists and researchers over 'prohibited content' not approved by the government</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/entertainment/news/britney-spears-conservatorship-could-finally-end-at-an-upcoming-hearing-in-november/articleshow/86632141.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Britney Spears' conservatorship could finally end at an upcoming hearing in November</a>

The murky case of bribery, allegedly on behalf of Amazon, has many unanswered questions

<ul><li>The Indian government is looking to update its <keyword id="2056063" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="cybersecurity-framework">cybersecurity framework</keyword> amid growing reports of state-sponsored actors, especially those from China, targeting the country’s critical infrastructure.</li><li>Coordinating between different ministries and incentivising private players to participate are likely to be the key changes, according to experts.</li><li>Considering the sensitive nature of the data that will be monitored, there needs to be significant safeguards in place to protect against government overreach.</li></ul>India was among the first few countries to launch a <keyword id="6361948" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="cybersecurity">cybersecurity</keyword> policy back in 2013 and now it is looking to revamp that framework. According to <a href="https://www.bloombergquint.com/global-economics/china-hacking-concern-revives-india-focus-on-cybersecurity-plan">Bloomberg</a>, the new rules will be approved by the cabinet committee on security headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "Considering the fluid nature of cyberattacks, the law should enable collaborative efforts amongst states and union territories of the country and also at a cross-jurisdiction level," explained Supratim Chakraborty, a partner at Khaitan &amp; Co. More importantly, experts are hoping that this time the regulations will have a little more bite in order to be effective against <keyword id="119065" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="cyber-threat">cyber threat</keyword>s. “India's cyber threat canvas has evolved and now includes persistent and penetrating attacks targeting India's national and commercial computer networks,” Sameer Patil, a defence expert with Mumbai-based think tank Gateway House told Business Insider. The move to set up a new system comes amid increasing reports of hackers from other countries targeting users in India and the country’s critical infrastructure. According to cybersecurity firm <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/chinese-cybercriminals-are-targeting-the-indian-power-sector-according-to-a-report/articleshow/81274093.cms">Recorded Future</a>, a new group called the RedEcho has its cyber guns trained on India’s power grid. "If any of the critical institution, goes down, it would severely impair our ability to function normally. If the banking operations take a hit, the end use is invariably affected. If any of the confidential data of any Ministry is leaked, it would also lead to compromise in the security and sovereignty of our nation," said Neeraj Dubey, a partner at law firm Singh &amp; Associates. Red Echo may be linked to the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/mumbais-massive-power-cut-last-month-may-have-been-the-work-of-hackers/articleshow/79318282.cms">massive power outage in Mumbai</a> that crippled banks and the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/nse-halts-trading-after-data-glitches-stop-nifty50-and-bank-nifty-from-updating/articleshow/81186539.cms">glitch at the National Stock Exchange</a> (NSE), which the authorities are still investigating. India needs a cybersecurity policy with more bite Pankit Desai, chief executive and co-founder of Sequretek, a Mumbai-based cybersecurity firm, feels that India’s critical infrastructure has already opened India to a Trojan horse situation. He thinks that the only way for any new policy to be effective is to have more bite than bark. “We don’t need frameworks, there are enough of them that already exist. What we need is an institution with teeth that will force these entities to step up their security investments much like what RBI [Reserve Bank of India] did for banks,” he told Business Insider. It has been eight years since India’s cybersecurity framework was first unveiled, but not much has been done in terms of creating a coordinated approach to address cyber threats — especially when it comes to the country’s critical infrastructure. “The response to a cyber threat should be at least as coordinated as the emergency response to the floods in Uttarakhand last month,” Avimukt Dar, founding member and senior partner at IndusLaw, told Business Insider. The private sector has a key role to play The question isn’t only about coordination between public stakeholders, but private ones too. According to Dar, companies and businesses will only report any kind of cyber incidents if they get something in return. “Until and unless companies are being held to ransom, the details don’t come out — we saw this last year,” he said. Not sharing data can leave behind a gaping hole of information. According to Singapore-based cybersecurity firm Cyfirma, cyber intelligence sharing is critical for players within a specific industry or a group of companies in order to fight cybercrime, effectively. “This can create a common repository of known threats, malware, attack vectors and methods, giving organisations additional ammunition to mount more effective defence strategies. And this can only be done if reporting of data breaches is made mandatory,” Kumar Ritesh, the founder and CEO of Cyfirma told Business Insider. In order to incentivise private players to report cyber threats in a quick and prompt way, the government needs to beef up its ability to protect Indian data from attacks and show Indian businesses that it's doing something meaningful and credible to allow their business continuity. What will the new framework mean for ordinary folks? The new rules are an indication that the regulatory powers under Ravi Shankar Prasad’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) are increasing. “MeitY was historically a ministry intended to promote IT and electronics. Of late, it has a larger regulatory role which we saw in the IT Rules that came out in February. The IT Act is getting fully operationalised,” said Dar. What is worrying is that India is currently <a href="https://internetshutdowns.in/">leading the world</a> in the number of days the internet has been shut down in one part of the country or another increasing the deficit of trust that the public has with the government. Moreover, the recently passed IT Rules for social media, over-the-top (OTT) platforms and digital news have raised concerns about breaking encryption and the level of overreach that the government may have at its disposal. “What we need to have in this policy are significant safeguards, which do not allow for people’s privacy to be compromised.You always have to assume there can be bad faith apples within the government too,” said Dar. There have already been multiple cases of US government employees <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/Egregious-Cases-Of-US-Government-Employees-Abusing-Databases-To-Spy-On-Americans/articleshow/21031032.cms">abusing databases</a> to spy on ordinary citizens. In order to allay concerns, Dar recommends that there should be sufficient punishment in place to address the issue. "It should not be an administrative punishment, it should be a stiff criminal punishment for doing something wrong — like a jail sentence," he said. Others have a more positive stance on the problem and believe that there will, inevitably, be some degree of trade off between the privacy of users and the security concerns of the state. "Both are equally legitimate concerns – but are entirely premised on what the government wants to take in relation to their framework... At present, it appears that India is greatly focussing on protecting its critical infrastructures pertaining to health, education, end-user station, nuclear sector, etc. Therefore, end-users are likely to be affected to some extent, however, that may be for the greater good.," opined Chakraborty. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/kerala-high-court-issues-notice-to-central-government-over-the-chilling-effects-of-indias-new-it-rules-for-digital-news/articleshow/81432730.cms">Kerala High Court issues notice to central government over the ‘chilling effects’ of India’s new IT Rules for digital news</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/whatsapp-signal-and-telegram-face-a-catch-22-situation-as-indias-new-social-media-rules-threaten-encryption/articleshow/81221070.cms">WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram face a catch-22 situation as India’s new social media rules threaten encryption</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/facebook-and-twitter-have-a-ton-of-new-rules-to-abide-by-in-india-whatsapp-may-find-itself-in-the-toughest-spot-of-all/articleshow/81208643.cms">Facebook and Twitter have a ton of new rules to abide by in India ⁠— WhatsApp may find itself in the toughest spot of all</a>

It has taken over 7 years for India to revamp its cybersecurity policy — experts say there's room for carrots and sticks but not surveillance

<ul><li>India’s new social media regulations want social media apps like <keyword id="790242" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="WhatsApp">WhatsApp</keyword>, Signal and Telegram to identify the ‘first originator’.</li><li>In cases where social media apps are being used to spread ‘mischief’, the government wants the ability to track down the instigators.</li><li>Tracking the origin of messages may require apps offering privacy to break end-to-end <keyword id="207797" type="TECHNOLOGY" weightage="20" keywordseo="encryption">encryption</keyword>.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/">Check out the latest tech news and updates on Business Insider.</a></li></ul>Encryption is a safety blanket for many. It is the night light to keep nightmares away. But, that may no longer be the case with India’s new social media regulations. The Indian government thinks that it has found a loophole. It claims that it does not care about what messages are being passed around, but if an incident is found to have been instigated through social media, they want to know who started it all — they want to find the ‘first originator’. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="81208643" title="Facebook and Twitter have a ton of new rules to abide by in India ⁠— WhatsApp may find itself in the toughest spot of all" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div> “We don’t want the content, because the content is already out there in the form of tweets or messages. But, who began the mischief? This, they [social media platforms] will have to disclose,” said the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), <keyword id="6354886" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ravi-Shankar-Prasad">Ravi Shankar Prasad</keyword>, while announcing India’s new IT rules on February 26. The catch-22 here is, “Who came first, the chicken or the egg?” Without being able to peep at the content, how can one know who started a particular incident? And, how far back do you go to assign blame? <div type="Video" msid="81773924" hostid="261" title="Whatsapp, Signal and Telegram face a catch-22 situation as India’s new social media rules threaten encryption" dataSource="BUSINESSINSIDER" thumbUrl="https://denmark.timesinternet.in/cmslite/api/app/images.jpg?msid=81773924"></div> Platforms like WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram — who run their business on promising users’ privacy with end-to-end encryption — are going to have a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/facebook-and-twitter-have-a-ton-of-new-rules-to-abide-by-in-india-whatsapp-may-find-itself-in-the-toughest-spot-of-all/articleshow/81208643.cms">tough time</a> dealing with such a regulation once it comes into play after three months, when the new regulations are set to be enforced. To break or not break encryption End-to-end encryption is a fairly simple concept. This means that no-one except for you and the person you are sending messages to, can peep into your conversations. The content is private and according to India’s Supreme Court, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/indias-supreme-court-judgements-2018/articleshow/67253782.cms">privacy is a fundamental right</a>. However, if platforms like WhatsApp do not adhere to the new IT rules, they will be answerable to the Indian government. “Failure to do so will make these intermediaries liable for any illegal third-party information that is made available or hosted by them without their consent and may even lead to an end of their operations,” Neeraj Dubey, partner of corporate law at Singh and Associates, told Business Insider. Like the tech giant Apple told the Federal Bureau of Investigation (<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/everything-you-need-to-know-about-apples-heated-battle-with-the-fbi-over-the-locked-san-bernardino-iphone/slidelist/51230781.cms">FBI</a>) back in 2016, if the encryption is strong enough, even the companies implementing it have no say in unlocking it. According to the Silicon Valley firm, creating a backdoor that voids encryption would <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/John-Oliver-explains-why-the-Apple-FBI-debate-is-more-complicated-than-it-seems/articleshow/51398803.cms">unlock</a> a whole new set of security threats for users. “We don't know how the government expects platforms to comply with this requirement without breaking encryption,” noted Mishi Choudhary, the legal director of the Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC). “It will limit the choices of users who have now come to expect encrypted messaging services as an essential part of their communications habits.” In the past, when the government has asked WhatsApp to identify the origin of messages, the Facebook-owned messaging service has always <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/indias-demands-to-whatsapp-are-easier-said-than-done/articleshow/65497255.cms">turned down such requests</a> citing end-to-end encryption. “You can only tell how many times a thing has been forwarded. You can’t go back and trace the source in that context. If you are doing that, then it means you are reading the content,” Tarun Pathak, associate director with global analysis firm Counterpoint Research, told Business Insider. Even if a platform like WhatsApp were to break encryption in order to adhere with the government guidelines, it would be violating its own rules and regulations. “For an intermediary to collect the content of the messages, which it would need to trace the first originator of information, this would mean breaking encryption and storing the content of messages on servers, which would constitute violation of privacy guidelines,” explained Dubey. Social media may not be entirely doomed According to Induslaw’s Avimukt Dar, the underlying intent of the law is not to break encryption. “In the event the identity of the person sending the message is already visible to the messaging platform under its data harvesting protocols then it can be shared on lawful request without breaking double encryption,” he told Business Insider. WhatsApp offers users the option to back up their chats and messages onto the cloud — a change the company brought in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/whatsapp-data-may-shift-to-the-cloud-but-may-no-longer-be-as-encrypted/articleshow/65475359.cms">three years ago</a>. “Once the chats are backed up on a cloud storage platform, they are no longer protected by end-to-end encryption and can be accessed by Intermediary or any other third party,” said Dubey. Moreover, in the past, the Indian government has suggested alternative means of tracing messages like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/whatsapp-fingerprint-messages-to-avoid-encryption-issues-with-indian-government/articleshow/69836927.cms">digital fingerprints </a>or <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/whatsapp-messages-origin-can-be-traced-says-iit-madras-professor/articleshow/70603973.cms">embed a user’s information within the messages themselves</a>. Not that WhatsApp has complied because until now, intermediary platforms — like Whatsapp, Telegram, and Signal — have benefitted from the safe harbour protection available to them. “However, the safe harbour rules are also subject to compliance with the IT Act and the rules framed by the government,” explained Tanu Banerjee, a partner at legal consultancy firm Khaitan &amp; Co. Terms and conditions apply The government has mandated that finding the ‘first originator’ will only be in cases where the penalty is greater than five years. This includes instances where there may be a threat to India’s national sovereignty, security of state, public order, and other scenarios laid out under Section 69 of the IT act. This also implies that there has to be a valid court order in order to ask for the ‘first originator’. “The rules clarify that such an order should not be passed if less intrusive means are effective in identifying the originator,” explained Banerjee. Encryption is a hurdle that these companies will have to address on their own. For users, the bigger question is around freedom of speech. Section 69 of the IT Act is not very clear with respect to what constitutes a valid threat. What may be right for me, may not be right for you. “It is something that is needed but it should be executed in a way that the framework is clear at least,” said Pathak. Within the new rules, India has not specified who will be making the decision of whether or not the line has been crossed. With a wiggle of three months, it is possible that the guidelines can be tweaked to find a balance between what companies like WhatsApp are capable of, what users want and what the government is hoping to achieve at the end of the day. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/facebook-and-twitter-have-a-ton-of-new-rules-to-abide-by-in-india-whatsapp-may-find-itself-in-the-toughest-spot-of-all/articleshow/81208643.cms">Facebook and Twitter have a ton of new rules to abide by in India ⁠— WhatsApp may find itself in the toughest spot of all</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/indian-government-assumes-the-right-to-block-digital-news-content-along-with-a-new-set-of-regulations/articleshow/81209053.cms">Indian government assumes the right to block digital news content along with a new set of regulations</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/policy/news/netflix-amazon-disney-hotstar-will-now-have-to-classify-their-content-according-to-age-in-india/articleshow/81209677.cms">Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ Hotstar will now have to classify their content according to age in India</a>

Whatsapp, Signal and Telegram face a catch-22 situation as India’s new social media rules threaten encryption

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The murky case of bribery, allegedly on behalf of Amazon, has many unanswered questions

Kritti Bhalla

It has taken over 7 years for India to revamp its cybersecurity policy — experts say there's room for carrots and sticks but not surveillance

Prabhjote Gill

Whatsapp, Signal and Telegram face a catch-22 situation as India’s new social media rules threaten encryption

Prabhjote Gill

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