NICTA CEO urges responsible ICT use

All users of social media or any other Information & Communications Technology (ICT) service will be held accountable of how they use the service.

This reminder was made by NICTA CEO, Charles Punaha, when discussing the Cybercrime Code Act passed in 2016.

Punaha said there’s still a lot of improper use but the onus is on the users of the service to be responsible. 

“The ICT services are there for good use but people are abusing it. When they use it not for the intended purpose, that’s when the problem comes in,” he said.

He urged all users of the social media to be responsible and accountable for what you do

“Once we build up capacity within NICTA and the law enforcement agencies, we will get whoever is doing this,” he said.

The Cybercrime Code Act 2016 criminalises many activities including:

Hacking, cyber bullying, child online grooming, unlawful advertising, cyber harassment (which includes, cyber stalking and the use of profanities), electronic fraud (covering bank fraud), forgery, gambling by children, identity theft, unlawful disclosure (the unlawful publication of private and confidential data and sensitive personal data alike), infringement of intellectual property rights such as trademarks, copyright, patents and industrial designs, the production, possession and publication of child pornography and animal pornography, the production and publication of (adult) pornography and the design and distribution of illegal devices and many other technical offences.

NICTA CEO said everybody is subject to the provisions of the cybercrime code act, regardless of who they are.

Punaha said NICTA working together with Internet Service Providers will address this.

He stressed on the importance of ISP to continuously monitor and have some control on what’s being posted on their websites.

“At the end of the day, we (NICTA) don’t want to be seen as going down to the extent of forcing ISPs to shut them down...that’s being too extreme and we might be accused of trying to violate people’s rights to information and speech,” he said.

Author: 
Gloria Bauai