Govt list of 29 organisations questionable
Transparency International Bangladesh has questioned the rationale for 29 organisations being listed and declared as "Critical Information Infrastructures" by the post, telecommunication and information technology ministry.
The corruption watchdog raised the question in a statement sent to the media yesterday.
The listing, not supported by any laws of the country, is questionable and misleading, the statement said.
Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of TIB, said the Digital Security Act empowered the government to declare any computer network, system and infrastructure as "critical information infrastructure".
But in the recent gazette, only 29 organisations were declared as critical information infrastructures.
"It is not clear what consideration led to the listing. For example, it talks about national security but the defence and home ministries, along with the armed forces, were left out of the list. Likewise, the parliament, judiciary, department of audit, health sector, customs and ports were also not listed as information infrastructures."
The current list plays down the importance of the other government organisations in terms of national security, he added.
Underscoring the need to formulate a policy relating national and public security, he said there is a lack of conceptual clarity in the discourse of state security.
"When there is no clarity, the law could be misused instead of [being used for] ensuring security. Apart from this, it could create obstacles in the process of collecting information under the Right to Information Act, as whole organisations were declared as critical information infrastructures in lieu of their computer networks or systems," he said.
The declaration of such list exposed another weakness of the DSA, which, he said, has already proved to be a tool for stifling dissent instead of ensuring digital security.
Comments