National Computer Board Act 1988 (was: Insecure Internet in Africa & Mauritius)

From: S Moonesamy <sm+mu_at_elandsys.com>
Date: Thu, 05 Nov 2015 10:37:21 -0800

Hi Ish, Logan,
At 09:33 05-11-2015, Ish Sookun wrote:
>I went through the six pages of the National Computer Board Act of
>*1989* and I do not see any provision for internet security.
>
>As per Section 4(b) the National Computer Board is mandated to
>"foster the development and growth of information technology,
>information systems and computer related services in Mauritius". Archaic?

Yes.

>Doesn't that sound like 80's when ICT wasn't accessible to
>households in Mauritius?

The Nation Computer Board Act was written in 1988. That was a time
when people were talking about computerization. Nowadays, the talk
is about the internet. Unfortunately, the Nation Computer Board Act
has never been reviewed to determine whether it is still relevant or
not. As you mentioned, that sounds like the 1980s where computers
were not accessible to households in Mauritius.

At 09:49 05-11-2015, Loganaden Velvindron wrote:
>There is an oath of secrecy for any staff of NCB. I'm wonder how this
>affects the staff of CERT-MU as they are dealing with security
>vulnerability reports.

I don't know the answer to that.

>If they make vulnerability information public, does that mean they can
>be sued in a court for doing their job ?

In February, there is a message from CERT-MU. It might provide some
information to answer the above.

Regards,
S. Moonesamy
Received on Thu Nov 05 2015 - 18:40:48 PST