ANALYSIS OF THE PROVISIONS OF THE DRAFT CYBER SECURITY LAW
Section 72 states that the Department, with the approval of the
penalty. Therefore, this particular provision may be deemed as excessive
Steering Committee, shall take any of the following actions against
in its application especially since the nature of infringing state
a violator who is convicted of failure to comply with Section 44 and
sovereignty, security, stability, rule of law, unity among ethnic groups is
48:
open to interpretation and may be interpreted in a broad manner to
a) Warning;
prosecute.
b) Sentencing a fine;
c) Temporary suspension of service provision within Myanmar F. With respect to Section 72, the Internet Service Providers who fail to
for a particular term;
cooperate/collaborate with the authorities (required under Sections 44
d) Banning service provision within Myanmar or revoking the
and 48 of the Draft Cyber Security Law) have a penalty that extends up to
business license.
banning. This is again a seemingly restrictive provision penalty.
Conclusion:
The penalizing provisions of the Draft Cyber Security Law seem to be excessive
and also include imprisonment terms.
Chapter V Section 78:
A. Firstly, the Electronic Transactions Law has been repealed by this law
Section78 Existing and Ongoing Electronic Identification Permit License
and it is stated that licenses for electronic identification permit/digital
(Digital Signature) Services, Online Services and Cyber Security
signatures will be governed under the Draft Cyber Security Law.
read with related Services before the enforcement of this Law shall register
and apply for the license in accordance with this law within one year
B. However, there is a lack of clarity on the entire regime of eChapter VI from the date this law was enacted.
signatures/digital signatures, for instance what is the scope of eSection 89
signatures under the law, which are the documents on which eSection 89:
signatures may be applied, are there any specific exceptions (for
The Electronic Transactions Law (State Peace and Development
instance Section 5 of the Electronic Transactions Law), what would be
Council Law No. 5/2004) is repealed by this law.
the impact of previous documents which have been executed on the
basis of the previous law.
Conclusion:
There exists a complete lack of clarity on such provisions and the effect of the
application of the present draft in so far as all the aspects of the Electronic
Transactions Law is concerned with respect to the use/operation of esignatures and digital signatures. There is also a lack of clarity regarding
whether e-signatures can be used freely or whether some form of
certification will need to be given by the Electronic Identification Permit
License Holder. It is also not clear what the functions of this license holder is
under the Draft Cyber Security Law.
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12 February 2021