Abu Dhabi: Saudi Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has sought feedback from members of the public as well as public-private network of leaders from business, government, civil society, academia and experts, about a draft cyber-security and digital trust system designed to address cyber security challenges, improve digital trust, safeguard innovation, and protect institutions, businesses and individuals, local media reported.
Under the new digital transaction and trust system, anyone who forges or misuses a record, signature or digital stamp faces a fine not exceeding two million riyals, imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years or both.
The rules also obligate the parties to digital contracts with five conditions to prove the validity of the digital stamp and adopt it as an alternative to the traditional one.
The penalty for forging a digital stamp exceeds six times the traditional one, as it is punishable by imprisonment for a period not exceeding three years and a fine not exceeding SR300,000 for forgery of a private body’s stamp, while forging a public stamp will attract imprisonment from one to seven years and a fine not exceeding SR700,000.
Offences
The draft cyber security and digital trust system features five offences:
-Entering another person’s digital system without a legal justification or express authorisation, or copying, restructuring or seizing it;
-Impersonation or falsely claiming authorisation to request, suspend, or cancel a digital service;
-Falsifying a digital record or signature, or a stamp or any of the other digital services, or using any of that with the knowledge of them being forged;
-Deliberately providing false information to a digital service provider, or providing false information about the digital signature or digital stamp to any of the parties who trusted that signature under this system;
-Publishing a digital signature, stamp or any of the digital services, knowing that they are forged.
Validity of the digital stamp
The cyber-security and digital trust system obligated the parties to digital contracts with five requirements to prove the validity of the digital stamp and adopt it as a substitute for the traditional stamp.
They include that a digital stamp must be associated with its owner alone and not others, that creating and using it is controlled by the owner of the seal or his designee, that the digital stamp carries the identity of the owner of the stamp, that the digital stamp allows revealing any modification in the digital record after stamping it and that the digital stamp meets the requirements of the certified digital trust service.
Documenting records
The system aims to regulate transactions, contracts and digital identities, facilitate their use and enhance trust in them, in addition to regulate licencing and registration for digital trust service providers, according to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
The ministry said the system seeks to establish unified rules and standards to facilitate the documentation of records, digital IDs, digital services and their verification, confirming that it lends legal evidence to digital evidence, including transactions, records, digital identities and services.
The system is designed to eliminate misuse of digital transactions, digital identities and digital trust services, it added.
The ministry invited those interested to review the draft digital transactions and trust system and submit their feedback no later than September 3.
