India, U.S. Experts Discuss CybersecurityIndia, U.S. Experts Discuss Cybersecurity

NEW DELHI (AP) - A top U.S. official urged India to tighten its laws to protect intellectual property rights and ensure that sensitive information stays out of the hands of tech-savvy criminals.

U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce Kenneth Juster said India must protect the privacy of personal and financial data as an increasing number of American companies rely on Indians to handle their technical operations and other software work. He cited Europe's efforts as a good example.

"We believe that the Council of Europe's Convention on Cyber Crime provide a useful model to follow, as it sets forth principles for strengthening national laws concerning cyber crimes and encouraging international cooperation on investigation of such crimes," Juster said.

Juster spoke at a New Delhi conference of information technology experts and senior government officials focusing on how both countries can jointly tackle threats to their information infrastructure.

India's current laws governing electronic commerce, copyright protection and patents are not stringent enough to prevent cyber crimes, experts say. Indian officials say they are working to change that.

"Security is one of those things that people don't like to talk about ... but all of us are as insecure as the weakest link," said Jerry Rao, chairman of India's National Association of Software and Service Companies, or NASSCOM, a grouping of private companies.

Senior officials from the U.S. departments of State and Homeland Security and experts from Microsoft Corp., Chase Bank and Cisco Systems are also attending the conference, hosted by the NASSCOM and the Information Technology Association of America.