RICA stands for the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication Related Information Act 70 of 2002 and finally came into effect on 30 September 2005. RICA is the piece of South African legislation that governs the interception or [...]
The monitoring of communications must be done lawfully. For example, employers often monitor employee communications (for example, email, websites visited and telephone calls made) in order to gather the evidence required to dismiss an employee fairly. Companies sometimes monitor [...]
There are three high water marks in the evolution of a body of "information security law" in South Africa: The King III Report™ on Governance for South Africa was released on 1 September 2009 The ECT Act in 2002 The [...]
We are often asked by users of mission-critical software whether they should purchase the software, or merely license it from the vendor. Here is some guidance and options. Ownership of software Ownership of the Software is the securest position a [...]
Forensic IT and computer forensics is big business. There are now many forensic investigators. Especially because most business documents are created electronically nowadays. The need for electronic evidence is not confined to obvious cybercrime events such as hacking, fraud and [...]
There is a trend for people to demand the signing of confidentiality or non-disclosure agreement (NDAs). An NDA is useful: when someone needs access to an organisations confidential information or trade secrets, for example for the purpose of preliminary discussions and evaluations; where [...]
Trademark applications give a trade mark powerful protection against infringement. By default, trademarks are protected by the common law, but it's often difficult and expensive to protect your brand this way. Trademarks can be registered under the Trade Marks Act, No. 194 [...]
A fake social media account could result in legal action against the impersonator in terms of either civil or criminal law. However, this presupposes that one is able to ascertain the true identity of the person behind the impersonation. This [...]
I have recently been negotiating some complex IT contracts for a client and again witnessed the disconnect between the IT vendor and its customer. I was reminded how often this leads to legal problems, difficulties, and disputes. What follows is [...]
The case of Smith and Partners in Sexual Health (Non-Profit) CCMA (WECT 13711-10) heard in the CCMA in October 2010, which we wrote about here, raises this interesting question? When can an email be considered the "private" property of the employee and [...]
When asked to convert legal documents to ensure that they are compliant with the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) and its regulations sometimes a difficult situation arises: what happens if the CPA would only apply to some of your customers, but [...]
In March 2004 agreement was reached by the members of Technical Committee 46 at Standards South Africa (SANS – previously the South African Bureau of Standards) to adopt SANS 15489 as the first South African standard relating to the management of [...]
