CYBER CRIME

CYBER CRIME. By k. sakthi Xii-a1.

CYBER CRIME. By k. sakthi Xii-a1.

TABLE OF CONTENT. INTRODUCTION HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF CYBERCRIMES CHARACTERISTICS OF CYBERCRIMES CLASSIFICATIONS OF CYBERCRIMES CYBERCRIME UNDER IPC AND IT ACT LAWS GOVERNING CYBERCRIMES IN INDIA CYBER CRIMES UNDER IT ACT CYBERCRIMES UNDER IPC AND SPECIAL LAWS CYBERCRIMES UNDER SPECIAL ACTS STEPS TO PREVENT CYBERCRIME CONCLUSION.

INTRODUCTION. Cybercrime is not an old sort of crime to the world. It is defined as any criminal activity which takes place on or over the medium of computers or internet or other technology recognized by the Information Technology Act. Cybercrime is the most prevalent crime playing a devastating role in Modern India. Not only do the criminals are causing enormous losses to society and the government but are also able to conceal their identity to a great extent. There is a number of illegal activities which are committed over the internet by technically skilled criminals. Taking a wider interpretation it can be said that, Cybercrime includes any illegal activity where computer or internet is either a tool or target or both..

. The term cybercrime may be judicially interpreted in some judgments passed by courts in India, however, it is not defined in any act or statute passed by the Indian Legislature. Cybercrime is an uncontrollable evil having its base in the misuse of growing dependence on computers in modern life. Usage of computers and other allied technology in daily life is growing rapidly and has become an urge which facilitates user convenience. It is a medium that is infinite and immeasurable. Whatsoever the good internet does to us, it has its dark sides too. Some of the newly emerged cybercrimes are cyber-stalking, cyber-terrorism, e-mail spoofing, e-mail bombing, cyber pornography, cyberdefamation, etc. Some conventional crimes may also come under the category of cybercrimes if they are committed through the medium of computer or the Internet..

HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF CYBERCRIMES. During the period of 1950s, it would be an astonishing feeling for everyone who uses palmtops and microchips today, to know that the first successful computer was built and the size of the computer was so big that it takes the space of an entire room and they were too expensive to operate. The functioning of these computers was not understandable to a large number of people and only select people with expertise had direct access to such computers and has the knowledge to operate them. For obvious reasons, the computer technology was extremely expensive and beyond the purchasing capacity of almost the entire population until IBM’s came into being wherein it introduced its stand-alone “personal computer” in 1981 and exposed many to the rewards of quick data access and manipulation that, up to that time, had been realized by few. Personal computers become cheaper and become a household item at the start of the 21st century in India. The Internet was first started by the US department of defense, after World War II with the idea to have a network that could work in the event of disaster or war and securely transmit information. The First Network was known as ARPANET, with the development of Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, World Wide Web, and Hypertext the internet become the rage all over the world. With the growth of the Internet, the quality and variety of information grew. However, at that point nobody anticipated the opportunities’ the internet is going to provide the technology-savvy criminals ..

In India, the internet services were started by the state-owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited in the year 1995, and in 1998 the government has ended the monopoly of VSNL and the market is opened to private operators. At that point, the internet users in India are 0.1% of the total population, and now India has become the 2 nds largest country in terms of internet users after China with 33.22% people using the internet. The process of criminalization of human behavior judged to be harmful to the public is typically one that builds slowly in common law jurisdictions. The momentum gained through problem identification and pressures exerted mg special interest groups can easily span decades before undesirable actions are classified as “crime”. In some instances, this process is accelerated through the occurrence of certain “catalyst events” that capture the attention of the public and the attention of lawmakers. The first recorded cyber crime took place in the year 1820. That is not surprising considering the fact that the abacus, which is thought to be the earliest form of a computer, has been around since 3500 B.C. in India, Japan, and China. The era of modem computers, however, began with the analytical engine of Charles Babbage. In 1820, Joseph-Marie Jacquard, a textile manufacturer in France, produced the loom. This device allowed the repetition of a series of steps in the weaving of special fabrics. This resulted in a fear amongst Jacquard’s employees that their traditional employment and livelihood were being threatened. They committed acts of sabotage to discourage Jacquard from further use of the new technology. This is the first recorded cybercrime..

In the case of computer crime, legislators grew increasingly attentive in the 1980s as businesses became more dependent upon computerization and as catalyst event cases exposed significant vulnerabilities to computer crime violations. Criminals can now easily encrypt information representing evidence of their criminal acts, store the information and even transmit it with little fear of detection by law enforcement. Due to the extraordinary impact of the Internet, a computer crime scene can now span from the geographical point of the victimization (e.g., the victim’s personal computer) to any other point on the planet, further complicating criminal investigative efforts. In effect, computer technology has dramatically altered the criminal justice terrain such that enterprising and opportunistic criminals have consciously turned to the computer to commit their illegal acts in situations in which the computer serves as the instrument of the crime, the means by which the crime is committed, as well as in cases in which the victim’s computer, or computer system, is the target, or objective, of the act. And, as stated above, the presence of new computer technology aids cybercriminals in situations in which the computer’s role is incidental to the crime; situations in which the computer is used to house and protect information that is evidence tying the offender to criminal acts. A commonality among these types of crimes is that the offender, to a great degree, depends upon the lack of technological skills of law enforcement to successfully commit the offenses and escape undetected. Based upon what empirical evidence has been available on the self-assessed skills of investigators in this area, computer criminals would have good reason to feel some confidence in their chances to evade detection of their crimes..

As we advance towards the 21st century, it can be observed that the technological innovations have laid the way for the entire population using computer technology today, to experience new and wonderful conveniences in their daily life ranging from how to educate, shop, entertain, to availing the understanding of the business strategies and workflow. Our day-to-day lives have been forever changed thanks to rapid advances made in the field of computer technology. These changes allow us to communicate over great distances in an instant and permit us, almost effortlessly, to gather and organize large amounts of information, tasks that could, otherwise, prove unwieldy and expensive. The technological treasures that have improved the quality of our lives, however, can reasonably be viewed as a double-edged sword. While computer technology has opened doors to enhanced conveniences for many, this same technology has also opened new doors for criminals..

CHARACTERISTICS OF CYBERCRIMES. The Concept of cybercrime is very different from a traditional crime. Also due to the growth of Internet Technology, this crime has gained serious and unfettered attention as compared to traditional crime. So it is necessary to examine the peculiar characteristics of cybercrime. 1. People with specialized knowledge – Cybercrimes can only be committed through technology, thus to commit this kind of crime one has to be very skilled in the internet and computers and the internet to commit such a crime. The people who have committed cybercrime are well educated and have a deep understanding of the usability of the internet, and that’s made work of police machinery very difficult to tackle the perpetrators of cybercrime..

2. Geographical challenges – In cyberspace, the geographical boundaries are reduced to zero. A cybercriminal in no time sitting in any part of the world commits a crime in another corner of the world. For example, a hacker sitting in India hacked into the system placed in the United States. 3. Virtual World – The act of cybercrime takes place in cyberspace and the criminal who is committing this act is physically outside cyberspace. Every activity of the criminal while committing that crime is done over the virtual world. 4. Collection of Evidence - It is very difficult to collect evidence of cybercrime and prove them in a court of law due to the nature of cybercrime. The criminal in cybercrime invokes the jurisdiction of several countries while committing the cybercrime and at the same time he is sitting someplace safe where he is not traceable. 5. Magnitude of crime unimaginable - Cybercrime has the potential of causing injury and loss of life to an extent that cannot be imagined. The offenses like cyber terrorism, cyber pornography, etc have a wide reach and they can destroy websites, steal data of the companies in no time. 6. Classification of Cyber Crime - The researcher in this chapter examines the acts wherein computer or technology is a tool for an unlawful act. The kind of activities usually involves a modification of conventional crime by using informational technology. Here is the list of prevalent cybercrimes, some of them are widely spread and some are not prevalent on a larger scale..

CLASSIFICATIONS OF CYBERCRIMES. Financial fraud crimes Cyberterrorism Cyberextortion Cybersex trafficking Cyberwarfare Computer as a target Computer as a tool Obscene or offensive content Ad-fraud Online harassment Drug trafficking.

Further, on August 30, 2019, the Ministry of Home Affairs launched the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal to offer people a centralized system for reporting all sorts of cybercrime occurrences online, with a special focus on cybercrimes against women and children. According to the Statistics of the portal, 3,17,439 cybercrime events and 5,771 FIRs have been recorded in the country since its establishment up to February 28, 2021, with 21,562 cybercrime occurrences and 87 FIRs in Karnataka and 50,806 cybercrime incidents, and 534 FIRs in Maharashtra. We can see from the data that the number of victims of cybercrime is not a small figure hence, cybercrime is an issue of serious concern ..

CYBERCRIMES UNDER IPC AND THE IT ACT. There are a lot of statutes and regulations enacted by various authorities that penalize cybercrime. The Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC) and the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act) both penalize a variety of cybercrimes, and unsurprisingly, many clauses in the IPC and the IT Act overlap..

LAWS GOVERNING CYBERCRIMES IN INDIA. Cybercrime refers to illegal activities in which a computer is used as a tool, a target, or both. Traditional criminal actions such as theft, fraud, forgery, defamation, and mischief, all of which are covered under the Indian Penal Code, might be included in cybercrimes. The Information Technology Act of 2000 addresses a variety of new-age offences that have arisen as a result of computer abuse. The Indian Penal Code 1860, the Bankers’ Books Evidence Act 1891 , the Indian Evidence Act 1872 , and the Reserve Bank of India Act 1934 were all swiftly amended by the IT Act. The Amendments brought under the Sections of these Acts were to make them compliant with new technologies. By establishing stringent legal recognition, these modifications attempted to tone down all electronic transactions/communications, bringing them beneath the radar..

CYBER CRIMES UNDER IT ACT. Tampering with Computer source documents - Sec.65 Hacking with Computer systems, Data alteration - Sec.66 Publishing obscene information - Sec.67 Un-authorised access to protected system Sec.70 Breach of Confidentiality and Privacy - Sec.72 Publishing false digital signature certificates - Sec.73.

CYBERCRIMES UNDER IPC AND SPECIAL LAWS. Sending threatening messages by email - Sec 503 IPC Sending defamatory messages by email - Sec 499 IPC Forgery of electronic records - Sec 463 IPC Bogus websites, cyber frauds - Sec 420 IPC Email spoofing - Sec 463 IPC Web-Jacking - Sec. 383 IPC E-Mail Abuse - Sec.500 IPC.

CYBER CRIMES UNDER THE SPECIAL ACTS. Online sale of Drugs under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act Online sale of Arms Arms Act.

STEPS TO PREVENT CYBERCRIMES. Never disclose personal information publicly on websites. This is as good as disclosing one’s identity to a stranger in a public place. Always avoid sending any photograph online, particularly to strangers and chat friends as there have been incidents of misuse of the photographs. Never enter the credit card number to any side that is not secured, to prevent its misuse. Keep software and operating system updated. Use strong passwords. Never open attachments in spam emails. Do not click on links in spam emails or untrusted websites. Contact companies directly about suspicious requests. Do not give out personal information unless secure. Keep an eye on your bank statements..

CONCLUSION. The IT Act and the Rules promulgated thereunder regulate the cyber law regime. When the IT Act is unable to provide for any specific sort of offense or if it does not include exhaustive provisions with regard to an offense, one may also turn to the provisions of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. However, the current cyber law system is still insufficient to cope with the wide range of cybercrimes that exist. With the country advancing towards the ‘Digital India’ movement, cybercrime is continuously developing, and new types of cybercrime are being added to the cyber law regime on a daily basis. So, there is a need to bring some amendments to the laws to reduce such crimes..