CYBER CRIMES

by

                            CYBER CRIMES



Author:V. L. V. Chaitra,
BBA LL.B 1st year,
Birla Global University, Bhubaneswar.

CYBER CRIMES

cyber crimes




    ABSTRACT:


                  The rate of cyber crime has been reaching the top level day by day. It has been taking new faces every time. One of that new face is cyber crime which is taking place in IT sector. Over past ten years, the cyber crimes are being increased. Now a days due to development in technology and to make our work easier  all are being digitalised. The confidential information is also being stored in digital form. This information is being misused in the way of committing cyber crimes. Though the government is taking steps to control cyber crimes, securing information has become a great challenge in present days. This article focuses on types of cyber crimes, laws dealing with cyber crimes and jurisprudence aspects regarding cyber crimes.

    KEY WORDS: Cyber Crimes, Cyber Space, Cyber Law, Cyber Security.

    INTRODUCTION:                                                           


              As the technology is increasing day by day, many people fall in the list of cyber crime victims. These are laws for each and every one i.e.,  Law of Torts, Indian Penal Code, Law of Contracts
    etc..The laws which deals with cyber crimes is called cyber law.
              Cyber law is a part of legal system that deals with internet and its respective legal issues. In other words we can define cyber law as “ law governing cyber space”. Cyber law is also known as internet law. This deals with issues related to use of various technologies. Some of the issues are internet access and usage, privacy and some criminal activities like theft, robbery etc… include in this.
             Cyber crime is not defined officially in the IT Act or in any other  legislation. Cyber crimes in barrow sense can be defined as “Any illegal behaviour directed by means of electronic operations that targets the security of computer systems and data processed by them.”[1]
    Cyber security is also known as computer security or information technology security. This cyber security deals with protecting our devices and network from an unauthorised access. The internet is the chief source for cyber crime where people do business. In 2009, the International Telecommunication Union defined cyber security as” cyber security is the collection of tools, policies, security concepts, security safe guards, guide lines, risk management approaches, actions, training, best practices, assurance and technologies that can be used to protect the cyber environment and organisation and users assets[2]”.
               According to sec 2(nb) of The Information Technology Act, 2000 the word cyber security means protecting information, equipment, devices, computer resource, communication device and information stored there in  from unauthorised access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification or destruction[3].
              Cyber space is a platform to perform different human activities which congregate on the internet. Cyber space in current world has become the place where commerce and money is moving which is very luring for criminals.[4]

    TYPES OF CYBER CRIMES:


                The following acts are considered as cyber crimes in The IT Act,2000 :
    ·       Without the permission of authorised user.
    ·       Accessing or securing access to such computer or computer network.
    ·       Downloading, copying or extracting any data or information for such computer, computer system or network including information or stored on any removable stor
    age medium.
    ·       Introducing any computer virus or contaminent in the computer or network.
    ·       Damaging the computer system or network
    ·       Disrupting the working of the computer system or network.
    ·       Disrupting the access of the computer system or network of an authorised user.
    ·       Providing access to ensure unauthorised access to computer system or network.
    ·       Tampering with computer source document.
    ·       Hacking the computer system or network.
    ·       Publishing information which id obscene in electronic form.
    ·       Carrying on activities that are not compliance with the provisions of the act.
    ·       Failure to extend all facilities and technical assistance to the controller to decrypt any information necessary for the security of the nation.
    ·       Unauthorised access or attempt to secure unauthorised access to a system that by official notification is declared a protected system.
    ·       Misrepresenting or supressing any face from the controller or certifying authority for obtaining licence or digital signature certificate.[5]
    Some of the major cyber crimes are as follows:
    1. HACKING: Hacking can be described as penetration of computer system, which is not carried with the aim of manipulation, sabotage, but for now the pleasure of overcoming technical security measures. Now hacking has become an offence which is used to commit acts of software piracy as well as computer fraud.
    2. MALICIOUS PROGRAMS: Malicious programs such as viruses, trojan horses, worms, logical bombs, hoaxes etc.. which are intended to cause harm for victims.
    ·       Viruses: It is a program that searches out other program and infects the device by inserting a copy of it in them
    ·       Worms: Worms is such a program that it merely makes a functional copy and repeats it till it eats up the whole available free storage in device.
    ·       Trojan Horses: It is a program which gains the control over another’s device by victims hard disk and also performs many functions on his computer.
    ·       Logical Bombs: These are even dependent programs. If these programs once enter in computer it makes the device to go into an infinite loop, crash the device, delete data or some other damage to device.
    ·       Hoax: It is a email writing warned about device virus or other threat started by malicious threat.
     3. DIGITAL FORGERY:Technology has developed a lot. We are able to get a duplicate copy of everything. By using a computer we can easily forge a document through printers and scanners by developing counterfeit currencies, mark sheets, birth certificates etc..
      4. PIRACY AND INFRINGEMENT OF IPR:Technology permits perfect reproduction and easy spread and distribution of prints, graphics, sound and multimedia combinations. Piracy and infringement of IPR are most committed crimes in cyber space.
     5. FRAUD:The application of digital technology to fraudulent attempts has been increasing day by day with the developing technology. Fraud comes under a sub class of economic crimes that are being carried out with the help of computer network or internet in cyberspace. Some of the inherent features like anonymity, difficulties in authenticating identities makes ideal for fraudulent purposes.
    6. PHISHING:In this the targeted is contacted by an email, telephone, or text message by someone posing as an authorised institution to attract the person to provide their personal information, bank account details. They will use this information and
    leads to identity theft and financial loss.
    7. SPAMMING:Spamming is an unsolicited message through mails or messages especially for advertising and also to send unwanted messages in a bulk manner indiscriminately.
    8. DATA DIDDLING:Data diddling can be defined as the act of altering raw data before the data is being entered in computer and then changing it back after it is processed in computer. This crime usually can be done in organisations providing customer services.
    9. EMAIL SPOOFING:Email spoofing is a fraudulent email activity hiding email origins. The sender alters some parts of email like body, address to make the receiver believe that the mail was sent n authorised identity. This is usually done in phishing and spamming.
    10. SALE OF ILLEGAL ARTICLES: This would include sale of narcotics, weapons and wild life etc… by posting information on websites and bulletin boards or by email communication.
    11. SALAMI ATTACKS:This kind of crime can be seen mostly in financial institution or for the purpose of committing financial crimes. Here in this type of offence the alteration is so small which cannot be noticed.
    12. WEB JACKING:This term is derived from the term hi-jacking. In these kinds of offences the hacker gains access and control over the website of another. He can change the information on the site.

    NEED OF CYBER SECURITY:


    “Cyber threats pose one of the gravest national security dangers that United States faces..its clear that much more work needs to be done to enhance our cyber security” said by     Barrack Obama.
               Technology has been coming up with new forms day by day. At the same time cyber attacks are also increasing day by day. We can understand the need of cyber security by using a small example i.e., in emerging new technology we are seeing driverless cats which are being more popular now. Just imagine if we create this type of products without considering cyber security as a point. All the traffic light control system and some auto mobile vehicles are being coordinated through digital mode. To make this process in a right manner, to avoid making the people harm and to put them at spot we need cyber security. In our daily life situations there are many cases where we need cyber security. One of the best examples is digital banking.

     LAWS DEALING WITH CYBER CRIMES:


    The current protection provided by the Government of India against cyber crime under legal frame work is through The Information Technology Act 2000 and Indian Penal Code of 1860.
               IT Act does not define expressly what cyber crime is, it includes both cyber crimes and cyber contraventions (violation of cyber laws) and cyber offences. The important provisions related to cyber crime are sec-43( damage to computer system), sec-66( computer related offence), sec-67( publication or transmission of obscene material in e-form), sec-68(not employing with directions of controller), sec70( protected system), sec-72( breaking confidentiality of information of computer), sec-73( publishing of false digital signatures), sec-74(publication of digital signature for fraudulent purpose).
                 Coming to Indian Penal Code, 1860 it was amended to include the word “electronic” and expanding its scope to electronic records along with physical records. Sections such as 192,204,463,464,468 to 470, 47, 474 and 476 were amended in which false entry or false document in electronic form was included.[6]

    SOME CASES DEALING WITH CYBER CRIMES


    ·       Fatima Riswana v. state Rep.
    This is a case registered in the High Court of Madras under cyber pornography. The said trails relates to exploitation of certain men and women by one of the accused for the purpose of making pornographic videos and selling them to foreign websites.[7]
    ·       SMC Pneumatics Pvt. Ltd. v. JogeshKwatra
    This is the first case registered under cyber defamation in India at a court of Delhi. This was reported when a company’s employee(defendant) started sending defamatory and obscene emails about its Managing Director in the year 2000 and 2001. The emails were anonymous and frequent, and were sent to many of their business associates to tarnish the image and goodwill of the plaintiff company. The plaintiff was able to identify the defendant with the help of a private computer expert and moved the Delhi High Court. The court granted an ad-interim injuction and restrained the employee from sending, publishing and transmitting emails which were defamatory to the plaintiff.[8]
    ·       Case of Frios v. State of Kerala
    In this case it was declared that friends application software as protected system. The author of the application challenged the notification and the constitutional validity of software under section 70 of Information Technology Act, 2000. It included with source code. Computer source code , the electronic form, it can be printed on paper. The court upheld the validity of both that tampering with source code are punishable with three years imprisonment or two lakh rupees for altering, concealing and destroying the first source code.[9]
    also being sold in the markets in Delhi. The Mumbai city police and the Delhi city police got into action.

    PRESENT SCENARIO IN INDIA:


    ·       India ranks 3rdin terms of the highest number of internet users in the world after USA and China, the number has grown 6-fold between 2012-17 with a compound annual growth rate of 44%.[10]
    ·       Most of the internet frauds reported in the country are related to phishing, usage of stolen debit cards, pornography etc…
    ·       There were almost 53,000 cyber security incidents observed in country during 2017.
    ·       Cyber security incidents from 2014-17 are as follows:
             2014- 44,679                              2016- 50,362
             2015- 49,455                              2017- 53,081
    ·       Symantic corporation ranked India among the top five countries to be affected by cyber crime between 2012-17.
    ·       In 2017, India witnessed registration of a cyber crime case in every ten minutes.
    ·       India was ranked 3rdworld wide next to USA and China as a source of malicious activity in 2015

    CONCLUSION:


    Cyber crime continues to diverge down different paths with each new year that passes. The latest and disruptive technologies along with cyber tools and threats that are coming into light every day is a challenge to organisations with not only the way they secure their infrastructure  but also the requirement of new platform and intelligence to overcome its threats. As we have seen the present scenario of cyber crime and security in India which is in a critical stage. India must make the people know about their concerned tasks and res
    ponsibilities regarding this cyber crimes and the current situation of their country. People should know pros and cons before entering the web. Concrete measures should be found in order to track electronic evidences and preserve them so that systems are protected from cyber intrusions. Even companies need to take appropriate measures to investigate and to protect their data. The situation today is there are several laws protecting from cyber crimes each one having its own scope and limitations. All the issues regarding cyber crimes and cyber security are dealt under IT Act 2000 and IPC of 1860. Now the situation and the crime rate is found to be insignificant. There is no any specific law dealing with cyber related issues. What we need is a specific law dealing with cyber issues just like UN had done in 1990.

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    Footnote:

    [1] www.cyberlawsindia.net/internetcrime.html .
    [2]www.academia.edu/22666544/defining cyber security.
    [3] Kant Mani, Legal Framework On Cybercrimes 8.
    [4]2010 cri CJ, Journal Section 346.
    [5] 2009 cri LJ, Journal section 229.
    [6]www.mondaq.com/india/x/785850.
    [7]Fatima Riswana v. state Rep, AIR 2005 712.
    [8]www.prashantmail.com/cyber–law-cases.
    [9]www.legalservicesindia.com.
    [10] Daily excelsior.com/cyber security scenario of India.

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