The technological advancements we all have undergone through the arena of revolution have totally made our lives way easier than ever thought. Its emergence has provided us myriad of opportunities but at the same time it’s inevitable for cyber offenders to grab such opportunities to make themselves rich at the cost of others privacy. Cyber laws are itself becomes prime importance especially in today’s technology driven era in which person’s privacy and safety becomes the first priority as the internet user gradually increasing all over the World. This article certainly aim to point out what all revolves around such mishaps and malicious activities. Author with the help of this write-up made an endeavor to fathom the concept of cybercrime in depth so that everyone knows what actually threat them and accordingly protect themselves against the same to stay safe during online transactions and business.
Let’s throw some light towards the meaning of cyber crime and understand exactly what it constitutes. Cyber Crime also known as computer crime can be defined as a systematic criminal act involves a network and a computer as a means to commit an illegal activity. Here illegal activity has a wide arm and includes series of issues apart from stealing someone’s data such as theft to using system or IP address as a tool for committing a crime.
TYPES OF CYBER CRIME
Cybercrime is not a new term for anyone living in the 21st century, but many have not an idea about the forms in which this hazardous act can occur. Speaking in a broad sense cyber crime can be classified into three major groups. These categories are Individual, Property and Government.
Cyber Crime against Individuals: These are offences that are committed by the cyber offenders against a person. In this classification Cyber Crime may take the form of Email spoofing, Spamming, Cyber defamation, Cyber trafficking, Cyber stalking, Phishing, Financial fraud, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) Crime and so forth.
Cyber Crime against Property: Just like in the real world the crimes such as theft, robbery is committed against the property of a person, in the same parlance in techno savvy world it is committed against the data of an individual. These crimes are known as Cyber Crime against the property and includes Intellectual (Copyright, patented, trademark etc) Property Crimes, Online threatening, etc.
Cyber Crime against Government: In this category crimes are commonly denoted as cyber terrorism because there always a terror of attack which can get hold of all essential official documents of national importance. There is huge number of cases where a terrorist hacks an important government databases.
The perpetrators of all the above discussed forms of Cyber Crime are increasing at an alarming rate and thereby causing a significant threat at the same time loss to the individual and organizations.
CYBER CRIME IN INDIA
The Cyber World is considered as a massive community consisting of millions and billions of users from all around the globe. Particularly, in India there has been a rapid growth in the number of internet users in the recent years. According to the IAMAI-Kantar ICUBE 2020 report, “the number of India internet users is expected to increase by 45% in the next five years to 900 million in 2025 from around 622 million in 2020.” People access it for variety of purposes starting from online dealing to the online transaction and so on. The advancement in the age of Technology no doubt opened the easy to approachable world full of information. Besides this, it also gives birth to the cyber crime. In the present scenario, India is one of the favorite hotspots for the Cybercriminals. “More than 27 million Indian adults experienced identify theft in the past 12 months and 52% of Indian adults admitted they don’t know how to protect themselves from cybercrime”, according to the 2021 Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report by NortonLifeLock. Thus, it is quite clear that due to the huge reliance on internet and lack of awareness there is a much folded increase in Cyber Criminal Activity. So, here Cybersecurity in order to counter these issues has becomes a major concern for a society in large.
LAWS RELATED TO CYBER CRIME
Cyber Law emerges as a tool to prevent the crime committed during course of activities and transactions that occur on the internet or on other communications platforms. Cyber Law plays a pivotal role in this new evolving era of technical society. In India, to curtail the spread of Cyber Crime and to safeguard the confidential data of people the legislature has enacted number of statues and regulations. The Information Technology Act (IT Act), 2000 and the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860 serve as protection against a menace of Cyber Crime. Apart from this, there are also many cyber cells were established that aid the whole process of penalizing the offenders. The Information Technology Act, 2000 is based on the United Nations Model Law on Electronic Commerce 1996 and is considered the most important law that deals with digital crimes in India. Some highlighting points of IT Act, 2000 are:
• The most important feature of this Act is addressing the issue of security. The Act introduced the construct of digital signatures which will help in verifying the identity of an individual on internet.
• Now e-mail is considered as a valid and legal form of communication.
• With the introduction of the Act, the Digital Signatures and etc. are given legal validity.
• Act has given birth to new business to new business to companies to issue digital certificates by becoming the Certifying Authorities.
• The Act allows the communication between the companies or the company on the one side and the government on the other side through internet. The Act also gives power to government to issues notices on platform of internet through e-governance.
• The Act provides the compensation in the form of many to company if any harm or loss suffered by the company due to any criminal activity.
Later, to keep pace with the changing time the Parliament in 2008 amended the IT Act, 2000. The new IT (Amendment) Act, 2008 which was made effective from 27 October, 2009 has brought several changes in the IT Act, 2000 on certain counts. The key features of the IT (Amendment) Act, 2008 are as follows:
• With the IT (Amendment) Act, 2008 India has adopted the electronic signatures as a legally valid mode of executing signatures. Electronic signature has a wider ambit and also includes digital signatures as one of the mode.
• The amended Act provides the distinction between the terms ‘contravention’ and ‘offence’ by introducing the new element of mens rea for an offence.
• Through the amendment in the IT Act in 2008 certain definitions are added. The two important definitions that are inserted through the IT Act, 2008 are: ‘Communication device’ under section 2(ha) and ‘intermediary’ under the section 2(w). The addition of these definitions further clarifies the term and removes any ambiguity.
• The power of the Adjudicating officer under the amended Act of 2008 limits to decide claims for injury or damage where it exceeds 5 crores. Beyond this amount the jurisdiction now vests with competent court.
• Under the Section 46(5) a new change is made whereby the officers who are adjudicating have conferred with the powers of execution of orders passed by them, including order of attachment, sale of property, arrest and detention of accused.
• The IT (Amendment) Act, 2008 changed the composition of the Cyber Appellate Tribunal (CAT). Now it consists of Chairperson and such other members as central government directs.
• By the amended Act many new Cyber Crimes such as sending of false or offensive messages, receiving stolen computer resource, identity theft, cheating by personation, violation of privacy and so on are included.
Surprisingly, none of the legislations (IT Act & IPC) define the term Cyber Crime. Moreover, there are number of parallel provisions of IT Act and IPC that overlap with each other. There exist several dots in the operational system of investigation of cases of Cybercrime.
THE WAY FORWARD
At the initial phase, Cyber Crime cannot be easily detectable but after causing significant consequences it come into notice. Cyber Crime of all types drastically affects the lives of people by breaching their privacy and causing a huge amount of loss. Cyber Crime is not something which cannot be prevented. Thus, to tackle this malicious threat here is some of the suggestive measures. Till today, the Indian Policing System for the purposes of investigation is stuck to the old methodology. Thus, it is the high time for reforms in the Police system and they should gather new modern ways of collecting information against the suspects.
• One of the major lacuna and also highly debatable issue is the concept of territorial jurisdiction which needs to be tackled.
• There needs to be a proper implementation of the Cyber Crime related laws and for this purpose a well established mechanism should be adopted. Also there is a requirement of a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to reduce the ambit of ambiguity.
• To effectively counter this there is a demand for judges, police personals who are well equipped with IT and there exist an imperative need to impart them legal and technical training.
• In India to efficiently investigate cybercrimes we need officers well equipped with technicalities of forensic science and cyber law.
• By educating the common man and informing them about their rights and obligations in Cyberspace is also the one way which facilitates the proper enforcement of cyber laws in our country.
Above all, while working with advanced technology one should follow security measures and use their common sense and logic. As there is a very famous saying, “Prevention is better than cure.”
CONCLUSION
The proliferation of cyberspace is at the peak during this unpredictable time of COVID 19. This dramatic rise also makes an uneven increase in the rates of Cyber Crime, thereby creating the situation worse than ever. There are many reports which states that there is an increased in cyber frauds during the pandemic. Apart from this, for the very first time our nation, had a “the number of India internet users is expected to increase by 45% in the next five
years to 900 million in 2025 from around 622 million in 2020.” in September 2018. It was held with the aim of creating a common platform for the investigators, forensic teams and other officials to discuss the ways to curb the cyber related offences. Like this, law enforcement agencies should take more encouraging steps. The Cyber Crime related Acts should be revised and modified according to changing needs for our nation. As Cyber Crime is not only becomes the great threat to the mankind but also violates the basic human rights of an individual such as Right to life, Right to privacy, etc. Protection against the same is essential for every aspects of our nation, be it, social, cultural or economic. So, there is an exigency of the hour that this issue must be addressed to maintain the harmony and peace in the society. In sum, Antonie de Saint-Exupery rightly said that “The time for action is now. It’s never too late to do something.” But at the same instance it should kept in mind that “Action should be taken before it’s too late.
REFERENCES
https://www.vedantu.com/english/cyber-crime-essay
https://www.toppr.com/guides/essays/cyber-crime-essay/
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/information_security_cyber_law/introduction.htm
http://www.lawyersclubindia.com/articles/classification-of-CyberCrimes–1484.asp
https://www.ijarcsse.com/docs/papers/Volume_5/8_August2015/V518-0156.pdf
https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/cyber-crime-rose-during-lockdown-7196262/
The cyber crime-related Acts should be revised and modified according to changing needs for our nation. Cyber crime has not only become a big threat to the mankind, but also violates the basic human rights of an individual such as Right to Life, Right to Privacy, etc. Protection against the same is essential for every aspect of our nation, be it social, cultural or economic. So, there is an exigency of the hour that this issue must be addressed to maintain the harmony and peace in the society.
