CYBER
CRIME
Computer
crime refers to any crime that involves a computer and a network. The computer
may have been used in the commission of a crime, or it may be the target. Net
crime refers to criminal
exploitation of the Internet. Cyber crimes are defined as: "Offences that are
committed against individuals or groups of individuals with a criminal motive
to intentionally harm the reputation of the victim or cause physical or mental
harm to the victim directly or indirectly, using modern telecommunication
networks such as Internet (Chat rooms, emails, notice boards and groups) and
mobile phones (SMS/MMS)". Such crimes may threaten a nation’s security and
financial health. Issues
surrounding this type of crime have become high-profile, particularly those
surrounding cracking, copyright infringement, child
pornography, and child grooming. There are also problems of privacy when confidential information is lost or intercepted, lawfully or otherwise.
Internationally,
both governmental and non-state actors engage in cyber crimes, including espionage, financial theft, and other cross-border crimes. Activity crossing
international borders and involving the interests of at least one nation state
is sometimes referred to as cyber warfare. The international legal system is attempting
to hold actors accountable for their actions through the International Criminal Court.
Cyber crime is vast and has wide
ranges of activities involved in it. Therefore it can be divided into two
parts:
(1)- Crime
which targets computers directly.
Are
further subdivided into following:
·
MALWARE: Malware is a
short form of malicious software which are designed to damage or do unwanted
action on a computer system.
·
VIRUSES: It is a
piece of a code or a program which is loaded on are computer without we being
aware of it and it runs against our wishes.
·
DENIAL OF SREVICE ATTACKS: this are the cracker or hacker attacks on a computer system or
website aimed to disrupt its normal functions.
(2)- Crime by
computer network or devices.
Are
further subdivided into:
·
CYBER STALKING:
Cyber stalking is a crime in which the stalker harasses the victim with the
help of electronic communication such as Emails,
Instant Messaging (IM), or messages posted on a website or at
discussion groups.
·
IDENTITY THEFT:
Identity theft is in which the thief uses the users identity like credit cards,
driving license, or other number security to create new accounts or for
accessing his existing accounts.
·
PHISING SPAMS: Phishing
spam’s are spam’s which are sent to the predator which are legitimate spam’s to
gather information about the predators
personal and financial information.
The
Cyber Graph for the year 2001-2002 is as follows:
Cyber
Graph For 2001-2010:
Cyber
Graph from January to June 2012:
To avoid the cyber crime there are laws known
as cyber laws
CYBER LAW: Cyber law is a term used to describe the legal issues
related to use of communications technology, particularly “cyberspace”, i.e.
the Internet. It is less of a distinct field of law in the way that property or
contract are, as it is an intersection of many legal fields, including
intellectual property, privacy, freedom of expression, and jurisdiction. In
essence, cyber law is an attempt to apply laws designed for the physical world,
to human activity on the Internet. In India, The IT Act, 2000 as amended by The
IT (Amendment) Act, 2008 is known as the Cyber law. It has a separate chapter
XI entitled “Offences” in which various cyber crimes have been declared as penal
offences punishable with imprisonment and fine.
The laws and punishment for different cyber crimes are as
follows:
·
Hacking
Hacking
is not defined in The amended IT Act, 2000. Hacking means unauthorized attempts
to the security mechanisms of an information system or network. Also, in simple
words Hacking is the unauthorized access to a computer system, programs, data
and network resources. (The term “hacker” originally meant a very gifted programmer.
In recent years though, with easier access to multiple systems, it now has
negative implications.)
Law & Punishment: Under Information Technology (Amendment)Act, 2008, Section 43(a)
read with section 66 is applicable and Section 379 & 406 of Indian Penal
Code, 1860 alsoare applicable. If crime is proved under IT Act, accused shall
be punished for imprisonment, which may extend to three years or with fine,
which may extend to five lakh rupees or both. Hacking offence is cognizable, bailable
, compoundable with permission of the court before which the prosecution of
such offence is pending and trialble by any magistrate.
·
Data Theft
Data
Theft is a growing problem, primarily perpetrated by office workers with access
to technology such as desktop computers and handhelddevices, capable of storing
digital information such as flash drives, iPods and even digital cameras. The
damage caused by data theft can be considerable with today’s ability to transmit
very large files via e-mail, web pages, USB devices, DVD storage and other
hand-held devices. According to Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008,
crime of data theft under Section 43 (b) is stated as -If any person without
permission of the owner or any other
person, who is incharge of a computer, computer system of computer network -
downloads, copies or extracts any data, computer data base or information from
such computer, computer system or computer network including information or
data held or stored in any removable storage medium, then it is data theft.
Law & Punishment: UnderInformation Technology (Amendment)Act,
2008, Section 43(b) read with Section 66 is applicable and under Section379,405
& 420 of Indian Penal Code,1860 also applicable. Data Theft offence is
cognizable, bailable, compoundable with permission of the court before which the
prosecution of such offence is pending and trialble by any magistrate.
· Spreading Virus
or Worms
In
most cases, viruses can do any amount of damage, the creator intends them to
do. They can send your data to a third party and then delete your data from your
computer. They can also ruin/mess up your system and render it unusable without
a re-installation of the operating system. Most have not done this much damage
in the past, but could easily do this in the future. Usually the virus will
install
files on your system and then will change your system so that virus program is
run every time you start your system. It will then attempt to replicate itself
by sending itself to other potential victims.
Law & Punishment: Under Information Technology (Amendment) Act,
2008, Section 43(c) & 43(e) read with Section 66 is applicable and under Section
268 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 also applicable. Spreading of Virus offence is
cognizable, bailable, compoundable with permission of the court before which the
prosecution of such offence is pending and triable by any magistrate.
· Identity Theft
Identity
theft is a form of fraud or cheating of another person’s identity in which
someone pretends to be someone else by assuming that person’s identity,
typically in order to access resources or obtain credit and other benefits in
that person’s name. Information Technology (Amendment)Act, 2008, crime of
identity theft under Section 66-C, whoever, fraudulently or dishonestly make
use of the electronic signature, password or any other unique identification
feature of any other person known as Identity Theft. Identity theft is a term
used to refer to fraud that involves stealing money or getting other benefits
by pretending to be someone else. The term is relatively new and is actually a misnomer, since it is not inherently
possible to steal an identity, only to use it. The person whose identity is
used can suffer various consequences when they are held responsible for the
perpetrator’s actions. At one time the only way for
someone to steal somebody else’s identity was by killing that person and taking
his place. It was typically a violent crime. However, since then, the crime has
evolved and today’s white collared criminals are a lot less brutal. But the ramifications
of an identity theft are still scary.
Law & Punishment: Under Information
Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008, Section 66-C and Section 419of Indian Penal
Code, 1860 also applicable.
Identity Theft offence is cognizable, bailable, compoundable with
permission
of the court before which the prosecution of such offence is
pending and triable by any magistrate.
· E-Mail Spoofing
E-mail spoofing is e-mail activity in which the sender addresses
and other parts of
the e-mail header are altered to appear as though the e-mail
originated from
a different source. E-mail spoofing is sending an e-mail to
another person in
such a way that it appears that the e-mail was sent by someone
else. A spoof email is one that appears to originate from one source but
actually has been sent from another source. Spoofing is the act of electronically
disguising one computer
as another for gaining as the password system. It is becoming so
common that
you can no longer take for granted that thee-mail you are
receiving is truly from the person identified as the sender. Email spoofing is
a technique used
by hackers to fraudulently send email messages in which the sender
address and
other parts of the email header are altered to appear as though
the email originated from a source other than its actual source.
Hackers use this method to disguise the actual email address from
which phishing and spam messages are sent and often use email spoofing in
conjunction with Web page spoofing to trick users into providing personal and
confidential information.
Law & Punishment: Under Information Technology (Amendment)Act, 2008, Section 66-D
and Section 417,419 & 465 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 also applicable. Email
spoofing offence is cognizable, bailable, compoundable with permission of the
court before which the prosecution of such offence is pending and triable by
any magistrate.
