CYBER CRIME IN INDIA

CYBER CRIME

Cybercrime, also called computer crime, the use of a computer as an instrument to further
illegal ends, such as committing fraud, trafficking in child pornography and intellectual
property, stealing identities, or violating privacy. Cybercrime, especially through the Internet,
has grown in importance as the computer has become central to commerce, entertainment,
and government.

Most cybercrime is an attack on information about individuals, corporations, or governments.

Although the attacks do not take place on a physical body, they do take place on the personal
or corporate virtual body, which is the set of informational attributes that define people and
institutions on the Internet. In other words, in the digital age our virtual identities are essential
elements of everyday life: we are a bundle of numbers and identifiers in multiple computer
databases owned by governments and corporations. Cybercrime highlights the centrality of
networked computers in our lives, as well as the fragility of such seemingly solid facts as
individual identity.

Cyber Crime in India

In India, cyber crime can be defined as a crime or an unlawful act where the computer is used
either as a tool, a target or both. In other terms, cyber crimes in India can be defined as an
unauthorized access to some computer system without the permission of rightful owner or
place of criminal activity and include everything from online cracking to denial of service
attacks.

Some examples of cybercrime include phishing, spoofing, DoS (Denial of Service) attack,
credit card fraud, online transaction fraud, cyber defamation, child pornography, etc.

Causes of Cyber Crime in India

Cybercriminals always choose an easy way to make big money. They target rich people or
rich organizations like banks, casinos and financial firms where the transaction of a huge
amount of money is made on an everyday basis and hack sensitive information.

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Catching such criminals is difficult. Hence, that increases the number of cyber-crimes.
Computers are vulnerable, so laws are required to protect and safeguard them against cyber
criminals. Following are the reasons for the vulnerability of computers:

Easy to access – The problem behind safeguarding a computer system from unauthorized
access is that there are many possibilities of breach due to the complex technology. Hackers
can steal access codes, retina images, advanced voice recorders etc. that can easily fool
biometric systems and bypass firewalls can be utilized to get past many security systems.

Capacity to store data in comparatively small space – The computer has the unique
characteristic of storing data in a very small space. This makes it a lot easier for people to
steal data from any other storage device and use it for their own profit.

Complex – The computers run on operating systems and these operating systems are
programmed of millions of codes. The human mind is imperfect, so they can do mistakes at
any stage. The cyber criminals take advantage of these gaps.

Negligence – Negligence is one of the characteristics of human conduct. So, there may be a
possibility that protecting the computer system we may make any negligence which provides
a cyber-criminal the access and control over the computer system.

Loss of Evidence – The data related to the crime can be easily destroyed. So, Loss of
evidence has become a very common & obvious problem which paralyzes the system behind
the investigation of cyber-crimes. Types of Cyber Crime in India

Cyber crime can be committed in two ways - one in which the computer is the target of a
cyber attack, and the other in which the computer is used to commit a cyber crime against any
person or entity.

Cyber crimes in India are categorised into main four types which include:

Cyber crime against a person:

This type of cyber crime is committed against a person using an electronic domain as a
medium. Cyber crime against a person includes:

Cyber stalking:

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Generally, the term ‘stalking’ means, repeated acts of harassing someone. Whereas, Cyber
stalking is online harassment when a person is stalked using the internet as a medium.
Generally, the stalker is aware of the victim or gains knowledge about victim’s family and
their activities, instead of stalking them in reality, the stalker keeps a track of a person’s
online activities to stalk the victim. A Stalker can use the internet, emails, SMS, webcams,
phones calls, websites or even videos to harass his target.

Hacking:

Hacking means getting unauthorised access to someone’s personal information stored in a

computer system without the permission of either rightful owner of the computer or person in
charge of that particular system for illegal gains or misuse. Every act committed to breaking
into a computer system and /or network is hacking. Hackers get access to the user’s personal
and sensitive information. They can also monitor every online activity of a person like
logging in, credentials added, banking transactions made, etc.

Cracking:

Crack generally refers to the means of achieving software cracking. Cracking refers to
digitally removing the Copyright protection code which prevents copied or pirated software
from working on computers which do not have the Software vendor or owner’s authorisation.
The person who is involved in such activity is different from a hacker and is known as a
cracker. Cracker uses his knowledge to break the cyber law and tampers with the computer.

Defamation:

Online or cyber defamation involves damaging someone’s reputation in society using a

computer or the internet as a medium. This is done by writing a derogatory statement about a
person on social media, posting vulgar pictures or videos, sending derogatory E-mail to the
victim’s friends, etc.

Online Fraud:

Online fraud is one of the most common types of cyber crime. It involves stealing a person’s
sensitive information like banking credentials by using phishing sites and withdrawing
money from the victim’s account. Online lottery scams are also rampant these days, one such
example is the Nigeria lottery scams.

Dissemination of Obscene Material:

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It includes the distribution of obscene materials or pornography on social media. It includes
hosting of websites containing pornographic material which has a tendency to deprave or
corrupt the minds of individuals.

Child pornography:

Circulation of any material that has a tendency to deprave the mind of the minor children is
also a cyber crime. It involves the use of electronic devices to create, distribute or access
material which is obscene in nature and have a tendency to corrupt young minds.

Spoofing:

Spoofing involves misrepresentation of the origin of any data. While an Email/SMS is

generated from one source, it shows that it has been generated from another. Cyber criminals
use this means to get personal information of the user like bank details, etc.

Phishing:

It involves sending spam emails to the user while claiming to be an established enterprise in
order to obtain his personal information.

Cyber Crime against property:

Cyber crime against property is committed using an electronic device as a medium. Here, the
property does not mean any immovable property but includes movable and intangible
property like computers, Intellectual Property, etc. Different cyber crimes against property
are:

Transmitting virus:

A computer virus is a malware programme that infects files, disk drives, and computer
programmes. Programmes that multiply like viruses and spread from computer to computer
are called ‘worms’. Virus, Worms, Trojan Horse, Timebomb, Logic Bomb, Rabbit, and
Bacterium are some examples of malicious software that infect the computer.

Cybersquatting:

Cybersquatting is when two or more persons claim the same domain name. Squatting is
unlawfully occupying an uninhabited place. The hacker claims that he was the first one to use
the domain name before the actual owner of the domain name.

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Cyber Vandalism:

It involves the destruction of data on any electronic medium during the period when the
network service is not available.

Intellectual Property Crimes:

IPRs are intangible property rights. IPR thefts are the most common cyber crimes in India
and include online piracy, software piracy, infringement of patents, designs, trademark,
copyright, theft of source code, etc.

Cyber crime against Government:

The government of a country may become the target of a cyber crime as well. Any cyber
crime committed against a government is committed to threatening the unity, honour, and
security of the target country. Cyber crime against government includes:

Cyber Warfare:

Cyber warfare is an Internet-based war conflict wherein the cyber crime is politically
motivated. It can disable official websites and networks, disrupt essential services such as
Internet connection, steal classified data such as Sensex details and break down sensitive data
like the payment gateway.

Cyber Terrorism:

It is an act of creating fear in the mind of people by using the internet as a medium. Section
66-F of the Information Technology Act, 2002 deals with Cyber Terrorism.

Cyber crime against society:

When a cyber crime is committed against numerous individuals, it is known as cyber crime
against society. Cyber crime against society includes:

Online Gambling:

Gambling is prohibited in India under the Public Gambling Act, 1867. Online gambling is
illegal all over India, except in Sikkim.

Cyber Trafficking:

Trafficking involves dealing with illegal trade activities such as human trafficking, slaves.

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Cyber Crime and Cyber Laws

In order to curb the menace caused by the cybercriminals, the government has enacted the
Information Technology Act, 2000 whose prime objective is to create an enabling
environment for effective use of the internet along with reporting the cyber crime in India.

The IT Act is a comprehensive law that deals with technology with respect to e-governance,
e-commerce, and e-banking. The cyber law also lays down penalties and cyber crime
punishment in India.

The Indian Penal Code was also amended to include crimes like fraud, forgery, theft, etc.
committed over the internet or through an electronic medium.

The various offenses related to internet which have been made punishable under the IT Act
and the IPC are enumerated below:

1. Cyber crimes under the 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

2. Cyber Crimes 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. 383IPC

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E-Mail Abuse - Sec.500 IPC

3. Cyber Crimes under the Special Acts:

Online sale of Drugs under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act

Online sale of Arms Arms Act

How to report Cyber Crime in India?

To report cyber crime in India, the first step is to file a complaint at the cyber crime cell in a
police station of the city where the crime has taken place, or where the device is located
which was affected.

The next step would be knowing where to report cyber crime in India, which can be done
online and offline by registering your complaint against the committed cyber crime. India has
two sources that mainly attend to your complaint i.e. cyber cell or a police station.

You can go to the police station of your state or send an mail to the Police as they will
forward your complaint to the Cyber Cell or you can directly mail the complaint to cyber cell.

In order to know better about how to report cyber crime India, the first step includes filing a
complaint as per cyber crime laws in India. There is no cyber crime complaint online letter
format, but there are prerequisites of the following documents that must be provided:

1) In the case of hacking, the following information is required to file a cyber crime
complaint:

Copy of defaced web page in soft copy as well as hard copy format, if a website is defaced.

If data is compromised on a server or computer, a soft copy of the original data and soft copy
of compromised data are required.

Access control mechanism details i.e. who had the access and of what kind.

List of suspects - if the victim is suspecting on anyone.

2) In case of email abuse, the following steps must be taken to file a cyber crime complaint:

The extended headers of the offending email must be extracted, and the soft copy and hard
copy of the offending email must be kept.

The offending email must not be deleted from the email box.

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A copy of the offending email must be saved on the computer’s hard drive.

What is the punishment for cyber crime in India?

The punishment for cyber crime in India varies in every case as per the type of cyber crime
committed and the gravity of the cyber crime along with the damage caused due to it. It is,
therefore, best advised to consult a cyber lawyer in your city to file a complaint and
understand the legal formalities and documents required as per the cyber crime law in India.