CYBERSPACE : LAW & ORDER

What is Cyber law?

Cyber law is the part of the overall legal system that deals with the internet, cyber space and
their respective legal issues. Cyber law covers a fairly broad area , encompassing several sub
topics including freedom of expression, access to and usage of the internet, and online privacy .
generically , Cyber laws is referred to as the law of internet.

Why are cyber laws needed?

Like any law, a cyber law is created to help protect the people and organizations on the internet
from , malicious people on the internet and help maintain order. If someone breaks the cyber
law or rule, it allows another person or organization to take action against that person or have
them sentenced to a punishment.

What happens if you break a cyber law?

There are different forms of punishment depending on the type of cyber law you broke, who
you offended , where you broke the law, and where you live. In many situations , breaking the
rules on a website will result in your account being suspended or banned and your IP address
blocked. To determine the consequences of your action for minor offences, we recommend
reviewing the companies terms of services and rules. If you have committed a more serious
offence such as hacking , attacking another person or website, or causing another person or
company distress, additional action may be taken against you.
 10 Rules For Online Safety

1. Keep telephone number, address, name, location of school, parent’s work

address/telephone number private.
2. Report any information that makes me feel uncomfortable to my parents or
my teacher.
3. Don't to banking transactions or other important assessments on public
wifi.
4. Never agree to get together with someone you “meet” online unless my
parents agree and come with me to meet them in a public place.
5. Never send a person your picture or anything else without first checking
with my parents.
6. Never respond to any mean or unkind messages. Tell parents/teacher any
messages make you feel uncomfortable.
7. Practice safe browsing, internet is where one careless click could expose
personal data or infect your device with malware.
8. Make online transactions from secured sites, cybercriminals are most eager
to wait for you credit card and bank account details. Only supply this
information to encrypted connections.
9. Be a good online citizen and not do anything that hurts other people or is
against the law.
10.Know how to report, if any mishappenings occurs to you then one should
immediately report to the concerning cyber authority of your area.
A guide for victims of cyber crime :-
Law does provide a remedy against most of the prevalent cyber crimes. 'Cyber crime' is not a
defined term but a catch-all phrase attributable to any offence involving an internet device.
Most of the cyber crimes are listed under the Information Technology Act (IT Act), 2000, which
was amended in 2008.

The Indian Penal Code (IPC) could also be called in to initiate prosecution against cyber crimes
or to supplement the provisions of the IT Act. For instance, offences like hacking, data theft,
virus attacks, denial of service attacks, illegal tampering with source codes including
ransomware attacks could be prosecuted U/ S.43 of the IT Act.
Remedies for financial fraud

Apart from the criminal processes, S.46 IT Act also provides for remedies against data theft,
hacking, virus attacks and financial frauds covered under Chapter IX (S.43 to S.45) by filing an
application before the adjudicating officer. Presently, the ad-hoc system of the secretary of the
IT ministry acting as the said authority continues. This remedy has been very successfully
availed of by victims of financial frauds.

How to Report Cyber crimes in India

Step 1- In case of any cybercrime, immediately approach the Law Enforcement Agency (LEA) i.e.
Cyber Crime Bench or the nearest Police Station in your area. Here you can lodge FIR for
commission of cybercrime under the relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act,
2000.

Step 2– The LEA then approaches the Indian Computer Response Team (CERT-in) for
information pertaining to Technical Analysis of crime like IP address and URL details.

CERT-in- The CERT-In has been established under Section 70B of Information Technology
(Amendment) Act 2008. The CERT-in has been conferred with the following functions in the
area of cyber security:

● Collection, analysis and dissemination of information on cyber incidents

● Forecast and alerts of cyber security incidents
● Emergency measures for handling cyber security incidents
● Coordination of cyber incident response activities