Crime and Cyber Criminals: A Global Problem

Contents

1. Introduction-Crime and Cyber Criminals: -A Global Problem

2. History and Evolution of Cyber Crime

3. Characteristics of Cyber Crime

4. Classification of Cyber Crime

5. Role of technology in Cyber Crime

6. Technology Assessment

7. Process of search and Arrest (Role of Incumbent)

8. Prosecution of Cyber Crime

9. Interface of Cyber Crime and Indian law

10.Standard operation procedure

11.Case study

12. Who are Cyber Crime

13. Precautions

14. Conclusion
Crime and Cyber Criminals: A Global Problem

Abstract

“CYBER” Is a prefix used to describe a person thing or idea as part of

the computer and information age. Today, Cybercrime has caused lot of

damages to individuals, organizations and even the Government.

Cybercrime detection methods and laws and classification methods

have come up with varying levels of success for preventing and

protecting data from such attacks. However, this context shows that

there are many countries facing this problem even today and United

States of America is leading with maximum damage due to the

cybercrime over the years. According to the recent survey carried out it

was noticed that year 2022 saw the monetary damage of nearly 781.84

million U.S. dollars. This paper describes about the common areas

where cybercrime usually occurs and the different types of cybercrimes

that are committed today. In addition, some of the case studies related

to cybercrimes are also laid down.

Keywords- financial crimes, cyber stalking, telecommunication frauds,

e-mail related crimes, cyber criminals, email spoofing, email bombing.

I. INTRODUCTION
The term crime is denoted as an unlawful act which is punishable by a
state. However, certain purposes have no statutory definition provided..
It is harmful not only to some individual but also to the community or
the state. Cyber crime has nothing to do with the law enforced. It
involves computer or computer networks. A computer network is
basically the collection of communicating nodes that helps in
transferring data across. The nodes at any given time could be a
computer, the laptop, smart phones etc. Cybercrime encompasses any
criminal act dealing with computers and networks. It includes crime
conducted through the Internet. The Internet is basically the network of
networks used across for communication and sharing of data.
Cybercrime also known as the computer crime is the use of an
instrument for illegal ends, such as committing fraud, trafficking in
child pornography and intellectual property, stealing identities, or
violating privacy.

With the advancement of the Internet technologies like the 2G

and 3G…, the global village is effectively sharing and communicating
vital data(s) across the network.

The term cyber crime may be judicially interpreted in some

judgments passed by courts in India. However it is not defined in any
act or statute passed by the Indian Legislature. Cyber Crime is an
uncontrollable evil having its base in the misuse of growing dependence
on computers in modern life. Usage of computer and other allied
technology in daily life is growing rapidly and has become an urge
which facilitates user convenience. It is a medium which is infinite and
immeasurable. Whatsoever the good internet does to us, it has its dark
sides too. Some of the newly emerged cybercrimes are cyber-stalking
cyber-terrorism, e-mail spoofing, e-mail bombing, cyber pornography,
cyber-defamation etc. Some conventional crimes may also come under
the category of cybercrimes if they are committed though the medium of
computer or Internet.

2. HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF CYBERCRIME

 The first recorded Cyber Crime took place in the year

1834 in France before the internet was invented. Attackers stole
financial market information by accessing the French telegraph
system.

 The purchasing capacity of almost the entire population until

IBM’s came into being wherein it introduced its stand-alone
“personal computer” in 1981. and exposing may to the rewards of
quick data access and manipulation that, up to that time, had
been realized by few.

 The Internet was first started by the US department of defense in

1960.

 The First Network was known as ARPANET, with the development

of Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol, World Wide
Web and Hypertext the internet become rage all over the world.

 The Personal computers become cheaper and become household

item at the start of 21st century in India.

   In India the internet services started by the state-owned Videsh

Sanchar Nigam Limited in year 1995 .
  The government has ended the monopoly of VSNL and market it
opened to private operators. At that point, the internet users in
India are 0.1% of total population, and now India has become the
2nd largest country in terms of internet users after China with
33.22% people using internet.

3. CHARACTERISTICS OF CYBER CRIME

The Concept of Cyber Crime is very different from the traditional

crime. Also due to the growth of Internet Technology, this crime has
gained serious and unfettered attention as compared to the traditional
crime. So, it is necessary to examine the peculiar characteristics of
Cyber Crime.

1. History and Evolution of Cybercrimes:-

Cyber Crimes can only be committed through the technology, thus

to commit this kind of crime one has to be very skilled in internet and
computers and internet to commit such a crime. The people who have
committed Cyber Crime are well educated and have deep understanding
of the usability of internet, and that’s made work of police machinery
very difficult to tackle the perpetrators of Cyber Crime.

2. Geographical challenges-

In cyberspace the geographical boundaries reduced to zero. A

Cyber Criminal in no time sitting in any part of the world commit crime
in other corner of world. For Example a hacker sitting in India hack in
the system placed in United States.
 3. Virtual World-

The act of Cyber Crime takes place in the cyber space and the
criminal who is committing this act is physically outside the cyber
space. Every activity of the criminal while committing that crime is done
over the virtual world.

4. Collection of Evidence-

It is very difficult to collect evidence of Cyber Crime and prove

them in court of law due to the nature of Cyber Crime. The criminal in
Cyber Crime invokes jurisdiction of several countries while committing
the cyber rime and at the same time he is sitting some place safe where
he is not traceable.

5. Magnitude of crime unimaginable-

The Cyber Crime has the potential of causing injury and loss of life
to an extent which cannot be imagined. The offences like cyber
terrorism, cyber pornography etc has wide reach and it can destroy the
websites, steal data of the companies in no time.

4. CLASSIFICATION OF CYBER CRIME

In this Content examines the acts wherein computer or technology

is tool for an unlawful act. The kind of activities usually involves a
modification of conventional crime by using informational technology.
Here is the list of prevalent Cyber Crimes, some of them widely spread
and some are not prevalent on larger scale. The Cyber Crimes are
discussed below-

A. Financial Crimes

With the increasing demand of the on-line banking the financial crimes
have become very alarming. Financial crimes include credit card frauds,
stealing money from on-line banks etc. The criminals of credit card
fraud get information from their victims often by impersonating a
government official or people from financial organizations asking for
their credit information. The victims fall prey to this without proper
inquiries and give away their credit card information to these criminals.
In these ways, criminals may steal their identity and the consequences
are mostly financially damaging.

B. Cyber Pornography

Pornographic websites which allow downloading of pornographic

movies, videos and pictures, on-line pornography magazines (photos,
writings etc.), all come under this category.

The word ‘Pornography’ derived from Greek words ‘Porn’

and ‘Graphing’ means writing about prostitutes, or referred to any work
of art of literature dealing with sex and sexual themes. Defining the
term pornography is very difficult and it does not have any specific
definition in the eyes of law as every country has their own customs and
tradition. The act of pornography in some countries is legal but in some
it is illegal and punishable.
The reason why we do not have a clear definition as far as pornography
is concerned is that we do not have uniform standard culture and ethics
in the world nor do we have uniform laws which defines the
pornography.

In the modern world sex sells and sells extremely well, and the fact
is that present pornography industry is larger than any other company
or combination of companies in the world. The advent of internet in the
world has started the new chapter in the porn industry. The porn
industry finds perfect place in internet to spread pornographic material
all over the world.

According to the internet filter review report of 2022,

there are 4.2 million websites offering porn content to the world. 68
million daily search engine requests are made and 72 million worldwide
user visit adult sites per month. 42.7 percent of total users who use
internet watch pornographic material over the internet.

C. Drug Trafficking

Drug traffickers contribute a major part of Cyber Crime to sell narcotics

using the latest technologies for encrypting mails. They arrange where
and how to make the exchanges, mostly using couriers. Since there is
no personal communication between the buyer and dealer, these
exchanges are more comfortable for intimidated people to by illegal
drugs and even other items.

D. Cyber Terrorism
Terrorism acts which are committed in cyberspace are called cyber
terrorism. Cyber terrorism may include a simple broadcast of
information on the Internet about bomb attacks which may happen at a
particular time in the future. Cyber terrorists are people who threaten
and coerce and individual, an organization or even a government by
attacking them through computers and networks for their personal,
political or social benefits.

E. Online Gambling

On-line gambling offered by thousands of websites that have their

servers hosted abroad. These websites are the one of the most
important sites for money launderers.

F. Cyber Stalking

‘Staking’ as has been defined in Oxford dictionary, means “pursuing

stealthily”. Cyber stalking is following and individual’s or organization’s
whereabouts on the Internet. These may include sending threatening or
non-threatening messages on the victim’s bulletin boards, which may be
by social networking sites or even through e-mails.

G E-mail Spoofing and Phishing Scams

Cyber criminals often spoof e-mails of known and unknown individuals.

E-mail spoofing basically means sending an-email from a source while it
appears to have been sent from another e-mail. E-mail spoofing is a
very common cause of monetary damages.

H. Theft in the Services of Telecommunication

Individuals and criminal organizations can gain access to the
switchboards (PBX) of an organization’s switchboard and obtain the
access to their dial-in or dial-out circuits. This allows them to make free
calls to any local or distant number. Theft of telecommunication
services has been one of the earliest forms of Cyber Crime and is
considered to be a misdemeanor. The criminal is usually asked to pay a
fine with a short amount of jail time.

I. Piracy of Telecommunication

Digital technology today, has allowed the perfect reproduction of prints

and dissemination of graphics, sound and other multimedia
combinations. This has been an important concern to the owners of the
copyrighted materials. When the creators of a particular work are not
able to gain profit from their own creations, it leads to severe financial
loss and a great effect on creative efforts generally.

J. Dissemination of Offensive Materials

These are the materials that are thought to be objectionable and exist in
the cyberspace. It includes materials which are of sexually explicit in
nature, racist propaganda, explosive objects and devices, and codes for
fabrication of the incendiary devices. Telecommunication services are
also commonly used to harass, threaten, and intrude the
communications from phone calls to contemporary manifestation of
cyber stalking.

K. Laundering E-money and Evasion of Taxes

For quite a while, electronic funds transfers have been assisting in
hiding and transportation of crimes. The origin of ill-gotten gains will
greatly be concealed by the emerging technologies today. Taxation
authorities may easily conceal those legitimately derived income. There
is no separate law for this type of crime committed using computer and
a network, but it falls directly under the laws which cover these offenses
in general.

L. Extortion, Terrorism and Electronic Vandalism

Unlike before, the western society of industries is depending upon a

complex data processing and the telecommunications systems.
Hampering or damaging these systems can lead to destructive
consequences. Vandalism in general can be considered as the denial-of-
service attacks, bot-nets, or several other harmful network attacks.
Extortion is the act of demanding the cease of an attack or the refrain of
initiating an attack by means of money. The penalties for computer
vandalism differs according to the amount of damages and losses it
cause, whereas the penalties of extortion are covered by the laws and
rules of this type of felony.

M. Fraud in Sales and Investments

Cyberspace has now availed a lot of investment opportunities like

bonds or stocks, sale and leaseback of automatic teller machines,
telephone lotteries etc. Fraudsters may use a wide variety of tools to
spread their information on the Internet.

 High-return or “risk-free”Investments,
 Pyramid Schemes and
 “Ponzi” schemes.

G. Fraud in Transfer of Electronic Funds

Electronic transfer systems are proliferating and the same goes with the
risks that such type of transactions may be intercepted or diverted.
There is no doubt that the E-fund transfer system has sudden and wide
acceptance globally. With the usage of electronic fund transfer system,
there is no doubt that this system will enhance the risk. The transfer of
funds over the Internet may be diverted by the hackers. E-transfer is
highly vulnerable in terms of crimes such as thefts and frauds.

The graph in Fig. 1 shows the statistics of the total amount of monetary
damage caused by having cybercrime from 2010 to 2022. This statistic
was reported to IC3. In the year 2010, the total amount of loss incurred
was 17.8 million U.S. dollars. Year 2010 showed a hike of about 559.7
million U.S. dollars and later by 2022 the monetary damage grew to
781.84 million U.S. dollars which is certainly alarming.
 1.Graph
G
Graph 1.

Figure 1. Amount of monetary damage caused by cyber crime from 2010

to 2022 (in million U.S. dollars) reported to the IC3

Symantec – A famous Security Firm, carried out a detailed study and

has been able to find out the top ranked 20 countries that were facing
and/or causing most of the activities of cybercrime. While gathering this
list, Symantec observed and found the number of websites that host
phishing sites. These phishing websites were designed in such a way
that the end user could not distinguish the real sites from these fake
ones. The design was made to trick users so that the computer user
discloses their personal information or banking account information. In
its further investigation, Symantec was successfully able to acquire the
data including the number of bot-infected systems. These systems were
meticulously controlled by the cybercriminals.

The higher rate of cybercrime was found to be in the United States of

America. This could be because the country is well facilitated with the
brooding uninterrupted connection.

Table 1 shows the countries that had been the victims of cybercrimes
such as sharing malicious computer activities, spam messages,
phishing etc. The table 1 shows the six factors;

i. Share of malicious computer activity,

 ii. Malicious code rank,
iii. Spam zombies rank,
iv. Phishing web site hosts rank,
v. Bot rank and
vi. Attack origin,

These factors contribute to authenticate its cybercrime ranking as

conducted by Symantec security organization.

TABLE I. COUNTRY LISTS WITH SIX CONTRIBUTING FACTORS TO

CYBERCRIME. [15]

Table

From the pie chart given at Fig. 2, it is quite evident that United States
of America had suffered a lot due to cybercrime. The loss that had
incurred has been tremendous other countries as well. China stands at
the second position. Then the countries like Germany and Britain stood
next, who had to bear the loss, occurred due to cybercrime. Countries
like Brazil, Spain shares almost the same percentage of cybercrime
happening. Similarly, Italy, France, Turkey, and Poland stand with the
same percentage of cybercrime caused at their countries respectively.
India shares 3% of the malicious computer activities. Argentina,
Australia and Israel share only 1% of the malicious computer activities.
Mexico has the highest rank for hosting the phishing websites. Australia
ranks the highest for bot- activities.

Table

Figure 2. Top 20 Countries with Cyber Crime.

5 .Role of Technology in Cyber Crime investigation.

For conducting cyber-crime investigation, certain special skills and
scientific tools are required without which the investigation is not
possible. Due to the Information Technology Act, 2000 (“IT Act”),
 certain provisions of Criminal Procedure Code and the Evidence
Act, have been amended. Along with this, certain new regulations
had been enforced by the Indian legal system to meet with the need
of cyber-crime investigate. To investigate the accused in this regard
to the cyber offences, has been entailed in Section 78 of the IT Act,
which says that “notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of
Criminal Procedure, 1973, a police officer not below the rank of
Inspector shall investigate any offence under this Act”. Nevertheless,
the IT Act is not sufficient to meet the necessity, therefore the
Criminal Procedure Code, 1978 and the Indian Penal Code, 1860,
were also amended accordingly to introduce cyber-crime under their
ambit. This gives power to the Inspector to register and investigate
the cyber-crime as like another crime.
To help the understanding of the Investigating Officers, a compilation of
various devices and the potential evidences these devices may
contain is provided below.
6 Technical Assessment
Scene of Offence: Cyber Café
 Identify number of computer systems present in the cybercafé.
 Identify number of computer systems connected to Internet.
 Obtain details about the network topology and architecture (client — Server).
 Obtain the CCTV/Web camera clippings, if any.
 Whether any user management software is used by the cybercafé owner?
 Obtain the log register of Internet users for the relevant period.
 Check the formatting of storage devices policy adopted by the cybercafé
owner.
 Check the hardware replacements done by the cybercafé owner.
  Check the policy regarding removal media usage on the cybercafé systems.

8 Process of search & Arrest (Role of Incumbent)

The power of the police office and other officers to enter, search etc. is
entailed in Section 80 (1) of the IT Act, which says that, notwithstanding
anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, any police
officer, not below the rank of the Inspector or any other officer of the
Central Government or State Government authorized by the Central
Government in this regard, may enter any public place, search and
arrest without warrant any person, who is reasonably suspected of
having committed or of committing or about to commit an offence under
the IT Act.

Pursuant to Section 80 (2) of the IT Act, any person who is arrested

under sub-section (1) by an officer other than a police officer then such
officer shall, without any unreasonable delay, take or send the person
arrested before a magistrate having jurisdiction in the case or before the
officer-in-charge of a police station.

The Government of India had launched the online cyber-crime reporting

portal, www.cybercrime.gov.in, which is a citizen-centric initiative, to
allow the complainants to lodge complaints relating to child
pornography/child sexual abuse material or any content which is
sexual in nature. The Central Government has launched a scheme for
formulating of Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) [3] to handle
the cybercrime incidents in India, in an inclusive & coordinated
manner.

The said scheme has following seven components:

 National Cybercrime Threat Analytics Unit (TAU)

 National Cybercrime Forensic Laboratory (NCFL)
 National Cybercrime Training Centre (NCTC)
 Cybercrime Ecosystem Management
  Platform for Joint Cybercrime Investigation Team
 National Cybercrime Reporting Portal
 National Cyber Research and Innovation Centre (NCR&IC)
The government is also planning to set up Regional Cyber Crime
Coordination Centres at respective States/UTs.

By following below-mentioned steps, one can report a cyber-crime

online:

Step 1: Go to https://www.cybercrime.gov.in/Accept.aspx.

Step 2: Click on ‘Report Other Cyber Crimes’ on the menu.

Step 3: Create ‘Citizen login’.

Step 4: Click on ‘File a Complaint’.

Step 4: Read the conditions and accept them.

Step 5: Register your mobile number and fill in your name and State.

Step 6: Fill in the relevant details about the offence.

Note: One can also report anonymously.
Source:  https://www.cybercrime.gov.in/UploadMedia/MHA-
CitizenManualReportOtherCyberCrime-v10.pdf
One can report a cyber-crime by:

 Filing a written complaint in nearest, any Cyber Cell

 Lodging an F.I.R (First Information Report)
 Filing a complaint
at https://www.cybercrime.gov.in/Accept.aspx
After filing of a complaint / F.I.R., the process of investigation, is hereby
diagrammatically presented below:

Source:  http://www.dynotech.com/articles/images/crimescene.jpg

In case the response has not been appropriate then the complainant
can write to State / UT Nodal Officer and Grievance Officer, the details
of which can be accessed
here: https://www.cybercrime.gov.in/Webform/Crime_NodalGrivanceLi
st.aspx.

Recently,, a new feature “Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting

and Management System” has been activated for prevention of money
loss in case of Cyber Financial Fraud; for immediate reporting the
complainant can Call 155260 (9 AM – 6 PM only) and further details can
be accessed from ‘Citizen Manual’ under “Resources Section”
at www.cybercrime.gov.in.

9 Prosecution for cyber-crimes

Some common cyber-crimes incidents which attract prosecution as per
the applicable provisions of the IT Act, are provided herein below:

It is created for provoking a religious group to act or pass

 
obnoxious/ objectionable remarks against a public figure
or the country etc.
Online
hate
Applicable provisions:
community
Section 66A of IT Act + 153A & 153B of the Indian Penal
 
Code (IPC)

If a person’s email account is hacked and offensive /

indecent emails are sent to people who are in person’s
Email address book.
account
hacking
Applicable provisions: Sections 43, 66, 66A, 66C, 67,
67A and 67B of IT Act.

The Website’s homepage is swapped with a defamatory

Web or pornographic content/ page.
defacement
Applicable provisions:  Sections 43 and 66 of IT Act and
  Sections 66F, 67 and 70 of IT Act also apply in some
cases.
 The terrorists are using virtual & physical storage for
Cyber
hiding data & records of their illegal business.
terrorism
Applicable provisions: terrorism laws apply + Section 66F
 
& 69 of IT Act.

Phishing It involves acquiring sensitive information fraudulently

and email by masquerading as a reliable & legitimate entity.
scams
Applicable provisions: Section 66, 66A and 66D of IT Act
  + Section 420 of IPC

10 Interface Of Cyber Crimes And Indian Law

1. Introductory: The Indian Parliament considered it necessary to give

effect to the resolution by which the General Assembly of the UN
Commission on International Trade Law adopted Model Law on E-
Commerce. As a Consequence of which the Information Technology Act
2000 was passed and enforced on 17th May 2000. The preamble of this
Act states its objective to legalize e-commerce and further amend the
IPC 1860, the Indian Evidence Act 1872, The Banker Books Evidence
Act 1891 and the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. The basic purpose to
incorporate the changes in these Acts is to make them compatible with
the Act of 2000. So that they may regulate and control the affairs of the
cyber world in an effective manner.

2. Statutory provisions which deal with the cyber offences (Section

65 to 67B) and (Sections 71 to 74):
A. [Section 65] (Tampering with computer source documents):-
Tampering with computer source documents.-Whoever knowingly or
intentionally conceals, destroys or alters or intentionally or knowingly
causes another to conceal, destroy or alter any computer source code
used for a computer, computer programmer, computer system or
computer network, when the computer source code is required to be
kept or maintained by law for the time being in force, shall be
punishable with imprisonment up to three years, or with fine which
may extend up to two lakh rupees, or with both.

Explanation.-For the purposes of this section, "computer source code"

means the listing of programmers, computer commands, design and
layout and programmer analysis of computer resource in any form.

B. [Section 66] hacking with computer system:-

(1) Whoever with the intent to cause or knowing that he is likely to
cause wrongful loss or damage to the public or any person destroys or
deletes or alters any information residing in a computer resource or
diminishes its value or utility or affects it injuriously by any means,
commits hacking.

(2) Whoever commits hacking shall be punished with imprisonment up

to three years, or with fine which may extend up to two lakh rupees, or
with both.

C. [Section 67] Publishing of information which is obscene in electronic

form.-Whoever publishes or transmits or causes to be published in the
electronic form, any material which is lascivious or appeals to the
prurient interest or if its effect is such as to tend to deprave and corrupt
persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to
read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it, shall be
punished on first conviction with imprisonment of either description for
a term which may extend to five years and with fine which may extend
to one lakh rupees and in the event of a second or subsequent
conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may
extend to ten years and also with fine which may extend to two lakh
rupees.

D. [Section 67 A] Punishment for publishing or transmitting of material

containing sexually explicit act, etc., in electronic form:- Whoever
publishes or transmits or causes to be published in the electronic form,
any material which is lascivious or appeal to the prurient interest or if
its effect is such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are
likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear
the matter contained or embodied in it, shall be punished on first
conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may
extend to five years and with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees
and in the event of a second or subsequent conviction with
imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten
years and also with fine which may extend to two lakh rupees.

E. [Section 67 B] Punishment for publishing or transmitting of material

depicting children in sexually explicit act, etc., in electronic form:-
whoever –

a. publishes or transmits or causes to be published or transmitted

material in any electronic form which depicts children engaged in
sexually explicit act or conduct; or

b. creates text or digital images, collects, seeks, browses, downloads,

advertises, promotes, exchanges or distributes material in any
electronic form depicting children in obscene or indecent or sexually
explicit manner;

c. cultivates, entices or induces children to online relationship with one

or more children for and on sexually explicit act or in a manner that
may offend a reasonable adult on the computer resources; or

d. facilities abusing children online, or

e. records in any electronic form own abuse or that of others pertaining

to sexually explicit act with children

shall be punishable on first conviction with imprisonment of either

description for a term which may extend to 5 years and with fine which
may extend to ten lakh rupees and in the event of second or subsequent
conviction with imprisonment of either description of a term which may
be extend to 7 years and also with fine which may extend to 10 lakh
rupees.

F. [Section 71] Penalty for misrepresentation.-Whoever makes any

misrepresentation to, or suppresses any material fact from, the
Controller of the Certifying Authority for obtaining any license or Digital
Signature Certificate, as the case may be, shall be punished with
imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine
which may extend to one lakh rupees, or with both.

G. [Section 72] Penalty for breach of confidentiality and privacy.-Save as

otherwise provided in this Act or any other law for the time being in
force, any person who, in pursuance of any of the powers conferred
under this Act, rules or regulations made there under, has secured
access to any electronic record, book, register, correspondence,
information, document or other material without the consent of the
person concerned discloses such electronic record, book, register,
correspondence, information, document or other material to any other
person shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may
extend to two years, or with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees,
or with both.

[Section 72 A] Punishment for disclosure of information for breach of

lawful contract:- Any person including an intermediary who, while
providing services under the terms of lawful contract, has secured
access to any material containing personal information about another
person, with the intent to cause or knowingly that he is likely to cause
wrongful loss or wrongful gain discloses, without consent of the person
concerned, or in breach of a lawful contract, such material to any other
person, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may
extend to 3 years or with fine which m extend to 5 lakh rupees or with
both.

H. [Section 73] Penalty for publishing Digital Signature Certificate false

in certain particulars.-

(1) No person shall publish a Digital Signature Certificate or otherwise

make it available to any other person with the knowledge that- (a) the
Certifying Authority listed in the certificate has not issued it; or (b) the
subscriber listed in the certificate has not accepted it; or (c) the
certificate has been revoked or suspended, unless such publication is
for the purpose of verifying a digital signature created prior to such
suspension or revocation.

(2) Any person who contravenes the provisions of sub-section (1) shall
be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two
years, or with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees, or with both.
I. [Section 74] Publication for fraudulent purpose.-Whoever knowingly
creates, publishes or otherwise makes available a Digital Signature
Certificate for any fraudulent or unlawful purpose shall be punished
with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with
fine which may extend to one lakh rupees, or with both.

Certain new cyber offences cover by Amendment Act 10 of 2009 of

IT Act, 2000 and they are:
[Section 66A.] Punishment for sending offensive
messages through communication services: Any person who sends, by
means of a computer resource or a communication device,—

(a) Any information that is grossly offensive or has menacing character;

or

(b) any information which he knows to be false, but for the purpose of
causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury,
criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred or ill will, persistently by making
use of such computer resource or a communication device,

(c) any electronic mail or electronic mail message for the purpose of
causing annoyance or inconvenience or to deceive or to mislead the
addressee or recipient about the origin of such messages, shall be
punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three
years and with fine.

[Section 66 B] Punishment for dishonestly receiving stolen computer

resource or communication device:- Whoever dishonestly received or
retains any stolen computer resource or communication device knowing
or having reason to believe the same to be stolen computer resource or
communication device, shall be punished with imprisonment of either
description for a term which may extend to three years or with fine
which may extend to rupees one lakh or with both.

[Section 66C] Punishment for identity theft:- Whoever, fraudulently or

dishonestly make use of the electronic signature, password or any other
unique identification feature of any other person, shall be punished
with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to
three years and shall also be liable to fine with may extend to rupees
one lakh.

[Section 66 D] Punishment for cheating by personation by using

computer resource:- Whoever, by means for any communication device
or computer resource cheats by personating, shall be punished with
imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three
years and shall also be liable to fine which may extend to one lakh
rupee.

[Section 66 E] Punishment for violation of privacy:- Whoever,

intentionally or knowingly captures, publishes or transmits the image of
a private area of any person without his or her consent, under
circumstances violating the privacy of that person, shall be punished
with imprisonment which may extend to three years or with fine not
exceeding two lakh rupees, or with both.

[Section 66 F] Punishment for cyber terrorism:-

(1) Whoever,—
(A) With intent to threaten the unity, integrity, security or sovereignty of
India or to strike terror in the people or any section of the people by—

(i) Denying or cause the denial of access to any person authorized to

access Computer resource; or

(ii) Attempting to penetrate or access a computer resource without

authorization or exceeding authorized access; or

(iii) introducing or causing to introduce any computer contaminant; and

by means of such conduct causes or is likely to cause death or injuries
to persons or damage to or destruction of property or disrupts or
knowing that it is likely to cause damage or disruption of supplies or
services essential to the life of the community or adversely affect the
critical information infrastructure specified under section 70, or

(B) knowingly or intentionally penetrates or accesses a computer

resource without authorization or exceeding authorized access, and by
means of such conduct brains access to information, data or computer
database that is restricted for reasons for the security of the State or
foreign relations, or any restricted information, data or computer
database, with reasons to believe that such information, data or
computer database so obtained may be used to cause or likely to cause
injury to the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the
security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order,
decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or
incitement to an offence, or to the advantage of any foreign nation,
group of individuals or otherwise, commits the offence of cyber
terrorism.

(2) Whoever commits or conspires to commit cyber terrorism shall be

punishable with imprisonment which may extend to imprisonment for
life.’

3. Extraterritorial jurisdiction (Section 75): Act to apply for offence or

contravention committed outside India.-
(1) Subject to the provisions of sub-section (2), the provisions of this Act
shall apply also to any offence or contravention committed outside India
by any person irrespective of his nationality.

(2) For the purposes of sub-section (1), this Act shall apply to an offence
or contravention committed outside India by any person if the act or
conduct constituting the offence or contravention involves a computer,
computer system or computer network located in India.

4. Power to investigate offences (Section 78):

Power to investigate offences.-Notwithstanding anything contained in

the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974), a police officer not
below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police shall investigate any
offence under this Act.
10. Standard Operating Procedures – A Flow Chart
11 .CASE STUDY:

CYBER ATTACK BY TAMIL TIGERS

In 1998, with surges of violence committed in Sri

Lankan over Several years, attacks in cyber-space were the
next area to target. The group known as the Tamil Tigers; a
violent guerrilla organization bombarded Sri Lankan
embassies with over 800 e-mails a day. This was carried out
over a two-week period. The attack by the e-mail message
conveyed the message, “We are the Internet Black Tigers and
we are doing this to disrupt your communications.” After the
messages created such major disruption the local intelligence
authorities were dispatched to investigate. The authorities
declared the attack as the first known attack on the Sri
Lankan by the terrorists on any computer system in the
nation.

CYBER ATTACK ON ESTONIA

The small Baltic country of Estonia was cyber-attacked

from Russia. Ever since the government of the Baltic state
decided to remove a war memorial to the Red Army from a
square in the capital, Tallinn, Russian outrage has ensued.
This took the form of demonstration and even riots. But then
something extraordinary happened: quickly, and wholly
without warning, the whole country was subjected to a
barrage of cyber-warfare, disabling the websites of
government ministries, political parties, banks and
newspapers. NATO has sent its top cyber-terrorism experts
to Tallinn, with western democracies caught on the hop over
the implications of such an attack.

Sony Play Station Network, Microsoft’s Xbox Live

network case

In this case the confidential data of the employees and

their families has been leaked in 2014. The company has
faced loss in revenue due to movies being leaked, sensitive
employee information was disclosed including their salaries
and social security numbers, and executive emails were
publicized. The attack was hatched by the Lizard Squad, an
organization that refers to itself as a cyber-terrorist. Then
they launched a massive Distributed successful criminal
business model with billions of dollars in play. We have now
entered a third significant shift in the threat landscape, one
of cyber-espionage and cyber-sabotage.”

PATNA: Six districts of Patna, Nawada, Nalanda, Gaya,

Sheikhpura and Jamuia a hotsports of cybercrime in the
state.
Bihar: Cases of cybercrime up 5.5 times in seven years

PATNA: Incidents of cybercrime increased 5.5 times in the

state in 2019 compared to 2012. The Official data compiled
by the state economic offence unit revealed that altogether to
280

Cases of cybercrime were transferred to the cyber cell at the

police headquarter for technical assistance in 2019 compared
to only 51 cases in 2012.

The figures also revealed that there were around 7 crore cell-
phone users in the state of them, four crore people were
using Smartphone.

12. WHO ARE CYBER CRIMINALS?

Cyber criminals range from a wide variety of age groups:

A. Kids (age group 9-16)

Although it is hard to believe, kids can also be cyber

criminals knowingly or unknowingly. The most amateur
hackers comprise of teenagers. To these teenagers, it appears
to be a matter of pride to be able to hack into a computer
system or to a website. They may also commit the crimes
without actually knowing that what they are doing is crime.

B. Organized Hacktivists

[9] Hackers who come together with a particular motive are

called hacktivists. These groups mostly operate on a political
basis. While in other cases, [3] their motives may be social
activism or religious activism or any other.

C. Disgruntled Employees

[9] It is hard to imagine how spiteful displeased employees

can become. Up until now, these displeased employees have
the option of having a strike against their employers. But
now with the increase in dependence on computers and
automation of processes, disgruntled employers can do a lot
more harm to their employers by committing crimes via
computers which can bring their entire system down.

D. Professional Hackers

Extensive computerization has led to the storage of

information in electronic form in business organizations.
Hackers are employed by rival organizations to steal other
industrial information and secrets which can prove to be
beneficial for them. If hacking can retrieve the required
information from rival companies, the fact that physical
presence required to gain access is considered unnecessary.
This also leads to the temptation of companies hiring leads to
the temptation of companies hiring professional hackers to
do their dirty jobs.

13.Precautions To Be Taken By The Internet Receivers

To Avoid Or To Get Saved Of Becoming The Victim Of
Cyber Offences.

 Get educated. When arming yourself against

cybercrime, it's important to become aware of
the risks. By educating yourself on current
illegal trends, you can better understand
ways you can reduce the risk of becoming a
target. Awareness is the strongest weapon
you can obtain to protect yourself against
cybercrime.
 Use vigilance. It's a good idea to always be
vigilant when sharing personal information
over the Internet. It's important to make sure
you only share minimal, if any, personal
information with people you do not know. Be
conscientious of what information share even
if you think you are being careful. Often
criminals will talk with their victims for long
periods of time, piecing together bits of
personal information until they have a
complete profile. People you associate with or
meet online may not appear to be who they
say they are, after all one never knows who is
really sitting at the other end of a network
connection.
 Be careful with passwords. Do not ever enter
passwords or personal information on links
you received in email since emails can be
spoofed and/or used to "phish" for
information.
 Protect your computer. It's also important
you invest in installation of anti-virus, spy-
ware and firewall software. There are many
programs available that you can download for
free, or you can purchase a proprietary one.
There are several good websites available that
can advise you on how to select the right one
for you. One well-known website is C-
Net.com, and can be accessed at:
http://www.download.com/Antivi Rus-
Firewall-Spyware/?tag=dir.
 Read privacy policies. Another tip is to read
privacy policies of any online entity you
conduct business with. Be aware of what is
done with your personal information once
you do share it with a company or
 organization. While most of the businesses
you work with are legit, occasionally a
partnering organization may sell data to a
third party undesirable business you may not
want your information shared with.
 Most of the time you can opt-out of your
information being shared if you take the time
to read privacy policies.
 To prevent cyber stalking avoid disclosing
any information pertaining to oneself.
 Always use latest and update anti-virus
software to guard against virus attacks.
 Always keep backup volumes so that one
may not suffer data lose in case of virus
contamination.
 Never send your credit card number to any
site that is not secured to guard against
frauds.
 Website owners should watch traffic and
check any irregularity on the site – putting
 host-based intrusion detection devices on
servers may dot this.


So these are certain precautions which must
be taken by the netizens in order to protect
themselves from becoming a victim of cyber
crimes.
14. CONCLUSION

 From this study ,it has been found that Cyber Crime
are the offences that are committed by individuals or
group of individual with a criminal motive to nationally
and Internationally harm the victim using
telecommunication network such as internet.
  Today internet has taken the world by storm. With
advancing technology and increasing use of internet
scammers are also following new ways to target people
and real moneys.

 India reported 52,974incidants of Cyber Crime in

2021 ,as increase of nearly six percent from the
year before.  Telangana topped the chart.

 They are responsible for creating the disturbances in

normal computer functioning and
create many problems Viz.-(a) Financial losses

                                          (b)Cyber Pornography   

                                  (c)Drug
Trafficking

                                   (d)E-mail Spoofing, E-
mail Bombing

 It is very important for every individual to be aware of

this  crime and remain alert to avoid any loss.

REFERENCES

1 Cyber laws in dia.

2 Bihar police cybercrime investigation

[3] .en.wikipedia org/wiki/Crime

[4] searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/cyber

[5]www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cyber

[6] David Wall, “Cyber crimes and Internet”, Crime and the
Internet, by David S. Wall. ISBN 0-203-164504

[7] www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/cyber_crime.h ml

[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_crime

[9] Gurjeet Singh and Jatinder Singh, “Investigation Tools for

Cybercrime”, International Journal of Computer, ISSN 0974-2247,
Volume 4 Number 3, (2013) pp.141-154.

[10] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing

[11]www.ehow.com/facts_5144661_types_cybercrime_penalties.html

[12] http://www.myretirementpaycheck.or/fraud/c common-

types-of-fraud.aspx

[13] http://www.statista.com/statistics/267132/total-damage-
caused-by-bycyber-crime-in-the-us/

[14]http://timesofindia.indiantimes.com/city/patna Two-cases-
held-for-cyber-fraud/article show/34304971.cms

[15]http://satheeshgnair.blogspot.in/2009/06/selected-case-
studies-on-cyber-crime.html#Email_spoofing_ 329149830155074