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Crimes in Cyberspace: Right To Privacy and Other Issues - Academike
Crimes in Cyberspace: Right To Privacy and Other Issues - Academike
Crimes in Cyberspace: Right To Privacy and Other Issues - Academike
10/05/16, 6:44 PM
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procedural part.
INTRODUCTION
When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become
an outlaw.
Nelson Mandela
What does crime mean?
Crime, in modern times this term doesnt have any universally accepted definition, but one can
define crime, also called an offence as an act harmful not only to some individual, but also to
the community or the state also known as public wrong. Such acts are forbidden and
punishable by law. What is a criminal offence is defined by criminal law of each country. While
many countries have a crime catalogue known as the criminal code however in some common
law countries no such comprehensive statute exists.
The state has the power to severely restrict ones liberty for committing a crime. Modern
societies therefore adopt and adhere a criminal procedure during the investigation and trial of
the offence and only if found guilty, the offender may be sentenced to various punishments,
such as life imprisonment or in some jurisdictions like in India even death.
To be classified as a crime, the act of doing something bad also called as actus reus must be
usually accompanied by the intention to do something bad i.e. mens rea, with certain
exceptions like strict liability.
What is cyber crime?
Cyber crime is any criminal activity in which a computer or network is the source, target or tool
or place of crime. According to The Cambridge English Dictionary cyber crimes are the crimes
committed with the use of computers or relating to computers, especially through the internet.
Crimes which involve use of information or usage of electronic means in furtherance of crime are
covered under the ambit of cyber crime. Cyber space crimes may be committed against
persons, property, government and society at large.
The common types of cyber crimes are:http://www.lawctopus.com/academike/cyber-crimes-other-liabilities/
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White Hat Hackers They are those hackers who believe that information sharing is good,
and that it is their duty to share their expertise by facilitating access to information. However
there are some white hat hackers who are just joy riding on computer systems.
b)
Black Hat Hackers Black hat hackers cause damage after intrusion. They may steal or
modify data or insert viruses or worms which damage the system. They are also known as
crackers.
c)
Grey Hat Hackers These type of hackers are typically ethical but occasionally they can
violate the hacker ethics. They will hack into networks, stand-alone computers and software.
Network hackers try to gain unauthorized access to private computer networks just for
challenge, curiosity, and distribution of information.
2. Cyber Stalking Cyber stalking involves use of internet to harass someone. The
behavior
includes false accusations, threats etc. Normally, majority of cyber stalkers are men and the
majority of victims are women.
3. Spamming Spamming is sending of unsolicited bulk and commercial messages over the
internet. Although irritating to most email users, it is not illegal unless it causes damage such as
overloading network and disrupting service to subscribers or creates negative impact on
consumer attitudes towards Internet Service Provider.
4. Cyber Pornography With the increasing approach of internet to the people, there is also
a increase in the victimization of Women and children for sexual exploitation through internet.
Pedophiles (a person 16 years of age or older who is primarily or exclusively sexually attracted
to children who have not begun puberty) use the internet to send photos of illegal child
pornography to targeted children so as to attract children to such funs and later they are
sexually exploited for gains.
5. Cyber Phishing It is a criminally fraudulent process in which cyber criminal acquires
sensitive information such as username, passwords and credit card details by disguising as a
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civilian population or any segment thereof in furtherance of political or social objectives is called
cyber terrorism. Individuals and groups quite often try to exploit anonymous character of the
internet to threaten governments and terrorize the citizens of the country. [1]
Crime is both a social as well as a economic phenomenon. Its history is as old as human
society. Many books right from the pre-historic days, and mythological stories have spoken
about crimes committed by individuals be it against another individual like ordinary theft and
burglary or against the nation like spying, treason etc. Kautilyas Arthashastra which is written
around 350 BC, considered to be an authentic administrative treatise in India, discusses the
various crimes, security initiatives to be taken by the rulers, possible crimes in a state etc. and
also advocates punishment for the list of some stipulated offences. Different kinds of
punishments have been prescribed for listed offences and the concept of restoration of loss to
the victims has also been discussed in it.
Crime in any form adversely affects all the members of the society. In developing economies,
cyber crime has increased at rapid strides, due to the rapid diffusion of the Internet and the
digitization of economic activities. Thanks to the huge penetration of technology in almost all
walks of society right from corporate governance and state administration, up to the lowest level
of petty shop keepers computerizing their billing system, we find computers and other
electronic devices pervading the human life. The penetration is so deep that man cannot spend
a day without computers or a mobile. Snatching some ones mobile will tantamount to dumping
one in solitary confinement!
Internet is the fastest technique on earth that one can find these days and for everything it is the
best solution that people consider looking into. It has all the benefits and advantages like
communication, advertisement, online movie and songs downloads, emailing, instant
messaging and searching out the concerns and issues there are plenty of things that internet
has got wrong as well. There are different kinds of internet scams and frauds that are happening
and one needs to be very careful. This is something that has been bothering individuals and
organizations ever since internet was introduced and many a time, simple things could make
you a victim even when you are unaware of it.
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It is rightly said that technological development in every area is likely to cause drastic effects in
every walk of life. The scientific and technological advancement, especially in the field of
communication and information have created havoc thus, opening new vistas for the human
beings including the criminals. Todays crime reports reveal that many cyber crimes are
committed by assistance of internet and cell phones. On the other hand, legislatures have been
compelled to frame exclusive enactments to deal with crimes committed with the help of
concerned device. If one is to believe newspaper reports, many scandals such as C.D. rackets
were busted by the police. It is other side of revolution in the field of information and technology.
Under the Information Technology Act, 2000, there is a apparatus defined as computer which
means Any electronic magnetic, optical or other high speed data processing device or system
which performs logical arithmetical and memory functions by manipulations of electronic
magnetic or optical impulses and all input, output, processing storage, computer software, or
communication facilities which are connected and related to the computer in a computer
system or computer network. [2]
Development of Cyber Crime:Cyber Crime is neither defined in the IT Act 2000 nor in the I.T. Amendment Act 2008 nor in any
other legislation in India. To define cyber crime, we can say, it is just a combination of crime and
computer. To put it in simple terms any offence or crime in which a computer is used is a cyber
crime. Interestingly even a petty offence like stealing or pick-pocket can be brought within the
broader purview of cyber crime if the basic data or aid to such an offence is a computer or
information stored in a computer used (or misused) by the fraudster. It could be hackers
vandalizing ones site, viewing confidential information or stealing trade secrets or intellectual
property with the use of internet. It can also include denial of services and viruses attacks
preventing regular traffic from reaching your site.
Cyber crimes also includes criminal activities done with the use of computers which further
perpetuates crimes i.e. financial crimes, sale of illegal articles, pornography, online gambling,
intellectual property crime, e-mail, spoofing, forgery, cyber defamation, cyber stalking,
unauthorized access to Computer system, theft of information contained in the electronic form,
e-mail bombing, physically damaging the computer system etc. In a cyber crime, computer or
the data itself is the target or the object of offence or a tool in committing some other offence,
providing the necessary inputs for that offence. All such acts of crime will come under the
broader definition of cyber crime.
In the past, cybercrime has been committed by individuals or small groups of individuals.
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However, we are now seeing an emerging trend with traditional organized crime syndicates and
criminally minded technology professionals working together and pooling their resources and
expertise.
This approach has been very effective for the criminals involved. In 2007 and 2008 the cost of
cybercrime worldwide was estimated at approximately USD 8 billion. As for corporate cyber
espionage, cyber criminals have stolen intellectual property from businesses worldwide worth
up to USD 1 trillion.
folders i.e. via e-mails. At present harassment is common as usage of social sites i.e.
Orkut, hangout, zapak, Facebook, Twitter etc. increasing day by day.
Cracking: It is amongst the gravest cyber crimes known till date. In this a cyber criminal
broke into your computer systems without your knowledge and consent and Tampere
with your precious confidential data and information.
Cyber-Stalking: It means expressed or implied a physical threat that creates fear through
the use to computer technology such as internet, e-mail, phones, text messages,
webcam, websites or videos.
Hacking: It means unauthorized control/access over computer system and act of hacking
completely destroys the whole data as well as computer program. Hackers usually hacks
telecommunication and mobile network.
Dissemination of Obscene Material: It includes Indecent exposure/ Pornography (basically
child pornography), hosting of web site containing these prohibited materials. These
obscene matters may cause harm to the mind of the adolescent and tend to deprave or
corrupt their mind. This can create a huge blunder in the society.
SMS Spoofing: Spoofing is a blocking through spam which means the unwanted
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uninvited messages. Here a offender steals identity of another in the form of mobile phone
number and sending SMS via internet and receiver gets the SMS from the mobile phone
number of the victim.
Assault by Threat: it refers to threatening a person with fear for their lives or lives of their
families through the use of a computer network i.e. E-mail, videos or phones.
Page jacking: when a user, click on a certain link and an unexpected website gets opened
through that link then the ser is said to be pagejacked. This happens when someone
steals part of a real website and uses it in a fake site. If they use enough of the real site,
Internet search engines can be tricked into listing the fake site and people will visit it
accidentally. Unfortunately one cannot prevent page jacking but only can deal with it.
Advance fee scams: An advance fee scam is fairly easy to identify as you will be asked for
money or goods upfront in return for giving you credit or money later. These advance fee
scams can seem convincing and have taken in many people.
Defamation: It is an act of imputing any person with intent to lower down the dignity of the
person by hacking his mail account and sending some mails with using vulgar language to
unknown persons mail account.
E-Mail Spoofing: A spoofed e-mail may be said to be one, which misrepresents its origin.
It shows its origin to be different from which actually it originates.
Child Pornography: It involves the use of computer networks to create, distribute, or
access materials that sexually exploit underage children.
Carding: It means false ATM cards i.e. Debit and Credit cards used by criminals for their
monetary benefits through withdrawing money from the victims bank account mala-fidely.
There is always unauthorized use of ATM cards in this type of cyber crimes.
Cheating & Fraud: It means the person who is doing the act of cyber crime i.e. stealing
password and data storage has done it with having guilty mind which leads to fraud and
cheating.
ii) Crimes Against Persons Property:
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As a result of rapid growth in the international trade where businesses and consumers are
increasingly using computers to create, transmit and to store information in the electronic form
instead of traditional paper documents there are some of the offences which affect persons
property:
Intellectual Property Crimes: Any unlawful act by which the owner is deprived completely
or partially of his rights is an offence. The common form of IPR violation may be said to be
software piracy, infringement of copyright, trademark, patents, designs and service mark
violation, theft of computer source code, etc.
Cybersquatting: It means where two persons claim for the same Domain Name either by
claiming that they had registered the name first on by right of using it before the other or
using something similar to that previously. For example two similar names i.e.
www.yahoo.comand www.yaahoo.com.
Cyber Vandalism: Vandalism means deliberately destroying or damaging property of
another. Hence cyber vandalism means destroying or damaging the data when a network
service is stopped or disrupted. It may include within its purview any kind of physical harm
done to the computer of any person. These acts may take the form of the theft of a
computer, some part of a computer or a peripheral attached to the computer.
Hacking Computer System: Due to the hacking activity there will be loss of data as well
as computer. Also research especially indicates that those attacks were not mainly
intended for financial gain too and to diminish the reputation of particular person or
company.
Transmitting Virus: Viruses are programs that attach themselves to a computer or a file
and then circulate themselves to other files and to other computers on a network. They
usually affect the data on a computer, either by altering or deleting it. Worm attacks plays
major role in affecting the computerize system of the individuals.
Cyber Trespass: It means to access someones computer without the right authorization
of the owner and does not disturb, alter, misuse, or damage data or system by using
wireless internet connection.
Internet Time Thefts: Basically, Internet time theft comes under hacking. It is the use by an
unauthorized person, of the Internet hours paid for by another person. The person who
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gets access to someone elses IP user ID and password, either by hacking or by gaining
access to it by illegal means, uses it to access the Internet without the other persons
knowledge. You can identify time theft if your Internet time has to be recharged often,
despite infrequent usage.
iii) Cyber Crimes Against Government:
There are certain offences done by group of persons intending to threaten the international
governments by using internet facilities:
Cyber Terrorism: Cyber terrorism is a major burning issue in the domestic as well as global
concern. The common form of these terrorist attacks on the Internet is by distributed
denial of service attacks, hate websites and hate e-mails, attacks on sensitive computer
networks etc. Cyber terrorism activities endanger the sovereignty and integrity of the
nation.
Cyber Warfare: It refers to politically motivated hacking to conduct sabotage and
espionage. It is a form of information warfare sometimes seen as analogous to
conventional warfare although this analogy is controversial for both its accuracy and its
political motivation.
Distribution of pirated software: It means distributing pirated software from one computer
to another intending to destroy the data and official records of the government.-25
Possession of Unauthorized Information: It is very easy to access any information by the
terrorists with the aid of internet and to possess that information for political, religious,
social, ideological objectives.
iv) Cybercrimes Against Society at large:
An unlawful act done with the intention of causing harm to the cyberspace will affect large
number of persons:
Child Pornography: It involves the use of computer networks to create, distribute, or
access materials that sexually exploit underage children. It also includes activities
concerning indecent exposure and obscenity.
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Cyber Trafficking: It may be trafficking in drugs, human beings, arms weapons etc. which
affects large number of persons. Trafficking in the cyberspace is also a gravest crime.
Online Gambling: Online fraud and cheating is one of the most lucrative businesses that
are growing today in the cyber space. There are many cases that have come to light are
those pertaining to credit card crimes, contractual crimes, offering jobs, etc. [3]
Financial Crimes: This type of offence is common as there is rapid growth in the users of
networking sites and phone networking where culprit will try to attack by sending bogus
mails or messages through internet. Ex: Using credit cards by obtaining password illegally.
[4]
Forgery: It means to deceive large number of persons by sending threatening mails as
online business transactions are becoming the habitual need of todays life style. [5]
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more and more nations computerizing their governance, and e-commerce seeing an enormous
growth. Previously, most of international trade and transactions were done through documents
being transmitted through post and by telex only. Evidences and records, until then, were
predominantly paper evidences and paper records or other forms of hard-copies only. With
much of international trade being done through electronic communication and with email
gaining momentum, an urgent and imminent need was felt for recognizing electronic records i.e.
The data what is stored in a computer or an external storage attached thereto. The United
Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) adopted the Model Law on ecommerce in 1996. The General Assembly of United Nations passed a resolution in January
1997 inter alia, recommending all States in the UN to give favorable considerations to the said
Model Law, which provides for recognition to electronic records and according it the same
treatment like a paper communication and record.
Objectives of I.T. legislation in India: It is against this background the Government of India
enacted its Information Technology Act 2000 with the objectives as follows, stated in the
preface to the Act itself. to provide legal recognition for transactions carried out by means of
electronic data interchange and other means of electronic communication, commonly referred
to as electronic commerce, which involve the use of alternatives to paper-based methods of
communication and storage of information, to facilitate electronic filing of documents with the
Government agencies and further to amend the Indian Penal Code, the Indian Evidence Act,
1872, the Bankers Books Evidence Act, 1891 and the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 and for
matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
The Information Technology Act, 2000, was thus passed as the Act No.21 of 2000, got
Presidents assent on 9 June and was made effective from 17 October 2000.
The Act essentially deals with the following issues:
Legal Recognition of Electronic Documents
Legal Recognition of Digital Signatures
Offenses and Contraventions
Justice Dispensation Systems for cyber crimes. [6]
Amendment Act 2008: Being the first legislation in the nation on technology, computers and
ecommerce and e-communication, the Act was the subject of extensive debates, elaborate
reviews and detailed criticisms, with one arm of the industry criticizing some sections of the Act
to be draconian and other stating it is too diluted and lenient. There were some conspicuous
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omissions too resulting in the investigators relying more and more on the time-tested (one and
half century-old) Indian Penal Code even in technology based cases with the I.T. Act also being
referred in the process and the reliance more on IPC rather on the ITA.
Thus the need for an amendment a detailed one was felt for the I.T. Act almost from the year
2003-04 themselves. Major industry bodies were consulted and advisory groups were formed
to go into the perceived lacunae in the I.T. Act and comparing it with similar legislations in other
nations and to suggest recommendations. Such recommendations were analyzed and
subsequently taken up as a comprehensive Amendment Act and after considerable
administrative procedures; the consolidated amendment called the Information Technology
Amendment Act 2008 was placed in the Parliament and passed without much debate, towards
the end of 2008. This
Amendment Act got the President assent on 5 Feb 2009 and was made effective from 27
October 2009.
Some of the notable features of the ITAA are as follows:
Focusing on data privacy
Focusing on Information Security
Defining cyber caf
Making digital signature technology neutral
Defining reasonable security practices to be followed by corporate
Redefining the role of intermediaries
Recognizing the role of Indian Computer Emergency Response Team
Inclusion of some additional cyber crimes like child pornography and cyber terrorism
Authorizing an Inspector to investigate cyber offences (as against the DSP earlier)
INDIAN PERSPECTIVE
Talking about Indian scenario of cyber space crimes and cyber space laws, there was no statute
in India for governing Cyber Laws involving privacy issues, jurisdiction issues, intellectual
property rights issues and a number of other legal questions. With the tendency of misusing of
technology, there arisen a need of strict statutory laws to regulate the criminal activities in the
cyber world and to protect the true sense of technology IT ACT, 2000 was enacted by
Parliament of India to protect the field of e-commerce, e-governance, e-banking as well as
penalties and punishments in the field of cyber crimes. The above Act was further amended in
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the form of IT Amendment Act, 2008. Also certain sections of IPC and as some cyber space
crime are invading right to privacy, article 21 of Indian constitution are some governing laws for
cyber space crime which imposes various liabilities in India.
CONSTITUTIONAL LIABILITY
Hacking into someones private property or stealing some ones intellectual work is a complete
violation of his right to privacy. The Indian constitution does not specifically provide the right to
privacy as one of the fundamental rights guaranteed to the Indian citizens but it is protected
under IPC.
Right to privacy is an important natural need of every human being as it creates boundaries
around an individual where the other persons entry is restricted. The right to privacy prohibits
interference or intrusion in others private life. The apex court of India has clearly affirmed in its
judicial pronouncements that right to privacy is very much a part of the fundamental right
guaranteed under article 21 of the Indian constitution.
Thus right to privacy is coming under the expended ambit of article 21 of Indian constitution. So
whenever there is some cyber crime which is related to the persons private property or its
personal stuff then the accused can be charged of violation of article 21 of Indian constitution,
and prescribed remedy can be invoked against the accused.
CRIMINAL LIABILITY
Criminal liability in India for cyber crimes is defined under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Certain
Following sections of IPC deal with the various cyber crimes:
Sending threatening messages by e-mail (Sec .503 IPC)
Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman (Sec.509 IPC)
Sending defamatory messages by e-mail (Sec .499 IPC)
Bogus websites , Cyber Frauds (Sec .420 IPC)
E-mail Spoofing (Sec .463 IPC )
Making a false document (Sec.464 IPC)
Forgery for purpose of cheating (Sec.468 IPC)
Forgery for purpose of harming reputation (Sec.469 IPC)
Web-Jacking (Sec .383 IPC)
E-mail Abuse (Sec .500 IPC)
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constitutes a crime. The Act prescribes very high punishments for such crimes. The Information
Technology (amendment) Act, 2008(Act 10 of 2009), has further enhanced the punishments.
Life imprisonment and fine upto rupees ten lakhs may be given for certain classes of cyber
crimes. Compensation up to rupees five crores can be given to affected persons if damage is
done to the computer, computer system or computer network by the introduction of virus,
denial of services etc.
The following sections are dealing with the cyber crimes:
Penalty and Compensation for damage to computer, computer system, etc (sec. 43 IT
act)
Compensation for failure to protect data (sec. 43A IT Act)
Tampering with computer source Documents (sec. 65 IT Act)
Hacking with computer systems, Data Alteration (sec. 66 IT Act)
Sending offensive messages through communication service, etc (sec. 66A IT Act)
Dishonestly receiving stolen computer resource or communication device (sec. 66B IT
Act)
Identity theft (sec. 66C IT Act)
Cheating by personating by using computer resource (sec. 66D IT Act)
Violation of privacy (sec. 66E IT Act)
Cyber terrorism (sec. 66F Act)
Publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form (sec. 67 IT Act)
Publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act, etc. in electronic form
(sec. 67A IT Act)
Punishment for publishing or transmitting of material depicting children in sexually explicit
act, etc. in electronic form (sec. 67B IT Act)
Preservation and Retention of information by intermediaries (sec.67C IT Act)
Powers to issue directions for interception or monitoring or decryption of any information
through any computer resource (sec. 69 IT Act)
Power to issue directions for blocking for public access of any information through any
computer resource (sec. 69A IT Act)
Power to authorize to monitor and collect traffic data or information through any computer
resource for Cyber Security (sec. 69B IT Act)
Un-authorized access to protected system (sec. 70 IT Act)
Penalty for misrepresentation (sec. 71 IT Act)
Breach of confidentiality and privacy (sec. 72 IT Act)
Publishing False digital signature certificates (sec. 73 IT Act)
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faster than the investigators and always try to be one step ahead in technology.
There are several loopholes in IT Act as:The hurry, in which the legislation was passed, without sufficient public debate, did not
really serve the desired purpose. Experts are of the opinion that one of the reasons for the
inadequacy of the legislation has been the hurry in which it was passed by the parliament
and it is also a fact that sufficient time was not given for public debate. But many
problems of the act were amended by the amended act of 2008. [12]
Uniform law
Mr. Vinod Kumar holds the opinion that the need of the hour is a worldwide uniform cyber law to
combat cyber crime. Cyber crime is a global phenomenon and therefore the initiative to fight it
should come from the same level. [13]
Lack of awareness
The Act of 2000 is not achieving complete success because of the lack of awareness among
the masses about their rights. Further most of the cases are going unreported. If only the people
are vigilant about their rights, can the law protect their rights.
Raising a cyber armyThere is a need for a well equipped task force to deal with the new trends of hi tech crime. The
government has taken a leap in this direction by constituting cyber crime cells in all metropolitan
and other important cities. Further the establishment of the Cyber Crime Investigation Cell
(CCIC) of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Cyber savvy bench
Cyber savvy judges are the need of the day. Judiciary plays a vital role in shaping the enactment
according to the order of the day. One such stage, which needs appreciation, is the P.I.L., which
the Kerala High Court has accepted through an email.
Dynamic form of cyber crime
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Speaking on the dynamic nature of cyber crime FBI Director Louis Freeh has said, In short,
even though we have markedly improved our capabilities to fight cyber intrusions the problem is
growing even faster and we are falling further behind. The (de)creativity of human mind cannot
be checked by any law. Thus the only way out is the liberal construction while applying the
statutory provisions to cyber crime cases.
Hesitation to report offences
As stated above one of the fatal drawbacks of the Act has been the cases going unreported.
One obvious reason is the non-cooperative police force. The police are a powerful force today
which can play an instrumental role in preventing cybercrime. At the same time, it can also end
up wielding the rod and harassing innocents, preventing them from going about their normal
cyber business. For complete realization of the provisions of this Act a cooperative police force
is required. [14]
Apart from these loopholes and problems the present form of police system and many police
officials are not familiar with the cyber crimes and they need training to be familiar with the
Modus operandi of cyber crimes though the existing relevant act is comprehensive legislation
but from the practical point of view there are some shortcomings in the errant form of the act. It
is the need of the hour that the efficiency of police system at all ranks should be upgraded in
terms of cyber crimes. The immoral, lethal minds of criminals take advantages of inefficient
police system.
Both bench and Bar should realize the extent of cyber crimes. They should familiarize
themselves with the intricacies of cyber law, otherwise they would find it extremely difficult to
deal with cyber crime cases.
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police had tipped off to the scam by a U.S. bank, and quickly identified the individuals involved
in the scam. Arrests were made when those individuals attempted to withdraw cash from the
falsified accounts, $426,000 was stolen; the amount recovered was $230,000.
Court held that Section 43(a) was applicable here due to the nature of unauthorized access
involved to commit transactions.
State of Tamil Nadu Vs Suhas Katti
The case related to posting of obscene, defamatory and annoying message about a divorcee
woman in the yahoo message group. E-Mails were also forwarded to the victim for information
by the accused through a false e-mail account opened by him in the name of the victim. The
posting of the message resulted in annoying phone calls to the lady in the belief that she was
soliciting. Based on a complaint made by the victim in February 2004, the Police traced the
accused to Mumbai and arrested him within the next few days. This is considered as the first
case in the state of Tamil Nadu, in which the offender was convicted under section 67 of
Information Technology Act 2000 in India.
The Bank NSP Case
The Bank NSP case is the one where a management trainee of the bank was engaged to be
married. The couple exchanged many emails using the company computers. After some time
the two broke up and the girl created fraudulent email ids such as Indian bar associations and
sent emails to the boys foreign clients. She used the banks computer to do this. The boys
company lost a large number of clients and took the bank to court. The bank was held liable for
the emails sent using the banks system.
SMC Pneumatics (India) Pvt. Ltd. v. Jogesh Kwatra
In this case, the defendant Jogesh Kwatra being an employee of the plaintiff company started
sending derogatory, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, filthy and abusive emails to his employers as
also to different subsidiaries of the said company all over the world with the aim to defame the
company and its Managing Director. The Delhi High Court restrained the defendant from
sending derogatory, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, humiliating and abusive emails either to the
plaintiffs or to its sister subsidiaries all over the world including their Managing Directors and
their Sales and Marketing departments. Further, Honble Judge also restrained the defendant
from publishing, transmitting or causing to be published any information in the actual world as
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also in cyberspace which is derogatory or defamatory or abusive of the plaintiffs. This order of
Delhi High Court assumes tremendous significance as this is for the first time that an Indian
Court assumes jurisdiction in a matter concerning cyber defamation and grants an injunction
restraining the defendant from defaming the plaintiffs by sending defamatory emails.
Sony.Sambandh.Com Case
A complaint was filed by Sony India Private Ltd, which runs a website called
www.sonysambandh.com, targeting Non Resident Indians. In May 2002, someone logged onto
the website under the identity of Barbara Campa and ordered a Sony Colour Television set and
a cordless head phone. She gave her credit card number for payment and requested that the
products be delivered to Arif Azim in Noida. After one and a half months the credit card agency
informed the company that this was an unauthorized transaction as the real owner had denied
having made the purchase. The company lodged a complaint for online cheating at the Central
Bureau of Investigation. The court convicted Arif Azim for cheating under Section 418, 419 and
420 of the Indian Penal Code. This was the first time that a cyber crime has been convicted.
The judgment is of immense significance for the entire nation. Besides being the first conviction
in a cyber crime matter, it has shown that the Indian Penal Code can be effectively applied to
certain categories of cyber crimes which are not covered under the Information Technology Act
2000.
Nasscom v. Ajay Sood & Others
The plaintiff in this case was the National Association of Software and Service Companies
(Nasscom), Indias premier software association. The defendants were operating a placement
agency involved in head-hunting and recruitment. In order to obtain personal data, which they
could use for purposes of head-hunting, the defendants composed and sent e-mails to third
parties in the name of Nasscom. The High court recognised the trademark rights of the plaintiff
and passed an injunction restraining the defendants from using the trade name or any other
name deceptively similar to Nasscom. According to the terms of compromise, the defendants
agreed to pay a sum of Rs1.6 million to the plaintiff as damages for violation of the plaintiffs
trademark rights. The Delhi HC stated that even though there is no specific legislation in India to
penalize phishing, it held phishing to be an illegal act by defining it under Indian law as a
misrepresentation made in the course of trade leading to confusion as to the source and origin
of the e-mail causing immense harm not only misused. The court held that, to the consumer
but even to the person whose name, identity or password is act of phishing as passing off and
tarnishing the plaintiffs image.
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This case achieves clear milestones: It brings the act of phishing into the ambit of India laws
even in the absence of specific legislation; It clears the misconception that there is no damages
culture in India for violation of IP rights.
Bazee.com case
On 9 December 2004 a news item appeared with the Headline DPS sex video at baazee.com.
The news item stated: Indias biggest online trading portal baazee.com had listed the said
MMS clip under the title DPS girls having fun with the member ID of 27877408. CEO of the
website Baazee.com was summoned by the Delhi High Court for having allowed this clip to be
listed for auction under sections 67 and 85 of the IT Act, 2000. While Section 67 prohibits
publishing obscene information in electronic form, Section 85 allows the prosecution of a
person responsible for the business of a company over violations. This incident caused a
sudden panic across the country and many discussions regarding the inefficiency of the IT Act,
2000 and the need to amend it started. Also, after this scandal, owing to debates around
culpability, liability and prosecution of material on the internet, several key judgments were
passed including banning the use of mobile phones in college and school campuses across
India.
PNB, Pune case
In the largest compensation awarded in legal adjudication of a cyber crime dispute,
Maharashtras IT secretary Rajesh Aggarwal has ordered Punjab National Bank to pay Rs 45
lakh to Manmohan Singh Matharu, MD of Pune-based firm Poona Auto Ancillaries. A fraudster
had transferred Rs 80.10 lakh from Matharus account in PNB, Pune after Matharu responded
to a phishing email. Matharu has been asked to share the liability since he responded to the
phishing mail. Matharus is one of 13 e-fraud cases, all originating in Maharashtra and with an
imprint across six states, in which the states IT secretary, serving as an adjudicating officer
under the IT Act 2000, last month passed critical orders against nine banks, four telecom firms
and two mobile recharge portals. These cases cover e-fraud committed through illegal data
access, hacking bank accounts, cloning credit cards, issuing duplicate SIM cards and phishing,
among others.
Syed Asifuddin and Ors. Vs. The State of Andhra Pradesh
In this case, Tata Indicom employees manipulated the electronic 32- bit number (ESN)
programmed into cell phones theft were exclusively franchised to Reliance Infocomm. Court
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held that tampering with source code invokes Section 65 of the Information Technology Act.
Bomb Hoax mail
In 2009, a 15-year-old Bangalore teenager was arrested by the cyber crime investigation cell
(CCIC) of the city crime branch for allegedly sending a hoax e- mail to a private news channel. In
the e-mail, he claimed to have planted five bombs in Mumbai, challenging the police to find
them before it was too late.
The Mumbai police have registered a case of cyber terrorismthe first in the state since an
amendment to the Information Technology Actwhere a threat email was sent to the BSE and
NSE on Monday. The MRA Marg police and the Cyber Crime Investigation Cell are jointly
probing the case. The suspect has been detained in this case.
The MRA Marg police have registered forgery for purpose of cheating, criminal intimidation
cases under the IPC and a cyber-terrorism case under the IT Act.
COMPARATIVE STUDY
As against the alone legislation ITA and ITAA in India, in many other nations globally, there are
many legislations governing e-commerce and cyber crimes going into all the facets of cyber
crimes. Data Communication, storage, child pornography, electronic records and data privacy
have all been addressed in separate Acts and Rules giving thrust in the particular area focused
in the Act.
United States of America
USA have the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act popularly known as HIPAA
which inter alia, regulates all health and insurance related records, their upkeep and
maintenance and the issues of privacy and confidentiality involved in such records.The
Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) signed into law in 2002 mandated a number of reforms to enhance
corporate responsibility, enhance financial disclosures, and combat corporate and accounting
fraud. Besides, there are a number of laws in the US both at the federal level and at different
states level like the Cable Communications Policy Act, Childrens Internet Protection Act, and
Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act etc.
United Kingdom
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In the UK, the Data Protection Act and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations
etc are all regulatory legislations already existing in the area of information security and cyber
crime prevention, besides cyber crime law passed recently in August 2011.
Similar to these countries we also have cyber crime legislations and other rules and regulations
in other nations like Australia, New Zealand, China etc.
INTERPOLS ROLE:INTERPOLs cybercrime programme is built around training and operations and works to keep
up with emerging threats. It aims to:
Promote the exchange of information among member countries through regional working
Establish a global list of contact officers available around the clock for cybercrime
Develop strategic partnerships with other international organizations and private sector
bodies;
Identify emerging threats and share this intelligence with member countries;
Provide a secure web portal for accessing operational information and documents.
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were shut down until they had completely malfunctioned. He was ultimately sentenced to
three years probation, 400 hours of community service and assessed a fine of $10500.
Hacker Attack: A Ph.D. student of the University of Southern California, in the year
1983, made a short programme as an experiment that could infect computers, make
copies of it, and spread from one machine to another. A professor of his suggested the
name virus. Now that student runs a computer security firm.
Internet Hacker: Wang Qun, alias playgirl, was arrested making the first ever arrest of
an internet hacker in China. He was a 19 year old computing student, arrested in
connection with the alleged posting of pornographic material on the homepages of
several government-run web sites.
CONCLUSION
Cyber crime is a new form of crime that has emerged due to computerization of various
activities in an organization in a networked environment. With the rapid growth of information
technology cyber crimes are a growing threat.
Technology has a negative aspect as it facilitates commercial activity. Ordinarily the law keeps
pace with the changes in technology but the pace of technological developments in the recent
past, especially in the field of information and technology is impossible to keep pace with legal
system. An important concern relates to modernizing penal laws of many countries which
predate the advent of computers. On the one hand, the existing laws have to be change to
cope with the computer related fraud such as hacking, malicious falsification or erasure of data,
software theft, software attacks etc. and on the other, new legislation is also necessary to
ensure data protection and piracy. The need for a law on data protection is paramount if India is
to sustain investor confidence, especially among foreign entities that send large amounts of
data to India for back-office operations. Data protection is essential for outsourcing
arrangements that entrust an Indian company with a foreign companys confidential data or
trade secrets, and/or customers confidential and personal data.
Also in the above chapters we have talked about the Indian police system for cyber crimes
which is subjected to the improvisation, and a new and clear specific legislation which can fight
easily against the cyber crimes. Further the proposed initiatives and amendments by
government to the IT act, which are likely to be implemented, soon will be implemented as soon
as possible. The proposed amendments widen the liability for breach of data protection and
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negligence in handling sensitive personal information. Additionally, the Government of India, with
the help of the Department of Information Technology, is currently working on a holistic law on
data protection based on the European Union directive. Further, the government plans to create
a Common Criterion Lab, backed by the Information Security Technical Development Council,
where intensive research in cryptography and product security can be undertaken.
As
Prevention is always better than cure, a smart internet user should take certain precautions
while operating the internet and should follow certain preventive measures for cyber crimes,
these measures can be considered as suggestions also:
A person should never send his credit card number to any site that is not secured, to
guard against frauds.
One should avoid disclosing any personal information to strangers via e-mail or while
chatting.
One must avoid sending any photograph to strangers by online as misusing of
photograph incidents increasing day by day.
It is always the parents who have to keep a watch on the sites that your children are
accessing, to prevent any kind of harassment or depravation in children.
Web site owners should watch traffic and check any irregularity on the site. It is the
responsibility of the web site owners to adopt some policy for preventing cyber crimes as
number of internet users are growing day by day.
Strict statutory laws need to be passed by the Legislatures keeping in mind the interest of
netizens (cybercitizen or an entity or person actively involved in online communities and a
user of the Internet).
Web servers running public sites must be physically separately protected from internal
corporate network.
An update Anti-virus software to guard against virus attacks should be used by all the
netizens and should also keep back up volumes so that one may not suffer data loss in
case of virus contamination.
It is better to use a security program by the body corporate to control information on sites.
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IT department should pass certain guidelines and notifications for the protection of
computer system and should also bring out with some more strict laws to breakdown the
criminal activities relating to cyberspace.
As Cyber Crime is the major threat to all the countries worldwide, certain steps should be
taken at the international level for preventing the cybercrime.
Special police task force which is expert in techno field will be constituted.
Complete justice must be provided to the victims of cyber crimes by way of compensatory
remedy and offenders to be punished with highest type of punishment so that it will
anticipate the criminals of cyber crime. [15]
Edited By Parul Padhi
[1] http://cybercellmumbai.gov.in accessed on 1 Dec 2013
[2] Information Technology Act, 2000A computer has multifarious functions and it is regarded as
a superman. It provides information as well as communication by means of internet. It is the
fastest mean for input and output of transportation of informations. In official meaning, the term
internet is popularly known as world wide web (www)
[3] http://www.legalindia.in accessed on 1 Dec 2013
[4] http://cybercellmumbai.gov.in accessed on 1 Dec 2013
[5] Ibid
[6] http://jurisonline.in accessed on 2nd Dec 2013
[7] http://www.mha.nic.in accessed on 4th Dec 2013
[8] Ibid
[90 Ibid
[10] Ibid
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[11]
Pawan
Duggal,
Is
10/05/16, 6:44 PM
this
treaty
treat?
Available
at
http://www.naavi.org/pati/pati_cybercrimes_dec03.htm
[12] Ibid
[13]
Kumar
Vinod,
Winning
the
Battle
against
cyber
Crimes
available
at
http://www.cyberriskinsuranceforum.com/content/are-we-losing-battle-against-cyber-crime
[14]
Dewang
Mehta,
Role
of
Police
in
Tackling
Cyber
Crimes
available
at
http://www.naavi.org/pati/pati_cybercrimes_dec03.htm
[15] Ibid
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