INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACT 2000

The Government of India enacted the Information Technology (I.T.) Act with some major

objectives to deliver and facilitate lawful electronic, digital, and online transactions, and

mitigate cyber-crimes.

Salient Features of I.T Act

The salient features of the I.T Act are as follows −

Digital signature has been replaced with electronic signature to make it a more technology

neutral act.

It elaborates on offenses, penalties, and breaches.

It outlines the Justice Dispensation Systems for cyber-crimes.

It defines in a new section that cyber café is any facility from where the access to the internet

is offered by any person in the ordinary course of business to the members of the public.

It provides for the constitution of the Cyber Regulations Advisory Committee.

It is based on The Indian Penal Code, 1860, The Indian Evidence Act, 1872, The Bankers' Books

Evidence Act, 1891, The Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, etc.

It adds a provision to Section 81, which states that the provisions of the Act shall have

overriding effect. The provision states that nothing contained in the Act shall restrict any

person from exercising any right conferred under the Copyright Act, 1957.

Scheme of I.T Act

The following points define the scheme of the I.T. Act −

The I.T. Act contains 13 chapters and 90 sections.The last four sections namely sections 91

to 94 in the I.T. Act 2000 deals with the amendments to the Indian Penal Code 1860, The
Indian Evidence Act 1872, The Bankers’ Books Evidence Act 1891 and the Reserve Bank of

India Act 1934 were deleted.

• It commences with Preliminary aspect in Chapter 1, which deals with the short, title,

extent, commencement and application of the Act in Section 1. Section 2 provides

Definition.

• Chapter 2 deals with the authentication of electronic records, digital signatures,

electronic signatures, etc.

• Chapter 11 deals with offences and penalties. A series of offences have been provided

along with punishment in this part of The Act.

• Thereafter the provisions about due diligence, role of intermediaries and some

miscellaneous provisions are been stated.

• The Act is embedded with two schedules. The First Schedule deals with Documents

or Transactions to which the Act shall not apply. The Second Schedule deals with

electronic signature or electronic authentication technique and procedure. The Third

and Fourth Schedule are omitted.

Application of the I.T Act

As per the sub clause (4) of Section 1, nothing in this Act shall apply to documents or

transactions specified in First Schedule. Following are the documents or transactions to

which the Act shall not apply −

• Negotiable Instrument (Other than a cheque) as defined in section 13 of the

Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881;

• A power-of-attorney as defined in section 1A of the Powers-of-Attorney Act, 1882;

• A trust as defined in section 3 of the Indian Trusts Act, 1882;

 • A will as defined in clause (h) of section 2 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 including

any other testamentary disposition;

• Any contract for the sale or conveyance of immovable property or any interest in such

property;

• Any such class of documents or transactions as may be notified by the Central

Government.

Amendments Brought in the I.T Act

The I.T. Act has brought amendment in four statutes vide section 91-94. These changes have

been provided in schedule 1-4.

• The first schedule contains the amendments in the Penal Code. It has widened the

scope of the term "document" to bring within its ambit electronic documents.

• The second schedule deals with amendments to the India Evidence Act. It pertains to

the inclusion of electronic document in the definition of evidence.

• The third schedule amends the Banker's Books Evidence Act. This amendment brings

about change in the definition of "Banker's-book". It includes printouts of data stored

in a floppy, disc, tape or any other form of electromagnetic data storage device.

Similar change has been brought about in the expression "Certified-copy" to include

such printouts within its purview.

• The fourth schedule amends the Reserve Bank of India Act. It pertains to the

regulation of fund transfer through electronic means between the banks or between

the banks and other financial institution.

Cyber Crimes
Cyber crimes are any crimes that involve a computer and a network. In some cases, the
computer may have been used in order to commit the crime, and in other cases, the
computer may have been the target of the crime.
• Cyber Crimes Actually Means: It could be hackers vandalizing your site, viewing
confidential information, 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 are not limited to outsiders
except in case of viruses and with respect to security related cyber crimes that
usually done by the employees of particular company who can easily access the
password and data storage of the company for their benefits. 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.
• Classifications Of Cyber Crimes: Cyber Crimes which are growing day by day, it is
very difficult to find out what is actually a cyber crime and what is the conventional
crime so to come out of this confusion, cyber crimes can be classified under different
categories which are as follows:
• Harassment via E-Mails: It is very common type of harassment through sending
letters, attachments of files & folders i.e. via e-mails. At present harassment is
common as usage of social sites i.e. Facebook, Twitter etc. increasing day by day.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Hacking: It means unauthorized control/access over computer system and act of
hacking completely destroys the whole data as well as computer programmes.
Hackers usually hacks telecommunication and mobile network.
• Cracking: It is amongst the gravest cyber crimes known till date. It is a dreadful
feeling to know that a stranger has broken into your computer systems without your
knowledge and consent and has tampered with precious confidential data and
information.
• E-Mail Spoofing: A spoofed e-mail may be said to be one, which misrepresents its
origin. It shows it’s origin to be different from which actually it originates.
• SMS Spoofing: Spoofing is a blocking through spam which means the unwanted
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. It is very serious cyber crime against any
individual.
• Carding: It means false ATM cards i.e. Debit and Credit cards used by criminals for
their monetary benefits through withdrawing money from the victim’s 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.
• Child Pornography: It involves the use of computer networks to create, distribute, or
access materials that sexually exploit underage children.
• Assault by Threat: 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.
• Intellectual Property Crimes: Intellectual property consists of a bundle of rights. 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.
• Cyber Squatting: 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.com and www.yaahoo.com.
• Cyber Vandalism: Vandalism means deliberately destroying or damaging property of
another. Thus 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: Hacktivism attacks those included Famous Twitter,
blogging platform by unauthorized access/control over the computer. 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 someone’s 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 unauthorised person, of the Internet hours paid for by another person. The
person who gets access to someone else’s ISP 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 person’s knowledge. You can identify time theft if your Internet
time has to be recharged often, despite infrequent usag
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Forgery: It means to deceive large number of persons by sending threatening mails
as online business transactions are becoming the habitual need of today’s life style.

Affects To Whom: Cyber Crimes always affects the companies of any size because almost all
the companies gain an online presence and take advantage of the rapid gains in the
technology but greater attention to be given to its security risks. In the modern cyber world
cyber crimes is the major issue which is affecting individual as well as society at large too.

Need of Cyber Law: information technology has spread throughout the world. The
computer is used in each and every sector wherein cyberspace provides equal opportunities
to all for economic growth and human development. As the user of cyberspace grows
increasingly diverse and the range of online interaction expands, there is expansion in the
cyber crimes i.e. breach of online contracts, perpetration of online torts and crimes etc. Due
to these consequences there was need to adopt a strict law by the cyber space authority to
regulate criminal activities relating to cyber and to provide better administration of justice
to the victim of cyber crime. In the modern cyber technology world it is very much
necessary to regulate cyber crimes and most importantly cyber law should be made stricter
in the case of cyber terrorism and hacker.

Penalty For Damage To Computer System: According to the Section: 43 of ‘Information Technology Act,
2000’ whoever does any act of destroys, deletes, alters and disrupts or causes disruption of any computer
with the intention of damaging of the whole data of the computer system without the permission of the
owner of the computer, shall be liable to pay fine upto 1crore to the person so affected by way of remedy.
According to the Section:43A which is inserted by ‘Information Technology(Amendment) Act, 2008’ where
a body corporate is maintaining and protecting the data of the persons as provided by the central
government, if there is any negligent act or failure in protecting the data/ information then a body
corporate shall be liable to pay compensation to person so affected. And Section 66 deals with ‘hacking
with computer system’ and provides for imprisonment up to 3 years or fine, which may extend up to 2
years or both.

Preventive Measures For Cyber Crimes:

Prevention is always better than cure. A netizen should take certain precautions while
operating the internet and should follow certain preventive measures for cyber crimes
which can be defined as:

• Identification of exposures through education will assist responsible companies and

firms to meet these challenges.
• 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.
• 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.
• A person should never send his credit card number to any site that is not secured, to
guard against frauds.
• 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.
• Web servers running public sites must be physically separately protected from
internal corporate network.
• It is better to use a security programmes by the body corporate to control
information on sites.
• Strict statutory laws need to be passed by the Legislatures keeping in mind the
interest of netizens.
• 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.
• A 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.

Conclusion:

• Since users of computer system and internet are increasing worldwide, where it is
easy to access any information easily within a few seconds by using internet which is
the medium for huge information and a large base of communications around the
world. Certain precautionary measures should be taken by netizens while using the
internet which will assist in challenging this major threat Cyber Crime

Digital Signature Laws in India

Digital signature is electronically generated and can be used to make sure the veracity and legitimacy of
data. The dawn of information technology revolutionized the whole world, India is not an exception to it;
as technological activism is the social behavior in India.

Digital Signature Vs. Digital Certificate

Digital signatures are based on three pointers for authentication – Privacy, Non repudiation and Integrity
in the virtual world, while the objectives of digital certificate are the authentication of documents, and
bind the person who is putting the digital signature, which based on public key cryptography requires two
separate keys, as secret and public. However, both the keys are linked together, one key encrypts the plain
text, and another decrypts the cipher text, and neither key can perform both the functions. The other
difference is digital signature is an electronic process of signing an electronic document while a Digital
Certificate is a computer based record which is the identification of certifying agency or the identity of
subscriber

Digital Signature Vs. Electronic Signature

The Information Technology Amendment Bill 2006, replaces the word “Digital” with the word “Electronic”
at several places in the principal act, which creates a slight difference between the two, electronic
signature is wide in nature, while the digital signature is one of the many kinds of electronic signature.

Section 2(ta) “electronic signature” means authentication of any electronic record by a subscriber by
means of an electronic technique specified in the second schedule and includes digital signature and
section 2(p) defined “Digital Signature Certificate” means a Digital Signature Certificate issued Under sub-
section (4) of section 35.

DIGITAL SIGNATURE:
The advent of information technology revolutionised the whole world and fortunately India
led a leading role and captured global attention. India passed Information technology Act
2000 (The Act) which came into force on 17-10-2000. The Act applies to the whole of India
and even to persons who commit offence outside India. The Act validates "DIGITAL
SIGNATURE" and provides for enabling a person to use it just like the traditional signature.
The basic purpose of digital signature is not different from our conventional signature. The
purpose therefore is to authenticate the document, to identify the person and to make the
contents of the document binding on person putting digital signature. Let us see what digital
signature is in technical terms.
A digital signature or digital signature schemeis a mathematical scheme for demonstrating
the authenticity of a digital message or document. A valid digital signature gives a recipient
reason to believe that the message was created by a known sender, and that it was not altered
in transit. Digital signatures are based on public key encryption. It uses prime numbers like
2,3.5.7,9,11 and so on which can be divided only by itself or by 1 and is incapable of division
by other numbers. We have unlimited prime numbers and in DS we use the multiples of prime
numbers.
E-COMMERCE
Meaning

The term e-commerce or electric commerce refers to a comprehensive system of trading that
uses networks of computers for buying and selling of goods, information and services. In
simple words, e-commerce refers to buying and selling of goods, information and services
through electronic means.

Thus, e-commerce includes buying and selling of

1. Goods- e.g. digital cameras, music systems, clothes, accessories

2. Information-e.g. subscription to some law site may give access to some court cases

3. Services-e.g. matrimonial services through shaadi.com, placement services through

naukri.com

Benefits of E-Commerce

E-Commerce is gaining popularity because it offers the following benefits.

 1. Global Market: E-Commerce enables business firms to reach out to customers all over
the world who have an access to internet. Thus, the whole world becomes a potential
market for business enterprises.
2. Lower Transaction Cost: E-Commerce reduces the cost of business transactions
substantially. For instance, the number and cost of customer service representatives in
a bank can be reduced by using net banking.
3. Higher Margins: An e-commerce firm can earn higher margins as the transaction costs
are reduced to a great extent.
4. 24X7 working: A website is open all 24 hours, 7 days in a week it can, thus, take orders,
keep an eye on delivery of goods and receive payments at any time. A business firm can
provide information about its products and services to customers around the clock.
5. Wide Choice: For the consumers, the whole world becomes a shop. They can look at and
evaluate the same product at different websites before making a purchase decision.
6. Customer Convenience: Customers can shop from home or office. They don’t need to
stand in long queues to talk to a salesman. They can read details regarding model
numbers, prices, features etc. of the product from the website and purchase at their
own convenience. Payments can also be made online.
7. Direct Contact between Business and Consumer: E-Commerce enables business firms
to establish a direct contact with their customers by eliminating middlemen.
8. Customer Satisfaction: E-Commerce allows quick response and redressal to consumer
complaints. This helps in increasing customer satisfaction.

Resources required for successful implementation of E-Commerce

Successful implementation of e-commerce requires the following resources.

Well designed Website: A business enterprise must develop a comprehensive website to

communicate effectively with its customers and business partners. The basic infrastructure
of a website consists of pages with text, graphics, audio, and links to other pages. The entry
point is called the homepage and other web pages are linked to the homepage. The website
must be able to provide information about the company, its history, its products, their
features and prices and other technical details. The website should also have the ability to
input data into the system, for instance, filling out a form, sending an e-mail message to the
company or sending feedback about the website.

1. Adequate Computer Hardware: The computer hardware consists of its monitor,

servers, back up devices, printer etc. For smooth e-commerce transactions, a business
needs a computer with a lot of memory, a powerful Central Processing Unit (CPU), and
 a fast link to the internet. A large storage space will give a quicker access to stored data.
A processor with good speed will lead to quicker download.
2. Adequate Computer Software: Computer software consists of operating systems like
Windows, Linux etc. In addition to an operating system, the company needs a browser
such as Internet Explorer which allows surfing on the net. Some basic software like File
Transfer Protocol (FTP), Telnet, Archie etc. are also required.
3. Effective Telecommunication System: E-commerce requires an effective
telecommunication system in the form of telephone lines, optic fibre cables, and
internet technology to handle the traffic on the internet. E-commerce cannot be
successful if telephone lines are getting frequently disconnected and it is difficult to
access the internet.
4. Technically Qualified and Responsive Workforce: A well-trained workforce that is
capable of working easily with the internet and computer networks is essential for the
success of e-commerce. The company staff must be trained to handle sales inquiries,
processing orders and ensuring prompt delivery. There must be proper coordination
between receipt of order, delivery of goods and receipt of payment so as to minimize
errors.
5. Business Service Infrastructure: A foolproof system of receiving payment for the goods
and services must be developed. Adequate information must be made available to
enable the customers to know their bill amount. An inbuilt system of refunds, in case
excess amount is received should be created. Electronic payments and refunds should
be secured through banks and credit agencies.