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A Study on Awareness of Cyber Crime and Security

Article  in  Research Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences · January 2017

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5828.2017.00067.5

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Research J. Humanities and Social Sciences 2017; 8(4):459-464 A.K. Mokha

A Study on Awareness of Cyber Crime and

Security
Anupreet Kaur Mokha
Assistant Professor, SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi

ISSN 0975 – 6795 (print)
ISSN 2321– 5828 (online)
Research J. Humanities and Social
Sciences. 8(4): October -December,
2017, 459-464.
DOI: 10.5958/2321-5828.2017.00067.5
Research Article
ABSTRACT:
Usage of internet has become a daily routine for majority of people for
day-to-day transactions. The number of internet users has grown
tremendously and so does cyber-crimes. Cyber-crime is the crime that is
done using computer and network. The threat of cyber-crime is an ever
present and increasing reality in both the private and professional sectors.
With the advent of internet, old crimes have taken on a new appearance.
The purpose of this research is to make awareness regarding cyber-
crimes which are happening in today’s world and also to create
awareness of increased cyber security. This paper attempts to analyze the
awareness of cyber-crime among internet users with different age groups
and educational qualifications. Linear Regression Model has been
applied for analyzing both the objectives. This paper finds that there is a
relationship exists between the age groups and educational qualification
of the respondents. So, it is the duty of one and all internet users to be
aware of the cyber-crime and security and also help others by creating
awareness among them.
KEYWORDS: Cyber-crime, Cyber criminals, Cyber security, Internet,
IT Act, Awareness.

INTRODUCTION:
The internet in India is growing rapidly. It has given rise to new
opportunities in the field of entertainment, business, sports, education,
and many more. With the advent and increasing use of internet, the
businesses have crossed the barriers of local markets and are reaching out
to customers located in every part of the world. Computers are widely
*Corresponding Author: used in enterprises not only as a tool for processing information, but also
Anupreet Kaur Mokha for gaining strategic and competitive advantage. Computers can be used
Assistant Professor, both for constructive and destructive reasons.
SGTB Khalsa College,
University of Delhi The abuse of internet has given birth to new age crimes which are
addressed by the Information Technology Act, 2000.As information
around the globe has become more accessible, it has also become more
vulnerable to misuse. India is on the radar of cyber criminals with
growing cyber-attacks on Indian establishment. India rank third as a
source of malicious activity on the internet after US and China, second as
source of malicious code and fourth and eight as source or origin for web
attacks and network attacks.

According to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-

Received on 27.08.2017 In), 27,482 cases of cybercrime were reported from January to June
Modified on 16.09.2017 (2017). These include phishing, virus or malicious code, defacements,
Accepted on 10.10.2017 scanning or probing, site intrusions, ransomware and denial-of-service
© A&V Publications all right attacks.
reserved

459
Research J. Humanities and Social Sciences 2017; 8(4): 459-464
It has been shown that in the first six months of 2017, at
least one cybercrime was reported every 10minutes in
India which is higher as compared to every 12 minutes
in 2016.India has seen a total of 1.71 lakh cybercrimes
in the past 3.5 years and the number of crimes so far
this year has been 27,482, which indicates that the total
number is likely to cross 50,000 by this December.
Analysis of data from 2013 to 2016 shows that 6.7% of
all cases accounted for network scanning and probing
while virus or malware accounted for 17.2%.
According to the latest report National Crime Records
Bureau(NCRB), a total of 11,592 cases were registered
under the cyber-crimes (which includes cases under
Information Technology Act, offences under related
sections of IPC and offences under Special and Local
Laws (SLL)) in comparison to 9,622 cases registered
during the previous year (2014) which shows an
increase of 20.5% over the previous year. Uttar Pradesh
has reported the highest number of such crimes
followed by Maharashtra and Karnataka.
The growing internet usage rate has created a problem
for people who spend long hours browsing the Cyber
World. In 2017, the number of mobile phone internet
users grew 12.49 percent compared to the previous year
and 23.93 percent of the population accessed the
internet from their mobile phone. This figure is
expected to grow to 34.85 percent in 2022.
(statista.com, 2017).Thus, increased internet usage has
opened the gate of cyber-crime to flood in. Lack of
awareness on such issues will lead to the damage of
financial, emotional, moral or ethical grounds.
Under such alarming scenario, besides tackling the
cybercrimes, another issue that needs to be focused on
higher priority is – creating awareness on “cybercrimes
and security” among the internet users. Thus the current
study focuses in finding out the answers to alarming
questions i.e. “Are the people really aware that they are
vulnerable to various cyber-crimes?” “If they are aware
then up to what extent?”, and “If they are not aware,
then what measures can be adopted to make them more
aware and updated.
Understanding the Cyber Crimes:
Cyber-crime refers to any crime that involves a
computer or a network. It is an unlawful act where in
the computer is either a tool or a target or both. It is the
criminal activities committed through the use of
electronic communications media. It is taking
something of the computer over the internet.
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A.K. Mokha
The term Cyber Crime has been defined neither in
Indian Parliament nor in the Information Technology
(IT) Act,2000. In India, IT Act, 2000 deals with the
offenses related to cyber-crime. Registration of Cyber
Crimes in India takes place under the three broad heads
which are the IT Act, the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and
other State Level Legislations (SLL). Several Cyber
Cells have been put up to handle exclusively the cases
which are registered under cyber-crimes in India.
It is a fast growing area of crime. Cyber criminals are
exploiting the Internet to commit a diverse range of
criminal activities. In the past , cyber-crime was
committed mainly by individuals or small groups but
now the cyber criminals constitutes of various
groups/category such as Professional hackers,
organized hackers, children and adolescents between
the age group of 6- 18 years, scammers, phishers,
insiders, malware authors, spammers, etc.
Categories of Cyber Crimes:
The major categories of cyber-crimes can be broadly
classified under the following four groups on the basis
of their target and impacts:
1. Crimes against Individuals:
These type of crime are done to harm particular
individuals. These includes hacking , cracking,
harassment via emails, cyber-stalking, cyber bullying,
defamation, dissemination of obscene material, email
spoofing, SMS spoofing, carding, cheating and fraud,
child pornography, assault by threat, denial of service
attack, forgery, and phishing.
2. Crimes against Property:
There are cybercrimes done to harm the property of an
Individual. They can be classified as – Intellectual
property crimes, cyber-squatting, cyber vandalism,
hacking computer system, computer vandalism,
computer forgery, transmitting viruses and malicious
software to damage information, Trojan horses, cyber
trespass, Internet time thefts, robbery or stealing money
while money transfers ,etc.
3. Crimes against Government /Firm /Company
/Group of individuals:
These types of crimes include cyber terrorism,
possession of unauthorized information, distribution of
pirated software, web jacking, salami attacks, logic
bombs, etc. The criminals in these wants to terrorize the
citizens of the country.
Research J. Humanities and Social Sciences 2017; 8(4): 459-464
4. Crimes against Society:
All the above mentioned crimes have their direct or
indirect influence on the society at large. Therefore, all
such crimes are included in this such as pornography,
online gambling, forgery, sale of illegal articles,
phishing, cyber terrorism, etc.
LITERATURE REVIEW:
Aparna and Chauhan (2012):
The authors in their paper conducted a research in
Tricity on cybercrime awareness and revealed that
awareness can be increased by giving due importance to
cybercrime which can be an efficient tool to decrease or
prevent the cybercrimes. They also concluded that it
remains the responsibility of the net users as well as the
government to ensure a safe, secure, and trustworthy
computing environment.
Mehta and Singh (2013):
The author conducted a survey to study the awareness
about cyber laws in Indian society .He found that there
is a significant difference between the awareness level
of male and female users of internet services. The male
netizens are more aware of cyber laws as compared to
women users.
Agarwal (2015):
The author in her paper discussed the types of cyber-
crime and the cyber laws made to deal with it. Her
objective was to analyze whether the internet users are
aware of cyber-crimes. She also insisted that it is the
duty of all the internet users to be aware of cyber-
crimes and cyber laws.
Hasan et al., (2015):
Conducted a survey to analyze the cybercrime
awareness in Malaysia and found that female students
are more aware of cybercrime as compared to male
students.
Archana Chanuvai Narahari and Vrajesh Shah
(2016):
The author in this conducted a survey on 100
respondents to analyze whether netizens are really
aware of cyber-crimes. They found that the respondents
are somewhat aware of the cyber-crimes, cyber security
but still there is a need to increase awareness among
them. Also, they suggested a conceptual model
explaining how to uphold and implement the awareness
programmes among internet users regarding
cybercrimes.
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A.K. Mokha
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:
To test the awareness of cyber-crime and security, the
following methodology has been applied:
a) Objectives of the study:
1. To examine the relationship between education
level of the respondent and the awareness of cyber-
crime and security.
2. To examine the relationship between various age
groups of the respondent and the awareness of
cyber-crime and security.
3. To find out the internet usage of the respondents.
4. To find out the level of awareness on safety while
using personal computers and internet among
internet users regarding cyber-crimes.
b) Sampling Design:
A structured questionnaire was administered for the
purpose of research on 160 respondents. It was divided
into four sections:
Section A dealt with the demographic characteristics of
the respondents.
Section B dealt with the internet usage of the
respondents.
Section C dealt with the level of awareness of cyber-
crime and security
Section D dealt with the level of awareness on safety
while using personal computers and internet.
All the data was collected using likert scale 5 point. (1=
Strongly disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3= Neutral, 4= Agree,
5= Strongly Agree).Samples are drawn from various
regions of Delhi-NCR.
c) Methods of Data Collection:
Primary Data was collected from 160 respondents
through questionnaire to analysis whether the people
really are aware that they are vulnerable to various
cyber-crimes or not.
Secondary Data: Substantial data was collected from
various books, published nationals and international
journals, various websites, etc.
d) Research Tools:
For the findings of the study, Linear Regression
technique was performed using SPSS Software version
23.
e) Hypotheses:
On the basis of mentioned objectives, the present study
aims at test the following hypothesis (null hypothesis):
1. H01: There is a relationship exists between the
Educational level of the respondent and the
awareness of cyber-crimes among them.
Research J. Humanities and Social Sciences 2017; 8(4): 459-464 A.K. Mokha

2. H02: There is a relationship exists between the ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION:

various age groups of the respondent and the
awareness of cyber-crimes among them.
A study was conducted on 160 respondents to identify
whether they are aware of cyber-crimes or not. Findings
of the study are as follows:
a) H01:There is a relationship exists between the
Educational level of the respondent and the
awareness of cyber-crimes among them.

Table 1 Model Summary

Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate
1 .913a .833 .830 .3472
a. Predictors: (Constant), Familiarity with the term "Cyber Crime", Awareness about Cyber Cell, Awareness on IT Act Among Internet Users.
Table 2 ANOVAa
Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
1 Regression 84.260 3 28.087 241.143 .000b
Residual 31.050 145 .214
Total 115.310 148
a. Dependent Variable: Educational level of the respondent
b. Predictors: (Constant), Familiarity with the term "Cyber Crime", Awareness about Cyber Cell, Awareness on IT Act Among Internet Users.

Table 3 Coefficientsa
Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients t Sig.
B Std. Error Beta
1 (Constant) .354 .283 1.667 .108
Familiarity with the term "Cyber Crime" .546 .096 .556 9.371 .002
Awareness about Cyber Cell .179 .292 .125 .613 .546
Awareness on IT Act among Internet Users .314 .176 .345 1.786 .086
a. Dependent Variable: Educational level of the respondent

To test the hypothesis, is a significant and positive
relation exists between Educational level of the
respondent and the awareness of cyber-crimes among
them, Linear Regression Model has been used on the
three factors i.e. Familiarity with the term "Cyber
Crime", Awareness about Cyber Cell, Awareness on IT
Act Among Internet Users. The R value in Table 1
represents that the simple correlation is 0.913 (the “R”
Column) which indicates a high degree of correlation.
Table 2 indicates that the regression model statistically
significantly predicts the dependent variable as the
value of p is 0.00003 which is less than 0.05 (i.e. the
regression model is a good fit for the data). Table 3 puts
more clarity by showing the values for all the above
three factors i.e. Familiarity with the term "Cyber
Crime", Awareness about Cyber Cell, Awareness on IT
Act among Internet Users and indicates that the values
are statistically significant at 0.05 for only one factor
i.e. Familiarity with the term "Cyber Crime"(0.002).
Hence the hypothesis (H01) is partially accepted for this
factor and rejected for Awareness about Cyber Cell,
Awareness on IT Act Among Internet Users.

b) H02: There is a relationship exists between the various age groups of the respondent and the awareness of
cyber-crimes among them.
Table 1 Model Summary
Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate
1 .903a .815 .792 .255
a. Predictors: (Constant), Familiarity with the term "Cyber Crime", Awareness about Cyber Cell, Awareness on IT Act Among Internet Users.

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Research J. Humanities and Social Sciences 2017; 8(4): 459-464 A.K. Mokha

Table 2 ANOVAa
Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Regression 24.133 3 8.044 5.929 .001b
Residual 219.794 162 1.357
Total 243.928 165
a. Dependent Variable: Age groups of the respondent.
b. Predictors: (Constant), Familiarity with the term "Cyber Crime", Awareness about Cyber Cell, Awareness on IT Act Among Internet Users

Table 3 Coefficientsa
Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients t Sig.
B Std. Error Beta
(Constant) 4.787 .419 11.429 .000
Familiarity with the term "Cyber Crime" -1.763 .207 -.813 -8.513 .000
Awareness about Cyber Cell -.098 .067 -.137 -1.460 .157
Awareness on IT Act among Internet Users .055 .040 .122 1.370 .183
a. Dependent Variable: Age groups of the respondent.

Figure 1: Showing the various kinds of Cyber Crimes in day-to-day lives

To test the hypothesis, is a significant and positive
relation exists between Educational level of the
respondent and the awareness of cyber-crimes among
them, Linear Regression Model has been used on the
three factors i.e. Familiarity with the term "Cyber
Crime", Awareness about Cyber Cell, Awareness on IT
Act Among Internet Users. The R value in Table 1
represents that the simple correlation is 0.903 (the “R”
Column) which indicates a high degree of correlation.
Table 2 indicates that the regression model statistically
significantly predicts the dependent variable as the
value of p is 0.001 which is less than 0.05 (i.e. the
regression model is a good fit for the data). Table 3 puts
more clarity by showing the values for all the above
three factors i.e. Familiarity with the term "Cyber
Crime", Awareness about Cyber Cell, Awareness on IT
Act among Internet Users and indicates that the values
are statistically significant at 0.05 for only one factor
i.e. Familiarity with the term "Cyber Crime"(0.00002).
Hence the hypothesis (H02) is partially accepted for this
factor and rejected for Awareness about Cyber Cell,
Awareness on IT Act Among Internet Users.
c)The figure 1 shows the very important part of our
research i.e. regarding awareness on various types of
cybercrimes concluded that (42%) of the respondents
are aware of all the types of cyber-crimes whereas 26%
are aware of Hacking, 4% are aware of phishing, cyber
stalking and defamation, 12% are aware of
Virus/Worms and 8% are aware of identity theft.
d)40% agreed that Government organizations are more
vulnerable to cybercrimes. 63% felt financial
institutions, like Banks, finance companies etc. are
more vulnerable for cybercrimes.50% said Private
sectors are the victims and 10% opted for Educational

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 Research J. Humanities and Social Sciences 2017; 8(4): 459-464
institutions,65% thought there is threat to Law
enforcement agencies like police, CBI, courts etc. 32 %
felt any individual can be victim of cybercrime.
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS:
With the increase in the users of internet, the increase in
cyber-crimes can also be seen. There are various kinds
of cyber-crimes which are happening in day-to-day life.
But the people are not aware of all such types. Majority
of the people know only about hacking and
virus/worms. They are not aware of phishing,
defamation, identity theft, cyber stalking etc. It is the
need of today’s world to have knowledge about these
crimes which are associated with the internet. The study
shows that 48% of the respondents share their personal
details with other persons even they don’t know them
closely.55% of respondents have agreed that their PCs
are often damaged by viruses. The internet users
struggled with spam emails, phishing calls and emails
asking for their sensitive information like mobile no.,
bank account, address, etc. It is the duty of each one of
us to be aware of the basic cyber security. Cyber
security refers to the technologies and processes that are
designed to protect computers, networks and data from
unauthorized access and attacks delivered via the
internet by cyber criminals. The people should be aware
of the basic cyber securities such as they should:
a) Install a security suites such as Avast Internet
Security, Kaspersky antivirus, McAfee antivirus,
Norton Antivirus, etc. to protect the computer
against threats such as viruses and worms.
b) Activate Network Threat Protection, Firewall, and
Antivirus.
c) Always use strong passwords preferably
alphanumeric.
d) Communicate personal information only via phone
or secure web sites.
e) Do not click on links, download files or open
attachments in emails from unknown senders.
f) Beware of links in emails that ask for personal
information or popups.
g) Check that all antivirus software and computer
operating system are up-to-date.
h) Double check the spelling of a website, URL,
HTTP addresses etc.
Government is also making efforts to have a control on
cyber-crimes. It has made cyber laws to help people
learn about various cyber-crimes and cyber security.
Information Technology(IT) Act 2000 deals with cyber
related crimes. Not only the government but people
should also work hand in hand to catch the criminals.
People who have been a victim of any of these cyber-
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A.K. Mokha
crimes should come forward and file a complaint
against them in special cybercrime cells. This will
definitely help to tackle the cyber-crimes. Thus,
awareness of cyber-crimes and security is a need of an
hour.
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