Cyber Crime is an unlawful act where the computer is used as a tool or target or both. These days Cyber Crime is a fast-growing area of crime. As, the technology is advancing man is becoming dependent on internet for all his needs as it gives easy access to do shopping, gaming, online studying, social networking, online jobs etc. everything at one place. Apart from other countries, India is also not far where the rate of incidence of cyber crime is increasing day by day.
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Criminals are mostly exploiting the speed, convenience and anonymity of the internet, commit various criminal activities and pose real threat to victims all over the world. These crimes can be phishing, Fraud due to credit card, debit card, bank robbery, illegal downloading, child pornography, distribution of viruses etc.
Do you know that over the last ten years Cyber Crime rose 19 times and Cyber crime arrests are nine times in India according to NCRB data? After, U.S.A and China, India ranked third in Malicious Activity. Also, Internet Subscribers in India crossed 400 million marks and 462 million by June 2016.
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Have you ever thought why Cyber Crime is increasing day by day?
Where the risk is low and rate of return investment is high, people always take the advantage of this type of situation and due to this cyber crime takes shape. To access information, data and use it for good returns is easy, but to catch criminals is difficult. Hence, because of this cyber crime is increasing all over the world.
Cyber Crime in States of India
In 5 years more than 5900 cases are registered in Maharashtra and became at the top, Uttar Pradesh around 5000 cases at 2nd position and Karnataka at 3rd with more than 3500 cases.
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Cyber Laws in India
Cyber Crimes, in India are registered under three main heads, The IT Act, The IPC (Indian Penal Code) and State Level Legislations (SLL).
Cases of Cyber Laws under IT Act:
• Tampering with computer source documents – Sec. 65
• Hacking with Computer systems, Data alteration – Sec. 66
• Publishing obscene information – Sec. 67
• Un-authorised access to protected systems – Sec. 70
• Breach of Confidentiality and Privacy – Sec. 72
• Publishing false digital signature certificates – Sec. 73
Cases of Cyber Laws under IPC and Special Laws:
• Sending threatening messages by email – Sec 505 IPC
• Sending defamatory messages by email – Sec 499 IPC
• Forgery of Electronic records – Sec 463 IPC
• Bogus websites, Cyber Frauds – Sec 420 IPC
• Email Spoofing – Sec. 463 IPC
• Web- Jacking –Sec. 383 IPC
• Email abuse – Sec 500 IPC
Cyber Crime under special cells:
• Online sale of Arms Act
• Online sale of Drugs under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act
Let’s see the work of Government to curb Cyber Crime
Some measures are mentioned below taken by the government to curb the cyber crime:
• An Advisory is issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs to the State Government and Union Territory on Cyber Crime. Also, the State Government is advised to build techniques like cyber police stations, technical infrastructure and trained manpower for detection, registration, investigation and prosecution of cyber crime.
• Providing advanced and basic training to Law Enforcement Agencies, Forensic Labs and Judiciary regarding procedures and methods to collect, analyse and present digital evidence by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC).
• At the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), training of Forensic Lab has been set up to give training to Cyber Crime Police Officers. And also, in the states of Kerala, Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur and Jammu & Kashmir government have set up training forensic labs.
• NASSCOM, DSCI (Data Security Council of India) have been set up at Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune and Kolkatta for creating awareness regarding Cyber Crime.
• CERT-In has published guidelines for securing the websites which are available on www.cert-in.org.in and also conduct regular training programs to make system administrators aware regarding cyber attacks.
• Through Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) Government has decided to provide a centralized citizen portal for registering online cyber complaints.
• The Ministry of Home Affairs has also set up an Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) to fight against cyber crime in the country and generated an open platform to raise complaints by the victims.
With the Government it is our duty also to take some measures and precautions wherever required like reduce using alcohol and drugs. As, 51% crimes occur because of the influence of alcohol and drugs. Aware people who are uneducated and if possible give them training regarding using the internet, computer, credit card, debit card etc. Also, make them aware about Government initiatives, cyber laws etc. We also know that to catch hackers or internet criminals is difficult as they use computer in one country and hack computer in another country. So, the best way is to be careful and cautious. Users of internet should use unique passwords, run anti-virus software, watch suspicious emails and do not open such type of programs coming from unknown sources.