Author: Rubby Kalpesh Rajput, Asmita College Of Law
Introduction
Crime is an act or omission, which is prohibited by the law particularly criminal. Cyber crime is the latest and perhaps the most specialized and dynamic field in Cyber laws. “Cyber crime can be plainly defined, as “Crimes directed at a computer or computer system”.
They are a new class of crimes that are rapidly increasing due to extensive use of the Internet and IT-enabled services.
The Information Technology Act, 2000 and Indian Penal Code 1860 penalized a number of Cyber crimes.
Meaning of Cyber crime
The term Cyber crime was used for the first time in 1955 by Sussman and Heuston who were renowned legal scholars. The term Cyber crimes were seen as a collection of conducts and acts rather than a single notion. Their conduct usually involves manipulation or infiltration into data or computer systems which amounts to illegal activities. It is also familiar as e-crime, technology crime, information related crime, etc as the manipulation of computers usually happens through a computer network, the internet, and the term Cyber crime has evolved from “Cyberspace” which denotes the interest.
A Cyber crime would affect the physical or economic soverginity data privacy, social relations etc of the individuals.
History of Cyber crimes
The first Cyber crime was committed within the year of computer invention by “Charles Babbage” 1820. In that year Joseph -Marie Jacquard, who was a renowned textile manufacturer in France created a loom in order to repeat the activity of waving. As the laborers that worked in the factory and did the same activity manually became concerned about the loom as it has threatened the existence of their jobs directly, they sabotage the loom this committing a Cyber crime. Though this is a raw form of Cyber crime, the mechanism to commit a Cyber crime has evolved to a dangerous extent in the last two centuries.
Type of Cyber crimes
1) Cyber stalking.
2) Cyber terrorism.
3) Vulnerability.
4) Online gambling.
5) Phishing.
6) Intellectual property crimes.
7) Misusing personal information.
8) Ddocs attacks.
9) Bonets.
10) Social engineering.
11) Online scams.
12) PUPS (Potentially unwanted programs.
Method of Cyber crime
1) False data entry.
2) Impersonation.
3) Trojan Horses.
4) Salami techniques.
5) Piggybacking.
6) Super zapping.
7) Scavenging.
8) Trapdoors.
9) logic bomb.
10) Wiretapping.
11) Theft of storage media.
12) Data leakage.
13) Computer virus and worms.
Commission of Cyber crimes may be broadly divided against three basic group’s
1) Individual.
2) Organization.
3) Society at large.
Laws in India
1) IPC, 1860
2) IT Act, 2000
3) Evidence Act, 1872.
4) Criminal procedure code, 1873.
Relevant Penal Provisions are as follows
1) Mobile phone lost/ Stolen.
a) IPC, 1860, section 379, 3 year imprisonment or fine or both.
2) Receiving stolen computer/ Mobile phone/ data (data or computer or mobile phone owned by you is found in the hand of someone else.
a) IPC, 1860, section 411, up to 3 year of imprisonment or fine or both.
b) IT Act, Section 66B, up to 3 years or imprisonment or rupees one lakh or both.
3) Data owned by you or your company on any form is stolen.
a) IPC, Section 379, up to 3 years of imprisonment or fine or both.
b) IT Act, Section 66, up to 3 years of imprisonment or fine up to rupees five lakh or both.
4) A password is Stolen and used by someone else for fraudulent purpose.
a) IPC, Section 419, up to 3 years imprisonment or fine.
Section 420, up to 7 years imprisonment or fine.
b) IT Act, section 66C, up to 3 years imprisonment or rupees one lakh fine.
Section 66D of IT Act, up to 3 years imprisonment or rupees one lakh.
5) An email is read by someone else by fraudulently making use of password.
a) IT Act, section 66, up to 3 years imprisonment or fine up to rupees five lakh or both.
Section 66C, Upto 3 years of imprisonment or rupees one lakh fine.
6) A bio metric thumbs impression is misused.
a) IT Act, Section 66C, up to 3 year’s imprisonment or rupees one lakh fine.
7) A Phishing e mail is sent out in your name, asking for login credentials.
a) IPC, Section 419, Upto 3 years imprisonment or fine.
b) IT Act, Section 66D, up to 3 years of imprisonment or rupees one lakh fine.
8) Capturing, publishing or transmitting the image of a private area without any person’s consent or knowledge.
a) IPC, Section 292, Upto 2 years imprisonment and fine rupees 2000 and Upto 5 years and rupees 5000, for second and subsequent conviction.
b) IT Act, Section 66E, up to 3 years imprisonment or fine not exceeding rupees two lakh or both.
9) Tempering with computer source documents.
a) IT Act, section 65, Up to 3 years of imprisonment or fine Up yo rupees two lakh or both.
Section 66, Up to 3 years of imprisonment or fine up to rupees Five lakh or both.
10) Data Modification.
a) IT Act, Section 66, 3 years of imprisonment or fine up to rupees five lakh or both.
11) Sending offensive message through communication service, etc.
a) IPC, Section 500, Up to 2 years or fine or both.
Section 504 IPC, Upto 2 years of imprisonment or fine or both.
Section 506, Upto 2 years or fine or both. If threat be to cause death or grievous hurt, etc, Upto 7 years or fine or both.
Section 507, Up to 2 years along with punishment under section 506 IPC.
508 IPC Upto one year or fine or both.
Section 509, IPC Upto one year or fine or both.
12) Publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form.
a) IPC, 292, Upto 2 years imprisonment and fine rupees 2000 and Upto 5 years and rupees 5000 for second and subsequent conviction.
b) IT Act, Section 67, first conviction up to 3 years and 5 lakhs second and subsequent conviction Upto 5 years and Upto 10 lakhs.
13) Publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act, etc in electronic form.
a) IPC, Section 292, Upto 2 years imprisonment and fine rupees 2000 and Upto 5 years and rupees 5000 for second and subsequent conviction.
IT Act, Section 67, First conviction up to 3 years and 5 lakhs second and subsequent conviction Upto 5 years and Upto 10 lakhs.
14) Publishing or transmitting of material depicting children in sexually explicit act etc in electronic form.
a) IPC, Section 292, Upto 2 years imprisonment and fine rupees 2000 and Upto 5 years and rupees 5000 for second and subsequent conviction.
b) IT Act, Section 67B, first conviction Upto 5 years and Upto 10 Lakhs. Second and subsequent conviction Upto 7 years and Upto 10 Lakhs.
15) Misusing Wi-Fi connection if done against State.
a) IT Act, Section 66 Up to 3 years imprisonment or fine up to rupees five lakh or both,
Section 66F, life imprisonment.
16) Planting a computer virus- if done against the state.
a) IT Act, Section 66 Up to 3 years imprisonment or fine up to rupees five lakh or both,
Section 66F, life imprisonment.
17) Conducting a denial of service attack against a government computer.
a) IT Act, Section 66, up to 3 years imprisonment or fine up to rupees five lakh or both.
Section 66 F, Life imprisonment.
18) Steeling data from a government computer that has significance from national security perspective.
a) IT Act, Section 66, Up to 3 years imprisonment or fine up to rupees five lakh or both.
Section 66F, life imprisonment.
19) Not allowing the authorities to decrypt all communication that passes through computer or network.
a) IT Act, Section 69, imprisonment Upto 7 years and fine.
20) Intermediates not providing access to Information stored on their computer to the relevant authorities.
a) IT Act, Section 69, imprisonment Upto 7 years and fine.
21) Failure to block web sites when ordered.
a) IT Act, Section 69A, imprisonment Upto 7 years and fine.
22) Sending threatening messages by e-mail.
a) IPC, Section 504, Upto 2 years or fine or both.
23) Word, gesture or Act intended to insult the modesty of a woman.
a) IPC, Section 509, Upto 1 years or fine or both.
24) Sending defamatory message by e-mail.
a) IPC, Section 500, Upto 2 years or fine or both.
25) Bogus website, Cyber frauds.
a) IPC, Section 419, Upto 3 years imprisonment or fine.
Section 420, Upto 7 years imprisonment or fine.
26) E-mail spoofing.
a) IPC, Section 465, Upto 2 years or fine or both.
Section 468, Upto 7 years imprisonment and fine.
b) IT Act, Section 66C, Upto 3 years imprisonment or rupees one lakh fine.
27) Making a false document.
a) IPC, 465, Upto 2 years or fine or both.
b) IT Act, Section 66D, Up to 3 years imprisonment or rupees one lakh fine.
28) Forgery for purpose of cheating.
a) IPC, Section 468, Upto 7 years imprisonment and fine.
b) IT Act, Section 66D, Upto 3 years imprisonment or rupees one lakh fine.
29) Forgery for purpose of harming reputation.
a) IPC, Section 469, Upto 3 years and fine.
b) IT Act, Section 66D, Upto 3 years imprisonment or rupees one lakh fine.
30) E- Mail abuse.
a) IPC, Section 500, Upto 2 years or fine or both.
31) Punishment for Criminal intimidation.
a) IPC, Section 506, Upto 2 years or fine or both, if threat be to cause death or grievous hurt, etc, Upto 7 years or fine or both.
32) Copyright infringement.
a) Copyright Act, 1957 Section 63, 63B.
b) IT Act, Section 66 up to 3 years imprisonment or fine up to rupees five lakh or both.
33) Theft of Computer hardware.
a) IPC, 379, Up to 3 years imprisonment or fine or both.
34) Online sale of drugs.
a) NDPS Act.
35) Online sale of Arms.
a) Arms Act. etc.
Cases reported
A total of 11,592 cases were registered under the Cyber crimes ( Which includes cases under Information Technology Act, Offences under related section of IPC and offence under Special and local Laws (SLL) in comparison to 9,622 cases registered during the previous year which shows an increase of 20.5% over the previous year.
A total of 3,422 cases were registered under 2015 as compared to 2,272. Thus showing an increase of 50.6% over previous year.
Conclusion
In last we conclude that Cyber crime is increase day by day. The main target of the criminal to gain money by using any means. There are lots of provisions in Laws but still not properly implement. A victim of Cyber crime waits too long to gain justice. Lots of new technology develops because of that it is too difficult to find out the exact criminal. In the evidence Act, new Provisions added. Now the main thing that remembers in mind that each person knows about the Cyber crime and protect yourself from Cyber crime attack.
FAQS
When was Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) formed?
Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) was officially inaugurated by Hon’ble Home Minister Shri Amit Shah on the 10th of January 2020, to combat Cybercrime in the country and strengthen the overall security apparatus to fight against Cybercrime.
What is the purpose of Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre?
Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) focuses on tackling all the issues related with Cybercrime for all citizens, such as, improving coordination among Law Enforcement Agencies and other concerned stakeholders, driving change in India’s overall capability to tackle Cybercrime, and facilitating capacity development of Law Enforcement Agencies to better respond to Cybercrime.
What are computer-related offences?
As per Section 66, IT Act 2000, a computer-related offence has been committed when destruction, damage, disruption, denial, deletion, concealment, tampering, manipulation, stealing or alteration of information residing in a computer resource has happened due to the dishonest or fraudulent action of the accused.
Who manages the National Helpline number 1930 and the complaints reported through the help line number?
Respective State/UT Law Enforcement Agencies manage the Helpline number 1930, and officials designated by the respective State/UT Law Enforcement Agency receive calls from complainants and enter the required details on their behalf. Complaints are registered through the helpline number and also through the portal. In case of any further queries the concerned Police Station and/or the State/UT Nodal Officer for NCRP may be approached.
