In this techno-savvy world, where everything is in your computer. It became much
easy to get almost any information which we want. We can connect to a person
from any country within a second. Although all these technology and internet
has changed our life and made easy for us but it has many drawbacks too.
Internet and Digital Communication Technology has created an enormous
opportunity for people of all ages including student community to contribute and
accumulate information. It is indeed not exaggerating that people are getting
connected to each other through e-mails, chatting rooms, social media platforms
like Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter etc. But with increase in use of internet,
cybercrime rates are also increasing rapidly. Any important data can be easily
hacked by cyber attackers.
Cases of crime related to cyber space are increasing day to day. There is more
technology advanced hackers, professional cybercrime organization. For example,
hacker receives payment to infect end user device with malware. Today's Malwares are difficult to trace and they steal data for financial gain. Some
people think that they get more money if they become hackers compared to
securers. They are too many bank fraud cases where hackers took all your money
from your bank account by calling you.
Cyber Security:
Cyber security or IT security refers to the practice of ensuring the integrity,
confidentiality, and availability of information It is comprised of an
evolving set of tools, risk management approaches, technologies, training, and
best practices designed to protect networks, devices, programs, and data from
attacks or unauthorized access.
This field of security is important because of increase of reliance of people on
computer, internet, Bluetooth, Network, growth of smart devices and other
technological or
internet of things. A network or any smart devices like
Mobile, computer has a lot of personal data of the user, which misuse can lead
to dangers of the user. To protect this data from hacked by someone cyber
security is needed. Cyber security is something which is always evolving because
every change time new cyber threats are there, and therefore need of new cyber
security.
Some common types of cyber threats are:
- Malware[1],
- Ransomware[2] and
- Phishing[3].
Some common cyber security were:
- Network Security:
It guard against unauthorized intrusion of your internal networks due to
malicious intent and also secure network by protecting infrastructure and
inhibiting access to it.
- Cloud Security:
It protects and monitors the data in your cloud resources.
Cloud providers are constantly creating and implementing new security tools to
help enterprise users better secure their data.
- Antivirus:
It protects the data by scanning known threats in the
computer.
Cybercrimes:
United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders,
broke cybercrime into two categories and defines, Any illegal behavior directed
by means of electronic operations that targets the security of computer systems
and the data processed by them. while in broader sense it defines it as, Any
illegal behavior committed by means of, or in relation to, a computer system or
network, including such crimes as illegal possession [and] offering or
distributing information by means of a computer system or network.
According to IT Act 2000, Any crime done through a computer, any illegal
activity committed on the internet, where the computer acts as a tool and
exposed to internet security.
The Internet Crime Report for 2019, released by USA's Internet Crime Complaint
Centre (IC3) of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has revealed that India
stands third in the world among top 20 countries that are victims of internet
crimes. As per the report, excluding the USA, the UK tops the list with 93,796
victims of internet crimes followed by Canada (3,721) and India
(2,901).
According to data released by NCRB, a total of 27,248 cases of cyber
crime is registered in India in 2018. In which Bank fraud calls was the
most. The National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal that was started last year by
the Central government received 33,152 complaints till now, resulting in lodging
of 790 FIRs.
Some common types of cyber crimes:
Unauthorized access to computer network or Hacking:
In this type of cyber crime the hackers directly hacks user computer or any
network device by illegally login it and steal their stored data. They also
misuses the data or sell it to other for some sum of money. It is one of the
common cyber crime in most of the countries, recently hackers have hacked
twitter account of many well-known persons and conducted cyber fraud.
Virus Attack:
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. Worms, unlike viruses do not need the host to attach
themselves to. They merely make functional copies of themselves and do this
repeatedly till they eat up all the available space on a computer's memory. Ex:
Girlfriend, LOVELETTER, ILOVEYOU.
Salami Attack:
It attacks on a computer network which involves the
intruder siphoning off small amounts of money from a file and placing them in
another file that he or she can access. For example, deducting small amount of
money from X,Y,Z's account and putting in A's own account.
Cyber Defamation:
This occurs when defamation takes place with the help
of computers or any internet network. For example, sending derogatory message,
Email to a person. India's first case of cyber defamation was reported when a
company's employee started sending derogatory, defamatory and obscene e-mails
about its Managing Director. The emails were anonymous and frequent, and were
sent to many of their business associates to tarnish the image and goodwill of
the company.
Theft of computer system:
It involves the theft of a computer or any part(s) of a computer or a peripheral attached to the computer.
Cyber security, Cyber crime and Human Rights:
The internet has been in existence since 1960's and the World Wide Web (WWW)
since 1990's. The International Telecommunications Union estimates that almost
40% of the world's population and over 76% of people in developed countries are
now internet users. Government, business and organizations in civil society are
increasingly using cyber space platforms in the communication of information and
delivery of services. But due to increase in cyber crime and cyber security the
concerned question that arose is the impact of cyber security and cyber crime on
Human right? Does it infringes Human Right?
Cyber security and human right:
There are many international or domestic laws which applies to cyber security,
includes Article 19 of the UDHR includes protections of freedom of speech,
communication and access to information. Similarly, Article 3 states Everyone
has the right to life, liberty and security of person. But enforcing these
rights is difficult under international law. As a result, many countries like
India ignore the rules.
Cyber security breaches the human rights of freedom of speech and expression,
right to privacy, freedom of opinion and free flow of information. Government
has created many policies which intend to protect crime related computer, but
many of these policies are overly broad and ill-defined, and lack clear checks
and balances or other democratic accountability mechanisms, which can lead to
human rights abuses and can stifle innovation. This all reveal that the state
defines security as protecting itself from political instability, applies
disproportionate measures to ensure its own preservation, and itself becomes the
source of insecurity.
As we see there were some restrictions of social sites what we can write, speak
or post. More often cyber security laws can be used to censor dissidents,
monitor communications, and criminalize online users for expressing their views.
Government officials can at any point of time and track users communication
whenever they felt suspicious about someone, sometime their assumption result
absurd. This all directly violates human right given by UHDR or countries own
law.
For example, the surveillance of Saudi dissident Omar Abdulaziz, which
contributed to the extrajudicial execution of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. According
to a lawsuit, Abdulaziz's cell phone was targeted by the Saudi Arabian
government with spyware, compromising the confidentiality of his communications
with Khashoggi about opposition projects in the months leading up to Khashoggi's
killing.
Shreya Singhal v UOI [4]:
This is case of 2012, in which two girls were
arrested by Mumbai Police for expressing their displeasure against a strike by shiv sena for shiv sena chief's death. The accusation made against the
petitioners was that they were involved in posting their comments on the Facebook and liking the comment at the same time which resulted in widespread
public protest. The issue raised in this case was, Whether Sections 66-A, 69-A
and 79 of the IT Act are constitutionally valid? And Whether Section 66A of IT
Act is violative of fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression?
Verdict:
The court observed that the expressions used in 66A are completely
open-ended and undefined and it is not covered under Article 19(2) of Indian
Constitution. Section 66A actually had no proximate connection or link with
causing disturbance to public order or with incitement to commit an offence and
hence it was struck down by the court. The approach adopted by the court was to
protect the fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression and in no way
the legislation can take away this right by claiming the shield under
Article-19(2) of the Constitution.[3]
Cyber crime and human rights:
Cyber crime violates human rights such as right to privacy, right to secrecy,
right to free from any kind of blackmailing and torture. Hackers usually lock
secret data of the user or of any company and demand ransom to unlock them, they
also steal data and misuse them. Like in the recent case they hacked twitter
account of many well-known persons and misuses their account to collect money by
fraud, some demanded money to give back their account. They blackmail and
violates children rights by using their videos and picture on different sites.
- Nasscom v Ajay shood and others [5]:
It was a landmark judgment by the
Delhi High Court, phishing' on the internet was declared to be an illegal
act, entailing an injunction and recovery of damages. Court stated that phishing is a form of internet fraud where a person pretends to be a
legitimate association, such as a bank or an insurance company in order to
extract personal data from a customer such as access codes, passwords, etc.
The Delhi HC stated that even though there is no specific legislation in
India to penalize phishing still the court held the act of phishing as
passing off and tarnishing the Nasscom's image.
- One of the leading cybercrime cases is 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 "indianbarassociations"
and sent emails to the boy's foreign clients. She used the bank's computer
to do this. The boy's company lost a large number of clients and took the
bank to court. The bank was held liable for the emails sent using the bank's
system.
Conclusion:
Although there are much cyber laws to stop cyber crimes in India but somehow all
these laws seems to be ineffective. Hackers always creates new techniques to
surpass all the cyber security and hacks important data. Government should make
policy in such a way that basic human rights doesn't violates. Issue of
Surveillances, communications monitoring, privacy, consent and technology need
to be coupled with analysis of legal, ethical position and practices. Then only
there could be a chance to of protecting basic human rights and fostering
responsibility in this techno-savvy world. Now, this is need of time for
different organizations to stand up against this contagious like disease of
cyber crime.
End-Notes:
- Computer viruses, key loggers, spyware ( damages/steal your data)
- Locks personal data, demands ransom to unlock
- Obtains sensitive information through mail, message or call
- AIR 2015 SC 1523
- 119 (2005) DLT 596, 2005 (30) PTC 437 Del
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