Cybercrime And Cyber Laws In India
In recent years, cybercrime has increased throughout the world. In India, in the
last year alone, there was a 16 percent increase in the number of cyberattacks
recorded by the police. Cybercrime is just getting worse and worse. It stresses
the importance of developing stronger legal frameworks to help protect society.
Investigating cyber crimes can often be a very long and complicated process.
The
investigators will have to perform several tasks related to gathering evidence
such as acquiring digital forensic data, analyzing it, and pinpointing hackers
based on their actions or their attempts to hide them. Hence, they need
specialized software that enables them to gather all information related to an
attack from multiple points across a victim's network quickly and efficiently.
As news of increasing cyberattacks continues to make major headlines across the
globe, it's becoming more and more clear that cybercrime is having an
unprecedented impact in every industry and affecting us on a personal level.
It's no wonder why cybersecurity has become a top priority for enterprises
everywhere because it's becoming more apparent than ever that enough is not
being done to prevent these types of attacks from occurring…
The predominant
forms of cyber thefts include:
Data breaches, identity theft, financial theft,
and internet time thefts, amongst others. Though cybersecurity is advancing
every day, hackers are also constantly upping their game and so companies need
to stay one step ahead.
Every government in the world, including our own country, is concerned about
cybersecurity. India is especially facing a rising number of cybersecurity
issues, and it's inevitable that it does more to protect its citizens. According
to a recent analysis done by The Economic Times, cybercrime is costing the
Indian government nearly 2 trillion rupees (USD 30 billion) per year. Another
study done by Kaspersky has found that there were three times as many
cyberattacks from April - June of this year than during all of 2015. India was
hit with 4.5 million attacks in July 2020 alone - by far the highest amongst all
nations!
There are four laws that serve as the backbone of cybersecurity: Information
Technology Act, Indian Penal Code (IPC) 1980, Companies Act of 2013, National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Compliance. There are extensive
laws in countries like India, where the internet is used very heavily.
These
laws help govern digital information and security practices. Strict cybersecurity laws enable oversight of digital transactions and online commerce,
as well as promote secure banking transfers and protect confidential digital
data for businesses. The goal is to make India one of the top destinations for
investment in new technology by updating its infrastructure along with a strong
legal framework to welcome private enterprises.
Why do Cyber laws need to be updated?
A Quick Analysis of the Cyber Law Scenario in India Cyber laws in India are
governed by The Information Technology Act, 2000 and These Laws have been
updated several times since the Original and most recent one was rolled out in
2008. Although these laws were created with the best interests at the heart of
Indian Citizens, there is much room for improvement.
Digitally Inclined Indians
hold an important spot on Big Data Maps since every day more and more Indians
are jumping online to keep up with their work and social lives via computers or smartphones. With this exponential increase in Cyber Users, we must ensure that
Cyber laws can keep up with new developments.
One of the reasons can be that there is a lack of fear of the law by
cybercriminals when it comes to cybercrime incidents in India. Call it lenient
or ineffective but most common computer crimes are not punishable by life
imprisonment, but maybe civil lawsuits filed on behalf of the victims
involved and hefty fines paid out to close cases in which there is no other
evidence to convict criminals.
Take an example in the US where they make laws
related to hacking seriously. Hacking is considered a felony offense, as there
are stiff consequences for those apprehended doing it multiple times. They have
well-defined laws related to these cases through which they get these people
punished at larger extents - none less than 15-39 years in jail!
So, laws need to be more stringent, and courts should be given the power to make
cybercrime cases a priority over other crimes. Training for police officials
related to computers and internet usage is another crucial way of decreasing the
cybercrime rate; this means that India must encourage education in computer
science at an early age.
Other ways of decreasing cybercrime could be more
strict laws passed which mandate a stricter punishment for those who break them
and making sure that cybercrime cases are taken just as seriously as live crime
cases.
Moreover, citizens should be made aware of the laws in order to protect them.
These laws are somewhat strict and must be adhered to. In fact, these laws
should be clear-cut and easy for everybody to understand. While cybercrime is
certainly a challenge for India today it has typically faced problems regarding
enforcing laws across its territory in the past!
Despite that issue, it's still
necessary that the government puts into action a strong law enforcement body
that can strike fear in cybercriminals who are currently committing atrocious
acts against innocent users of the internet. We do know however that this is
difficult because we've had trouble as a nation defining our own
'cyberlaws' clearly due to technological advances (and their implications).
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