Cybercrime, as the name suggests, is a type of crime committed in the cyber
world. This crime is a new type of crime that has spread its roots to almost
every aspect of internet users' lives. Our Indian law has not defined the term
cybercrime as such, however, a law has been put in place to combat these types
of crimes, which we refer to as the Information Technology Act 2000 or the Act
2000. IT law 2000.
The term cybercrime is a very broad term and therefore cannot be defined in just
one or two sentences. However, if we consider the nature of this crime, we can
say that it is the type of crime in which computers and computer networks are
used or more precisely abused and the crime is committed. shows "through" them,
or "for" them, or both. According to an Ipsos survey, the frequency of
complaints by Indians is much higher, i.e. 32% higher than the US, UK and other
technologically advanced countries where it is only about 1115% . 32ta is for
the cases that are the subject of the complaint, not the cases that are not the
subject of the complaint.
One of the main reasons why cybercrime cases increase so rapidly is that we
depend on it for even the most basic things like shopping, paying, ordering
food, etc. and where there is such an uncontrollable addiction that some people
will inevitably take advantage of it.
Some reasons are listed below:
- Earn easy money without revealing identity when they use hacked computer
and fake or steal I.P. Address
- Complex coding and technologies increase the likelihood of mistakes
being exploited by criminals.
- They know how to fool biometrics easily, they even use force to do it.
- Evidence is usually in the form of data that can be easily destroyed
without leaving a trace.
- For all these reasons, most of these instances are still unreachable.
We come across various cases of cybercrime committed almost daily in newspapers,
TV or by any other person. There they usually narrate the whole procedure
through which the crime was committed, these crimes are usually what we
technically call as phishing where the fraudsters earn huge amount of money by
misleading the victim by acting as a bank manager where they ask for sensitive
bank details. But this is not it, cyber crimes are way more advanced than this.
Criminals also commit non cyber crimes with the help of cyber stuffs. Now a
days, every third person has a social account and they tend to regularly update
about their daily life, their personal information like their address, etc.
These personal information that a social media account holder gives on his
account works as a tracer to the criminals and it becomes easier for them to
harm that person, maybe by kidnapping them as they now know about the
whereabouts of that person. Another very common type of cybercrime is hacking.
It has become so common now that even the highly secure websites of government
agencies have been hacked, not to mention the social media accounts of ordinary
people. The most common hacking method is that the hacker usually sends links to
the victim's email or any social account and the moment the user clicks on that
link, the hacker will gain access to the user's computer system. there.
We can also witness cases where we receive spam messages in emails saying we
have won a certain amount and in return they ask us for our bank details . This
is where many people fall into the trap, even the most educated. These types of
cyber crimes are something that we see on a daily basis. Research has shown that
every eight out of ten people have in some or the other way fallen into such
traps of cyber crimes and have been victimized.
All the above examples were something which are way common and something which
anyone can do. But like in all other areas, cyber crime has also given birth to
some of the very famous cyber criminals of the world who can also be referred to
as 'cyber crime celebrities'. The very famous criminal Paul le Roux can be
connected to cyber crime as he used his advanced programming skills in drugs and
arms dealings. He is a programmer who dropped out of school like Mark Zuckerberg
and Bill Gates, but chose to use his skills to work for America's opioid
epidemic by providing drugs to ordinary US citizens. . United
The very recent case of Julian Assange, who was kicked out of the Ecuadorian
Embassy and arrested in London, is the founder of the infamous Wikileaks site,
which allegedly contains confidential information from the government's own
websites. government has been leaked and announced. These characters are famous
international cybercriminals who have contributed their technical skills to
something illegal. Although there are international-level crimes, surprisingly
data shows that in recent years more than half of crimes in India are committed
by fraudsters posing as bank managers and extorting money. scam) is from a small
district in Jharkhand called Jamtara.
,
Interior Minister Rajiv Gauba called it a cybercrime hub, where the number of
arrests in 2017 reached 100. Police say such crimes are often committed by
children dropping out of school and college, this shows the fact that these
crimes are not complicated to commit and even a person who is not well educated
can commit it. But more than that, even the educated individuals fall in such
traps in spite of plethora of awareness programs held by the government.
According to a report by the NCRB, in recent years, the amount of publication of
these images on the Internet has increased by 10 %. Most of these cases go
unreported, possibly because families don't want to disturb their privacy or get
involved with the police and courts, and moreover, victims tend to keep their
schools to themselves. This is for myself because I'm afraid. everyone will
blame the victim. Criminals know these facts and take advantage of them.
It's a crime that can hurt anyone who falls victim to it, whether it's a big
celebrity like the recent case of Hollywood actress Bella Thorne, or an ordinary
girl. Especially in India, this is a big concern as there are no specific laws
specifically dealing with such crimes. Maybe because, most of the cases go
unreported the law makers do not yet know about the intensity of this crime. If
such a case ever comes up then we have few provisions in the Indian Penal Code (IPC)
and the IT Act to help deal with such cases.
Some provisions are mentioned below:
- Section 67A of the IT Act which sentences the person a maximum of 5
years term imprisonment with fine.
- Section 35 C of the IPC in which the capturing of any such image has to
be consensual but its dissemination is non consensual. But one thing to be
noted is that this provision does not undertake morphed or photoshopped
images which may have the similar effect.
- Article 292 of the CPI where the circulation of any sexually explicit
object is punishable.
- Article 66E of the computer law punishes the transmission of images from
one's private area, since even the capture of such images must be without
consent.
Now the problem is that either of these clauses have some loopholes especially
Article 66E of the ICC where it is mentioned that photography is not consensual
and contrary to this one finds that most of these cases have pictures taken.
with consent in the past that the convicted person has taken advantage of. This
sub-branch of NCSIA is known as revenge porn when the person uploads a picture
or video of revenge.
This is usually done by the ex-partner. Also, the maximum punishment is of mere
5 years whereas the trauma that the victim goes through remains almost the
lifetime. Also the images and videos keep on circulating on the internet. In a
case of west Bengal, the judge of the court referred to this crime as 'virtual
rape'.
After realizing the seriousness and gravity of these crimes, the law makers put
into force the Information Technology Act of 2000 which went through number of
amendments to correctify and cover up the loop holes present in the previous
one. But even after the amendments, loopholes still exist and the growing number
of cyber crime cases are proof of it.
In the famous case of Shreya Singhal v. Union of India, Mr. Tushar Mehta,
Scholar's Additional Counsel on the Defendant's side, argued that any material
posted on the internet or made available to internet users is certainly more
widely accessible than any other. any other means, it is not limited to any
particular frontier, unlike the others. So obviously this needs more regulation.
Increasing crime rates are becoming difficult to combat with current legal
systems.
More amendments and stricter legislation will be needed, some of which are
given below:
- More time is needed to gather evidence in murder cases because evidence
can be easily destroyed, so the authorities need more time to investigate.
- As Mr. Tushar Mehta said, any issue on social network is unrestricted
and can be accessed from anywhere, legislators should put restrictions on
accessibility, or limit it to reduce people abuse.
- Specific laws that need to be developed on issues such as cyberbullying,
children, NCSIA, must include all possible provisions and address loopholes
so that many other acts and laws do not pursued.
- More training is needed for police officers in this regard.
- Legal proceedings in this matter should be regulated.
- A special court should, where possible, be established so that these
cases are handled separately and also free of the unwanted backlogs we
already have.
- The term of imprisonment should be increased for some crimes.
- Excessive advertisements pop ups on many websites and apps should be
regulated.
Apart from all the legal aspects, something which is very important is that
there should be an awareness on an individual level. Unless each person do not
become aware and cautious, it will be difficult to regulate these crimes. Laws
along with individual awareness can help to make India free of cyber crime.
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