Cyber Crime in India

 

With the increasing use of computers in society, cybercrime has become a major issue. The advancement of technology has made man dependent on internet for all his needs. Internet has given man access to everything while sitting at one place. Social networking, online shopping, online studying, online jobs, every possible things that Man can think of can be done through the medium of internet.

The cybercrime is different from any other crime happening in the society. The reason being, it has no geographical boundaries and the cyber criminals are unknown. It is affecting all the stakeholders from government, business to citizens alike. In India cybercrime is increasing with the increased use of information and communication technology (ICT). Therefore, this article tries to study a brief introduction of cybercrime, different types of, Amendments, and analyse the cybercrime happening in India. Further he discusses some steps to overcome cybercrime in India.

Introduction:

What is cybercrime? Cybercrime is a broad term that is used to define criminal activity in which computers or computer networks are a tool, a target, or a place of criminal activity and include everything from electronic wracking to denial of service attacks. It is a general term that covers crimes like phishing, Credit card frauds, bank robbery, illegal downloading, industrial espionage, child pornography, kidnapping children via chat rooms, scams, cyber terrorism, creation and or distribution of viruses, spam and so on.

It also covers that traditional crimes in which computers or networks are used to enable the illicit activity. Cyber crime is increasing day by day, nowadays it has become a new fashion to earn money by fraud calls or to take revenge through hacking other accounts.

Types of Cybercrimes:

Cybercrime ranges variety of activities. Cyber crime can be basically divided into three major categories:

A. Cyber crimes against persons like harassment occur in cyberspace or through the use of cyberspace. Harassment can be sexual, racial, religious, or other.

B. Cyber crimes against property like computer wreckage (destruction of others' property), transmission of harmful programs, unauthorized trespassing, unauthorized possession of computer information.

C. Cyber crimes against government like Cyber terrorism

 Crimes against persons are:

• Cyber-Stalking:

It means to create physical threat that creates fear to use the computer technology such as internet, e-mail, phones, text messages, webcam, websites or videos.

 

• Dissemination of Obscene Material:

It includes Indecent exposure/ Pornography (basically child pornography), hosting of web site containing these prohibited materials. These obscene matters may cause harm to the mind of the adolescent and tend to deprave or corrupt their mind.

 

• Defamation:

It is an act of imputing any person to lower down the dignity of the person by hacking his mail account and sending some mails with using vulgar language to unknown persons mail account.

 

• Hacking:

It means unauthorized control/access over computer system and act of hacking completely destroys the whole data as well as computer programmes. Hackers usually hacks telecommunication and mobile network.

 

• Cracking:

It is one of the serious cybercrimes known till date. Cracking means that a stranger has broken into your computer systems without your knowledge and consent and has tampered with precious confidential data and information.

 

• E-Mail Spoofing:

A spoofed e-mail may be said to be one, which misrepresents its origin. It shows its origin to be different from which actually it originates.

 

• SMS Spoofing:

Spoofing is a blocking through spam which means the unwanted uninvited messages. Wrongdoer steals mobile phone number of any person and sending SMS via internet and receiver gets the SMS from the mobile phone number of the victim. It is very serious cyber crime against any individual.

Cyber Terrorism:

Cyber terrorism is a major burning issue in the domestic as well as global concern. The common form of these terrorist attacks on the Internet is by distributed denial of service attacks, hate websites and hate e-mails, attacks on sensitive computer networks etc. Cyber terrorism activities endanger the sovereignty and integrity of the nation.

 

• Cyber Warfare:

It refers to politically motivated hacking to damage and spying. It is a form of information warfare sometimes seen as analogous to conventional warfare although this analogy is controversial for both its accuracy and its political motivation.

 

• Distribution of pirated software:

It means distributing pirated software from one computer to another intending to destroy the data and official records of the government.

 

• Possession of Unauthorized Information:

It is very easy to access any information by the terrorists with the aid of internet and to possess that information for political, religious, social, ideological objectives.

We are living in a digital age and cyberspace is not limited to one’s boundaries, rather it covers an entire world. As a result cybercrime is increasing day by day in all the countries including India. The biggest challenge relates to cybercrime being its dynamic nature because of the ongoing evolution of digital technology. As a result new cybercrime methods and techniques come into practice. Therefore cybercrime should be given as much importance as other crime happening in our society be it theft, rape, murder etc.

                            AKANKSHA SRIVASTAVA