Cybercrime is not new to people, cyberattacks do not have any borders and they evolve at a rapid pace. Cybercrime, or computer-oriented crime, is a crime that involves a computer and a network. The computer may have been used in the commission of any crime, or, it may be the target. Cybercrime may threaten a person, company or a nation’s security and financial health.
Such crimes are progressing at an incredibly fast speed often with new and changed trends.
In THE YEAR 1972 IP was invented
In THE YEAR 1979 first computer warm was invented
In THE YEAR 1983 first virus was invented
In THE YEAR 1989 world wide web was created
In THE YEAR 1989 google was founded
In THE YEAR 2007 more than 50 million people were using online banking system
In THE YEAR 2009 cyber security designated as key presidential priority
In THE YEAR 2010 more than 360 identity breaches and approx. two crore records exposed to date.
THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACT, 2000 AT A GLANCE
- It is the primary law in India dealing with cybercrime and electronic commerce.
- Original act contained 94 sections, divided in 13 chapters and 4 schedules.
- It was amended in the year 2008.
- Chapter XI of the I.T. Act, 2000 deals with offences from section 65 to section 78.
- There are 28 types of cybercrimes
- Cyber appellate tribunal was established to resolve such disputes
The most common types of cyber crimes committed around us are as under:-
- HACKING means using computers to commit fraudulent acts such as fraud, privacy invasion, stealing corporate or individual data, etc. Hacking is a crime even if a person was not able to steal any information but what the person intended to do.
PUNISHMENT– imprisonment up to three years, or/and with fine up to ₹500,000/-
- DATA THEFT is well defined in Section 43 (b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act) i.e “If any person without permission of the owner or any other person who is in charge of a computer, computer system of computer network, downloads, copies or extracts any data, computer database or information from such computer, computer system or computer network. It is the term used when any information in the form of data is illegally copied or taken from a business or other individual without his knowledge or consent.
- PUNISHMENT – imprisonment up to three years, or/and with fine up to ₹200,000/-
- EMAIL SPOOFING/ PHISHING is an act of using a faked (or “spoofed”) email header or IP address to befool the recipient/s and to make him or her to be sure that it’s legitimate. Unsolicited spam email unrelated to phishing often uses spoofing tactics to hide its tracks
- PUNISHMENT – Penalty up to ₹20000000/-
- PHOTO MORPHING is about changing the form or character of transformation to specially undergo a transformation from an image of one object into that of another by means of computer-generated animation effects. Photo morphing is a great threat for an individual and therefore, the Indian legislation needs to further amend the law of cybercrime in India.
- PUNISHMENT – Imprisonment up to three years, or/ and with fine up to ₹500,000/-
- CHILD PORNOGRAPHY In such images, children are shown involved in sexual activities and traded on the Internet for wrongful monetary gains. Child pornographers use the Internet for distribution purposes to sell their illegal materials to adults who are sexually attracted to child
- PUNISHMENT – Imprisonment up to five years.
- IDENTITY THEFT means, when someone steals your individual identity and pretends to be thyself to access all your resources illegally, such as credit cards, bank accounts and others in thy name.
- ACTS OF CYBERTERRORISM If a person accesses a protected system or introduces contaminants into a system with an intention to conduct violent acts and threatens the unity, integrity, sovereignty or security of India, then he commits cyber-terrorism.
PREVENTION OF CYBER CRIMES
- Avoid disclosing your identity to strangers.
- Always use the latest antivirus software to guard against virus attacks.
- Never use your card on websites which are not secured and trusted.
- Use a firewall on your computer system.
- Uninstall softwares which is not signed by trusted developers.
- Avoid using third-party extensions, plug-ins or add-ons for your web browser as it may track your activity and steal your personal data.
- Always verify and install authentic e-wallet apps directly from the app store ( Google/ iOS/ Android Store) on your smartphone. Do not install e-wallet apps via links shared over email, SMS or social media.
5 comments. Leave new
Wonderful Anuj. Thank you for this informative article. You have covered a topic which is an important one in the contemporary times. It is indeed full of the necessary facts and gave me a good overview of the topic from its history to causes and prevention.
Great work!
Thanx for sharing updated & relevant information.
It was so Informative Mr. Anuj ! Thankyou for putting light on this topic. I would like you to tell more about Photo Morphing as we see many cases on internet today , recently in Punjab Industry many actresses went through photo morphing to destroy their image in society. Its a serious issue and as you said laws need to be amended in this and more strict actions need to be taken in order to stop this.
Great initiative to enlighten the public about cyber crimes, about which common people don’t know and had suffered somehow by any cyber crime activity . Great work to built and empowered the nation.
Very very informative!