This article has been written by Mr. Prateek Bindal, a 3^rd year student of Department of Law, Prestige Institute of Management and Research.

Introduction

Computers, laptops, Internet, Mobile phones, etc., and various other forms of technology, over the last several decades, totally changed the aspect of human life in numerous fields of technology, including how we can communicate from one corner to another corner of the world, Online shopping, Net banking, Getting News, entertaining ourselves through social media, etc. 

The world has never seen these types of inventions before, like computers and internet, which have changed the attitude of people in today’s world. These technology and developments have developed this much that it has increased the capacity of humans to bring off any task before time using these new technologies. The internet has revolutionized this much that our connectivity has improved with other countries. Coming of this new technology has changed our life; we are dependent on this and cannot imagine our daily lives without them.

Nevertheless, like a dagger,  it also has two aspects, pros and con. The pros of using the internet are that work gets simple, it can be completed in time using the internet, share information, etc. The con are the internet and computer can affect the mental health and peace of human lives by using it in a wrong way or misusing it. Everything has advantages and disadvantages, totally depends on the person in which manner wants to use it. Technological advancements created countless opportunities for offenders to commit various forms of crime, a minor mistake in managing our digital accounts can destroy our lives by opening the door to cybercriminals.

What is Cybercrime?

Cybercrime is a crime that involves criminal activities done using cyberspace through devices that are linked to the internet or a part of illegal activity that takes place on or over the internet or a computer and any other technology recognized by the IT Act. Sometimes it’s also known as ‘Computer Crimes’. To commit a cybercrime, a network & a computer or the internet are necessary. A computer can be used for the commission of a crime or can be the target. Cybercrime is executed through a computer as a weapon for committing a crime such as E-mail harassment, Cyber Stalking, Online Sextortion, Phishing, Spamming, etc.

Cybercrime is the most predominant crime playing a destructing role in Modern India (Making Digital India). Because of the internet, cybercrime has grown in importance because the computer has become essential in every field like communication, the IT sector, government, etc. & without this, the workload will be more. It may put at risk the nation’s security, harm the reputation, user’s personal information, confidential business information, financial health, targeted person’s privacy, conceal government data, cause losses to society, etc. however it does not affect the body of any person. It is also a cybercrime to trade or induce the above information online.

The motivating factor of a cybercrime is majorly financial or to generate profit for criminals: cybercrime can be done in a different way to earn profit as using other’s computers to harm or weaken them, accessing personal information (images, videos, etc.) from other devices without permission, targeting computers to infect them with the virus which is spread to other machines or other networks, stealing financial information like (credit card or further card information), cyberattacks, etc.

One of the most significant characteristics of cybercrime is to determine the jurisdiction because using cyberspace the identity of a cybercriminal is completely wiped out and is concealed in cyberspace, using various VPN networks on the internet through which it’s very tough to identify the person. Also, cybercriminals may initiate cyberattacks sitting in one country to another country (cross border) attacks. For example, in North Korea access and procreation of pornography content are illegal and prohibited, so the people residing in North Korea may access pornographic content that is available on the server of another country where it is not banned. Therefore, it’s hard to decide the liability of the person.

In India, the term ‘Cybercrime’ is not defined under Information Technology Act, 2000, or under any cyber law act but it is judicially interpreted in a few judgements passed by courts in India, however it’s not mentioned under any legal provision, act or statute passed by the Indian parliament. Under the Information Technology Act, 2000, various types of cybercrimes are defined, also, there are certain provision of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, which is applicable to cybercrimes committed, though their specific names are not mentioned thereupon.

Cybercrime is an uncontrollable evil that has its foundation in the inappropriate use of growing dependence on technology in modern life. The use of the internet or any other network and associated technology in daily routine is increasing, which ease user convenience. It is a medium that is limitless and uncountable. Whatsoever the good internet does to us, it has its dark sides too. 

Classification of Cybercrime

Cybercrime is based on the subject of the crime, to whom the crime has been committed whether a person or an organization, then what is the nature of the crime which has been committed online, and last what is the motive to commit a crime i.e., either it is done for personal motive, financially, politically, to harm society or due to unfair justice system.

It is broadly divided into 4 categories i.e.-

1. Cybercrime against Individuals – Crimes committed online by cybercriminals against a person or an individual include e-mail spoofing, harassment via e-mails, defamation, cyber stalking, etc.
2. Cybercrime against Property – Crimes committed against property include credit card fraud, intellectual property crimes, computer vandalism, internet thefts, etc.
3. Cybercrime against Organization – Crime committed using the internet against a company, an organization, or a government. The motive is to get the confidential data of private and government institutions or entities. These cyberattacks are initiated to threaten international and national governments or private entities to get a lump sum of money from the institutions and to spread terror among people, including cyber espionage, cyber terrorism, salami attack, web jacking, attack by a virus, etc.
4. Cybercrime against Society – Crime committed affects the interest of society at large and against the public, including child pornography, human trafficking, online gambling, etc.

Some of the examples of cybercrimes are –

1. E- mail spoofing: It is a type of cyberattack in which the individual or businesses are the targets where an email is sent to the person in which the senders address is forged, the header is forged, so that the e-mail appears to be from original source but actually it is from unauthoritative source in which the malicious link or attachment has been found.
2. Cyber Bullying: Also known as cyber harassment. Its purpose is to bully someone, embarrass or threatening the victim using electronic mode, digital device or through internet such as laptops, computers or cell phones, etc. It includes some of the activities like hacking social media accounts, sharing child pornography, posting unnecessary comments, sending offensive messages, etc. In today’s modern world it’s common among teenagers of bullying some other person with personal motive.
3. Cyber Stalking: Stalking done by one person to another person, contacting or following using any electronic mode of communication irrespective of the fact that the person has no interest at all. Trying to browse persons internet history or online activity, sending vulgar content to the person using social media or other applications is known as cyber stalking.
4. Phishing: It is a type of fraud sending the e-mails in the pretext of the reputed companies to induce a person to reveal a personal information like passwords, credit/debit card number, CVV, ATM pin, OTP, etc. Through this attack the cyber criminals not only exploit the individual but also damage company’s reputation.
5. Cyber Terrorism: It is done using cyberspace through a computer or the internet, a volent acts which is done digitally to harm the integrity or sovereignty of any country, loss to lives of people, harm the general public, disturb the unity or security of the nation to create terror in the minds of the people. For ex – Hacking Govt. sites or army sites and conceals confidential information.
6. Cyber Pornography or Child Pornography: Any material which contains sexual images or videos of any child or any individual in which they are sexually exploited and not wearing clothes, using the internet publishes, distribute, import, display or share with any person is called cyber pornography.
7. Cyber Warfare: Also defined as cyberattack or a series of attack which is conducted on the enemy country. Mainly the target is battle space and has the potential to create disaster on other country’s government and the civilian infrastructure even can cause to loss of lives. Espionage, sabotage, DoS attacks, Economic disruption, etc. are some types of it.
8. Denial of Service (DoS) attack: It is a cyberattack on a computer or another systems where it prevents the legal user of the computer to access the computer, they target the attack in this manner that in the end the system gets crashed. This cost millions of rupees to the corporate world to use their own system to prevent this kind of attacks.
9. Salami Attack: It is a type of attack where hacker or attacker steals money in small amounts and the damage done is so small that it is unnoticed. It is of two types i.e. Salami Slicing in which by using online data the attacker steals information like credit/debit card details, CVV numbers etc. and other is Penny Shaving by using these methods hacker steal money in small amounts.

Case Laws

• Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (2013) 12 S.C.C. 73 –

In this case, the Hon’ble Supreme Court struck down Section 66A of the IT Act.

• Yahoo!, Inc. v. Akash Arora 1999 IIAD Delhi 229, 78 (1999) DLT 285 –

In this case, the defendant was accused of using the trademark or domain name ‘yahooindia.com,’. The Court ordered a permanent injunction under Order 39 Rules 1 & 2 CPC in this case.

• Kalandi Charan Lenka v. the State of Odisha BLAPL No.7596 of 2016 –

• A victim received a series of obscene messages from an unknown number that has damaged her reputation. The accused also sent emails to the victim and created a fake account on Facebook containing morphed images of her. 
• The High Court, therefore, found the accused prima facie guilty of cyberstalking on various charges under the IT Act and Section 354D of IPC.

Conclusion

With the recent technological advancements in the present times the scope for cybercrimes has been vividly increased. This has exposed a lot of people to directly under the threat of being victim of any of the cybercrimes, mentioned above in the article. To protect people from these attacks proper and strict laws are much needed. This is an area where India greatly lags, as we do not have any exhaustive law aiming to curb these crimes. Information Act, 2000, is the only law which deals with the offences done by using any cyber space. There are some provisions of IPC as well which governs a certain kind of offences which are being committed by using a cyber space. But these laws are also not amended with the rapid increase in cybercrimes. There are many acts which cause harm to the people but are not governed by either the IT Act, 2000 or IPC, 1860. The void created by the lack of laws has created a path for the offenders to escape from the liability of their offence. However, the judiciary has tried to fill the void by pronouncing judgements in order to protect people from these kinds of offences, where there is not any exhaustive law. 

References

https://blog.ipleaders.in/cyber-crimes-classification-and-cyber-forensics/#Classification_of_Cyber_Crimes

https://www.bbau.ac.in/dept/Law/TM/1.pdf

https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/cybercrime#:~:text=Cybercrime%20is%20any%20criminal%20activity,to%20damage%20or%20disable%20them.

https://www.lawyersclubindia.com/articles/classification-of-cybercrimes–1484.asp#:~:text=1.,theft%20and%20intellectual%20property%20crimes.

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/cyber-crime/

Aishwarya Says:

Law students often face problems, which they cannot share with their friends and families. We have started a column on our website Student’s Corner. In this column we are talking to several law students about the challenges that they face. Students who are interested in participating in the same, can fill this Google Form.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING IN THE SAME, DO LET ME KNOW.

The copyright of this Article belongs exclusively to Ms. Aishwarya Sandeep. Reproduction of the same, without permission will amount to Copyright Infringement. Appropriate Legal Action under the Indian Laws will be taken.

If you would also like to contribute to my website, then do share your articles or poems to aishwarya@aishwaryasandeep.com

Join our  Whatsapp Group for latest Job Opening