INTRODUCTION

The combination of computer network and telecommunications developed by the digital technologies has given birth to a common space called 'cyberspace‘. This cyberspace has become a platform for human activities which converge on the internet. Internet is increasingly being used for communication, commerce, advertising, banking, education, research and entertainment. It has become a place to do all of activities which are prohibited by law. it is increasingly being used for pornography, gambling, trafficking in human organs and prohibited drugs, hacking, infringing copyright, terrorism, violating individual privacy, money laundering, fraud, software piracy and corporate espionage, etc. Cyber crime is easy to commit, hard to detect and often hard to locate in jurisdictional terms [1]. The heavy reliance of individuals/organizations on internet has resulted in to a corresponding increase in the cybercrimes. Lack of proper training and education, the low level of awareness of the Indian population about the cybercrime has resulted into a cybercrimes. The objectives of this research work are to touch all the important facets of the cyber crimes in a comprehensive way and to achieve new insights into it [1] [2].

The law enforcement officers do not have proper training and other requisite expertise for tackling cybercrime.

The main objectives of this paper is to present basic concepts of the cyber world, trace the origin and development of the cyber crimes, examine critically the position of intellectual property rights in cyber space, analyse the principles of jurisdiction in cyber offences, discuss comprehensively the concept of electronic evidence, decipher as to how the issue of cyber crimes has been dealt with in the Indian scenario, find out the international initiatives to curb cyber menace, point out the possible defects and loopholes in the existing laws relating to cyber crimes, suggest the reforms and remedial measures for the prevention and control of cyber crimes.

CYBER CRIME

A. Nature of Cyber Crime:

The hackers, cyber criminals are always in search of any weakness or security holes in system. As they find it, they try to get into the system by applying some tricks known to them. Ignoring such activities may cause danger for individual as well as society. Cyber criminals can do anything with their destructive mind. They may destroy web sites and portals by hacking and planting viruses, play transaction related frauds, they may gain access to highly confidential and sensitive information. Moreover they may harass someone by e-mail or obscene material, play tax related frauds, it also indulges cyber pornography involving children, and commits many other crimes on the internet. Increasing use of the internet in day to day life, cyber crime would affect all of us all, either directly or indirectly [2].

B. Classifications of cyber crimes

There are certain offences which affect the personality of individuals can be defined as:

Harassment via e-mails: it is very common type of harassment through sending letters, attachments of files & folders i.e. Via e-mails. At present harassment is common as usage of social sites i.e. Facebook, twitter etc. Increasing day by day.

Cyber-stalking: it means expressed or implied a physical threat that creates fear through the use to 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.

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.

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.

Child pornography: it involves the use of computer networks to create, distribute, or access materials that sexually exploit underage children.

Internet phishing: phishing is the act of attempting to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and sometimes, indirectly, money) by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

Cyber squatting: it means where two persons claim for the same domain name either by claiming that they had registered the name first on by right of using it before the other or using something similar to that previously. For example two similar names i.e. Www.google.com and www.gogle.com.

Cyber vandalism: vandalism means deliberately destroying or damaging property of another. Thus cyber vandalism means destroying or damaging the data when a network service is stopped or disrupted. It may include within its purview any kind of physical harm done to the computer of any person. These acts may take the form of the theft of a computer, some part of a computer or a peripheral attached to the computer.

Virus: viruses are programs that attach themselves to a computer or a file and then circulate themselves to other files and to other computers on a network. They usually affect the data on a computer, either by altering or deleting it. Worm attacks plays major role in affecting the computerize system of the individuals.

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.

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 [3].

WHAT IS CYBER LAW?

Cyber law is a term used to describe the legal issues related to use of communications technology, particularly ―cyberspace‖, i.e. the Internet. It is less of a distinct field of law in the way that property or contract are, as it is an intersection of many legal fields, including intellectual property, privacy, freedom of expression, and jurisdiction. In essence, cyber law is an attempt to apply laws designed for the physical world, to human activity on the Internet. In India, The IT Act, 2000 as amended by The IT (Amendment) Act, 2008 is known as the Cyber law. It has a separate chapter XI entitled ―Offences‖ in which various cyber crimes have been declared as penal offences punishable with imprisonment and fine.

Cyber Legislation in India

In India, cyber laws are contained in the Information Technology Act, 2000 ("IT Act") enacted after the United Nation General Assembly Resolution A/RES/51/162, dated the 30th January, 1997 by adopting the Model Law on Electronic Commerce adopted by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law and which came into force on October 17, 2000. The main purpose of the Act is to provide legal recognition to electronic commerce and to facilitate filing of electronic records with the Government. The following Act, Rules and Regulations are covered under cyber laws:

Information Technology Act, 2000

Information Technology (Certifying Authorities) Rules, 2000

Information Technology (Security Procedure) Rules, 2004

InformationTechnology (Certifying Authority) Regulations, 2001

The Act essentially deals with the following issues:

Legal Recognition of Electronic Documents

Legal Recognition of Digital Signatures

Offenses and Contraventions

Justice Dispensation Systems for cyber-crimes.

National Policy on Information Technology 2012

The Union Cabinet has recently in September 2012, approved the National Policy on Information Technology 2012. The Policy aims to leverage Information & Communication Technology (ICT) to address the country‘s economic and developmental challenges [2].

The vision of the Policy is

“To strengthen and enhance India’s position as the Global IT hub and to use IT and cyber space as an engine for rapid, inclusive and substantial growth in the national economy”.

CYBER CRIME SCENARIO IN INDIA

The crime is defined as an act, which subjects the doer to legal punishment or any offence against morality, social order or any unjust or shameful act. The "offence" is defined in the Code of Criminal Procedure to mean as an act or omission made punishable by any law for the time being in force. Cyber crime is a term used to broadly describe criminal activity in which computers or computer networks are a tool, a target, or a place of criminal activity and include everything from electronic cracking to denial of service attacks. It is also used to include traditional crimes in which computers or networks are used to enable the illicit activity [4].

Cyber Crime variants

There are many cyber crime variants. A few varieties are:

Cyber stalking

Hacking

Phishing

Cross Site Scripting

Vishing

Cyber Squatting

Bot Networks

A Primer on Cyber Laws in India:

Cyber law is important issue since it includes almost all aspects of transactions and activities on and involving the internet, World Wide Web and cyberspace. Every action and reaction in cyberspace has some legal and cyber legal perspectives.

Cyber law encompasses laws relating to i. Cyber crimes

Electronic and digital signatures

Intellectual property

Data protection and privacy

In India, cyber laws are contained in the Information Technology Act, 2000 ("IT Act") which came into force on October 17, 2000. The main purpose of the Act is to provide legal recognition to electronic commerce and to facilitate filing of electronic records with the Government [5].

Objectives of I.T. legislation in India: It is against this background the Government of India enacted its Information Technology Act 2000 with the objectives as follows, stated in the preface to the Act itself. ―to provide legal recognition for transactions carried out by means of electronic data interchange and other means of electronic communication, commonly referred to as "electronic commerce", which involve the use of alternatives to paper-based methods of communication and storage of information, to facilitate electronic filing of documents with the Government agencies and further to amend the Indian Penal Code, the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, the Bankers' Books Evidence Act, 1891 and the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 and for matters connected therewith or incidental there to.

Amendment Act 2008: Being the first legislation in the nation on technology, computers and ecommerce and e-communication, the Act was the subject of extensive debates, elaborate reviews and detailed criticisms, with one arm of the industry criticizing some sections of the Act to be draconian and other stating it is too diluted and lenient. There were some conspicuous omissions too resulting in the investigators relying more and more on the time-tested (one and half century-old) Indian Penal Code even in technology based cases with the I.T. Act also being referred in the process and the reliance more on IPC rather on the ITA. Thus the need for an amendment – a detailed one – was felt for the I.T. Act almost from the year 2003-04 itself. Major industry bodies were consulted and advisory groups were formed to go into the perceived lacunae in the I.T. Act and comparing it with similar legislations in other nations and to suggest recommendations. Such recommendations were analysed and subsequently taken up as a comprehensive Amendment Act and after considerable administrative procedures, the consolidated amendment called the Information Technology Amendment Act 2008 was placed in the Parliament and passed without much debate, towards the end of 2008 (by which time the Mumbai terrorist attack of 26 November 2008 had taken place). This Amendment Act got the President assent on 5 Feb 2009 and was made effective from 27 October 2009. Some of the notable features of the ITAA are as follows:

Focusing on data privacy

Focusing on Information Security

Defining cyber café

Making digital signature technology neutral

Defining reasonable security practices to be followed by corporate

Redefining the role of intermediaries

Recognizing the role of Indian Computer Emergency Response Team

Inclusion of some additional cyber crimes like child pornography and cyber terrorism authorizing an Inspector to investigate cyber offences (as against the DSP earlier) [6].

CYBER CRIME – INDIAN CASES

Pune Citibank Mphasis Call Center Fraud

It is a case of sourcing engineering. US $ 3,50,000 from City bank accounts of four US customers were dishonestly transferred to bogus accounts in Pune, through internet. Some employees of a call centre gained the confidence of the US customers and obtained their PIN numbers under the guise of helping the customers out of difficult situations. Later they used these numbers to commit fraud. Highest security prevails in the call centres in India as they know that they will lose their business. The call centre employees are checked when they go in and out so they cannot copy down numbers and therefore they could not have noted these down. They must have remembered these numbers, gone out immediately to a cyber café and accessed the Citibank accounts of the customers. All accounts were opened in Pune and the customers complained that the money from their accounts was transferred to Pune accounts and that‘s how the criminals were traced. Police has been able to prove the honesty of the call centre and has frozen the accounts where the money was transferred.

SOME LAWS AND PUNISHMENTS

1. Hacking

Hacking is not defined in The amended IT Act, 2000. According to wiktionary, Hacking means unauthorized attempts to bypass the security mechanisms of an information system or network. Also, in simple words Hacking is the unauthorized access to a computer system, programs, data and network resources. (The term ―hacker‖ originally meant a very gifted programmer. In recent years though, with easier access to multiple systems, it now has negative implications.) Law & Punishment: Under Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008, Section 43(a) read with section 66 is applicable and Section 379 & 406 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 also are applicable. If crime is proved under IT Act, accused shall be punished for imprisonment, which may extend to three years or with fine, which may extend to five lakh rupees or both. Hacking offence is cognizable, bailable, compoundable with permission of the court before which the prosecution of such offence is pending and triable by any magistrate.

2. Data Theft

According to Wikipedia, Data Theft is a growing problem, primarily perpetrated by office workers with access to technology such as desktop computers and handheld devices, capable of storing digital information such as flash drives, iPods and even digital cameras. The damage caused by data theft can be considerable with today‘s ability to transmit very large files via e-mail, web pages, USB devices, DVD storage and other hand-held devices. According to Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008, crime of data theft under Section 43 (b) is stated as - 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 data base or information from such computer, computer system or computer network including information or data held or stored in any removable storage medium, then it is data theft. Law & Punishment: Under Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008, Section 43(b) read with Section 66 is applicable and under Section 379, 405 & 420 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 also applicable. Data Theft offence is cognizable, bailable, compoundable with permission of the court before which the prosecution of such offence is pending and triable by any magistrate.

CONCLUSION

A In this paper we have tried to focus on basic concepts of cybercrime, cyber laws and some legal issues related to it. While preparing this paper we came to know that, Cyber crimes are easy to commit and hard to detect, due to increase in use of computers and internet it is very easy for criminals to commit a crime by using IT resources. Since most of Indian population is not aware about legal issues related with IT, it is very easy for perpetrators to get into their systems and steal their personal information. We also include some of the cybercrime cases in India for better understanding. Finally we conclude that is necessary to gear up the efforts to prevent the cybercrimes as technology and its related issues are increasing India.

REFERENCES

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