A Study of Cyber Crime and Perpetration of Cyber Crime in India

Introduction

Cyber Crimes are a new class of crimes rapidly increasing due to extensive use of Internet and I.T. enabled services. Computer crime is one of the fastest-growing types of illegal activity, both in the U.S. and internationally. While the Internet links people together like never before, it also provides endless opportunity to criminals seeking to exploit the vulnerabilities of others. There are several different types of computer crime, many of which overlap. Below are a few of the most commonly reported cyber crimes:

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  Phishing: Phishing is the practice of sending fraudulent emails in an attempt to trick the recipient, usually for the purpose of obtaining money. The elderly are particularly vulnerable to these types of cyber crime.

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  Hacking: Hacking is similar to digital trespassing. Hackers infiltrate online networks to illegally download confidential information, manipulate functions and in some cases steal identities that can be used to fraudulently purchase goods online.

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  Stalking and/or Harassment: Not all types of cyber crime involve money. Some cyber criminals use the Internet as a cover for other illegal behaviors like stalking, harassment and in lesser cases, bullying.

The Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, specifies the acts which are punishable. Since the primary objective of this Act is to create an enabling environment for commercial use of I.T., certain specific omissions and commissions of criminals while using computers have not been included. Several offences having bearing on cyber arena are also registered under the appropriate sections of the IPC with the legal recognition of Electronic Records and the amendments made in several sections of the IPC vide IT Act, 2000.

Nature Of Cybercrime Acts

Cybercrime acts may be financially-driven acts, related to computer content, or against the confidentiality, integrity and accessibility of computer systems. The relative risk and threat may vary between Governments and businesses. Individual cybercrime victimization is significantly higher than for ‘conventional’ crime forms especially in countries with lower levels of development, highlighting a need to strengthen prevention efforts in these countries. Private sector enterprises in Europe report victimization rates of between 2 and 16 percent for acts such as data breach due to intrusion or phishing. Criminal tools of choice for these crimes, such as botnets, have global reach. More than one million unique IP addresses globally functioned as command and control servers for botnets in 2011 (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2013).

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  Internet content targeted for removal by governments includes child pornography and hate speech, but also defamation and government criticism, raising human rights law concerns in some cases.

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  Some estimates place the total global proportion of internet traffic estimated to infringe copyright at almost 24 per cent.