Cyber Crime

What Is Cyber Crime?

A cybercrime is defined as an offence where the Internet, computers and mobile devices are used to commit criminal misconduct. Some examples of this may be cyber-terrorism or online piracy.
Some of the common definitions of cyber-crime are:

• A criminal activity that involves unlawful access to or utilization of computer systems.
• Any illegal action in which a computer is used as a tool or object of the crime; in other words, any crime the means or purpose of which is to influence the functions of a computer.
• Any incident associated with computer technology in which a victim suffered or could have suffered loss and a perpetrator, by intention made or could have made a gain.
• Any violation of the law in which a computer is the target of or the means for committing crime.
• Any activity which involves the unauthorized and unlawful access to or utilization of computer systems or networks in order to tamper with the data, or to intentionally transact anything illegal with the help of computers and the Internet, can broadly be called as cybercrime.

All the above definitions are suggestive of the involvement of either computer or internet. Cybercrimes are the products of the Internet. A definition of cybercrime is incomplete without reference to the Net. In India, the recent amendment of the IT Act,2008 has used the term computer related offences whereby a good number of cybercrimes have been added to the list of crimes already existing.

While most cybercrimes are carried out in order to generate profit for the cybercriminals, some cybercrimes are carried out against computers or devices directly to damage or disable them. Others use computers or networks to spread malware, illegal information, images or other materials. Some cybercrimes do both -- i.e., target computers to infect them with a computer virus, which is then spread to other machines and, sometimes, entire networks.

A primary effect of cybercrime is financial. Cybercrime can include many different types of profit-driven criminal activity, including ransomware attacks, email and internet fraud, and identity fraud, as well as attempts to steal financial account, credit card or other payment card information.

Cybercriminals may target an individual's private information or corporate data for theft and resale. As many workers settle into remote work routines due to the pandemic, cybercrimes are expected to grow in frequency in 2021, making it especially important to protect backup data.

Cyber Crime is a kind of crime in which generally offenders of crimes are generally hidden. Tracking cyber criminals require a proper law enforcing agency through cyber border co-operation of governments, businesses and institutions of other countries. Basic liability in cybercrime is established through the principle of neighbourhood established from the case of Donoghue v. Stevenson.

How Cyber Crime Works?

Cybercrime attacks can begin wherever there is digital data, opportunity and motive. Cybercriminals include everyone from the lone user engaged in cyberbullying to state-sponsored actors, like China's intelligence services.

Cybercrimes generally do not occur in a vacuum; they are, in many ways, distributed in nature. That is, cybercriminals typically rely on other actors to complete the crime. This is whether it's the creator of malware using the dark web to sell code, the distributor of illegal pharmaceuticals using cryptocurrency brokers to hold virtual money in escrow or state threat actors relying on technology subcontractors to steal intellectual property (IP).
Cybercriminals use various attack vectors to carry out their cyberattacks and are constantly seeking new methods and techniques for achieving their goals, while avoiding detection and arrest.

Cybercriminals often carry out their activities using malware and other types of software, but social engineering is often an important component for executing most types of cybercrime. Phishing emails are another important component to many types of cybercrime but especially so for targeted attacks, like business email compromise (BEC), in which the attacker attempts to impersonate, via email, a business owner in order to convince employees to pay out bogus invoices.

Types Of Cyber Crime

Cyber Crimes Against Persons

The following are the offences which affect the personality of individuals.

1. Harassment through E-Mails: It is very common type of harassment through sending letters, attachments of files and folders i.e. via e-mails. At present harassment is common at usage of social sites i.e. Facebook, Twitter, etc. increasing day by day.
    
2. Cyber-Stalking: It means expressed or implied a physical threat that creates fear through the use of computer technology such as internet, e-mail, phones, text messages, webcam, websites or videos. In general terms, stalking can be termed as the repeated acts of harassment targeting the victim such as following the victim, making harassing phone calls, killing the victims pet, vandalizing victims property, leaving written messages or objects. Stalking may be followed by serious violent acts such as physical harm to the victim. Cyber Stalking means repeated acts of harassment or threatening behaviour of the cybercriminal towards the victim by using internet services. Both kind of Stalkers i.e., Online & Offline have desire to control the victims life.
    
3. 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.
    
4. Defamation: It is an act of imputing any person with intent 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. When a person publishes defamatory matter about someone on a website or sends e-mails containing defamatory information to all of that persons friends, it is termed as cyber defamation.
    
5. 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. Unauthorized access means any kind of access without the permission of either of the rightful or person in charge of the computer, computer system or computer network. Hacking means an illegal intrusion into a computer system and/or network. Every act committed towards breaking into a computer and/or network is hacking. Hackers write or use ready-made computer programs to attack the target computer. They have the urge to destroy and destruct that provides them the element of contentment out of such destruction. Some hackers hack for personal monetary gains, such as stealing the credit card information, transferring money from various bank accounts to their own account followed by withdrawal or money. Government websites are the most targeted sites for the hackers.
    
6. Cracking: It is amongst the gravest cybercrimes known till date. It is dreadful feeling to know that a stranger has broken into your computer systems without your knowledge and consent and has tempered with precious confidential data and information.
    
7. 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.
    
8. SMS Spoofing: Spoofing is a blocking through spam which means the unwanted uninvited messages. Here an offender steal's identity of another in the form of mobile phone number and sending SMS via internet and receiver gets the SMS from the mobile phone number of the victim. It is very serious cybercrime against any individual.
    
9. Carding: It means false ATM cards i.e. Debit and Credit cards used by criminals for their monetary benefits through withdrawing money from the victim's bank account mala-fide. There is always unauthorized use of ATM cards in this type of cybercrimes.
    
10. Cheating and Fraud: It means the person who is doing the act of cybercrime i.e. stealing password and data storage has done it with having guilty mind which leads to fraud and cheating.
     
11. Pornography: Pornography means showing sexual acts in order to cause sexual excitement. The definition of pornography also includes pornographic websites, pornographic magazines produced using computer and the internet pornography delivered over mobile phones.
     
12. Child Pornography: It involves the use of computer networks to create, distribute, or access materials that sexually exploit underage children. Child Pornography is banned in India by the present Union Government led by Shri Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India. The Internet is being highly used as a medium to sexually abuse children. The children are vulnerable victim to the cybercrime. Computers and internet having become a necessity of every household, the children have got an easy access to the internet. There is an easy access to the pornographic contents on the internet. Paedophiles lure the children by distributing pornographic material and l and then they try to meet them for sex or to take their nude photographs including their engagement in sexual positions.
    
    Sometimes Paedophiles contact children in the chat rooms posing as teenagers or a child of similar age and then they start getting friendlier with them and try to win their confidence. Then slowly paedophiles start sexual chat to help children shed their inhibitions about sex and then call them out for personal interaction and starts actual exploitation of the children by offering them some money or falsely promising them good opportunities in life. The paedophiles then sexually exploit the children either by using them as sexual objects or by taking their pornographic pictures in order to sell the same over the internet.

Indian Law

• Section 66C Punishment of IT Act deals with identity theft.
  
  Whoever, fraudulently or dishonestly make use of the electronic signature, password or any other unique identification feature of any other person, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine which may extend to rupees one lakh.
   
• Section 67B of Information Technology Act, deals with the punishment for publishing or transmitting of material depicting children in sexually explicit act, etc. in electronic form.

Whoever:

1. publishes or transmits or causes to be published or transmitted material in any electronic form which depicts children engaged in sexually explicit act or conduct; or
2. creates text or digital images, collects, seeks, browses, downloads, advertises, promotes, exchanges or distributes material in any electronic form depicting children in obscene or indecent or sexually explicit manner; or
3. cultivates, entices or induces children to online relationship with one or more children for and on sexually explicit act or in a manner that may offend a reasonable adult on the computer resource; or
4. facilitates abusing children online, or
5. records in any electronic form own abuse or that of others pertaining to sexually explicit act with children, shall be punished on first conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years and with fine which may extend to ten lakh rupees and in the event of second or subsequent conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years and also with fine which may extend to ten lakh rupees:
   Section 67-B is applicable and Sections 292/293/294, 500, 506&509 of Penal Code, 1860 are also applicable and the victim can file a criminal complaint in the nearest Police Station where the said crime has been perpetrated or where he or she comes to know about the perpetration. The accused shall be punished for first conviction with imprisonment for aterm that may extend to five years and with fine which may be extend to ten lakh rupees and in second conviction with imprisonment for a term that may extend to seven years and with fine whichmay extend to ten lakh rupees.

US Federal Law

Section 2256 of Title 18, United States Code, defines child pornography as any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a minor (someone under 18 years of age). Visual depictions include photographs, videos, digital or computer generated images indistinguishable from an actual minor, and images created, adapted, or modified, but appear to depict an identifiable, actual minor. Undeveloped film, undeveloped videotape, and electronically stored data that can be converted into a visual image of child pornography are also deemed illegal visual depictions under federal law.

Crimes Against Person's Property

The second category of Cyber-Crimes is that of cybercrimes against all forms of property. These crimes include computer vandalism ( destruction of other's property) and transmission of harmful programmes.

• A Mumbai-based upstart engineering company lost a say and much money in the business when the rival company, an industry major, stole the technical database from their computers with the help of a corporate cyber spy.
   
• As there is rapid growth in the international trade where businesses and consumers are increasingly using computers to create, transmit and to store information in the electronic form instead of traditional paper documents. There are certain offences which affects person's properties which are as follows:
  1. Intellectual Property Crimes:Intellectual property consists of a bundle of rights. An unlawful act by which the owner is deprived completely of or partially of his rights is an offence. The common form of IPR violation may be said to be software piracy, infringement of copyright, trademark, patents, designs and service mark violation, theft of computer source code, etc.
      
  2. 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.
      
  3. 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.
      
  4. Hacking Computer System:Hacktivism attacks those included Famous Twitter, blogging platform by unauthorized access/control over the computer. Due to the hacking activity there will be loss of data as well as computer. Also research especially indicates that those attacks were not mainly intended for financial gain too and to diminish the reputation of particular person or company.
      
  5. Transmitting Virus:Viruses are programs that attach themselves to a computer or to 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 play major role in affecting the computerize system of the individuals.
      
  6. Cyber Trespass:It means to access someone's computer without the right authorization of the owner and does not disturb, alter, misuse, or damage data or system by using wireless internet connection.
      
  7. Internet Time Thefts:Basically, Internet time theft comes under hacking. It is the use by an unauthorized person, of the Internet hours paid for by another person. The person who gets access to someone else's ISP user ID and password, either by hacking or by gaining access to it by illegal means, uses it to access the Internet without the other person's knowledge. You can identify time theft if your Internet time has to be recharged often, despite infrequent usage.

Indian Law

Section 43 of the IT Act, relates to Penalty and Compensation for damage to computer, computer system, etc.

If any person without permission of the owner or any other person who is in charge of a computer, computer system or computer network:

1. Accesses or secures access to such computer, computer system or computer network [or computer resource];
2. Downloads, copies or extracts any data, computer database or information from such computer, computer system or computer network including information or data held or stored in any removable storage medium;
3. Introduces or causes to be introduced any computer contaminant or computer virus into any computer, computer system or computer network;
4. Damages or causes to be damaged any computer, computer system or computer network, data, computer database or any other programmes residing in such computer, computer system or computer network;
5. Disrupts or causes disruption of any computer, computer system or computer network;
6. Denies or causes the denial of access to any person authorised to access any computer, computer system or computer network by any means;
7. Provides any assistance to any person to facilitate access to a computer, computer system or computer network in contravention of the provisions of this Act, rules or regulations made thereunder;
8. Charges the services availed of by a person to the account of another person by tampering with or manipulating any computer, computer system, or computer network;
9. Destroys, deletes or alters any information residing in a computer resource or diminishes its value or utility or affects it injuriously by any means;
10. Steals, conceals, destroys or alters or causes any person to steal, conceal, destroy or alter any computer source code used for a computer resource with an intention to cause damage; [he shall be liable to pay damages by way of compensation to the person so affected.]

Explanation. For the purposes of this section:

1. "Computer contaminant" means any set of computer instructions that are designed:
   1. To modify, destroy, record, transmit data or programme residing within a computer, computer system or computer network; or
   2. By any means to usurp the normal operation of the computer, computer system, or computer network;
2. "Computer data-base" means a representation of information, knowledge, facts, concepts or instructions in text, image, audio, video that are being prepared or have been prepared in a formalised manner or have been produced by a computer, computer system or computer network and are intended for use in a computer, computer system or computer network;
3. "Computer virus" means any computer instruction, information, data or programme that destroys, damages, degrades or adversely affects the performance of a computer resource or attaches itself to another computer resource and operates when a programme, data or instruction is executed or some other event takes place in that computer resource;
4. "Damage" means to destroy, alter, delete, add, modify or rearrange any computer resource by any means.
5. "Computer source code" means the listing of programme, computer commands, design and layout and programme analysis of computer resource in any form.

Cybercrimes Against Government

The third category of Cyber-crimes relates to Cybercrimes against Government. Cyber terrorism is one distinct kind of crime in this category. The growth of internet has shown that the medium of Cyberspace is being used by individuals and groups to threaten the international governments as also to terrorize the citizens of a country. This crime manifests itself into terrorism when an individual "cracks" into a government or military maintained website. The Parliament attack in Delhi and the recent Mumbai attack fall under this category.

There are certain offences done by group of persons intending to threaten the international governments by using internet facilities. It includes:

1. 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.
2. Cyber Warfare: It refers to politically motivated hacking to conduct sabotage and espionage. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.

Cybercrimes Against Society At Large

An unlawful act done with the intention of causing harm to the cyberspace will affect large number of persons. These offences include:

1. Child Pornography: It involves the use of computer networks to create, distribute or access materials that sexually exploit underage children. It also includes activities concerning indecent exposure and obscenity.
2. Cyber Trafficking: It may be trafficking in drugs, human beings, army weapons etc. which affects large number of persons. Trafficking in the cyberspace is also a gravest crime.
3. Online Gambling: Online fraud and cheating is one of the most lucrative businesses that are growing today in the cyber space. There are many cases that have come to light pertaining to credit card crimes, contractual crimes, offering jobs, etc.
4. Financial Crimes: This type of offence is common as there is rapid growth in the users of networking sites and phone networking where culprits will try to attack by sending bogus mails or messages through the internet. Ex: using credit cards by obtaining passwords illegally.
5. Forgery: It means to deceive a large number of persons by sending threatening mails as online business transactions are becoming the habitual need of today's lifestyle. Computers, printers, and scanners are used to forge counterfeit currency notes, postage and revenue stamps, marksheets, etc. These are made using computers, and high-quality scanners and printers.