CYBER CRIME : A NEW BREED OF CRIMINAL- (Article)

 

ABSTRACT

Cybercrimes are a new class of crimes to India speedily expanding due to wide use of Internet. Dishonest and greedy people take gain of easy and free access to Internet and perform any acts to please their needs. The requirement could be physiological or psychological in nature. Online shopping and extensive use of “social media” are root cause of cybercrimes. Much cognizance created for cybercrimes and users were educated. But still individuals do not complain it to authorities. Even somebody do it then also police or crime branch incapable to clear such complains in practical time period. Postponement in justice will lead to NO registration of complain. This is not healthy condition in free democratic INDIA. The law IT (Information Technology) Act 2000 and numerous sections of the IPC are in place but in large population country like India and China, it is very difficult to regulate crime caused by cyber world. We need to have self-discipline for better society. We shall measure impact of social media, trends towards shopping online and punishment for cyber attackers in this article. We shall also try to prepare road map for Indian and recommend approach suitable for young generation of India.

INTRODUCTION

The Internet, cell phones, computers , and other types of technology have developed every aspect of human life over the last several years, including how we communicate, bank, shop, obtain the news, and entertain ourselves. These technological developments have also created innumerable opportunities for offenders to commit various types of crime. Online crimes are often stated to as cybercrime and occur because ‘the perpetrator uses special knowledge of cyberspace’. Cybercrime can therefore be viewed as a large umbrella term that involves computer-assisted crime in which computers and technology are used as a supporting role, such as the use of a computer to send distressing messages. At the same time, the term cybercrime also includes the computer-focused crimes that are the direct result of computer technology and which cannot exist without it. Cybercrimes can be categorized into different categories like, cyber-trespass , cyber- theft, cyber-porn/obscenity and cyber-violence. It is nearly impossible to guess the amount of cybercrime that occurs in most nations across the world because of a lack of uniform legal definitions for these offenses. The amount of research on cybercrime has grown-up exponentially over the last few decades. Much of the primary work in this area focused on exploring how the nature of cybercrime and cyberspace differed from traditional crime and earthly space. Earlier, cybercrime was committed mainly by an individuals or small groups. Currently, it is observed that there is extremely complex cybercriminal networks bring together individuals at global level in real time to commit the crimes. Today, criminals that involve in cybercrimes are not motivated by ego or knowledge. Instead, they want to use their knowledge to gain profits punctually. They are using their capability to cut, deceive and exploit people as they find it easy to generate money without having to do any kind of honest work. Cybercrimes have become major risk today.

Cybercrimes are largely characterized into three groups such as crime against:

• Individual
• Property
• Government
• Individual

 

1.      Individual :

This type of cybercrime can be in the manner of cyber stalking, distributing , trafficking and "grooming". In present situation, law execution agencies are considering such cybercrime very grave and are joining forces worldwide to reach and arrest the perpetrators.

2.      Property:

Same as in the real world where a criminal can snip and pickpocket, even in the cyber world, offenders’ resort to burglary and robbing. In this case, they can snip a person's bank details and trench off money; misuse the credit card to make recurrent purchases online; run a scam to get innocent people to part with their hard-earned money; use malevolent software to gain access to an organization's website or interrupt the systems of the organization. The malicious software can also harm software and hardware, just like vandal’s damage property in the disconnected world.

3.      Government:

Crimes against a government are specified as cyber terrorism. If offenders are successful, it can cause destruction and panic amongst the citizen. In this class, offenders hack government websites, military websites or circulate propaganda. The perpetrators can be terrorist outfits or can be unfriendly governments of other nations.

Now the question that arises is that how did this epidemic evolved so strong that it would now even able to attack the power guards, the financial institutions and also the very controversial Electronic Voting Machines in India. In the early eras, crimes related to computers were just only physical attacking the computers and destroying them. There were no cyber crimes as such. Eventually, as social networks popularized, the rate of cyber crimes starts increasing as the criminals got more easy access to the personal lives of the user. With this evolution rose on of the most barbaric forms of crime that is non consensual sharing of intimate images. In such cases obscene images of the victims are put on the internet without the consent of that person which is also known as non-consensual porn. There are many provisions exist related to these crimes but then also the maximum punishment is for 5 years whereas the trauma that victim goes through remains through the lifetime. So after realizing the seriousness of these crimes, the law makers put into force the information technology act, 2000 which goes through number of amendments to correct and cover up the loop holes present in the previous one but still the growing crime rate is being difficult to tackle with the current law systems.

More strict laws will be required like:

·         There should be more more span time given to the investigating authorities because evidences requires more time to be collected in cybercrimes.

·         The lawmakers should impose restrictions on the accessibility on the matter which is uploaded on social media.

·         More advanced trainings should be given to the officers regarding the cybercrime.

·         The period of imprisonment should be increased.

·         Specific laws should be made such as cyber bullying, hacking etc.

CONCLUSION

Separately from all the legal aspects, something which is very significant is that there should be an awareness on an individual level. Some of the recent Bollywood movies and TV serials show criminal cases and the process of catching the criminals. But in large populated country like India, criminals are becoming smarter and get example from the episodes. We as member of society person should consider, think and give right directions to new generations to come. Unless each person do not become aware and cautious, it will be very difficult to regulate these types of crimes in the society. Not only law but also the individual awareness can help to curb this crime and make India free of cybercrimes.

 

 -Anushka Kansal

Amity University.