Cyber Crime and Laws
Cyber crime is illegal work, where the computer is either used as a tool or as a target (victim) or both. Cyber crime includes malicious activities of nature, such as fraud, phishing, forgery and defamation, all of which are subject to the Indian Penal Code. These criminal activities are the reason for the growth of a new range of crime, which has been addressed by the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Cyber crime can be categorized in 2 different ways:
Cyber law describes the legal issues related to use of internet technology, exclusively “cyberspace”, which is “The Internet”. It is a unique field of law in particular, which is an intersection of many legal fields, including Intellectual Property Rights, Right to Privacy, Right to Freedom of expression, and more. In a qualitative way, cyber law is an attempt to merge all the challenges presented by human activity in cyberspace, legally.
Word About Information Technology Act, 2008
The Information Technology Amendment Act, 2008 or known as IT Act 2008 or The Gazette Of India, is a strong addition to India’s Information Technology Act (ITA-2000). This document is, for and to the Telecommunication Department Of India. The IT Act was passed in October 2008 by the Indian Parliament and came into action in 2009, which is administered by the CERT-IN. All the cyber crimes, laws, penalties and fines are mentioned in the document of IT Act 2008.
Sections and Case Studies:
Section 43
Definition : Penalty and compensation for damage to computer and computer system
Punishment : Accused Person shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two three years or with fine which may extend to 5 Lakh rupees or with both.
Case Study :
Poona Auto Ancillaries Pvt. Ltd., Pune vs. Punjab National Bank, HO New Delhi & Others: In 2013, in one of the largest compensations awarded in legal adjudication of a cyber crime dispute, Maharashtra’s IT secretary Rajesh Aggarwal had ordered PNB to pay Rs 45 Lakh to the Complainant Manmohan Singh Matharu, MD of Pune based firm Poona Auto Ancillaries. A fraudster had transferred Rs 80.10 Lakh from Matharu’s Account in PNB Pune, after Matharu responded to a phishing email. The complainant was asked to share the liability since he responded to the phishing mail but the Bank was found negligent due to a lack of proper security checks against fraud accounts opened to defraud the Complainant.
Section 65
Definition : Tampering with computer source documents. It is imposed on the person who intentionally or knowingly tamper, destroys or amend the original data, which is not supposed to be changed.
Punishment : Shall be punished with imprisonment up to three years, or with fine which may extend up to 2 Lakh rupees, or with both.
Case Study :
Syed Asifuddin and Ors. Vs. The State of Andhra Pradesh. In this case, Tata Indicom employees were arrested for manipulation of the electronic 32- bit number (ESN) programmed into cell phone theft and were exclusively franchised to Reliance Infocom.
Section 66
Definition : Computer Related Offenses.
Punishment : Accused person shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years or with fine which may extend to 5 Lakh rupees or with both.
Case Study :
Kumar v/s Whiteley In this case the accused gained unauthorized access to the Joint Academic Network (JANET) and deleted, added files and changed the passwords to deny access to the authorized users.Investigations had revealed that Kumar was logging on to the BSNL broadband Internet connection as if he was the authorized genuine user and ‘made alteration in the computer database pertaining to broadband Internet user accounts’ of the subscribers.The CBI had registered a cyber crime case against Kumar and carried out investigations on the basis of a complaint by the Press Information Bureau, Chennai, which detected the unauthorised use of broadband Internet. The complaint also stated that the subscribers had incurred a loss of Rs 38,248 due to Kumar’s wrongful act. He used to ‘hack’ sites from Bangalore, Chennai and other cities too, they said. Verdict: The Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore, Chennai, sentenced N G Arun Kumar, the techie from Bangalore to undergo a rigorous imprisonment for one year with a fine of Rs 5,000 under section 420 IPC (cheating) and Section 66 of IT Act (Computer related Offense).
Section 66A
Definition : Punishment for sending offensive messages through communication service, and any person who sends with the help of electronic devices (computer ,mobile) are covered under the IT act 66 A.
Punishment : Accused person shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 3 years and with fine.
Case Study :
In India there are thousands of cases covered in this act. Let's talk about the latest incident in India about farmer laws. There was a group of people who led the protest by sending offensive messages for the government and it turned into a massive riot in India. The incident happened on 26 January 2021.
Section 66B
Definition : Punishment for dishonestly receiving stolen computer resource or communication device.
Punishment : Accused person shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 3 years or with fine which may extend to rupees 1 Lakh or with both.
Case Study :
In our day to day it’s a normal case we see stolen laptop, computer, mobile.
Section 66C
Definition : Punishment for identity theft (digital signature, password). A person who uses someone’s identity, without permission, to hide theirs is an offense under section 66C.
Punishment : Accused person shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 3 years and also be liable to fine which may extend to rupees 1 Lakh.
Case Study : Neeraj’s wife gained access to his phone and talked in abusive language to his colleagues , friends and boss, with the identity of Neeraj. Now Neeraj has filed a case against his wife for gaining illegal access to his phone & passwords.
Section 67
Definition : Punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form.
Punishment : Accused person shall be punished on first conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 3 years and with fine which may extend to 5 Lakh rupees and in the event of second or subsequent conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years and also with fine which may extend to 10 Lakh rupees.
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Case Study :
In July last year, one Ajay Hatewar was booked under Section 67(A) of the IT Act for a “defamatory” comment against Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’s picture with his family on a yacht.
Section 67B
Definition : Punishment for publishing or transmitting of material depicting children in sexually explicit act, etc., in any electronic form.
Punishment : Accused person shall be punished on first conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 5 years and with fine which may extend to 10 Lakh rupees and in the event of second or subsequent conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 7 years and also with fine which may extend to 10 Lakh rupees.
Case Study : The petition sought a ban on pornographic websites. The NGO had argued that websites displaying sexually explicit content had an adverse influence, leading youth on a delinquent path.
Section 69
Definition : Power to issue directions for interception or monitoring or decryption of any information through any computer resource.
Punishment : Accused person shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 7 years and shall also be liable to fine.
Case Study : In August 2007, a techie from Bangalore was arrested on the suspicion of having posted insulting images of Chhatrapati Shivaji, a major historical figure in the state of Maharashtra, on the social-networking site Orkut.The police identified him based on IP address details obtained from Google and Airtel -Lakshmana’s ISP. He was brought to Pune and detained for 50 days before it was discovered that the IP address provided by Airtel was erroneous. The mistake was evidently due to the fact that while requesting information from Airtel, the police had not properly specified whether the suspect had posted the content.
Section 69B
Definition : Power to authorize to monitor and collect traffic data or information through any computer resource for cyber security.
Punishment : Accused person shall be punished with an imprisonment for a term which any extend to 3 years and shall also be liable to fine.
Case Study :
The intermediary or any person in-charge of the computer resource shall, when called upon by the agency which has been authorized under sub-section (1), provide technical assistance and extend all facilities to such agency to enable online access or to secure and provide online access to the computer resource generating, transmitting, receiving or storing such traffic data or information.
Section 70B
Definition : Indian Computer Emergency Response Team to serve as national agency for incident response.
Punishment : Accused person shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 1 year or with fine which may extend to 1 Lakh rupees or with both.
Case Study :
Any data which is declared critical by the Government of India . “Critical Information Infrastructure” means the computer resource, the incapacitation or destruction of which, shall have debilitating impact on national security, economy, public health or safety are covered in the act 70B.
Section 71
Definition : Penalty For Misrepresentation.
Punishment: Imprisonment which may extend to 2 years.
Case Study :
Saksham misrepresentation to, suppresses material fact from, the Certifying Authority for obtaining license with Electronic Signature Certificate from his father to takeover the property deed in his name.
Section 72
Definition : Penalty for Breach of confidentiality and privacy.
Punishment : Accused person shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 years, or with fine which may extend to 1 Lakh rupees, or with both.
Case Study : It Imposes a penalty on “any person” who, having secured access to any electronic record, correspondence, information, document or other material using powers conferred by the Act or rules, discloses such information without the consent of the person concerned.
Section 73
Definition : Penalty for publishing electronic signature certificate false in certain particular.
Punishment :Punishment imprisonment of a term of which may extend to 2 years. Fine may extend to 1 Lakh rupees or with both.
Case Study :
Mr. Singh made a fake document for making the passport and caught by the Certifying Authority listed in the certificate has not issued it. The relevant action was taken against him.
Conclusion:
We all are connected with digital media in this wired century. Any careless move can make you either a cyber criminal or a victim on a cyber crime. Never forget, behind every digital IT Electronic device, there is a person sitting and watching us. So think carefully before you click any link or receive any message in electronic form.
References and Credits
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