Cyber Law

What is Cybercrime?• In general meaning , hackers vandalizing your

site, viewing confidential information, stealing trade secrets or intellectual property with the use of internet.

• It can also include viruses attacks preventing regular traffic from searching a respective site.

• Cyber crimes also includes criminal activities done with the use of computers

• which further perpetuates crimes i.e. financial crimes, sale of illegal articles, pornography, online gambling, intellectual property crime, e-mail, spoofing, forgery, cyber defamation, cyber stalking, unauthorized access to Computer system, theft of information contained in the electronic form, e-mail bombing, physically damaging the computer system etc.

Classification of cyber crimes

• Cyber Crimes against persons.• Cyber Crimes against person’s

property.• Cyber Crimes against Government.• Cyber Crimes against Society at large.

Cyber crimes against persons• Harassment via emails• Cyber stalking• Cracking• Hacking• Defamation• Dissemination of obscene material• SMS , email spoofing• Assault by threat

Cyber crimes against person’s property

• Cyber vandalism• Intellectual property crimes• Cyber squatting• Hacking official computer system• Cyber Trespass• Transmitting viruses• Internet thefts

Cyber Crimes against Government

• Cyber terrorism• Distribution of pirated software • Cyber warfare• Possession of unauthorized information

Cyber Crimes against Society at large

• Child pornography• Online gambling• Financial Crimes• Forgery• Online Trafficking

Need Of Cyber law• IT has spread throughout the world ; Computer

is used in each and every Sector we possibly know.

• As increasingly diverse range of online interaction personally and officially expands, there is a simultaneous expansion of cyber crimes as well.

• For that reason; it is necessary to enact cyber law strictly.

Introduction of cyber law• By the time of growth and expansion, the

word ‘CYBER’ came to the knowledge of people and became popular.

• Internationally, The world’s 1st computer specific law was enacted in the year 1970 by the German State of hesse in the form of ‘Data Protection Act, 1970.

• Whereas in India , Parliament decided to pass The Information Technology act 2002 on 17th October to deal with cyber space wherein internet provides equal opportunities to all the people to access any information, storage etc.

• Copyright Law : this is in relation to computer software, computer code, websites , etc.

• Trademark Law : this is in relation to domain names, meta tags , mirroring, linking etc.

• Semiconductor law : this relates to the protection of semiconductor integrated circuits design and layouts.

• Patent Law : this in relation to computer hardware and software.

Jurisprudence of Indian Cyber Law

• The primary purpose of the Act is to provide legal recognition to electronic commerce and to facilitate filing of electronic records with the Government.

• The IT Act also penalizes various cyber crimes and provides strict punishments (imprisonment terms upto 10 years and compensation up to Rs 1 crore )

• An Executive Order dated 12 September 2002 contained instructions relating provisions of the Act with regard to protected systems and application for the issue of a Digital Signature Certificate.

• Minor errors in the Act were rectified by the Information Technology (Removal of Difficulties) Order, 2002 which was passed on 19 September 2002.

• The IT Act was amended by the Negotiable Instruments(Amendments and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2002. This introduced the concept of electronic cheque and truncated cheque .

• Information Technology (Use of Electronic Records and Digital Signatures) Rules, 2004 has provided the necessary legal framework for filing of documents with the Government as well as issue of licenses by the Government.

• The Cyber Regulations Appellate Tribunal (Procedure) Rules, 2000 also came into force on 17th October 2000.

• These rules prescribe the appointment and working of the Cyber Regulations Appellate Tribunal (CRAT) whose primary role is to hear appeals against orders of the Adjudicating Officers.

• This prescribe the salary, allowances and other terms for the Presiding Officer of the CRAT.

• On 17th March 2003, the Information Technology (Qualification and Experience of Adjudicating Officers and Manner of Holding Enquiry) Rules, 2003 were passed.

• These rules prescribe the qualifications required for Adjudicating Officers. Their chief responsibility under the IT Act is to adjudicate on cases such as unauthorized access, unauthorized copying of data, spread of viruses, denial of service attacks, disruption of computers, computer manipulation etc.

• Jurisdiction is an aspect of state sovereignty and it refers to judicial, legislative and administrative competence. Although jurisdiction is an aspect of sovereignty, it is not coextensive with it. The laws of a nation may have extraterritorial impact extending the jurisdiction beyond the sovereign and territorial limits of that nation. This is particularly problematic as the medium of the Internet does not explicitly recognize sovereignty and territorial limitations. There is no uniform, international jurisdictional law of universal application, and such questions are generally a matter of conflict of laws, particularly private international law.

Case study of attacks in cyber space

• Worm attack: The Robert Tappan Morris to well known as first hacker, son of former national security agency scientist Robert Morris created worm at Cornell as student claiming that he wanted to know how large was the internet at that time.

• This worm destroyed around 6000 computer systems and many computers were shut down till they were malfunctioned.

• Ultimately , he was sentenced to 3 years of probation , 400 hours of community service and fine of $10500.

• So, So there must be strict laws to punish the criminals who are involved in cyber crime activities.

• Hacker Attack: Fred Cohen, Ph.D. Student at the University of Southern California wrote a short program in the year 1983, as an experiment, that could “infect” computers, make copies of itself, and spread from one machine to another.

• Other computer scientists had warned that computer viruses were possible, but Cohen’s was the first to be documented. A professor of his suggested the name “virus”. Cohen now runs a computer security firm

• Internet Hacker: Wang Qun, who was known by the nickname of “playgirl”, was arrested by chinese police in the Hubei province first ever arrest of an internet hacker in China.

• He was a 19 year old computing student, arrested in connection with the alleged posting of pornographic material on the homepages of several government-run web sites. Wang had also hacked over 30 other web sites too.

Cyber crimes in India• As per the records , it has been noted that in

last 10 years the amount of cyber crimes in India is increasing every year and apparently years 2011 to 2013 top the charts.

• And it has been recorded that every year new cyber crimes are taking place all over the country.

Cyber Crimes Survey(Information & technology Act)

Cyber Crimes survey(Indian penal code)

Top 10 states in India

i. Maharashtraii. Andhra Pradeshiii. Karnatakaiv. Keralav. Uttar Pradeshvi. Madhya Pradeshvii. Rajasthanviii.West Bengalix. Punjabx. Delhi

The bottom 10 States

i. Nagalandii. Lakshadweepiii. Manipuriv. Daman & Diuv. Mizoramvi. Sikkimvii. Dadra & Nagar Haveliviii. Pondicherryix. Andaman & Nicobar Islandsx. Tripura

Role of Government• Government has set up cyber forensic training

and investigation labs in the States of Kerala, Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur and Jammu & Kashmir for training of Law Enforcement and Judiciary in these States.

• Cyber Crime Cells have been set up in all States and Union Territories for reporting and investigation of Cyber Crime cases.

• Number of Cyber forensics tools for collection, analysis, presentation of the digital evidence have been developed and are being used by Law Enforcement Agencies.

• RBI has issued a circular to all commercial banks about the phishing attacks and preventions from phishing attacks to implement and business processes in a better way.

Consequences for committing a Cyber Crime

• It is new world where few laws have been made to fight criminal activity. However, people still get punished if they are caught for a cyber crime.

Heavy fines Restitution Probation Community Service Possible imprisonment

Landmark cases of Cyber space

• China ‘s Online Crackdown by 900 hackers -November , 2015

• Private reporting helpline case in New Delhi -November , 2015

• India’s First wildlife Cyber Crime in Maharashtra in September , 2014

• Number of cases registered in Andhra Pradesh in Year 2013

Preventive measures for Cyber Crimes

• One should avoid disclosing any personal information to strangers via e-mail or while chatting.

• One must avoid sending any photograph to strangers by online as misusing of photograph incidents increasing day by day.

• A person should never send his credit card number to any site that is not secured, to guard against frauds.

• It is better to use a security programmes by the body corporate to control information on sites.

• Strict statutory laws need to be passed by the Legislatures keeping in mind the interest of netizens .

• A complete justice must be provided to the victims of cyber crimes by way of compensatory remedy and offenders to be punished with highest type of punishment so that it will anticipate the criminals of cyber crime.

Advantages of Cyber Law• From the perspective of e-commerce in India,

the IT Act 2000 and its provisions contain many positive aspects. Firstly, the implications of these provisions for the e-businesses would be that email would now be a valid and legal form of communication in our country that can be duly produced and approved in a court of law.

• Companies shall now be able to carry out electronic commerce using the legal infrastructure provided by the Act.

• Digital signatures have been given legal validity and sanction in the Act.

• The Act throws open the doors for the entry of corporate companies in the business of being Certifying Authorities for issuing Digital Signatures Certificates.

Disadvantages of Cyber law

• Cyber security refers to the collection of tools, policies, risk management approaches, actions, training, best practices, assurance and technologies that can be used to protect the cyber environment and organization and user’s assets and it proves to be expensive.

• Interception refers to listening to, recording, monitoring or surveillance of the content of communications, including procuring of the content of data, either directly, through access and use of a computer system or indirectly, through the use of electronic eavesdropping or tapping devices, at the same time that the communication is occurring.

Ethics of cyber Law• Evaluate the ethics of Cyber Law in Australia The

concept of cyber law in Australia is subject to a wide range of controversy, due to the lack of privacy offered to the individuals of Australia. Policies regarding Cyber Law in Australia are very narrow, and often do not provide the adequate amount of privacy and security to users in Australia, thus providing a motive for the necessity of an alteration of Cyber Law in Australia.

Education of Cyber Law

Courses offered in Cyber law& Investigation

• Diploma in Cyber Law• Diploma in Cyber Law+• Cyber Crime Investigator+• C5(Skills in Cyber crimes & attacks )• Cyber career track

Cyber Law Schools in India• Asian school of cyber Law(various colleges of

Mumbai)• Distance Learning (E-learning)• Indira Gandhi National open

university(IGNOU)• Symbiosis School of law• Other government & private school providing

certificate courses across the country

Information technology Lawyer• An information technology attorney is a

professional who handles a variety of legal matters related to IT. The attorney gets involved in drafting, negotiating, and interpreting agreements in the areas of software licensing and maintenance, IT consulting, e-commerce, web site hosting and development, and telecommunications agreements, as well as handling dispute resolution and assisting with the client's Internet domain name portfolio.

• In India Bukh and Associates have built a track record of success .

• Also, Prashant Mali, is a famous International Cyber Law Expert, Privacy Law , Cyber Security & IPR Attorney. A High Court Lawyer & Legal Counsel in Mumbai India.

• He is country's only technology lawyer with prior working experience in the IT Industry & then in Law Field with Qualifications as Masters in Computer Science (M.Sc.), Masters in Law (LLM), Certified Computer Forensics Expert (CCFP).

conclusion•

Since users of computer system and internet are increasing worldwide, where it is easy to access any information easily within a few seconds by using internet which is the medium for huge information and a large base of communications around the world. Certain precautionary measures should be taken by those who spend most of the time online and assist in challenging this major threat Cyber Crime.