Established: 2002

A Distinguished LANDMARK in Higher Education

Assignment On:
Cyber Crimes and Its Perspective in Bangladesh
Course Code: JMC - 135
Course Title: Information and Communication Technology

Submitted By:
Tonmoy Kumar Mazumdar
ID No: 111-24-221
Batch: 12
Department of Journalism & Mass Communication
Daffodil International University

Submitted To
Syed Mahfujul Haque Marjan
Lecturer
Department of Journalism & Mass Communication
Daffodil International University

Date of Submission: 07-12-2013

Introduction:
Cybercrime has already become a going concern in both private as well as public sectoring
Bangladesh. During the last decade private and public sector has done a revolution with the
use of technical enhancement. Due to unauthorized intervention to the system, company loses
huge confidential information which caused a large amount of financial lose. It has already
been identified that especially Financial Institutions are in the most threading organization for
cybercrime that at the same time reflects to the personal life. Some development partners has
started working how to tackle cybercrime and improve.

Definition of cyber crime :

Cyber crime can broadly be defined as a criminal activity involving an information
technology infrastructure, including illegal access (unauthorized access), illegal interception
by technical means of non-public transmissions of computer data to, from or within a
computer system), data interference (unauthorized damaging, deletion, deterioration,
alteration or suppression of computer data), systems interference (interfering with the
functioning of a computer system by inputting, transmitting, damaging, deleting,
deteriorating, altering or suppressing computer data), misuse of devices, forgery (theft), and
electronic fraud. This includes anything from downloading illegal music files to stealing
millions of dollars from online bank accounts. Cyber crime also includes non-monetary
offenses, such as creating and distributing viruses on other computers or posting confidential
business information on the Internet.

Different types of cyber crime:

Cyber crimes can be basically divided into 3 major categories:

1. Cyber crimes against persons.

2. Cyber crimes against property.
3. Cyber crimes against government.

Impact of Cybercrime against Individuals:

Cyber crimes committed against people include various crimes like transmission of childpornography and harassment through e-mail. The trafficking, distribution, posting, and
dissemination of obscene material including pornography constitute one of the most
important cyber crimes known today. Cyber harassment is a distinct cyber crime. Harassment
can be sexual, racial, religious, or other. This also brings us to another related area--violation
of citizen which is a crime of grave nature.

Impact of Cybercrime against Organizations:

This activity is commonly referred to as hacking. The Indian law has however given different
connotation to the term hacking, so we will not use the term "unauthorized access "
interchangeably with the term "hacking" to prevent confusion as the term used in the Act of
2000 is much wider than hacking.
Bangladesh's financial institutions are at risk from hackers. In the country financial
institutions have introduced various online features like online banking, stock exchange
transactions but are not able to provide the highest security. Source said the cybercriminal
networks through Internet have attacked our country's technology infrastructure. Recently,
hackers interrupted the DSE transaction, which cost the small entrepreneurs dearly.

Impact of Cybercrime against the 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. Cyber terrorism may

be defined to be the premeditated use of disruptive activities, or the threat thereof, in cyber
space, with the intention to further social, ideological, religious, political or similar
objectives, or to intimidate any person in furtherance of such objectives

Present Situation in Bangladesh:

Development of Science and ICT depends on the expansion of telecommunication sector.
This sector is still under developed due to lack of deregulation and open competition. The
impact of cyber crime is not alarming Bangladesh because financial transactions have not yet
been fully facilitated in online. As soon as financial transactions are allowed online computer
crimes will increase at an unprecedented rate unless the Government acquires the tools and
infrastructure to prevent, detect and prosecute them. But our government still not aware of the
fact . Internet services provided through the local area network are vulnerable to similar
attacks and intrusions by hackers more often when the security level is inadequate. Now a
day in Bangladesh some people send malicious mail to different foreign diplomatic Mission
and other VIPs which sometimes cause serious problem for the police and also for the
government.

Cyber crime in Bangladesh :

Life is about a mix of good and evil. So is the Internet. For all the good it does us, Cyber
space has its dark sides too. Unlike conventional communities though, there are no police
men patrolling the information superhighway, leaving it open to everything from Trojan
horses and viruses to cyber stalking, trademark counterfeiting and cyber terrorism. Few
months earlier one group of people hack the web site of Rapid action battalion in
Bangladesh. When this incident was published in the media all most all the institution of the
government became scared. Nobody wants to believe it. After that RAB arrested some people
and they are now in jail. One of the main RAB website hackers, Shahee Mirza, said that
nobody should use his acquired computer skills in such criminal activities like hacking of
important Government or private websites. After listening his statement lot of expert who are
dealing with cyber crimes in Bangladesh become scared. Although the 2006 Information and
Communications Technology (ICT) Act covers many of the legal aspects to prosecute cyber
crime, but it has not been effectively implemented since its ratification. According to the
expert opinion the main reason for the laws Ineffectiveness, is the lack of legal support and
social and public awareness about Computer crimes. Cyber crime analysts point out that
although pornography is not considered illegal across the world, but in Bangladesh it is one
of the predominant computer crimes. There is already evidence of the existence of illegally
hosted pornographic websites with local content. In Bangladesh, Nowadays youths are
increasingly using cyber cafes as their dating places. According to newspaper reports, various
types of antisocial activities take place in these cafes in the name of net browsing. For
Internet browsing, there are separate cabins for pairs where their intimate moments are
videoed secretly. These pictures are later made available on the Internet. According to section
57 of the ICT Act 2006, a person convicted for uploading vulgar and obscene contents on
website is punishable to a 10-year imprisonment and a fine of Tk one crore. But no one care
it because in our country we still do not have any effective cyber tribunal to deal with this
problem. That is why it is very easy for the cyber criminals in Bangladesh to get rid of
punishment.

Cyber law in Bangladesh:

Bangladesh is planning stringent measures to fight cyber crime amid the rapid expansion of
the information and communications technology and telecommunications networks in the
South Asian country. Bangladeshs ICT industry has been expanding exponentially and is
making its presence strongly felt both in the public and private sectors. More than five
million personal computers are now in use in the country with three million internet users, by
industry estimates. We have taken steps to facilitate fair and secured use of information
technology as the country lacks a complete law to deal with cyber crime, says MM
Neazuddin, Joint Secretary to the Science and ICT Ministry. Neazuddin said that the
government, which has pledged a Digital Bangladesh by the year 2021, had approved in
principle to amend previous legislation calling for jail terms and heavy financial penalties to
tackle new forms of crime. The proposed law has suggested provisions for a maximum 10
years in jail and taka 10 million (US$150, 000) in fines for hacking into computer networks
and putting false and libelous information or indecent material online. For the speedy and
effective prosecution of the offences, the government will consult with the Supreme Court to
set up one or more Cyber Tribunals.

The Information and Technology Act, 2006:

The Penal code of Bangladesh contains very few provision regarding cyber squatting. But in
case of cyber crime like Hacking, Internet time thefts, Email bombing- there is nothing
contained in our penal code. So it can be said that it is not possible for our government to
control cyber crime by using some provision of the penal code. To controlled cyber crime it
is necessary to enact special law which only deals with cyber related matters. The
Government of Bangladesh passed Information Technology Act on 2006. This is the most
recent statute enacted by the government of Bangladesh with a view to consolidate Computer

related matters and also prosecute computer and computer network related Offence. This
statute contains several provisions regarding damage to computer and computer system.

Conclusion:
At present all most all the leading private banks of our country already started online
banking. This online banking is based on Internet and computer. So it is the duty of the
government to provide security to all the banks. Also there is an urgent need to develop a
cyber crime legislation that will protect cyber security in Bangladesh. Cyber police force is
also needed in order to detect cyber criminals. Now a days lot of internet expert is available
in Bangladesh who has got lot of idea about internet and cyber world. Just willingness of the
government is enough to do this thing. Bangladesh has been carrying out anti- cyber crime
activities from last year providing training for a group of professionals and developing
software. There is also a need to have more projects on cyber crime legislation and
enforcement capacity building and training courses throughout the country.