SCHOOL OF LEGAL STUDIES

MODY UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

(Lakshmangarh)

Seminar: Cyber Laws in India

Cyber Crimes: Its Causes and Preventive Mechanism

Sheetal Pansari
B.B.A. LL.B Vth year
Enrollment No. 140512

i
ABSTRACT

Man is dependent on internet for all his needs by the advancement of technology. Through
internet man can get easy access to everything sitting at one place. Social networking, online
shopping, storing data, gaming, online studying, online jobs, every possible thing that man
can think of can be done through the medium of internet. Internet is used in almost every
sphere. With all these advantages, internet has some disadvantages also and one of the
biggest disadvantage is Cyber-crime. We can say, cyber-crime is any illegal activity which is
committed using a computer network (especially the internet). Also, cyber-crime involves the
breakdown of privacy, or damage to the computer system properties such as files, website
pages or software. In India most of cyber-crime cases are committed by educated person. In
this paper, I have discussed various categories and cases of cyber-crime which is committed
due to lack of knowledge or sometimes due to intention behind. I also, mentioned various
preventive measures against these unlawful acts in day to day life.

Keywords: cybercrime, prevention, cyber cases, hacking, preventive measures, privacy

infringement.

1
INTRODUCTION

These days, computer and internet become very necessary and useful for our daily life.
People can get information, store information and share information through the internet.
Now a days, world is fully dependent on Internet via social media, banking transaction,
mobile transactions etc. As we know Cyberspace is a domain characterized by the use of
electronics to store, modify, and exchange data via networked systems and associated
physical infrastructures. We have witnessed that due to the advancement of knowledge of
individuals in field of cyber space, the frequency of cyber crimes has increased over the last
decade. Cyber crime is a fast-growing area of crime. More and more criminals are exploiting
the speed convenience and anonymity of the Internet to commit a diverse range of criminal
activities that know no borders, either physical or virtual, cause serious harm and pose very
real threats to victims worldwide. Cyber crime could include any offences such as cyber
bullying, creating and distributing small or large programs written by programmers called
viruses on other computers or posting confidential business information on the Internet.

Cyber crime is not an old sort of crime to the world. Cyber-crime is defined as crimes
committed on the internet using the computer as either a tool or a targeted victim. Worldwide
Governments, police departments and intelligence units have started to react, realizing the
potential of the damage it can cause to society. Today cyber-crime has taken several forms. It
can be committed as a crime against individual, a crime against individual property and as a
crime against society at large. No matter in which form it is committed, the ultimate victim is
the society. Cyber-crime is the outcome of high innovations and development in the field of
Information Technology and therefore to prevent and nullify the effects of this crime,
technology has to play a major role.1

WHAT IS CYBER CRIME

A cyber-crime is a crime committed using a computer. There is no statutory definition of

cyber-crime under Indian laws, including IT Act. A cyber-crime can be defined as:

1
Cyber Space and Cyber Crime, available at: https://www.lawctopus.com/academike/cyber-space-and-cyber-
crime/ (visited on May 09, 2019).

2
“Any illegal act fostered or facilitated by a computer, whether the computer is an object of a
crime, an instrument used to commit a crime, or a repository of evidence related to a
crime.”2
A cyber-crime encompasses any crime involving a computer system or network, where such
system or network is a target of the crime (for example, Hacking), a tool of the crime (for
example, credit card frauds) or as a repository of evidence related to crime the crime (for
example, information stored in computer that aids investigation). Cyber-crimes include
crimes which are specific to computers such as hacking, e-mail spamming and denial of
service attacks, as well as conventional crimes committed using a computer, such as theft,
fraud and extortion. As a result, a cyber-crime may invite the application of not only the
cyber-crime specific legislation, which is the IT Act, but also general criminal legislation,
which is the Indian Penal Code, 1860. Other laws will also be applicable depending on the
nature of the crime, for example, the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 will be
applicable to case of online money laundering.3

TYPES OF CYBER CRIMES IN INDIA

Cyber crime can be committed in two ways - one in which the computer is the target of a
cyber attack, and the other in which the computer is used to commit a cyber crime against any
person or entity.

Cyber crimes in India are categorized into main four types which include:

1. Cyber crime against a person: This type of cyber crime is committed against a person
using an electronic domain as a medium. It includes:
 Cyber stalking: Generally, the term ‘stalking’ means, repeated acts of harassing someone.
Whereas, Cyber stalking is online harassment when a person is stalked using the internet
as a medium. Generally, the stalker is aware of the victim or gains knowledge about
victim’s family and their activities, instead of stalking them in reality, the stalker keeps a
track of a person’s online activities to stalk the victim. For this he can use the internet,
emails, SMS, webcams, phones calls, websites or even videos to harass his target.

2
Definition by Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 2000, as quoted in Sameer Hinduja: Computer Crime
Investigations in the United States: Leveraging Knowledge from the Past to Address the Future, International
Journal of Cyber Criminology, Vol. 1, Issue 1, January, 2007.
3
Anirudh Rastogi, Cyber Law-Law of Information Technology and Internet 81,82 LexisNexis, First Edition
(2014).

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 Hacking: Hacking means getting an unauthorised access to someone’s personal
information stored in a computer system without the permission of either rightful owner
of the computer or person in charge of that particular system for illegal gains or misuse.
Every act committed to breaking into a computer system and /or network is hacking.
Hackers get access to the user’s personal and sensitive information.
 Cracking: Crack generally refers to the means of achieving software cracking. Cracking
refers to digitally removing the Copyright protection code which prevents copied or
pirated software from working on computers which do not have the Software vendor or
owner’s authorisation. The person who is involved in such activity is different from a
hacker and is known as a cracker. Cracker uses his knowledge to break the cyber law and
tampers with the computer.
 Defamation: Online or cyber defamation involves damaging someone’s reputation in the
society using a computer or the internet as a medium. This is done by writing a
derogatory statement about a person on social media, posting vulgar pictures or videos,
sending derogatory E-mail to the victim’s friends etc.
 Online Fraud: Online fraud is one of the most common types of cyber crime. It involves
stealing a person’s sensitive information like banking credentials by using phishing sites
and withdrawing money from victim’s account. Online lottery scams are also rampant
these days,
 Child pornography: Circulation of any material that has a tendency to deprave the mind
of the minor children is also a cyber crime. It involves the use of electronic devices to
create, distribute or access material which is obscene in nature and have a tendency to
corrupt young minds.
 Spoofing: Spoofing involves misrepresentation of the origin of any data. While an
Email/SMS is generated from one source, it shows that it has been generated from
another. Cyber criminals use this means to get personal information of the user like bank
details, etc.
 Phishing: It involves sending spam emails to the user while claiming to be an established
enterprise in order to obtain his personal information.
2. Cyber Crime against property: Cyber crime against property is committed using an
electronic device as a medium. Here, the property does not mean any immovable property
but includes movable and intangible property like computers, Intellectual Property, etc.
Different cyber crimes against property are:

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 Transmitting virus: A computer virus is a malware programme that infects files, disk
drives, and computer programmes. Programmes that multiply like viruses and spread
from computer to computer are called ‘worms’. Virus, Worms, Trojan Horse, Timebomb,
Logic Bomb, Rabbit, and Bacterium are some examples of malicious software that infect
the computer.
 Cybersquatting: Cybersquatting is when two or more persons claim the same domain
name. Squatting is unlawfully occupying an uninhabited place. The hacker claims that he
was the first one to use the domain name before the actual owner of the domain name.
 Cyber Vandalism: It involves the destruction of data on any electronic medium during the
period when the network service is not available.
 Intellectual Property Crimes: IPRs are intangible property rights. IPR thefts are the most
common cyber crimes in India and include online piracy, software piracy, infringement of
patents, designs, trademark, copyright, theft of source code, etc.
3. Cyber crime against Government: Any cyber crime committed against a government is
committed to threatening the unity, honour, and security of the target country. Cyber
crime against government includes:
 Cyber Warfare: Cyber warfare is an Internet-based war conflict wherein the cyber crime
is politically motivated. It can disable official websites and networks, disrupt essential
services such as Internet connection, steal classified data such as Sensex details and break
down sensitive data like the payment gateway.
 Cyber Terrorism: It is an act of creating fear in the mind of people by using the internet
as a medium. Section 66-F of the Information Technology Act, 2002 deals with Cyber
Terrorism.
4. Cyber crime against society: When a cyber crime is committed against numerous
individuals, it is known as cyber crime against society. Cyber crime against society
includes:
 Online Gambling: Gambling is prohibited in India under the Public Gambling Act, 1867.
Online gambling is illegal all over India, except in Sikkim.
 Cyber Trafficking: Trafficking involves dealing with illegal trade activities such as
human trafficking, slaves.4

4
How to Prevent Cyber Crime in India, available at: https://www.myadvo.in/blog/cyber-crime-in-india/ (visited
on May 11, 2019).

5
CAUSES OF CYBER CRIMES IN INDIA

Cyber criminals always choose an easy way to make big money. They target rich people or
rich organizations like banks, casinos and financial firms where the transaction of a huge
amount of money is made on an everyday basis and hack sensitive information. Catching
such criminals is difficult. Computers are vulnerable, so laws are required to protect and
safeguard them against cyber criminals. Following are the reasons for the vulnerability of
computers:

 Easy to access – The problem behind safeguarding a computer system from unauthorized
access is that there are many possibilities of breach due to the complex technology.
Hackers can steal access codes, retina images, advanced voice recorders etc. that can
easily fool biometric systems and bypass firewalls can be utilized to get past many
security systems.
 Capacity to store data in comparatively small space – The computer has the unique
characteristic of storing data in a very small space. This makes it a lot easier for people to
steal data from any other storage device and use it for their own profit.
 Complex – The computers run on operating systems and these operating systems are
programmed of millions of codes. The human mind is imperfect, so they can do mistakes
at any stage. The cyber criminals take advantage of these gaps.
 Negligence – Negligence is one of the characteristics of human conduct. So, there may be
a possibility that protecting the computer system we may make any negligence which
provides a cyber-criminal the access and control over the computer system.
 Loss of Evidence – The data related to the crime can be easily destroyed. So, Loss of
evidence has become a very common & obvious problem which paralyzes the system
behind the investigation of cyber-crimes.5

CYBER LAWS IN INDIA

Cyber crimes are new class of crimes which are increasing day by day due to extensive use of
internet these days. To combat the crimes related to internet The Information Technology
Act, 2000 was enacted with prime objective to create an enabling environment for

5
How to Prevent Cyber Crime in India, available at: https://www.myadvo.in/blog/cyber-crime-in-india/ (visited
on May 11, 2019).

6
commercial use of I.T. The IT Act specifies the acts which have been made punishable. The
Indian Penal Code, 1860 has also been amended to take into its purview cyber crimes.6

The various offences related to internet which have been made punishable under the IT Act
and the IPC are follows:

Cyber-crimes under IT Act, 2000

Following are the sections under IT Act, 2000 that deal with cyber crimes:
 Section 65- Temping with the computers source documents.
 Section 66- Hacking with computer system, data alteration etc
 Section 66A- Sending offensive messages through any communication services.
 Section 66B- Receiving stolen computer’s resources or communication devices
dishonestly.
 Section 66C- Identify theft.
 Section 66D- Cheating by personation by the use of computer’s resources.
 Section 66E- Privacy or violation.
 Section 66F- Cyber terrorism.
 Section 67- Transmitting or publishing obscene materials in electronic form.
 Section 67A- Transmitting or publishing of materials that contains sexually explicit
contents, acts etc in electronics form.
 Section 67B- Transmitting or publishing of materials that depicts children in sexually
explicit act etc in electronics form.
 Section 67C- Retention and preservation of information by intermediaries.
 Section 69- Power to issue direction for monitor, decryption or interception of any
information through computer’s resources.

Cyber Crimes under IPC and Special Laws:

 Sending threatening messages by email - Sec 503 IPC

 Sending defamatory messages by email - Sec 499 IPC
 Forgery of electronic records - Sec 463 IPC
 Bogus websites, cyber frauds - Sec 420 IPC

6
Cyber Crimes in India- What is, Types, Web Hijacking, Cyber Stalking, available at:
http://www.helplinelaw.com/employment-criminal-and-labour/CCII/cyber-crimes-in-india-what-is-types-web-
hijacking-cyber-stalking.html (visited on May 13, 2019).

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  Email spoofing - Sec 463 IPC
 Web-Jacking - Sec. 383 IPC
 E-Mail Abuse - Sec.500 IPC
 Online sale of Drugs under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act
 Online sale of Arms Arms Act7

PREVENTIVE MECHANISM

Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN)

In India, CERT-IN (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team), Department of

Electronics and Information Technology, Ministry of Communication & Information
Technology issues advisories for preventing the cyber crimes on regular basis.8

CERT-In is the national nodal agency for responding to computer security incidents as and
when they occur. As per the Information Technology Amendment Act 2008 and Section 70B
of IT Act 2000, CERT-In has been designated to serve as the national agency to perform the
following functions in the area of cyber security:

 Collection, analysis and dissemination of information on cyber incidents,

 Forecast and alerts of cyber security incidents, Emergency measures for handling cyber
security incidents,
 Coordination of cyber incident response activities,
 Issue guidelines, advisories, vulnerability notes and whitepapers relating to information
security practices, procedures, prevention, response and reporting of cyber incidents,
 Such other functions relating to cyber security as may be prescribed.9

PRESENT SCENARIO

Today the internet is the great mediator of our lives. In present days people can get
information, store information and share information through the internet. Back 20’s years
later there was approx.100000 people uses internet but now around 3,405,518,376 people are
surf the net around the globe. The growing fastest world of internet is known as cyber world.
7
Cyber Crimes in India- What is, Types, Web Hijacking, Cyber Stalking, available at:
http://www.helplinelaw.com/employment-criminal-and-labour/CCII/cyber-crimes-in-india-what-is-types-web-
hijacking-cyber-stalking.html (visited on May 13, 2019).
8
Ompal, Tarun Pandey, Bashir Alam, “How to Report cyber Crimes in Indian Territory”, Vol. No. 6, IJSTM
167 (2017), available at: https://www.meity.gov.in/writereaddata/files/HOW_TERRITORY.pdf (visited on
May 14, 2019).
9
Ompal, Tarun Pandey, Bashir Alam, “How to Report cyber Crimes in Indian Territory”, Vol. No. 6, IJSTM
175 (2017), available at: https://www.meity.gov.in/writereaddata/files/HOW_TERRITORY.pdf (visited on
May 14, 2019).

8
Today cyber world are fastest moving and high technology world. Asian countries are most
uses of internet in the world. In Asia region India has rank top two internet users country, so
India is the very fastest growing country. Today internet becomes the backbone of social &
economic world. Users can access the internet anytime from anywhere but through the
internet many illegal works may done. Today E-mail and website is the most efficient way of
data communication.10

Bengaluru registered the most number of cybercrime cases in 2018. The country’s technology
capital saw a whopping 5,035 FIRs registered at the lone cybercrime police station in the city.
A city-wise comparison of cybercrime cases indicates the figure is a lot more than in other
big cities in the country.11

According to the annual report released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in
2016, with 762 cases, Bengaluru had the second-highest number of cybercrime cases among
the metros, behind Mumbai with 980 cases. Other metros in the list were far behind, with
Hyderabad recording 291 cases, Kolkata 168, Delhi 90 and Chennai 36. From 762 to 5,035,
the number of cases have seen a sharp increase in Bengaluru. The increase in Mumbai is not
so pronounced.12

CASES

 State of Tamil Nadu Vs Suhas Katti13

The case related to posting of obscene, defamatory and annoying message about a divorcee
woman in the yahoo message group. E-Mails were also forwarded to the victim for
information by the accused through a false e-mail account opened by him in the name of the
victim. The posting of the message resulted in annoying phone calls to the lady in the belief
that she was soliciting. Based on a complaint made by the victim in February 2004, the
Police traced the accused to Mumbai and arrested him within the next few days. This is

10
Present scenario of cyber crime in India and its preventions, available at:
file:///C:/Users/a/Downloads/10_Present%20scenario%20of%20cybercrime%20in%20INDIA%20and%20its%2
0(1).pdf (visited on May 12, 2019).
11
Tushar Kaushik, “Bengaluru is India’s Crime capital”, The Economic Times, Feb 01, 2019, available at:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/bengaluru-is-indias-cybercrime
capital/articleshow/67769776.cms (visited on May 13, 2019).
12
Tushar Kaushik, “Bengaluru is India’s Crime capital”, The Economic Times, Feb 01, 2019, available at:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/bengaluru-is-indias-cybercrime
capital/articleshow/67769776.cms (visited on May 13, 2019).
13
2004

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considered as the first case in the state of Tamil Nadu, in which the offender was convicted
under section 67 of Information Technology Act 2000 in India.

 Sony.Sambandh.Com Case

India saw its 1st cybercrime conviction. In this case a complaint was filed by Sony India
Private Ltd, which runs a website called www.sonysambandh.com, targeting Non Resident
Indians. In May 2002, someone logged onto the website under the identity of Barbara Campa
and ordered a Sony Colour Television set and a cordless head phone. She gave her credit card
number for payment and requested that the products be delivered to Arif Azim in Noida.
After one and a half months the credit card agency informed the company that this was an
unauthorized transaction as the real owner had denied having made the purchase. The
company lodged a complaint for online cheating at the Central Bureau of Investigation. The
court convicted Arif Azim for cheating under Section 418, 419 and 420 of the Indian Penal
Code. This was the first time that a cyber crime has been convicted. The judgment is of
immense significance for the entire nation. Besides being the first conviction in a cyber crime
matter, it has shown that the Indian Penal Code can be effectively applied to certain
categories of cyber crimes which are not covered under the Information Technology Act
2000.14

 State of Tamil Nadu v. Dr. L. Prakash15

This was a landmark case where the accused, a renowned doctor in Tamil Nadu was
convicted for the creation of pornographic videos using his patients posting the pictures and
videos on internet. The accused was charged various sections of IPC, Immoral traffic
(Prevention) Act, 1956 and the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986.
In view of the gravity of the offence, a life sentence was awarded to the doctor under the
Immoral traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956.

14
Animesh Sarmah, Roshmi Sarmah,Amlan Jyoti Baruah, “a brief study on Cyber Crime and Cyber Law’s of
India”, Vol. No. 4, IRJET 1636 (2017), available at: https://www.irjet.net/archives/V4/i6/IRJET-V4I6303.pdf
(visited on May 13, 2019).
15
2002 Cri LJ 2596.

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 Avinash Bajaj v. State (NCT) of Delhi16

Popularly known as “Baazee.com Case”. Avinash Bajaj was arrested under section 67 of the
Information Technology Act, 2000 and his bail application was rejected by the trial court. An
obscene MMS clipping was listed for sale on Baazee.com on 27th November, 2004 in the
name of "DPS Girl having fun". Some copies of the clipping were sold through Baazee.com
and the seller received the money for the sale. The court also ordered Mr. Bajaj to participate
and assist in the investigation. The court ordered Mr. Bajaj to surrender his passport and not
to leave India without the permission of the Court. The court granted bail to Mr. Bajaj subject
to furnishing two sureties of Rs. 1 lakh each.17

SUGGESTIONS

1. Do not disclose your personal information publicly on websites. This is as similar as

disclosing your identity to strangers in public place.
2. Avoid sending any photograph online to strangers and chat friends as there have been
incidents of misuse of the photographs.
3. Never enter your credit card number to any site that is not secured, to prevent its misuse.
4. Always keep a watch on the sites that your children are accessing to prevent any kind of
harassment or depravation in children.
5. Always use latest and updated Antivirus software to guard against virus attacks.
6. Always keep back up of your data to prevent loss of data due to virus attacks.
7. More and more legal aids or campaigns should be organized so that people who are not
aware about these kinds of crimes can get knowledge and can be prevented to be a victim
of these crimes.

16
(2005) 3 CompLJ 364 Del.
17
Case of Bazee, available at: https://www.slideshare.net/ravigolwala027/case-of-baazee (visited on May 14,
2019).

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CONCLUSION

It has been witnessed that due to the advancement of knowledge of individuals in field of
cyber space, the frequency of cyber crimes has increased over the last decade and it is on
continuation on rise. In this paper, different kind of cyber crimes are discussed and it is felt
that for our civilised society, there is a strong need to take the necessary steps to prevent such
cyber crimes. The Government of India has enacted IT Act, 2000 to deal with cybercrimes.
The Act further revise the IPC, 1860, the IEA (Indian Evidence Act), 1872, the Banker's
Books Evidence Act 1891 and the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.It is crucial not only to
our national sense of well-being, but also to our national security and economy. Yet India has
taken a lot of steps to stop cybercrime but the cyber law cannot afford to be static, it has to
change with the changing time.

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REFERENCES

1. Cyber Space and Cyber Crime, available at:

https://www.lawctopus.com/academike/cyber-space-and-cyber-crime/
2. Definition by Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 2000, as quoted in Sameer Hinduja:
Computer Crime Investigations in the United States: Leveraging Knowledge from the
Past to Address the Future, International Journal of Cyber Criminology, Vol. 1, Issue 1,
January, 2007.
3. Anirudh Rastogi, Cyber Law-Law of Information Technology and Internet 81,82
LexisNexis, First Edition (2014).
4. How to Prevent Cyber Crime in India, available at: https://www.myadvo.in/blog/cyber-
crime-in-india/
5. Cyber Crimes in India- What is, Types, Web Hijacking, Cyber Stalking, available at:
http://www.helplinelaw.com/employment-criminal-and-labour/CCII/cyber-crimes-in-
india-what-is-types-web-hijacking-cyber-stalking.html
6. Ompal, Tarun Pandey, Bashir Alam, “How to Report cyber Crimes in Indian Territory”,
Vol. No. 6, IJSTM 167 (2017), available at:
https://www.meity.gov.in/writereaddata/files/HOW_TERRITORY.pdf
7. Present scenario of cyber crime in India and its preventions, available at:
file:///C:/Users/a/Downloads/10_Present%20scenario%20of%20cybercrime%20in%20IN
DIA%20and%20its%20(1).pdf
8. Tushar Kaushik, “Bengaluru is India’s Crime capital”, The Economic Times, Feb 01,
2019, available at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/bengaluru-is-
indias-cybercrime capital/articleshow/67769776.cms
9. Animesh Sarmah, Roshmi Sarmah,Amlan Jyoti Baruah, “a brief study on Cyber Crime
and Cyber Law’s of India”, Vol. No. 4, IRJET 1636 (2017), available at:
https://www.irjet.net/archives/V4/i6/IRJET-V4I6303.pdf
10. Case of Bazee, available at: https://www.slideshare.net/ravigolwala027/case-of-baazee

ii