Cyber
Crime Branch Advisory
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Cyber Crime - Questions & Answers
CYBERCRIME
Q.20. What is Cybercrime ?
When Internet was developed, the
founding fathers of Internet hardly had any inclination that Internet
could also be misused for criminal activities. Today, there are
many disturbing things happening in cyberspace. Cybercrime refers
to all the activities done with criminal intent in cyberspace. These
could be either the criminal activities in the conventional sense
or could be activities, newly evolved with the growth of the new
medium. Because of the anonymous nature of the Internet, it is possible
to engage into a variety of criminal activities with impunity and
people with intelligence, have been grossly misusing this aspect
of the Internet to perpetuate criminal activities in cyberspace.
The field of Cybercrime is just emerging and new forms of criminal
activities in cyberspace are coming to the forefront with the passing
of each new day.
Q.21. Do we have any one exhaustive
definition of Cybercrime ?
There can be no one exhaustive definition
about Cybercrime. However, any activities which basically offend
human sensibilities, can also be included in its ambit. Child Pornography
on the Internet constitutes one serious Cybercrime. Similarly, online
pedophiles, using internet to induce minor children into sex, are
as much Cybercriminals as any others.
Q.22. What are the various categories
of Cybercrimes ?
Cybercrimes can be basically divided
into 3 major categories being Cybercrimes against persons, property
and Government.
Q.23. Tell us more information about
Cybercrimes against persons ?
Cybercrimes committed against persons
include various crimes like transmission of child-pornography, harassment
of any one with the use of a computer such as e-mail, and cyber-stalking.
The trafficking, distribution, posting,
and dissemination of obscene material including pornography, indecent
exposure, and child pornography, constitutes one of the most important
Cybercrimes known today. The potential harm of such a crime to humanity
can hardly be overstated. This is one Cybercrime which threatens
to undermine the growth of the younger generation as also leave
irreparable scars and injury on the younger generation, if not controlled.
Q.24. Is Cyber harassment also a
Cybercrime ?
Cyber harassment is a distinct Cybercrime.
Various kinds of harassment can and does occur in cyberspace, or
through the use of cyberspace. Harassment can be sexual, racial,
religious, or other. Persons perpetuating such harassment are also
guilty of cybercrimes. Cyber harassment as a crime also brings us
to another related area of violation of privacy of netizens. Violation
of privacy of online citizens is a Cybercrime of a grave nature.
No one likes any other person invading the precious and extremely
touchy area of his or her own privacy which the medium of Internet
grants to the netizen.
Q.25. What are Cybercrimes against
property ?
The second category of Cybercrimes
is that of Cybercrimes against all forms of property. These crimes
include unauthorized computer trespassing through cyberspace, computer
vandalism, transmission of harmful programs, and unauthorized possession
of computerized information.
Q.26. Is hacking a Cybercrime ?
Hacking and cracking are amongst
the gravest Cybercrimes known till date. It is a dreadful feeling
to know that a stranger has broken into your computer systems without
your knowledge and consent and has tampered with precious confidential
data and information. Coupled with this , the actuality is that
no computer system in the world is hacking proof. It is unanimously
agreed that any and every system in the world can be hacked. The
recent denial of service attacks seen over the popular commercial
sites like E-bay, Yahoo, Amazon and others are a new category of
Cybercrimes which are slowly emerging as being extremely dangerous.
Using one's own programming abilities as also various programmes
with malicious intent to gain unauthorized access to a computer
or network are very serious crimes. Similarly, the creation and
dissemination of harmful computer programs or virii which do irreparable
damage to computer systems is another kind of Cybercrime. Software
piracy is also another distinct kind of Cybercrime which is perpetuated
by many people online who distribute illegal and unauthorised pirated
copies of software.
Q.27. What is Cybercrime against
Government ?
The third category of Cybercrimes
relate to Cybercrimes against 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
terrorise the citizens of a country. This crime manifests itself
into terrorism when an individual "cracks" into a government
or military maintained website.
Q.28. Is there any comprehensive
law on Cybercrime today ?
Since Cybercrime is a newly specialised
field, growing in Cyberlaws, a lot of development has to take place
in terms of putting into place the relevant legal mechanism for
controlling and preventing Cybercrime. As of now, there is absolutely
no comprehensive law on Cybercrime any where in the world. This
is reason that the investigating agencies like FBI are finding the
Cyberspace to be an extremely difficult terrain. These various Cybercrimes
fall into that grey area of Internet law which is neither fully
nor partially covered by the existing laws and that too in some
countries.
Q.29. Is there any recent case which
demonstrates the importance of having Cyberlaw on Cybercrime within
the national jurisdictions of countries ?
The most recent case of the virus
"I love you" demonstrates the need for having cyberlaws
concerning Cybercrimes in different national jurisdictions. At the
time of the web publication of this feature, Reuters has reported
that "The Philippines has yet to arrest the suspected creator
of the 'Love Bug' computer virus because it lacks laws that deal
with computer crime, a senior police officer said". The fact
of the matter is that there are no laws relating to Cybercrime in
the Philippines. The National Bureau of Investigation is finding
it difficult to legally arrest the suspect behind the 'Love Bug'
computer virus. As such, the need for countries to legislate Cyberlaws
relating to Cybercrime arises on an urgent priority basis.
Q.30. What is the approach adopted
by US Courts regarding Cybercrimes ?
The courts in United States of America
have already begun taking cognizance of various kinds of fraud and
Cybercrimes being perpetuated in Cyberspace. For the victims of
various Cybercrimes, there is no one healing remedy. They can either
file for civil damages or wait for the culprits to be nabbed and
then to be tried under provisions, existing or envisaged which are
not comprehensive at all. However, a lot of work has to be done
in this field. Just as human mind is ingenious enough to devise
new ways for perpetuating crime, similarly, human ingenuity needs
to be channelised into developing effective legal and regulatory
mechanisms to control and prevent Cybercrimes.
Q.31. Why do we need to fight Cybercrime
?
We all must remember that Cyberspace
is a common heritage of ours which we have inherited in our life
times from the benefits of ever growing technologies. This Cyberspace
is the lifeline of the entire universe and given its irreversible
position today, it is the duty of every netizen to contribute toward
making the said cyberspace free of any trouble or cybercrime. To
rephrase the famous words of Rabindra Nath Tagore in today's context,
"Where the Cyberspace is without fear or crime and the head
is held high, where knowledge is free, where tireless striving stretches
its arms towards perfection, ….. into that cyber heaven of
freedom, O my father, let our humanity awake
