Cyber Space: Tread Cautiously
The year was 2012 and the
incident took place in
Mumbai. Two college
girls after the death of a
prominent leader posted a
comment on Facebook that became the
subject of controversy. The followers
of the leader were infuriated by the
comments and the Mumbai police had
to register a criminal case against the
girls. This in turn created a hue and cry
that this section should not have been
invoked for the innocuous expression
of views on Facebook that were wrongly
construed as expressions having
criminal content.
The Internet is all-pervading and
social media has taken a grip on society.
Electronic gadgets like the computer,
laptop, audio and video systems have
always fascinated the youth and there
is hardly any youngster without a mobile
phone. With the convenience such
gadgets afford, there is also the flip side,
the danger of misuse, which can land
an individual in trouble. Financial
fraud, defamation, offensive content,
pornography, identity theft, online
fraud have proliferated in cyber space
necessitating the enactment of a special
Act to deal with such offences.
The Information Technology Act
came into effect in 2000 and all police
stations were empowered to deal with
complaints. A simple definition of cyber
crime would be ‘any unlawful act
wherein the computer is either a tool or
a target or both.’
Since youngsters use the gadgets
most they should be aware of the pitfalls
in the use of this sensitive electronic
medium.
Cyber crime has assumed great importance
not just locally but internationally.
Information is power and it is
here this is used and misused.
In 2011 we had the incident of Blackberry
induced messages in London over
the death of a youngster allegedly in a
confrontation with the police. Riots
broke out all over London and spread
to various adjoining towns.
In 2012 there was a disturbance in
several parts of the Middle East, popularly
referred as ‘Arab Spring’ when
people revolted against the state over
various issues of governance. In 2013
Delhi witnessed a disturbance to public
order when the anti-corruption agitation
demanding implementation of
Lokpal led by Anna Hazare led to a riotous
situation. Again it was messages
through mobile phones and the Internet
that gathered people. All this is a
form of cyber crime as spreading disinformation,
inciting people and engineering
anarchy against a lawful government
are all illegal activities.
Sensitive data is stored on computers
by several government and non-government
organisations and hacking of
such websites poses a huge security
problem. Internet security and building
fire walls to protect the privacy and integrity
of material stored is yet
another challenge.
2013 was the year of the
mega breach when there
was 62 per cent increase
in data breaches compared
to 2012 according
to a government survey.
There was also 91 per cent
increase in targeted attacks.
A new breed of activists in
the cyber world, appropriately
called ‘hacktivists’,
emerged.
‘Spear fishing’ is another
form of accessing individual
data using emotional appeal to catch
people off guard. We get many messages
requesting an appeal be forwarded
to many people, but it is a clever form
of identity theft.
Cyber space offers a convenient
cover for terrorist organisations and
their trans-national terrorist activities,
as they cleverly use it to spread disinformation
and coordinate terrorist activities.
A glaring instance was the
26/11 Mumbai attack in 2008 when 166
people were killed. Identity theft to access
net banking, economic offences
and pornography are other major
areas of cyber crime. US
security organisations have
identified over 5,000 terror
sites and to meet this
a specialised team of
dedicated cyber warriors
has been formed.
India has 140 million,
or 14 crore, Internet users
and the annual growth is
nearly 30 per cent. The
overall software export of
India in 2011-12 was in the
range of $68.7 billion. Reported
crime compared to
the increasing volume of operations is
small mainly due to lack of awareness.
According to the national crime record
data reported cyber related crimes averages
2,000 cases annually.
Realising the inadequacy of laws and
competency of enforcement agencies
the government introduced an amendment
to the Information Technology
Act, which came into effect in 2009.
Section 66(A) of the IT Act, a widely
used provision, states that ‘sending any
information through an electronic message
that is grossly offensive or has
menacing character and might cause
insult, injury, criminal intimidation,
enmity, hatred, or ill will, etc. or sending
such mail intended to deceive or to
mislead the addressee or recipient
about the origin of such messages’.
There have been instances of youngsters
sending prank messages or offensive
messages that would definitely
attract the above provision.
Pornography and child abuse websites
are another growing crime in cyber
space. Even visiting a child pornography
site is an offence and Internet users
have to be wary of the danger in encouraging
such sites as a software enabled
watch is maintained by enforcement
agencies. A centre for COMPUTER
EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM —
CERT IN has been formed by Government
of India to regulate Internet usage
and to intervene in emergency without
compromising the freedom of speech
provided under Article 19 of the Constitution.
Enjoyment of freedom has limitations
and has to be exercised with due
caution and responsibility. Cyber crime
awareness and eternal vigilance alone can ensure safety and security.
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