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INTRODUCTION

The generation which we live in is a developing tech universe, where people are both being benefitted and being victims of certain loss of personal information. Man is evil by nature which would lead them to do certain wrongs or misusing the technologies, which might be violative of one’s personal rights. The internet is a very broad platform which has a certain number of advantages and disadvantages to a man’s daily life. The Internet makes a man’s life much easier by which they can fulfil their daily needs such as watching movies, shopping for clothes or groceries, gathering information, listening to music and many more events. Likewise, if in case any person uploads any personal information regarding the bank or license there might be people who will have immense knowledge of the browsers or they can be called as hackers in other words, who might hack certain information or might even take away the amount from the bank account. This cybercrime has seen a gradual increase in numbers because of the people relying on the internet and technologies. Now let’s gather some more information about the topic.

CYBERCRIME

Cyber criminal offences through the help of systems or other devices, a person can get information about other systems in order to get monetary benefits. Likewise, a person can use systems in order to defame another person’s reputation. In other words, cybercrimes look forward to hacking systems that are not in working conditions. These cybercrimes can be caused by a single man or organised by a bunch of people who have the knowledge and courage to do such an act. Cybercrimes can be caused by a negligent act of a person in certain networks such as Email IDs, Gambling, sharing OTPs, and Fraud calls.

EFFECTS OF CYBERCRIME

  • Financial loss
  • Loss of reputation
  • Loss of Informative Technologies (Copyrights)
  • Child Pornography
  • Smugglings of illegal items

Financial loss: 

An Indian maintains his accounts at a commercial or nationalized bank where one keeps his money. The loss may occur by another criminal (hacker) by tracing out the details of the account holder and withdrawing the money without his consent. Thereby the said account will lose a heavy amount due to this criminal act.

Loss of reputation: 

In case of the reputation of a person, the other party might hack one’s device or any other social media account through the internet which might contain certain personal content which might be seen only by the people who the account holder decides to. The criminals might leak the information of the victim by causing harm to one’s reputation.

Loss of Informative Technologies (Copyrights): 

The corporate world is quite competitive which might force the other competitors to gain the information of the leading company in the market with the help of these cyber hackers.

Child Pornography: 

Nowadays kids are more into using mobile phones. They even create social media accounts where they might post their pictures or make reels which might become a source for the act of child pornography. The hackers might not post but blackmail the parents with the intention of acquiring cash.

Smuggling of illegal items: 

Few criminals of this cyberspace are even more advanced where they might hack the government servers which would mislead them and smuggle the goods from one place to another.

CYBERBULLYING

Cyberbullying, as a part of the modern generation, kids and teenagers mostly have access to the internet and social media. Bullying has always been difficult to control mainly in schools and colleges and with easy access to the internet and social media kids teenagers and sadly some adults also tend to cyber bully others. this amounts to misuse of internet platforms like social media, online games.

HOW TO CONTROL CYBER CRIMES?

In order to develop individuals or organisations, this type of cyber offence has to be controlled. To do so, they have to take certain measures, they are:

  1. Maintenance of the software and keep it updated.
  2. Usage of Antivirus.
  3. Healthy and effective passwords.
  4. Ignoring unnecessary mails.
  5. Not sharing any sort of links and OTP’s.
  6. Reaching out to the company straight away.
  7. Re-checking and having knowledge about the bank passbook.
  8. Reducing the accessibility of the internet to kids.

CYBER LAWS

This type of cybercrime has to be controlled by the Governments in order to protect the individual development of the country. In India, The Government has realised and passed several laws in order to control cybercrime. In The Information Technology Act,2000 under sec-66C the said criminal will be put to imprisonment for 3 years or a fine of rupees 1lakh.

Under sec-65 of the Information Technologies Act,2000 A person with his knowledge or without knowledge destroying changes which have to be requested by law is an offence and such a person can be punished with up to 3 years imprisonment or a fine of rupees 2lakhs.

As per sec-66 of the Information Technologies Act, if in case an individual uses the password of another person which might be one’s breach of personal right that amounts to a crime. Such criminals will be imprisoned for 3 years or a fine of rupees 1lakh.

As per Sec-66D of the Information Technology Act, if a person uses one’s computer by cheating or without any consent given by the person he would be considered as a criminal.

As per sec-66E of the Information Technology Act, if a person uses or publishes pictures of another person without the knowledge of the owner he would be a criminal.

As per sec-66F of the Information Technology Act, under this section, the criminal will be considered a cyber-terrorist which will lead to a non-bailable offence.

As per sec-67 of the Information Technologies Act, if the criminal has been into creating child pornography pictures and posts it on certain websites or social media then he would be sentenced to jail for 7 years or a fine of Rs. 7lakhs.

As per sec-69 of the Information Technologies Act, the government has the authority to block certain websites which might contain information that must be prohibited to the public.

As per sec-43A of the Information Technologies Act, if in case of any company loses the data or information of its client because of the lack of care then it will be held liable for any loss caused.

CASE LAWS

Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (UOI)

Sec 66A of IT Act: Two women were arrested who had illegally posted disrespectful and obnoxious opinions on social media which was regarding the shutdown of Mumbai after the death of a political leader.

The said women in response to the arrest filed a petition before SC saying that the arrest was violence of the liberty to speak and to express.

SC held that sec 66A will be struck down as every citizen has the constitutional liberty to speak and free to express and also held that the restrictions imposed must be clear and accurate and not lead towards any sort of personal whim.

Avnish Bajaj v. State

In this case, an IIT student had posted a list of vulgar videos of girls from Delhi Public School. The post was not active within two hours of posting on the internet. The Delhi police filed a FIR.

Later on, when the student had escaped the police held the owner of the website Mr. Avnish Bajaj in the charge sheet.

The court held that a company cannot be held liable under the IPC as there is no recognition of the owner being connected to the company and the company being accused in the code and discharged the plaintiff under sec-292 and sec-294 of the Indian Penal Code.

CONCLUSION

By seeing all the above cases and information about the topic of cybercrime, the technology has been misused for the fulfilment of one’s requirements illegally. The number of cases is been increasing in recent times due to the developing nature in terms of software and technology that are available and also the reliability of people on the internet. The Government has to take certain measures and try to stop these kinds of crimes in a much more effective manner and bring in new laws. The people also on the other hand must stop relying on the websites or internet for everything. Therefore, the criminals of these sorts of crimes must be charged with severe penalties for causing trouble for one’s emotions.

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REFERENCES:

  1. Loughtec, https://www.loughtec.com, (accessed on 27th November 2024)
  2. Norton, https://us.norton.com/blog (accessed on 27th November 2024)
  3. ISEA, https://infosecawareness.in, (accessed on 27th November 2024)
  4. Information Technologies Act,2000, No. 21 of 2000, Acts of Parliament, 2000 (India)
  5. Information Technologies Act,2000, S. 65, No. 21 of 2000, Acts of Parliament, 2000 (India)
  6. Information Technologies Act,2000, S. 66, No. 21 of 2000, Acts of Parliament, 2000 (India)
  7. Information Technologies Act,2000, S. 66D, No. 21 of 2000, Acts of Parliament, 2000 (India)
  8. Information Technologies Act,2000, S. 66E, No. 21 of 2000, Acts of Parliament, 2000 (India)
  9. Information Technologies Act,2000, S. 66F, No. 21 of 2000, Acts of Parliament, 2000 (India)
  10. Information Technologies Act,2000, S. 67, No. 21 of 2000, Acts of Parliament, 2000 (India)
  11. Information Technologies Act,2000, S. 69, No. 21 of 2000, Acts of Parliament, 2000 (India)
  12. Information Technologies Act,2000, S. 47A, No. 21 of 2000, Acts of Parliament, 2000 (India)
  13. AIR 2015 SC 1523
  14. (2005)3COMPLJ364(DEL), 116(2005)DLT427, 2005(79)DRJ576
  15. Indian Penal Code,1860,Sec-292 and Sec-294,No. 45 of 1860, Acts of Parliament, 1860 (India)

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