Organised criminals rule the cyber world
Cyber crimes are no longer the preserve of high school hackers but the domain of organised criminals, unfriendly nations and terrorists. To quote David De Walt, CEO of McAfee, cyber crimes have become a US $105 billion business surpassing the value of the illegal drug trade business. A workshop organised recently in Thiruvananthapuram for judges, prosecutors and police personnel from the southern states threw light on some of the pressing issues in this field.
Experts pointed out that almost 70 per cent of the threats on internet were unleashed by organised cyber criminals and that 80 per cent of the 50 principal malicious codes could be used to reach confidential information. Every day new vulnerabilities cropped up, each having its own environment and its own consequences. The irony of the present law enforcement system was such that a person who robbed an apartment would end up getting a harsher punishment than a person who made away with millions online.
According to Satheesh G Nair, director, Unified Stickman Group Consulting Ltd, Bangalore, cyber crimes fell under three categories — crime focusing on networks and hardware, fraud and deceptive crimes and online crimes. Theft of services, computer intrusions, introducing computer viruses, worms, trojans and other Mal-ware formed the first variety.
Some two dozen frauds, like internet auction fraud, pay-per click fraud, reshipping fraud, high-yield investment programmes, diploma scams, free products and service offers, bogus diet patches, phishing, carding and money laundering, pumping and dump stock frauds fell under the second variety. Spam, child exploitation, pornography and online gambling were some of the online crimes.
Limitations of IT Act
Even though cyber crimes were distinct from conventional crimes, the Information Technology Act, 2000, dealt with just eight types of cyber crimes, said M Sunil Thomas, Registrar, Supreme Court of India. Damage to computer, taking copies of data, introducing virus, etc attracted a penalty of up to Rs 1 crore. Damage to computer source code as well as hacking were offences punishable with a maximum three-year jail term and a fine of Rs 2 lakh. Publishing obscene electronic information would attract jail for five years and a fine of Rs 1 lakh for a first offence and double the punishment for a second offence.
Misrepresentation or suppression of facts for obtaining licence certificate, breach of confidentiality, publishing of false digital signatures as well as publication of digital signatures for fraudulent purposes would get a person a maximum jail term of two years and a fine of Rs 1 lakh.
U Sarathchandran, member secretary, National Legal Services Authority, New Delhi, pointed out that people traversing the cyber space needed to know the different laws that applied to their action. “In a country where obscene sites are not treated as illegal, a person uploading such materials to website may not face legal action,’’ says he. “However, if he travels to another country where such websites are illegal and if someone in that country is likely to watch that website, the creator of that website can be dealt with under the criminal law of that country,’’ he said.
According to Debasis Nayak, director, Asian School of Cyber Laws, Pune, India needed to strive for international cooperation in fighting cyber crimes since it was difficult to book an offender committing a cyber crime in one country who was physically located in another country. However, countries themselves needed to realise the extent of damage that cyber crimes could cause to their financial, logistics and communications infrastructure. He pointed out that the European convention on cyber crimes had been successful to a great extent in getting nations to cooperate in investigation, legislation and prosecution of cyber crimes. India could take the lead in floating an inclusive forum of cooperation in South Asia and then try to achieve global consensus on the issue.
