32 tech-tonics for cyber crime victims

Finally, there's hope and relief for victims, under new IT Act; 32 offences will now require mandatory police action

Finally, there's hope and relief for victims, under new IT Act; 32 offences will now require mandatory police action

In 2006, a woman's fiance received an email from a man who said he was her ex boyfriend and that they had a

Log out: Malicious emails sent by a former lover to a current partner will attract a 3-year jail term

live-in relationship. The fiance asked her about it and she admitted to it. The wedding was called off immediately.

The girl was traumatised by the incident, but her ex was not penalised for sending the malicious email (with the intent to hurt), as it was not a punishable offence and therefore a police complaint could not be filed.

However, from December 2008, under Section 66C (identity theft) of the Information Technology Act 2000, a person can be fined Rs 1 lakh and/or given a three-year jail term for a similar offence.

The Information Technology Actu00a02000 was amended in December and under the new provisions, there are 32 technology-related cognizable offences. Earlier, all these offences were non cognizable and the complainant was asked to approach the court stating it was a civil case. The court in turn would direct the police to investigate, but of the 1,500 complaints received in the last nine years, just 40 cases were filed in the metropolitan courts, and all await an order.

The amended IT Act gives more teeth to law-enforcing agencies. The police have to register the offence as 'cognizable', investigate and have the authority to arrest the accused. Pranks like sending text messages from someone else's mobile or an email from another's address are also punishable offences section 66D (impersonation) of the IT Act, which attracts a jail term of up to three years and/or a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh.

"The amendment was passed in a hurry on December 2008 along with eight other bills in just 17 minutes highlighting the lack of debate on what should have been very controversial laws," explained Vijay Mukhi, president of the Foundation of Information Security and Technology. "However, each of the offences using technology should have been done for personal gains / 'fun' by creating fear, hurting or harassing somebody. So only if there is genuine misuse of technology, can it fall under the IT Act," added Mukhi.

Advocate N S Nappinai co-founder of Technology Law Forum that specialises in technology law said, "The new amendment has retained vicarious liability in case of offences committed by a company and has increased the number of offences which qualify as cyber crimes under the new IT Act." Now, if a person uses his office computer to hack/send malicious email, even the company could be liable under the act, said Nappinai.

Added Rakesh Maria, Jt commissioner of police, "A separate cyber police station at BKC will start functioning soon. We have already recruited officers of the rank of inspectors for the job and there will also be 52 more staff including officers and constables."

150
Number of complaints the cyber cell receives every year

Facts
Over 1500 complaints received over last seven years
The cell receives about 150 cases every year
Cases going on in only 40 complaints
With the new amendment it is mandatory on police to register and probe the cyber case

Type of complaints received by the cyber cellu00a0
' Wife of a defence personnel started getting emails in filthy language. When probed, it was revealed that a 10th standard student of a neighbour, who was tired of his mother's fights with the woman, was sending the emails. He was warned and let off.

' A would be bridegroom got an email about his fiancu00e9, with the writer claiming to have been a live-in partner of the girl. The girl admitted of relationship. No case against the email sender.

' A 40-year old woman was accused of luring a 16-year old student and then having sex with him in 2000.

' VSNL registered a data theft case against their own employee who was accused of supplying sensitive information to VSNL's rival company Reliance Communications. The case is pending before the court and the accused is out on bail.

' A Lower Parel based company, which is a master franchisee of Barbie Dolls, and also exports over Rs 100 crore garments every year, lodged a complaint that their designs were passed on to their competitors. The police are still probing the case

Nearly every cyber crime known to us is now a criminal offense in India. Ready Reckoner to demonstrate to the country at large what crimes are now punishable and what sections apply and the actual sentence.

1) Data owned by you or your company in any form is stolen. Section to be applied. 66B. Punishment. Jail term up to 3 years and/or fine up to 1 lakh.

2) Data or computer or mobile phone owned by you is found in the hands of someone else. Section to be applied. 66B. Punishment. Jail term up to 3 years and/or fine up to 1 lakh. Punishment. Jail term up to 3 years and/or fine up to 1 lakh.

3) A password is stolen or used by someone else. Section to be applied. 66C. Punishment. Jail term up to 3 years and/or fine up to 1 lakh.

4) An e-mail is read by someone else. Section to be applied. 66C. Punishment. Jail term up to 3 years and/or fine up to 1 lakh.

5) A biometric thumb impression is misused. Section to be applied. 66C. Punishment. Jail term up to 3 years and/or fine up to 1 lakh.

6) An electronic signature or digital signature is misused. Section to be applied. 66C. Punishment. Jail term up to 3 years and/or fine up to 1 lakh.

7) A web page is created in your name and you have not authorized it. Section to be applied. 66D. Punishment. Jail term up to 3 years and/or fine up to 1 lakh. Punishment. Jail term up to 3 years and/or fine up to 1 lakh.

8) A Phishing e-mail is sent out in your name, say maligning someone or asking for donations. Section to be applied. 66D. Punishment. Jail term up to 3 years and/or fine up to 1 lakh.

9) An Orkut profile is created in your name. Section to be applied. 66D. Punishment. Jail term up to 3 years and/or fine up to 1 lakh.

10) An e-mail id is created on a website like hotmail or yahoo in your name. Section to be applied. 66D. Punishment. Jail term up to 3 years and/or fine up to 1 lakh.

11) On an Internet chat site a false nickname is used. Section to be applied. 66D. Punishment. Jail term up to 3 years and/or fine up to 1 lakh.

12) SMS's are sent out in your name. Section to be applied. 66D. Punishment. Jail term up to 3 years and/or fine up to 1 lakh.

13) Clicking of an obscene photograph without a person's consent or knowledge. Section to be applied. 66E. Punishment. Jail term up to 3 years and/or fine up to 2 lakh.

14) Transmitting of an obscene photo of a person unknowingly. Section to be applied. 66E. Punishment. Jail term up to 3 years and/or fine up to 2 lakh.

15) Placing a person's obscene photo on a web site. Section to be applied. 66E. Punishment. Jail term up to 3 years and/or fine up to 2 lakh.

16) Sending a terror email. Section to be applied. 66F. Punishment. Jail term up to life.

17) Misusing a Wi-Fi connection for acting against the state. Section to be applied. 66F. Punishment. Jail term up to life.

18) Planting a computer virus that acts against the state. Section to be applied. 66F. Punishment. Jail term up to life.

19) Conducting a denial of service attack against a government computer. Section to be applied. 66F. Punishment. Jail term up to life.

20) Stealing data from a government computer. Section to be applied. 66F. Punishment. Jail term up to life.

21) Tampering with certain computer source code. Section to be applied. 65. Punishment. Jail term up to 3 years and/or fine up to 2 lakh.

22) Wrongful loss or damage caused by the use of technology by anyone. Section to be applied. 66. Punishment. Jail term up to 3 years and/or fine up to 2 lakh.

23) All activity relating to pornography in general. Section to be applied. 67. Punishment. Jail term up to 10 years and/or fine up to 1 lakh.

24) Any activity relating to child pornography. Section to be applied. 67B. Punishment. Jail term up to 5 years and fine up to 10 lakhs.

25) Every technology user must maintain logs of all e-activity that takes place. Section to be applied. 67C. Punishment. Jail term up to 3 years and/or fine.

26) You must allow the state to install software on your computers or mobile phone that will monitor all e-activity. Section to be applied. 69. Punishment. Jail term up to 7 years.

27) You must allow the state to decrypt all communication that passes through your computer or network. Section to be applied. 69. Punishment. Jail term up to 7 years.

28) You must provide access to everything stored on your computer or mobile phone to the relevant authorities. Section to be applied. 69. Punishment. Jail term up to 7 years.

29) You must block access to sites that the state decides. Section to be applied. 69A. Punishment. Jail term up to 7 years.

30) In a sense all computer users are ISP's. We must allow the state to monitor and decrypt all traffic that passes though our home grown networks. Section to be applied. 69B. Punishment. Jail term up to 3 years and a fine.

31) Service providers like Blackberry and others must hand over the decryption master keys to the state. Section to be applied. 69.u00a0 Punishment. Jail term up to seven years.