Cyber Law

Cyber Law: Introduction

In Simple way we can say that cyber crime is unlawful acts wherein the computer is either a tool or a target or both

Cyber crimes can involve criminal activities that are traditional in nature, such as theft, fraud, forgery, defamation and mischief, all of which are subject to the Indian Penal Code. The abuse of computers has also given birth to a gamut of new age crimes that are addressed by the Information Technology Act, 2000.

We can categorize Cyber crimes in two ways

The Computer as a Target :-using a computer to attack other computers.

e.g. Hacking, Virus/Worm attacks, DOS attack etc.

The computer as a weapon :-using a computer to commit real world crimes.

e.g. Cyber Terrorism, IPR violations, Credit card frauds, EFT frauds, Pornography etc.

Cyber Crime regulated by Cyber Laws or Internet Laws.

Technical Aspects

Technological advancements have created new possibilities for criminal activity, in particular the criminal misuse of information technologies such as

a. Unauthorized access & Hacking:-

Access means gaining entry into, instructing or communicating with the logical, arithmetical, or memory function resources of a computer, computer system or computer network.

Unauthorized access would therefore mean any kind of access without the permission of either the rightful owner or the person in charge of a computer, computer system or computer network.

Every act committed towards breaking into a computer and/or network is hacking. Hackers write or use ready-made computer programs to attack the target computer. They possess the desire to destruct and they get the kick out of such destruction. Some hackers hack for personal monetary gains, such as to stealing the credit card information, transferring money from various bank accounts to their own account followed by withdrawal of money.

By hacking web server taking control on another persons website called as web hijacking

b. Trojan Attack:-

The program that act like something useful but do the things that are quiet damping. The programs of this kind are called as Trojans.

The name Trojan Horse is popular.

Trojans come in two parts, a Client part and a Server part. When the victim (unknowingly) runs the server on its machine, the attacker will then use the Client to connect to the Server and start using the trojan.

TCP/IP protocol is the usual protocol type used for communications, but some functions of the trojans use the UDP protocol as well.

c. Virus and Worm attack:-

A program that has capability to infect other programs and make copies of itself and spread into other programs is called virus.

Programs that multiply like viruses but spread from computer to computer are called as worms.

d. E-mail & IRC related crimes:-

1. Email spoofing

Email spoofing refers to email that appears to have been originated from one source when it was actually sent from another source. Please Read 

2. Email Spamming

Email "spamming" refers to sending email to thousands and thousands of users - similar to a chain letter.

3 Sending malicious codes through email

E-mails are used to send viruses, Trojans etc through emails as an attachment or by sending a link of website which on visiting downloads malicious code.

4. Email bombing

E-mail "bombing" is characterized by abusers repeatedly sending an identical email message to a particular address.

5. Sending threatening emails

6. Defamatory emails

7. Email frauds

8. IRC related

Three main ways to attack IRC are: "verbalâ⦣8218;?Ŧ#8220; attacks, clone attacks, and flood attacks.

e. Denial of Service attacks:-

Flooding a computer resource with more requests than it can handle. This causes the resource to crash thereby denying access of service to authorized users.

Examples include

attempts to "flood" a network, thereby preventing legitimate network traffic

attempts to disrupt connections between two machines, thereby preventing access to a service

attempts to prevent a particular individual from accessing a service

attempts to disrupt service to a specific system or person.

Distributed DOS
A distributed denial of service (DoS) attack is accomplished by using the Internet to break into computers and using them to attack a network.
Hundreds or thousands of computer systems across the Internet can be turned into “zombies” and used to attack another system or website.
Types of DOS
There are three basic types of attack:
a. Consumption of scarce, limited, or non-renewable resources like NW bandwith, RAM, CPU time. Even power, cool air, or water can affect.
b. Destruction or Alteration of Configuration Information
c. Physical Destruction or Alteration of Network Components
d. Forgery:-
Counterfeit currency notes, postage and revenue stamps, mark sheets etc can be forged using sophisticated computers, printers and scanners.
Also impersonate another person is considered forgery.
e. IPR Violations:-
These include software piracy, copyright infringement, trademarks violations, theft of computer source code, patent violations. etc.
Cyber Squatting- Domain names are also trademarks and protected by ICANN’s domain dispute resolution policy and also under trademark laws.
Cyber Squatters registers domain name identical to popular service provider’s domain so as to attract their users and get benefit from it.
f. Cyber Terrorism:-
Targeted attacks on military installations, power plants, air traffic control, banks, trail traffic control, telecommunication networks are the most likely targets. Others like police, medical, fire and rescue systems etc.
Cyber terrorism is an attractive option for modern terrorists for several reasons.
1.It is cheaper than traditional terrorist methods.
2.Cyberterrorism is more anonymous than traditional terrorist methods.
3.The variety and number of targets are enormous.
4.Cyberterrorism can be conducted remotely, a feature that isespecially appealing to terrorists.
5.Cyberterrorism has the potential to affect directly a larger number of people.
g. Banking/Credit card Related crimes:-
In the corporate world, Internet hackers are continually looking for opportunities to compromise a company’s security in order to gain access to confidential banking and financial information.
Use of stolen card information or fake credit/debit cards are common.
Bank employee can grab money using programs to deduce small amount of money from all customer accounts and adding it to own account also called as salami.
h. E-commerce/ Investment Frauds:-
Sales and Investment frauds. An offering that uses false or fraudulent claims to solicit investments or loans, or that provides for the purchase, use, or trade of forged or counterfeit securities.
Merchandise or services that were purchased or contracted by individuals online are never delivered.
The fraud attributable to the misrepresentation of a product advertised for sale through an Internet auction site or the non-delivery of products purchased through an Internet auction site.
Investors are enticed to invest in this fraudulent scheme by the promises of abnormally high profits.
i. Sale of illegal articles:-
This would include trade of narcotics, weapons and wildlife etc., by posting information on websites, auction websites, and bulletin boards or simply by using email communication.
Research shows that number of people employed in this criminal area. Daily peoples receiving so many emails with offer of banned or illegal products for sale.
i. Online gambling:-
There are millions of websites hosted on servers abroad, that offer online gambling. In fact, it is believed that many of these websites are actually fronts for money laundering.
j. Defamation: -
Defamation can be understood as the intentional infringement of another person's right to his good name.

Cyber Defamation occurs when defamation takes place with the help of computers and / or the Internet. E.g. someone publishes defamatory matter about someone on a website or sends e-mails containing defamatory information to all of that person's friends. Information posted to a bulletin board can be accessed by anyone. This means that anyone can place

Cyber defamation is also called as Cyber smearing.

Cyber Stacking:-
Cyber stalking involves following a persons movements across the Internet by posting messages (sometimes threatening) on the bulletin boards frequented by the victim, entering the chat-rooms frequented by the victim, constantly bombarding the victim with emails etc.
In general, the harasser intends to cause emotional distress and has no legitimate purpose to his communications.
p. Pedophiles:-
Also there are persons who intentionally prey upon children. Specially with a teen they will let the teen know that fully understand the feelings towards adult and in particular teen parents.
They earns teens trust and gradually seduce them into sexual or indecent acts.
Pedophiles lure the children by distributing pornographic material, then they try to meet them for sex or to take their nude photographs including their engagement in sexual positions.
k. Identity Theft :-

Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in countries like America.
Identity theft occurs when someone appropriates another's personal information without their knowledge to commit theft or fraud.
Identity theft is a vehicle for perpetrating other types of fraud schemes.
l. Theft of Internet Hours:-
Unauthorized use of Internet hours paid for by another person.
By gaining access to an organisation's telephone switchboard (PBX) individuals or criminal organizations can obtain access to dial-in/dial-out circuits and then make their own calls or sell call time to third parties.
Additional forms of service theft include capturing 'calling card' details and on-selling calls charged to the calling card account, and counterfeiting or illicit reprogramming of stored value telephone cards.
m. Theft of computer system (Hardware):-
This type of offence involves the theft of a computer, some part(s) of a computer or a peripheral attached to the computer.
n. Physically damaging a computer system:-
Physically damaging a computer or its peripheralseither by shock, fire or excess electric supply etc.
o. Breach of Privacy and Confidentiality
Privacy
Privacy refers to the right of an individual/s to determine when, how and to what extent his or her personal data will be shared with others.
Breach of privacy means unauthorized use or distribution or disclosure of personal information like medical records, sexual preferences, financial status etc.

Confidentiality
It means non disclosure of information to unauthorized or unwanted persons.
In addition to Personal information some other type of information which useful for business and leakage of such information to other persons may cause damage to business or person, such information should be protected.
Generally for protecting secrecy of such information, parties while sharing information forms an agreement about he procedure of handling of information and to not to disclose such information to third parties or use it in such a way that it will be disclosed to third parties.
Many times party or their employees leak such valuable information for monitory gains and causes breach of contract of confidentiality.
Special techniques such as Social Engineering are commonly used to obtain confidential information.
Why Cyberlaw in India ?

When Internet was developed, the founding fathers of Internet hardly had any inclination that Internet could transform itself into an all pervading revolution which could be misused for criminal activities and which required regulation. Today, there are many disturbing things happening in cyberspace. Due to 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. Hence the need for Cyberlaws in India.

What is the importance of Cyberlaw ?

Cyberlaw is important because it touches almost all aspects of transactions and activities on and concerning the Internet, the World Wide Web and Cyberspace. Initially it may seem that Cyberlaws is a very technical field and that it does not have any bearing to most activities in Cyberspace. But the actual truth is that nothing could be further than the truth. Whether we realize it or not, every action and every reaction in Cyberspace has some legal and Cyber legal perspectives.

Does Cyberlaw concern me ?

Yes, Cyberlaw does concern you. As the nature of Internet is changing and this new medium is being seen as the ultimate medium ever evolved in human history, every activity of yours in Cyberspace can and will have a Cyber legal perspective. From the time you register your Domain Name, to the time you set up your web site, to the time you promote your website, to the time when you send and receive emails , to the time you conduct electronic commerce transactions on the said site, at every point of time, there are various Cyberlaw issues involved. You may not be bothered about these issues today because you may feel that they are very distant from you and that they do not have an impact on your Cyber activities. But sooner or later, you will have to tighten your belts and take note of Cyberlaw for your own benefit.

Cyberlaw Awareness program

Are your electronic transactions legally binding and authentic? Are you verifying your customers' identities to prevent identity theft? Does your online terms and conditions have binding effect? Are you providing appropriate information and clear steps for forming and concluding your online transactions? How are you ensuring data protection and information security on your web site? Are you recognising the rights of your data subjects?

Transacting on the Internet has wide legal implications as it alters the conventional methods of doing business. To build enduring relationships with your online customers the legal issues of e-transactions need to be addressed from the onset.

Advantages of Cyber Laws
 

The IT Act 2000 attempts to change outdated laws and provides ways to deal with cyber crimes. We need such laws so that people can perform purchase transactions over the Net through credit cards without fear of misuse. The Act offers the much-needed legal framework so that information is not denied legal effect, validity or enforceability, solely on the ground that it is in the form of electronic records.

In view of the growth in transactions and communications carried out through electronic records, the Act seeks to empower government departments to accept filing, creating and retention of official documents in the digital format. The Act has also proposed a legal framework for the authentication and origin of electronic records / communications through digital signature.

* From the perspective of e-commerce in India, the IT Act 2000 and its provisions contain many positive aspects. Firstly, the implications of these provisions for the e-businesses would be that email would now be a valid and legal form of communication in our country that can be duly produced and approved in a court of law.

* Companies shall now be able to carry out electronic commerce using the legal infrastructure provided by the Act.

* Digital signatures have been given legal validity and sanction in the Act.

* The Act throws open the doors for the entry of corporate companies in the business of being Certifying Authorities for issuing Digital Signatures Certificates.

* The Act now allows Government to issue notification on the web thus heralding e-governance.

* The Act enables the companies to file any form, application or any other document with any office, authority, body or agency owned or controlled by the appropriate Government in electronic form by means of such electronic form as may be prescribed by the appropriate Government.

* The IT Act also addresses the important issues of security, which are so critical to the success of electronic transactions. The Act has given a legal definition to the concept of secure digital signatures that would be required to have been passed through a system of a security procedure, as stipulated by the Government at a later date.

* Under the IT Act, 2000, it shall now be possible for corporates to have a statutory remedy in case if anyone breaks into their computer systems or network and cause loss.

Internet Crime
 Internet crime is crime committed on the Internet, using the Internet and by means of the Internet.

Computer crime is a general term that embraces such crimes as phishing, credit card frauds, bank robbery, illegal downloading, industrial espionage, child pornography, kidnapping children via chat rooms, scams, cyber terrorism, creation and/or distribution of viruses, Spam and so on. All such crimes are computer related and facilitated crimes.

With the evolution of the Internet, along came another revolution of crime where the perpetrators commit acts of crime and wrongdoing on the World Wide Web. Internet crime takes many faces and is committed in diverse fashions. The number of users and their diversity in their makeup has exposed the Internet to everyone. Some criminals in the Internet have grown up understanding this superhighway of information, unlike the older generation of users. This is why Internet crime has now become a growing problem in the United States. Some crimes committed on the Internet have been exposed to the world and some remain a mystery up until they are perpetrated against someone or some company.

The different types of Internet crime vary in their design and how easily they are able to be committed. Internet crimes can be separated into two different categories. There are crimes that are only committed while being on the Internet and are created exclusively because of the World Wide Web. The typical crimes in criminal history are now being brought to a whole different level of innovation and ingenuity. Such new crimes devoted to the Internet are email “phishing”, hijacking domain names, virus immistion, and cyber vandalism. A couple of these crimes are activities that have been exposed and introduced into the world. People have been trying to solve virus problems by installing virus protection software and other software that can protect their computers. Other crimes such as email “phishing” are not as known to the public until an individual receives one of these fraudulent emails. These emails are cover faced by the illusion that the email is from your bank or another bank. When a person reads the email he/she is informed of a problem with he/she personal account or another individual wants to send the person some of their money and deposit it directly into their account. The email asks for your personal account information and when a person gives this information away, they are financing the work of a criminal

Phishing
Main article: Phishing

"Phishing" is the act of attempting to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business with a real need for such information in a seemingly official electronic notification or message (most often an email, or an instant message). It is a form of social engineering attack.

The term was coined in the mid 1990s by crackers attempting to steal AOL accounts. An attacker would pose as an AOL staff member and send an instant message to a potential victim. The message would ask the victim to reveal his or her password, for instance to "verify your account" or to "confirm billing information". Once the victim gave over the password, the attacker could access the victim's account and use it for criminal purposes, such as spamming.

Phishing has been widely used by fraudsters using spam messages masquerading as large banks (Citibank, Bank of America) or PayPal. These fraudsters can copy the code and graphics from legitimate websites and use them on their own sites to create a legitimate-looking scam web pages. They can also link to the graphics on the legitimate sites to use on their own scam site. These pages are so well done that most people cannot tell that they have navigated to a scam site. Fraudsters will also put the text of a link to a legitimate site in an e-mail but use the source code to links to own fake site. This can be revealed by using the "view source" feature in the e-mail application to look at the destination of the link or putting the cursor over the link and looking at the code in the status bar of the browser. Although many people don't fall for it, the small percentage of people that do fall for it, multiplied by the sheer numbers of spam messages sent, presents the fraudster with a substantial incentive to keep doing it.

Anti-phishing technologies are now available.

Pharming

Pharming is the exploitation of a vulnerability in the DNS server software that allows a hacker to acquire the domain name for a site, and to redirect that website's traffic to another web site. DNS servers are the machines responsible for resolving internet names into their real addresses - the "signposts" of the internet.

If the web site receiving the traffic is a fake web site, such as a copy of a bank's website, it can be used to "phish" or steal a computer user's passwords, PIN or account number. Note that this is only possible when the original site was not SSL protected, or when the user is ignoring warnings about invalid server certificates.

For example, in January 2005, the domain name for a large New York ISP, Panix, was hijacked to a site in Australia. In 2004 a German teenager hijacked the eBay.de domain name.

Secure e-mail provider Hushmail was also caught by this attack on 24th of April 2005 when the attacker rang up the domain registrar and gained enough information to redirect users to a defaced webpage.

Anti-pharming technologies are now available.