Dr.

Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow

Final Draft

Project Topic: CYBER CRIME: PREVENTION AND PROTECTION

Submitted To:

Dr. Shakuntala Sangam

Assistant Professor (Law)
Dr. R.M.L.N.L.U., Lucknow

Submitted By:

Deepak Kumar Rav

Enrollment no.- 160101059
VIIth Semester

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I. INTRODUCTION

"We live in times of terrorism, money laundering. One needs to balance out the privacy."
-Justice Chandrachud

In modern era, cyber-crime is one of the serious concern of governments of different

countries, as these type of crime cause reputational damage, financial loss, employee morale,
disruption of business process etc. In recent times, cyber-crime is emerging as a serious threat
and worldwide all the governments, police, intellectuals units are getting involved in order to
stop these crimes. Initiatives has been taken by many of the countries like Singapore,
Australia, European Union, U.S.A and somewhat India. Indian Police, legislature, judiciary
are taking initiatives in order to curb cyber-crime that are presently going on in our country.
Many cyber cells have been established within different parts of the country in order to
educate an individual or a personnel and also to find and punish the guilty of that crime. The
researcher will be dealing with the Meaning and types of cyber-crimes, Protection and
prevention steps that are being taken.

Cyber-crime means any type of criminal activity in which a computer and a network is
involved. As it is obvious that every crime need tool or target or place of crime similar is the
situation of cyber-crime. The Cambridge English Dictionary defines cyber-crimes as crimes
committed with the exercise of new technology especially computers or recounting to
computers, especially through internet. Crimes involving use of information or usage of
electronic resources in persistence of crime are enclosed under the scope of cyber-crime.
Cyber Crimes may be committed against persons, property, government, financial services,
energy and natural resources and so on and so forth. Basically cyber-crime may occur in any
form, some of them are cyber extortion, cyber hacking, cyber pornography, spamming etc.

The term Cyber-crime combine the term “Crime” and “Cyber”. 1It got this name from the
word “Cybernetic”, which means to lead or to rule or to govern. The scope of cyber
environment is so vast that it involves all forms of digital activities, no matter whether they
are accompanied through networks and with or without borders. The term “Computer Crime”
are the crimes committed using the Internet, telecommunication networks etc. according to
Dr. Debaratihalder and Dr. Jaishanker defines cyber-crimes as “Offences that are committed

1
Yougal Joshi and Anand Singh, A Study on Cyber Crime and Security Scenario in India, 3 IJEMR 3 (2013).

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against individuals or groups of individuals with a criminal motive to intentionally harm the
reputation of the victim or cause physical or mental harm, or laws, to the victim directly or
indirectly, using modern tally communication such as internet and mobile
phones2”.According to Forester and Morrison, cybercrime is a criminal act in which a
computer is used as a principal tool. In that matter, the theft of computer hardware device,
would not qualify as computer crime.3

In order to stop the cybercrime that are prevailing in various parts of the world,
innumerable organisations and government has come forward to make a combined effort in
framing the universal standards of legislation and laws on a global basis. For e.g. US-China
cooperative is one of that organisation as these two countries are the biggest source of
cybercrime, Information and communication technology (ICT) also plays an important role in
order to ensure the operability and applicability of these international standards. Moreover,
various Countries has separately started to enact the laws for these cyber-crime for instance,
In India IT Act, 2000, IT amendment Act, 2008 has been enacted in order to stop these digital
activities, in U.S.A an executive order has been released in 2015 to compact cyber-crime, EU
also adopted directives, procedural institutions which are there in the counsel Europe’s
convention on cybercrime etc.

The first ever cyber-crime took place and was recorded in year 1820, it also took place
with the help of computer only, as in order to commit a cybercrime computer is must. At that
time abacus was used, which is known to be the earliest form of computer. The modern
computers came into existence with the diagnostic engine of Charles Babbage.

2
Arnold, Wayne, Philippines to Drop Charges on E-Mail Virus, N.Y. Times.
3
HERMAN T. TAVANI, Ethics and Technology, Ethical Issues in an Age of Information and Communication
Technology 203(2nd 2007).

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II. TYPES OF CYBER CRIMES:

“Ever since men began to modify their lives by using technology they have foundThemselves
in a series of technological traps”.
Roger Revelle4

A virtuous illustration of an international instrument which tried to categorize types of

cybercrime is the Council of Europe Convention on Cyber Crime, European Treaty Series -
No. 185, Budapest, and 23.XI. 20015 .There are various types of cybercrimes being
recognised in different parts of the world. Out of which a few cybercrimes are described
below:

CYBER STALKING: Cyber stalking is done with the help of computer and internet in
which the user by electronic means twig someone. This term is generally used unchangeably
with the online harassment and abuse. Stalking comprises harassing or menacing behaviour
of an individual or a personnel who engages in repeatedly and continuously following a
person, mostly girls. In short, this is a type of E-crime where the prey is exposed to a
fusillade of online texting and E-mails. Typically these culprits identify their victim and
instead of distressing them in reality they prefer to follow them with the means of internet.

PHISHING: Phishing is one of the most frequently committed frauds committed on the
internet, it is the way of trying the common (whether unknown or known) people into parting
with their currency. In short, Phishing denotes to the receipt of unwanted messages or emails
by consumers of financial associations, demanding them to enter their name, keyword or
other private information to use their account for some erroneous reason. Phishing assault are
more popular in our country due to internet infiltration and increasing online transactions.
Presently, India has joined the weird list of the world’s top 15 countries running “Phishing”
sites which mainly aims at stealing confidential as well as personal material such as
passwords, credit or debit cards details. 6

4
VAKUL SHARMA, Information Technology-Law and Practice, 30 (3rd 2011).
5
Sofaer, The Transnational Dimension of Cyber Crime and Terror, 225
Available at: http://media.hoover.org/document/0817999825_221.pdf .
6
K. Subramaniam,, Cyber Crime in India, The Hindu, Chennai, 26 Nov. 2006.

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VISHING: Vishing is also one of the popular criminal practice of using social engineering
and voice over IP (VoIP) in order to get the personal information of people, which may result
in their financial loss and also lead to the victims reputational damage. They do this in by
making a trap of financial reward or gain. Basically, the term got its origin from ‘Voice’ and
‘Phishing’. The victim is generally unaware that VoIP permits for caller ID bluffing, cheaper
and complex systems for the bill payer, which a normal layman will never appreciate.Vising
is almost similar to phishing i.e. it is used to steal credit card details or other private
information.

CHILD PORNOGRAPHY: It is one of the new-fangled fastest increasing cybercrime, in

which children are involved for pornographic purposes. The major problem here is child
pornography and sexual abuse of children. While websites and newsgroups featuring child
pornography may be of no subject of relevance, but it is one of the most serious concern in
our country. In majority of the cases, the fabrication of this porn has concerned child abuse;
in many cases, the users of such porn are fascinated in, and may well have indulged in child
abuse. As for sexual satisfaction, many groups involved with the welfare of children have
considerable case material of paedophiles using the net to make contact with, and arrange
meeting with, minors with a view to molestation. The government can still block such
websites, but only if they concern "public order".

There are some other offences of cybercrime other than these, few of them are offences
against the confidentiality, integrity and availability of computer data and systems, such as
illegal access, illegal interception, system interference7, Computer-related offences, such as
computer-related forgery and computer-related Fraud8, Content-related offences, such as
offences related to child pornography9and Copyright-related offences, such as offences
related to copyright infringements and related rights.10

7
European Treaty Series, No. 185 The Council of Europe Convention on Cyber Crime, Budapest, and 23
session (1 February 2001), Article 2,3,4,5 and6.
8
Id, Article 7 and 8.
9
Id, Article 9
10
Id, Article 11.

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IV. CYBER CRIME PREVENTION AND PROTECTION

In ancient times, the crimes were easy to solve, criminals used to hide their faces with
clothes, take out a gun or a knife or a weapon of similar type and rob a bank or any financial
institution. But in modern age, the age of technology, the age of highly systemised, functional
computer the way to commit such crimes become a lot easier, however for police,
government it is very complex for them to find out the convict. Currently the crimes that are
going on has become more creative as innovative technologies are coming every day. For
instance, in previous example there were person needed at the place of crime in order to rob
the bank but now there is no need of person to be physically present there to commit a rob,
the person committing the crime is unidentified and unnamed as they are using technology
i.e. committing the crime involving the use of computer. A crime such as spamming, passing
on computer viruses, harassment, cyber stalking, and others have become common in our
modern world.

Most of these issues does not involve any monetary loss, but they result in losing of
important documents, files, information and more has an access to our privacy , business
secrets etc. That is why there is necessity of Cyber Security is needed 11.Cyber security
literally refers guarding the data, important information, equipment, documents form these
cyber hackers and make sure that the information that is being restored should be prevented
from unauthorized access, intervention, loss etc.12

In order to ensure Cyber security, the person or an organisation need to first ensure the
safety and security of their computer, in order to ensure this, you need to secure the following
things:
 Confidentiality13
 Integrity 14
 Availability15

11
Id.
12
India Information Technology Act of 2000, s.2 (1) nb.
13
Protecting against unauthorized disclosure of information to the third parties
14
Protecting against unauthorized modification of data and files
15
Preventing unauthorized withholding of information from those who need it when they need it.

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It is not compulsory that all cybercrime will amount to the infringement of cyber security. For
instance, child pornography is a cybercrime but it does not lead to the infringement of cyber
security, however it is a crime under IT Act and also under IPC.
Moreover in order to ensure safety from cybercrime, the protection and prevention
measures must exist, to implement this the government should create some legislatures or
statutes so to stop these illegal activities. However, the question arises is that, IS LAW THE
ONLY ANSWER TO SOLVE THIS PROBLEM? To some extent the answer is yes, as if
there exist a law which provide a strict punishment to the convicts than this will create a
sense of fear in the minds of other persons who are engaged in these types of activities, but
the problem is that, to extend rule of Law in cyberspace it is an acute step to create an
friendly trustworthy environment among the persons or business. As business organisation
feels that there secrets might get leaked, or other documents might lose etc., it is very difficult
task to gain trust of these business organisations. But the government may also establish
some organisations that may help these business organisations from cybercrime by educating
them, giving advice on the protection and prevention of documents etc.

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V. THE LEGAL PREVENTION OF CYBER CRIMES IN INDIA
Although preventing the cybercrimes is very difficult task, many countries have the laws
relating to this. Some of the important countries are given below:-

INDIA
At the time when Macaulay was framing Indian penal code in 1860 the notion of Cyber
Crimes was completely anonymous. Further until the IT Act 2000 was enacted there was no
legal provision viz. Cyber Crimes; this was the sole rationale along with recognizing
transactions carried on by means of electronic communications to augment the e-commerce,
with which the IT Act 2000 was enacted. Further a blanket provision was made under section
77 of the IT Act 2000 which provides that the penalties or confiscations provided under the
IT Act 2000 will not release an offender from liability under any other law, in short the
substantive provisions of the IPC are still applicable to Cyber Crimes committed in India.16

VI .CASES RELATED TO CYBER CRIMES IN INDIA

State of Tamilnadu v. Suhaskatti

This case was related to posting of obscene, defamatory and annoying message about a
divorcee woman in the ‘yahoo message group’. E-Mails were also forwarded to the victim
for information by the accused through a false e-mail account opened by him in the name of
the victim. The posting of the message resulted in annoying phone calls to the lady in the
belief that she was soliciting.
Based on a complaint made by the victim in February 2004, the Police traced the accused
to Mumbai and arrested him within the next few days. The accused was a known family
friend of the victim and was reportedly interested in marrying her. She however married

16
Supra note.1, 13.

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another person. This marriage later ended in divorce and the accused started contacting her
once again. On her reluctance to marry him, the accused took up the harassment through the
Internet.17

SMC Pneumatics (India) Pvt. Ltd. v. JogeshKwatra

In this case, the defendant Jogesh Kwatra being an employee of the plaintiff company
started sending derogatory, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, filthy and abusive emails to his
employers as also to different subsidiaries of the said company all over the world with the
aim to defame the company and its Managing Director Mr. R K Malhotra. The plaintiff filed
a suit for permanent injunction restraining the defendant from sending derogatory emails to
the plaintiff. The plaintiff contended that the emails sent by the defendant were distinctly
obscene, vulgar, abusive, intimidating, humiliating and defamatory in nature and the aim of
sending the said emails was to malign the high reputation of the plaintiffs all over India and
the world.18
The Delhi High Court restrained the defendant from sending derogatory, defamatory,
obscene, vulgar, humiliating and abusive emails either to the plaintiffs or to its sister
subsidiaries all over the world including their Managing Directors and their Sales and
Marketing departments. This order of Delhi High Court assumes tremendous significance as
this is for the first time that an Indian Court assumes jurisdiction in a matter concerning cyber
defamation and grants an injunction restraining the defendant from defaming the plaintiffs by
sending defamatory emails.

VII. CYBERCRIME PREVENTION POLICIES

The cyber criminals are very similar to usual criminals because they also want to make the
money in an easy way and in a lesser time. Cybercrime deterrence can be attained fairly,
hurriedly and in a gainful manner. By the use of armed force and a little bit use of mind
techniques, a lot of cyber-attacks can be kept away from the nation. It is a prima facia that
any thief will not choose that house for stealing the things, where the security or lock is
present. Similarly a cyber-criminal will leave the difficult target and he will definitely attack
to an easier target.

17
DR.A. PRASANNA, Cyber Crime: Law and Practice, 131 (2011).
18
SMC Pneumatics (India) Pvt. Ltd. v. JogeshKwatra, CS(OS) No. 1279/2001 (Delhi High Court, 2001).

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The cyber-attacks can be prevented by the five main ways, which are given below-

1. MAINTAIN THE COMPUTER SYSTEM UP TO DATE —

Cyber attackers generally use software defect for causing damage to computer systems
habitually and secretly. Most Windows based computers can be configured to download
software scrap and brought update without human intervention. By doing this, cyber attackers
who take advantage of fault in software packages may be saddened. This will also prevent
from a number of programmed and easy attacks criminals use to break into your computers
system.

2. CHOOSE A TOUGH PASSWORD AND SHIELD IT—

Today almost for all the transactions it is compulsory to make the username, password and
personal identification numbers (PIN). So it is very helpful to make a strong password for
such type of transactions. A strong password must be at least ten characters in length. It must
be mixture of letters, symbols and numbers. One should never keep the same password in
different types of websites, otherwise it will increase the possibility of password hacking.
And also, a person should never write his/her password anywhere. So that no person can
easily get the personal information. Changing a password every 90 days is a good way to
maximum the amount of time it can be used to access perceptive information.

3. INSTALL OR UPDATE YOUR ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE FREQUENTLY —

Antivirus software is designed to prevent malicious software programs from surrounding
on your computer system. The work of this antivirus is very easy to remove a virus from that
particular computer. Viruses infect the computers without the users’ understanding. Many
types of antivirus software can be set up to update repeatedly. Failure to keep this software
update is where a bulk of the cases arises. Antivirus software basically monitors all online
movements with the intention to prevent the system from worms, other hateful programs, and
can be upgraded to save from harm against spyware and adware. To be protected on the
Internet, the antivirus software must be configured up to date itself every time the computer
connects to the Internet.

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 4. CHECK MONETARY STATEMENTS FREQUENTLY—
Reviewing statements of banks, credit and debit card repeatedly will often shrink the
impact of identity theft and credit fraud by determining the difficulty soon after the data has
been stolen or when the first use of the information is attempted. Sometimes, credit card
protection and prevention services alert a person whenever there is abnormal activity occurs
on his or her account, for example, purchases in a geographically far-away location or
purchases of high volumes. These alerts must not be taken lightly because these could be the
first indicator that an injured person receives that something is not happening in a right way.

5. READ THE FINE PRINT ON WEBSITE PRIVACY POLICIES—

There are so many photo sharing and social networking sites, which are phrasing on the
privacy policies that permit the website to remain information and photos posted to that site,
sometimes ad infinitum, even after the unique has been removed by the user. While this may
not discourage one from posting images or messages, awareness that this can be later
retrieved and disseminated may be a consideration as to what information or photos are
posted.

VIII. CONCLUSION
The researcher would like to conclude by stating that cyber-crime is one of the most
snowballing crime in current time, not only in India but in most portions of the world, in
order to prevent these kind of cyber-attacks, first there must be improvement in technology,
more security must be provided to all these cyber victims, more research must be done over
these types of crimes, moreover strict action must be taken against these hackers, criminals
etc.. Strict rules and regulations must be framed against cybercrimes, a special cell must be
set up to protect and prevent these cyber victims. According to Fleeger and Rue (2008) “To
provide a more realistic picture of the nature and number of cyber incidents, researchers have
to conduct several surveys in the last few years to capture information about security attacks
and protection”19
In addition, raising awareness with the public about these crimes through the way of
education, free courses etc. will also assist in reducing these types of crimes. Many
governmental organisation as well as non-government organisations, hardware and software

19
Brett Pladna, The Lack of Attention in the Prevention of Cyber Crime and How to Improve It, 26 E.C.U.L.J 16
(2005).

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manufactures, may perform a task of informing the laymen about these crimes and security.
Also these organisation should further give some alternative ways on how to counterattack
the problem20.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Offline Sources

• Adv. Prashant Mali; Cyber law and Cyber Crimes

Online Sources
• https://www.irjet.net/archives/V4/i6/IRJET-V4I6303.pdf

• http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/CII/CII2015/chapters/Chapter%2018-15.11.16.pdf

• https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/130487/8/08_chapter%202.pdf

20
U.N.Congress on Preention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, 10th session, Vienna, A/CONF. 187/10,
(10-17 April 2000), p 14.

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