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Author : Associate Megha Motwani

Cyber: The term “cyber” owes its origin to the term “cybernetics,” which in turn derived from the Greek word “kubernetes” or governor. Nobert Wiener, an American Mathematician, coined the term “cybernetic” in the 1940s to describe the theory of communication. Subsequently, the term “cybernetics” popularly came to be known as “cyber.”

Scope of Cyber Law: Cyberlaw is the law that governs cyberspace. In general, it means the law that governs not only the internet but also electronic data which may be stored in a standalone computer system. The reason for including data stored in a standalone computer is one had to include merely communication process occurring via, the internet; the term would be extremely narrow in scope. This would, in turn, leave out computer systems from the scope of cyberlaw, thereby creating confusion as to the law applicable to regulate electronic data store in a standalone computer.

In India, there’s no scope of cyber law in particular, but there is scope in the Information Technology law in India via the IT Act 2000 which provides for the cyber-crimes and the punishments thereto. The scope of Information Technology Act is that of the Cyber Crime Act of India. In India, the bill was finalized by the group of officials headed by the minister of Information Technology Mr. Pramod Mahajan. Signed by President K.R. Narayanan, the bill was passed in the budget session of 2000 on 9 May 2000.

The salient feature of this bill is that it punishes the persons of other nationality too if their crimes involve any computer or network located in India.

Impact in India - Scope of Information Technology Act in India 

As a user of the digital format, one needs to know five broad things that the Indian Cyber Law covers because it impacts all of us in one way or the other.

First – the Indian scope of Cyber Law makes the electronic format legal, anything that you write, publish share, transmit electronically is now legal.

Second – it also grants legality to electronic contracts, you can make an offer electronically you can accept an offer, and that results in a valid, binding electronic contract.

Third – the law recognizes the concept of digital signatures and the form of electronic authentications. So your digital signature is now legal and valid and can be used in any proceedings.

Fourth – almost all cyber-crimes are already covered under the Indian Cyber Law. There are various activities which can now be booked and are made punishable with imprisonment ranging from life imprisonment to 2-3 years imprisonment or fine from 1 lakh – 10 lakh rupees, or both 

Fifth – the Indian Cyber Law has come up with a broad concept known as that of an intermediary. This includes almost all the service providers and companies who on behalf of any company or a person is sharing, transmitting any particular electronic record or providing any service with respect to that record and all other intermediaries in India are mandated to exercise due diligence whether obliged under the law or not.

What is happening in India?

The Cyber-attacks most prevalent in India are:

1. Social media extortion – perpetrators create fake accounts of young girl allegedly uploads pictures and videos and drop messages demanding money.

2. Lottery frauds – people, are receiving e-mails that they won the lottery with some huge amount, and they are told to disclose their personal information and the same information is misused.

3. Ransomware – in May 2017 world fell in said ransomware. Organizations are using the computer system to store day to day data. This malware was created to infect the systems, encrypt open files, and to use the same method to attack another system.

4. Movie piracy – Movie producers, are so worried about movie piracy. Unfortunately, after releasing within 6-7 days, people watch the movie on their smartphones and even circulated by using file sharing application, which causes huge loss to the industry.

5. Hacking – where a person has an unauthorized access to someone others computer or information so stored in it and thereby, cause any changes, alterations or harms or destroys any information or not do, such actors will still be charged for hacking under section 43 A and 66 of IT Act 2008 as well as section 379 and 406 of IPC.

What can be improved? What is the scope of cyber law?

There is an actual need for cyber policing, which will monitor the ongoing activities as well as investigate the cybercrimes and assist the police department in catching the culprit.

Internet censorship is extreme in China due to a wide variety of laws and administrative regulations. More than 60 internet regulations having been created by the government of China which has been implemented by provincial branches of state-owned service providers, organizations and companies. The apparatus of China’s internet control is a consideration even more extensive and more advanced than any other country in the world. The governmental authorities not only block website content but also monitor the internet access of individuals. Such measures have attracted the sarcastic nickname “The Great Firewall of China.”

The Indian government has established a cyber police station in each state through state government. These stations take care of cyber-crimes ranging from hacking to posting abusive content on social media. These police stations do have monitoring and preliminary investigation cells. People can lodge complaints at any police stations, and then these complaints are handed over to the cyber police station.

Generally, cyber police stations in India are equipped with imaging, forensic analysis tools, and forensic work stations. Most of the time, the officers are working in the cyber police stations are from general cadre, and till date, there is no special equipment for cyber police station from computer forensics and computer security background.

The police of various cities must initiate measures to combat computer crimes. The abuse of ICT’s (Information and Communications Technology) is on the rise and with so many educational and industrial developments going on it is the need of the hour to develop a more protective safety measure to check the peril. Since the victims, as well as the offenders of cyber-crime, are mainly the younger generation, it is essential that they should be adequately sensitized about the legal directions against cyber-crime. In this regard, the police commissioner can play a notable role, or so the police officers working at the grass root, especially in the local police station if adequately informed can be active in combating cyber-crimes.