ISSN: 2456–5474 RNI No.  UPBIL/2016/68367 VOL.- VII , ISSUE- II March  - 2022
Innovation The Research Concept
A Case Study of Cybercrime In India and The Related Laws
Paper Id :  15841   Submission Date :  2022-03-04   Acceptance Date :  2022-03-14   Publication Date :  2022-03-15
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Vikas Kumar Jain
Assistant Professor
Law Department
Government Law College, Kota
Kota,Rajasthan,India
Abstract
Throughout the history of humankind crime has been an unfortunate but inevitable part of the civil society. Crimes have changed in nature throughout history have taken various forms right from physical crimes to financial ones. The advent of internet in the sixties and seventies in the United States of America and its further popularization and widespread use from the nineties onwards has given rise to another category of criminal activities categorized as cybercrimes. These crimes are becoming more and more common throughout the world and especially in developing nations like India where people are still not well informed about the measures they need to take in order to save themselves from these crimes and where the laws are still not stringent enough. This paper focuses on the ever-increasing cybercrimes in India and the laws in place to prevent them from happening.
Keywords Cybercrime, Internet, India, Laws, Prevention
Introduction
Just like everything else in the world, crime has also been changing its nature through time and its newest installment happens to be cybercrime. Cybercrime is a broad term which includes all the criminal activities which are committed over a computer network. The computer might be used in the commission of the crime or it might be the target of the crime. The distinct feature of cybercrime as opposed to any other form of crime is that it is not a slave of geographical boundaries and the cyber criminals are usually unknown. It targets governments, various businesses, other organizations and individuals alike and has been on a constant rise as the internet is fast spreading its reach even to the remotest area of the country. Cybercrime is also expected to continue rising as the number of internet users in the country are only set to increase in the coming years and with the advent of Internet of things (IOT) the scope for cybercriminals to commit crimes is set for a further increase. Cybercrime causes a lot personal damage to a number of people, but its biggest cost is in terms of the financial costs, in fact had it been a country, it would be the third biggest economy in the world by 2025. The amount of financial damages caused by cybercrimes over the world is expected to rise to about 10 trillion dollars by the year 2025. A large part of part of these damages is going to be India’s to bear. According to a report by Norton Lifelock, a cybersecurity software company, 27 million Indians suffered from Identity theft on the internet between October 2020 and October 2021. This further testifies the increasing threat of cybercrimes in the country.
Objective of study
The aim of the study is to understand the current state of the increasing occurence of cybercrimes in the country and to look through the laws that are in place in order to prevent these of crimes.
Review of Literature
In order to understand cybercrime in India in its entirety, the article title Cyber Crime in India: An Overview by Nidhi Narnolia is a good piece as it explains the various facets of cybercrime in the country. It also explains the various kinds of cybercrimes and goes on to analyze the origin of the same as well. The article titled Latest face of Cybercrime and its Prevention in India Vineet Kandpal and R.K. Singh is another great source to understand the extent and prevalence of cybercrime in the country. The article goes the statistics of cybercrime in the country, the various ways in which cybercrimes are committed and also the trend of cybercrimes in the country. The article also goes on to talk about the best practices to prevent cybercrimes.
Main Text

Types of Cybercrimes
Cybercrimes fall into three major categories namely : Government , Individual and property. The attacks on property are the most common ones like a cybercriminal illegally possessing a person’s bank account and using it to make purchases. Attack on an individual can take various forms such as spreading malicious or illegal information online. The attacks on government are by far the least common but the most serious category of cybercrime. This includes cyberterrorism like hacking government and military websites to spread propaganda or other form of illegal activity by terrorist groups or even other governments. Cybercrime can be further divided into a number of different types:-
DDoS
A DDoS of distributed denial of service is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal traffic of a targeted server, service or network by overwhelming the target or its surrounding infrastructure by using large network of infected devices known as botnets. The hacker then hacks the system once the network is down.
Identity Theft
Identity theft is the act of stealing a person’s personal information over the internet and use that information to steal money, access confidential information or to commit any kind of fraud like tax or health insurance fraud.
Cyberstalking
Cyberstalking over the internet is becoming more and more common day by day. This kind of crime involves online harassment where the victim is subjected a wave of personal attacks and threats about their personal safety and personal information. This crime is usually committed over the social media websites.
Social Engineering
This often involves a criminal personally contacting the victim and posing as a customer or a service agent on behalf of the bank or some other service provider and making an attempt to win over their trust so as to get the victim’s bank account , password , one time password, CVV or any other sort of sensitive information.
Phishing
Phishing is becoming more and more common. It is the act of sending a malicious attachment or URL over mail or any other platform, to the victim in order to access their personal sensitive information. These are also committed by impersonating as popular brands and websites, making rogue websites and asking people to fill forms and surveys of various kinds.
Internet Fraud
This kind of scam involves the criminal asking the asking for a small amount of money in return for a much larger sum of money in the short term. This usually takes the form of a criminal contacting the victim and asking them to bear a small percentage of the cost of transferring a very large sum of money overseas which the victim has supposedly won. This specific type of cybercrime is so common that it has been as the ‘Nigerian Prince’ or 419 in which a person impersonating as a Nigerian prince asks the victim for money.
Online Intellectual property Infringement
This seemingly harmless form of cybercrime leads to a very huge loss to any and every form of content-creators from Moviemakers to writers. It refers to the act of distributing a proprietary piece of information or content without the permission of the creator.
Malware
It is an umbrella term for a piece of code or program that is intentionally built in order to attack or affect computer systems without the user’s consent.
Trojan Horse
Trojan horse is a specific type of malware that disguises itself as a usual piece of application but causes damage to the data files once executed.
Laws Regarding Cybercrime
Cybercrime is a very new phenomenon compared to any other form of crime that the law enforcement has ever struggled with. Its non physical form and the distinct characteristic of not being limited by any form of geographical boundaries naturally makes the job of law enforcement agencies a lot more difficult. Some of the important laws in place to prevent and punish cybercrimes in India are the following:- 
Information Technology Act 2000
The information technology act enacted in 2000, is the mechanism by which the cyber laws of the country are governed. The act highlights the punishments and penalties safeguarding the e-commerce, e-banking and e-governance sectors. The important sections of the act are-:
1.    Section 43
This section applies to anyone who damages a computer system without the permission of the owner. The owner has the right to claim full compensation in any such case.
2.    Section 66
If a person commits any offence mentioned under section 43 of the act, it will be punishable by upto three years of prison or a fine of 5 lakh rupees.
Section 66B
Any act of fraudulently receiving stolen communication device or computer is punishable by imprisonment of upto 3 years. It can also include a fine of 1 lakh rupees or less.
Section 66C
This section deals with identity theft in the digital world by hacked passwords, imposter digital signatures or any other distinctive identity verification feature. If guilty imprisonment of upto 3 years and also an additional fine of 1 lakh rupees can be levied.
Indian Penal Code
The cybercrimes related to identity theft and some other cyber frauds are also embodied in the India Peanl Code. The sections of IPC which are relevant to cybercrime are-:
1.    Section 464- Forgery
2.    Section 465- False Documentation
3.    Section 468- Forgery pre-planned for cheating
4.    Section 471- Presenting a forged document as genuine
Conclusion
The rising number of cybercrimes in the country are inevitable as and when the internet reaches more and more people. In 2021 India had over 800 million internet users and this number is expected to cross the billion mark over the next 2 years, this number makes India home to the largest number of users of the free internet. With these humongous numbers comes the risk of more and more crimes in the cyber arena. While the government has made laws to prevent cybercrimes and they have been successful to some extent, the onus is on individuals to learn safe practices to surf and use the internet and also to take steps to save themselves from any sort of crime on the internet. The government can make laws but it is the responsibility of the individual to make sure that he/she understands that they need to take all the necessary precautions to ensure their overall safety in general and financial safety in particular over the internet.
References
1. Critical analysis of cybercrime in India- IPLeaders Blog 2. Cyber Crime in India: An Overview by Nidhi Narnolia 3. Latest face of Cybercrime and its Prevention in India Vineet Kandpal and R.K. Singh 4. The Hindu 5. Information Technology Act, 2000 6. Norton Lifelock