Information Technology Act,2000

Birth of Cyber Laws

The United Nations General Assembly have adopted the Model Lawon Electronic Commerce on 30th January 1997. It is referred to as the UNCITRAL Model Lawon ECommerce. Enacted on 17th May 2000-India is 12th nation in the world to adopt cyber laws. India passed the Information Technology Act, 2000 on 17th October, 2000. Amended on 27th October 2009. Amended Act is known as-The Information Technology (amendment) Act, 2008.

THE IT ACT, 2000 OBJECTIVES

To provide legal recognition for transactions: Carried out by means of electronic data interchange, Other means of electronic communication, commonly referred to as "electronic commerce", involving the use of alternatives to paper-based methods of communication and storage of information, To facilitate electronic filing of documents with the Government agencies To amend the Indian Penal Code, the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, the Banker's Book Evidence Act, 1891 and the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.

Act is not applicable to

(a) a negotiable instrument (Other than a cheque) as defined in section 13 of the Negotiable Instruments Act,1881; (b) a power-of-attorney as defined in section 1A of the Powers -of-Attorney Act, 1882; (c) A trust as defined in section 3 of the Indian Trusts Act, 1882; (d) A will as defined in clause (h) of section 2 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 including any other testamentary disposition (e) Any contract for the sale or conveyance of immovable property or any interest in such property; (f) Any such class of documents or transactions as may be notified by the Central Government.

Terms under IT ACT 2000

"Adjudicating officer "Digital signature "Affixing digital signature; "Appropriate Government "Certifying Authority "Cyber Appellate Tribunal "Electronic form "Secure system "Electronic Gazette

Impact on banking Sector

Pressure from competition and regulatory environment. Threat of Competition and Retaining Customer Base. IT used for Communication, Connectivity and Business Process Re-engineering. Improve efficiency of money, capital and foreign exchange markets. Lead to convergence of computer and communication technology to enable TBA.

Cyber Law : Indian Culture And Governments Role

Need of Cyber Crime Law: Cyber space is an intangible and provides an extreme mobility
Events taking place on the internet are not happening in the locations where participants or servers are physically located, but cyber space".

Cyber space offers great economic efficiency.

Billions of dollars worth of software can be traded over the Internet without the need for any government licenses, shipping and handling charges and without paying any customs duty.

Cyber space has Complete disrespect for national boundaries.

A person in India could break into a banks electronic vault hosted on a computer in USA and transfer millions of Rupees to another bank in Switzerland, all with in minutes. All he would need is a laptop computer and a cell phone.

Cyber space is absolutely open to participation by all.

A ten year-old to an eighty year-old grand mother without any regard for the distance or the anonymity between them.

TYPES OF CYBER CRIMES

Cyber terrorism Cyber pornography Defamation Cyber stalking(section 509 IPC) Sale of illegal articles-narcotics, weapons ,wildlif Online gambling Intellectual Property crimes-software piracy, copyright infringement, trademarks violations, theft of computer source code Email spoofing Forgery Phishing Credit card frauds

CYBER CRIMES : CLASSIFICATION

Against Individuals:
i. Harassment via e-mails. ii. Cyber-stalking. iii. Dissemination of obscene material. iv. Defamation. v. Unauthorized control/access over computer system. vi. Indecent exposure vii. Email spoofing viii. Cheating & Fraud

Against Organization(Government/Pvt Firm/Company): i. Unauthorized control/access over computer system ii. Possession of unauthorized information. iii. Cyber terrorism against the government organization. iv. Distribution of pirated software etc.

Against Individual Property : i. Computer vandalism. ii. Transmitting virus. iii. Netrespass iv. Unauthorized control/access over computer system. v. Intellectual Property crimes vi. Internet time thefts

Against Society at large: i. Pornography(basically child pornography). ii. Polluting the youth through indecent exposure. Iii. Trafficking iv. Financial crimes v. Sale of illegal articles vi. Online gambling vii. Forgery

CYBER CRIME CASES REGISTERED & PERSON ARRESTED UNDER IT ACT (2006-2009)

Cyber crime provisions under IT Act, 2000

Tampering with Computer source documents Hacking with Computer systems, Data alteration Publishing obscene information Un-authorized access to protected system Breach of Confidentiality and Privacy Publishing false digital signature certificates Sec.65 Sec.66 Sec.67 Sec.70 Sec.72 Sec.73

Amendment of IT Act 2000

Criminal Provisions : Section66 Provision has been significantly changed. Under IT Act, 2008 all the acts referred under section 43, are also covered u/Sec.66 if they are done dishonestly or fraudulently Many cybercrimes on which there were no express provisions made in the IT Act, 2000 are now included in the IT Act , 2008. Section 66(A) Sending of offensive or false messages - new provision Also known as Cyber Stalking Covers sending of menacing, offensive or false messages via SMS/EMAIL/MMS Punishment imprisonment up to 3 years and fine.

Cont..
Section66(B) Dishonestly receiving stolen computer resource or communication device - new provision Also covers use of stolen Computers, mobile phones, SIM Cards, etc Punishmentimprisonment upto 3 years or fine upto Rs.1 lakh or both Section 66(C) Identity theft-new provision Fraudulently or dishonestly using someone elses electronic signature, password or any other unique identification feature Punishment-imprisonment upto 3 years and fine up to Rs.1 lakh

Cont
Section 66(E) Violation of privacy-new provision Popularly known as Voyeurism Pune spy cam incident where a 58-year old man was arrested for installing spy cameras in his house to snoop on his young lady tenants Covers acts like hiding cameras In changing rooms, hotel rooms, etc Punishmentimprisonment upto 3 years or fine upto Rs.2 lakh or both Section66(F) Cyber terrorism-new provision Who ever uses cyberspace with intent to threaten the unity, integrity, security or sovereignty of India or to strike terror in the people Punishment-Imprisonment which may extent to life imprisonment

Cyber Pornography
Section67 Publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form Punishment: First instance -imprisonment upto 3 years and fine upto Rs.5 lakh. Subsequent -imprisonment upto 5 years and fine upto Rs.10 lakh. Section 67(A) new provision Publishing or transmitting sexually explicit acts in the electronic form Similarity with Sec.292 IPC Punishment : First instance-imprisonment upto 5 years Subsequent-imprisonment up to 7 years Fine up to Rs.10 lakh.

Cont.
Section 67(B) new provision Creating, collecting, browsing, downloading, etc of Child Pornography Punishment: First instance-imprisonment upto 5years. Subsequent-imprisonment upto 7years Fine upto Rs.10 lakh. Preservation of information by intermediaries Section67(C) new provision Intermediary shall preserve and retain such information as may be specified for such duration and in such manner and format as the Central Government may prescribe.

Famous BPO Cyber Crime Cases

The recently reported case of a Bank Fraud in Pune in which some ex-employees of BPO arm of Mphasis Ltd MsourcE, defrauded US Customers of Citi Bank to the tune of RS1.5 crores has raised concerns of many kinds including the role of Data Protection". The crime was obviously committed using Unauthorized Access to the Electronic Account Space of the customers. It is therefore firmly with in the domain of Cyber Crimes".

Ahmadabad Blast :Haywood

Five minutes before the blast, an e-mails sent to national TV channels warning about blasts in Ahmadabad. The e-mail is traced to Kenneth Haywoods computer, who stayed at Gunina apartment in Navi Mumbai. Haywood claimed that his computer was hacked. A technician associated with VSNL had asked him not to change the password of his wireless Internet network. Haywoods laptop and computer was then sent to the forensic science laboratory at Kalina. Wi-Fi system used to hack Haywood's account to send the mail.

Parliament Attack Case

The Laptop seized from the gunned down terrorist contained several evidences of terrorists motives. The sticker of the Ministry of home that they had made on the laptop and pasted on their ambassador car to gain entry into the parliament house and the fake ID card that one of the two terrorists was carrying with the Government of India emblem and seal.

National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM):

Premier trade body and the chamber of commerce of the IT-BPO industries in India Not-for-profit organization, registered under the Indian Societies Act, 1860 NASSCOM is the global trade body with over 1200 members, of which over 250 are global companies from the US, UK, EU, Japan and China

NASSCOM's Vision is to maintain India leadership position in the global off shore ITBPO industry, to grow the market by enabling industry to tap into emerging opportunity areas and to strengthen the domestic market in India
NASSCOM's Aim to drive the over all growth of the technology and services market and maintain India's leadership position, by taking up the role of a strategic advisor to the industry. NASSCOMS Objective include accelerating trade development efforts, improving talent supply, strengthening local infrastructure, building partnerships and driving operational excellence. NASSCOM is also helping catalyse the process of innovation, IT work force development and enhancing data security.

NASSCOM Initiative
Diversity and Inclusivity Initiative:
The initiative focuses on mentoring and empowering diversity within the workplace with respect to gender multi-cultural workforce.

Domestic IT Market Initiative:

The focus is to promote and grow the domestic IT market by driving IT adoption in newer industry verticals and small and medium businesses.

E-Governance Initiative:
This initiative aims to be catalyst in e-Governance initiatives and harness ICT for inclusive growth by facilitating collaboration between the industry and government.

Education Initiative:
The initiative aims to improve the interface between the IT-BPO industry and academia to ensure availability of globally employable IT-BPO professionals. Specific programmes on enhancing capacity and employment of the workforce are being undertaken.

Green IT Initiative:
This initiative is focused on enabling the IT-BPO industry in India to contrIbute to the environment through technology and adoption of environmentallyfriendly infrastructure.

Future course of Action

A broad & inclusive focus is necessary to protect the IT services Strategies and Alert mechanism Against cyber attacks Creating a global culture of cyber security International cooperation at all levels should be developed further Establish funding mechanisms to facilitate practical research Encouraging states to upgrade, update, notify and educate about cyber laws & cyber attacks Participatory approach involving Governments, the private sector and non-governmental organizations Include comprehensive curricular on computer related in Academics and impress upon ethical behaviour of professionals New recruitment to ensure a sizeable team to combat cyber crime Law enforcement officials, forensic investigators and experts need to be trained for effective enforcement. Awareness is important and any incident should be reported at once & Users must try and save any electronic information trail on their computers.

CONCLUSION
Indian Laws are well drafted and are capable of handling all kinds of challenges as posed by cyber criminals. However, the enforcement agencies are required to be well versed with the changing technologies and Laws.