Index:

What is Cybercrime?
Impact of Cybercrime on youth
Types of Cybercrime
How to protect yourself against Cybercrime
Penalties of Cybercrime under IT Act, IPC

Conclusion

When we talk about the early 90s, Cybercrime mainly involves fraudulent data on a workstation or simple network or hacking on a trim level or organization. But nowadays, the situation has changed, and the scenery of the cybercrime world is much more complex. This article is all about what cybercrime is, its types, and what are the penalties given under different Acts.

What is Cybercrime?

In general, Cybercrime involves computing against a digital target or a crime in which a computing system is used to commit criminal offenses. Cybercrime means illegal activity (such as fraud, theft, or distribution of child pornography) committed using a computer, primarily to illegally access, transmit, or manipulate data. Cybercriminals are carried out cybercrimes to generate profit, and some are carried out to damage the computer system with viruses and damage or disable them directly. Others use computers or networks to spread viruses, malware, illegal information, images, or other materials. Some cybercrimes do both, i.e., infect the target computers with a computer virus so that it can transmit easily to other machines and, sometimes, entire networks.

The Internet has changed information and technology and made our life easy. It provides us with many benefits. But every coin has two sides. Same way Internet also has positive and negative effects. In the Modern era, society goes through various changes in day-to-day life. People can observe everything online, like establishments that have never taken place before, movements, and policies. Nowadays, most people's lives are stored on computers or mobile like friends and relatives' contacts or lists, videos, photos, information about where people were or what they like and dislike, secrets, etc. Society has become more customary to the use of the Internet and technologies. The protection of these technologies has become a critical issue and an essential topic in the nation's interests.

National Crime Records Bureau:

The National Crime Records Bureau gave a data report regarding Cybercrime in 2020 and states that Cybercrimes in India has increased nine times in the past ten years. In 2010, 966 cases of Cybercrime were registered, and in 2020 this number increased to 50,035.

The above graph shows how cybercrime has grown in the past ten years. Cybercrime is uncivilized and omnipresent, and there is no new thing about Crime. However, the social anxiety over the high crime rates should be taken into account not because of its origin but because of the potential disturbances it causes to society. Moreover, several people are specifically victims of violence.

Impact of Cybercrime on Youth

• Youngsters born and raised within the new era of technology cannot envision their lives without the Internet or social media. 
• After the COVID pandemic 2020, everything was started online like school, college, work from home, etc. Due to this, teenagers have been engaged with computer systems, smartphones, and other advanced devices they use in their daily lives from an early age.
• In regards, facts additionally prove that Cybercrime is increasingly attracting and captivating the young generation.
• In Information Technology, safety and privacy are the two main challenges. In this modern-day online era of cyber, a massive range of cyber threats and their impact further in understanding is crucial to inhibit the prime degree of cyber-assaults.
• The newest way to communicate is cyber networking. The blogs, instant messaging, and emails of online social networking provide consumers with an easy and quick way to share with others across the globe.
• Teens spend hours online, especially on computers or electronic devices, every day. More than 40% of teenagers agree that the Internet enhances their friendships. With the popularity of social networking platforms, youngsters can keep up with real friends online. Some young people claim that cyber interactions allow them to feel sure that they are their true selves.
• Cybercrime will have a significant effect on teenage. Young adults are more likely than any other age demographic to access the Internet because they are the first victims of Cybercrime.
• Many younger people have been trying to kill themselves because they have been victims of cybercrime, including cyberbullying (a kind of cybercrime).

These days, the damage from Cybercrime has to reach to next level. The number of online communication activities increases the terrorist communities, and the cases of Sexting and cyberbullying have become more frequent. 

Types of Cybercrimes:

• Child Sexually Abusive Material (CSAM)
• Cyberbullying
• Cyber Stalking
• Identity theft
• Online Job Fraud
• Online Sextortion
• Denial-of-Service
• Phishing
• Vishing
• Smishing
• Sexting
• SIM Swap Scam
• Credit Card/Debit Card Fraud
• Impersonation and identity theft
• Spamming
• Ransomware
• Viruses, Worms, and Trojans
• Website Defacement
• Pharming
• Web jacking
• Crypto-jacking
• Online Drug Trafficking

Child Sexually Abusive Material (CSAM): 

CSAM means containing sexual images or videos in any form of a child abused or sexually exploited. Section 67 (B) of the IT Act prohibits the publication or transmission of sexually abusive material in electronic form.

Cyberbullying: 

Harassment or bullying inflicted through electronic or communication devices such as computers, mobile phones, laptops, etc. Cyberbullying is the biggest fear in the minds of young people today. It has been widespread in the past five years, mainly for less than 18 years, and Cyber Bullying is most sensitive and feared by inspection. In our culture, it is becoming a disturbing pattern. Cyberbullying is the fear of receiving attacks, negativity, or other person's derogatory photos or comments where websites such as Facebook, and Orkut, the consumer of Twitter, are most influenced.

Cyber Stalking:

Cyberstalking means the Criminal follows the victim through an electronic medium or attempts to contact the victim to foster personal meetings repeatedly despite a clear indication of disinterest by the victim or monitors email or any personal information in the form of electronic communication to commit the offense of stalking. It is a new form of internet crime in our society when a person is pursued or followed online. A cyberstalker doesn't physically follow his victim; he does it virtually by following his online activity to harvest information about the stalker, harass them, and m make threats using verbal intimidation. It's an invasion of one's online privacy.

Identity theft:

When someone steals your identity (like the name) and then pretends to be you to access your details like a credit card, bank account, and other benefits in your name, in the simplest form, credit card fraud is identity theft. "Credit card fraud" is a worldwide range of crimes involving identity theft where the criminal uses your credit card to fund his transactions.

Online Job Fraud:

Giving false hope or promise of better employment online to the people who need employment wages is known as online ob fraud.

Online Sextortion:

Online Sextortion means when someone threatens to distribute confidential and sensitive material using an electronic medium and provides images of a sexual nature, sexual favors, or money.

Denial-of-Service:

The cyberpunk's denial-of-Service attacks flood your network’s bandwidth or fill the email box with the spam email, depriving you of the services you are entitled to access or provide—denial-of-Service attacks target high-profile website servers belonging to banks and credit card payment gateways. Company's websites such as Amazon, CNN, Yahoo, Twitter, and eBay! are not spared either. A site area temporarily malfunctions or crashes altogether.

Phishing:

Phishing is a technique by which one can easily pull out or steal confidential information such as Bank Account Number, Credit/Debit Card Number, ATM PIN, Card expiry date, CVV Number, Customer ID, etc., through email. In phishing, hackers send users malicious email attachments or URLs to fetch their credentials to their accounts or computer. Most of the time, spam emails are not flagged, and users open those emails claiming they need to change their credentials or update their billing information, giving criminals access.

Vishing:

Vishing is a technique where fraudsters try to seek personal information such as Bank Account Number, Credit/Debit Card Number, ATM PIN, Card expiry date, CVV Number, Customer ID, etc., through a phone call.

Smishing:

A Smishing cyberpunk uses mobile phone text messages to lure victims into calling back on a fraudulent phone number, visiting fraudulent websites,s or downloading malicious content via phone or web.

Sexting:

An act of sending sexually explicit photos, videos, text messages, or emails, usually by phone, is known as Sexting.

SIM Swap Scam:

SIM Swap Scam occurs when fraudsters get a new SIM card issued against an already registered mobile number with the help of the mobile service provider. After getting a new SIM card, they get One-Time-Password (OTP) and alerts required for making financial transactions fraud through the victim's bank account.

Credit Card/Debit Card Fraud:

Credit card/debit card fraud involves the unauthorized use of another's credit or debit card information to purchase or withdraw funds from it.

Impersonation and identity theft:

Impersonation and identity theft are fraudulently or dishonestly using any other person's electronic signature, password, or any other unique identification feature.

Spamming:

Spamming is known when someone receives an unsolicited commercial message via email, SMS, MMS, and electronic messaging media. They may try to commemorate the recipient to buy a product or service, visit a website where he can make purchases, or attempt to trick them into divulging bank account or credit card details.

Ransomware:

It is a type of computer malware. Ransomware encrypts the files, and storage media on communication devices like desktops, Laptops, Mobile phones, etc., holding data or information a hostage. Ransomware asked the victim to pay the demanded ransom to get his device decrypted

Viruses, Worms, and Trojans:

• A computer virus is a written program that enters your computer, damages files or data, alters files or data, and replicates itself.
• Computer worms are malicious programs. Computer worms replicate themselves repeatedly on the local network, local drive shares, etc.
• A Trojan horse is a destructive program, not a virus. It looks like a simple application; unlike Viruses, Trojan horses do not replicate themselves, but they can be as dangerous. Trojans enter your computer from the backdoor, give access to malicious users, provide access to your system, and allow confidential and personal information to be stolen.

Website Defacement:

It is an attack intended to change the visual appearance and make it dysfunctional. The attacker may post indecent, hostile, obscene images, messages, videos, etc.

Pharming:

Pharming is a cyber-attack, and it aims to redirect a website's traffic to another bogus or fake website where the victim enters their details unknowingly.

Web jacking:

Web jacking derives its name from "hijacking." Here, the hacker takes control of a website fraudulently. He may change the original site's content or redirect the user to another fake similar-looking page. The website owner has no more control, and the attacker may use the website for his selfish interests. Many cases have been reported where the attacker has asked for a ransom and even posted obscene material on the site.

Crypto-jacking:

Crypto-jacking means the unauthorized use of computing resources to mine cryptocurrencies or where hackers mine cryptocurrency using resources they do not own.

Online Drug Trafficking:

• Online drug trafficking means the Crime of selling, transporting, or illegally importing drugs, such as cocaine, marijuana, heroin, or other drugs, online. 
• Unfortunately, this type of business is profitable but not considered because it involves murders, kidnapping, prostitution, and other crimes, and hence it is increasing a cybercrime.
• Indeed, drug trafficking contributes to the better and fast distribution of drugs. It involves more and more people through online mediums and makes them addicted. Once they become addicted to the drug, they may also commit crimes by paying high charges for medicines. 
• Many countries are constantly working to prohibit the use of drugs and the distribution of illegal drugs. Generally, drug trafficking means producing, distributing, and selling illicit drugs. 

How to protect yourself against Cybercrime:

• Keep updated on your system software and operating system to protect your computer with the latest security patches.
• Use anti-virus software so that viruses do not hit the software and keep it updated.
• Always use strong passwords so that hackers may not crack easily.
• Be aware of fake emails and should not open spam-flagged emails.
• Be aware of the spam emails or untrusted websites, and do not click on the links.
• Not upload or share personal information like bank details, PAN no., ADHAR no. etc., on any social media platform unless secure or trusted.
• Always read terms and conditions before accepting it.
• Do not click on links with unfamiliar websites or spammy-looking URLs.
• OTP (one-time-password) should not share with anyone or unknown.
• Avoid downloading anything from unprotected or unknown sources.
• Always cross-check the legitimacy of the website before entering any personal information.
• Avoid using public Wi-Fi (in coffee shops, airports, railway stations, etc.) without a Virtual Private Network.
• Check your bank statements regularly.

Penalties under the Information Technology Act, 2000:

Penalties under the Indian Penal Code, 1860:

Conclusion

The fact that someone can steal a person's identity, prescribe the wrong medication, or commit a financial crime with someone's phone poses a threat to society moving to communications in cyberspace. It might be stated that cyberattacks may become more massive and have dangerous societal implications as people are becoming habitual in using continue the Internet and technologies.

To read this article in Hindi: Cyber Crime

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