Computer Crimes and the Act

World over there is a great concern due to various types of crimes committed by using computers and on the Internet. Almost everyday there is an international story about some or the other portal attacked or credit card fraud or some virus bringing down the system.

Broadly such crimes can be classified as:

• Unauthorised access
• Unauthorised interception
• Unauthorised use of computer, computer system
• Computer related fraud
• Computer forgery
• Damage to computer data
• Computer sabotage

The Information Technology Act 2000 (India) covers in detail various types of computer crimes and the penalties provided for such crimes.

Some of the important provisions of the Act in respect of the crimes and offences are as under:

Penalty for damage to computer, computer system, etc

If any person without permission of the owner or any other person who is in charge of a computer, computer system or computer network
(a) accesses or secures access
(b) downloads, copies or extracts any data, computer data base or information

(ii) "computer database" means a representation of information, knowledge, facts, concepts or instructions in text, image, audio, video that are being prepared or have been prepared in a formalised manner or have been produced by a computer, computer system or computer network and are intended for use in a computer, computer system or computer network;

(c) introduces or causes to be introduced any computer contaminant or computer virus

(i) "computer contaminant" means any set of computer instructions that are designed -
(a) to modify, destroy, record, transmit data or programme residing within a computer, computer system or computer network; or
(b) by any means to usurp the normal operation of the computer, computer system, or computer network;
(iii) "computer virus" means any computer instruction, information, data or programme that destroys, damages, degrades or adversely affects the performance of a computer resource or attaches itself to another computer resource and operates when a programme, data or instruction is executed or some other event takes place in that computer resource;

(d) damages or causes to be damaged any computer, computer system or computer network, data, computer data base or any other programmes(iv) "damage" means to destroy, alter, delete, add, modify or rearrange any computer resource by any means.

(e) disrupts or causes disruption

(f) denies or causes the denial of access to any person authorised to access

(g) provides any assistance to any person to facilitate access in contravention of the provisions of this Act, rules or regulations made thereunder,

(h) charges the services availed of by a person to the account of another person by tampering with or manipulating he shall be liable to pay damages by way of compensation not exceeding one crore rupees to the person so affected.

The book used by the experts (High Court Advcates) in the field :

Cyber law & Crimes by Barkha & U Rama Mohan covering IT Act 2000 (India) & Cyber crime Analysis. Published by Asia Law House at Rs 250.

HACKERS BEWARE

Kevin Mitnick, a software programmer in the US, was involved in what was probably one of the most sensational computer crimes. He was a famous hacker who hacked into the files of Shimomura, a security expert at the San Diego computer centre. The FBI later arrested him and sentenced to serve one year in jail.

In India, a penalty imposed under this Act. In Maharashtra such penalty can be recovered under the Maharashtra Land Revenue code interalia by one or more of the following process (S/176)

1. by serving a written notice of demand on the defaulter,
2. by distrait and sale of the defaulter's movable property.
3. By attachment and sale of defaulter's immovable property,
4. By arrest and imprisonment of the defaulter

Some of the important provisions of the India IT Act 2000 in respect of the crimes and offences are as under in which penalties as well as punishment with imprisonment for different terms are prescribed.

Offence (Section No) Tampering with computer source documents (S/65) Penalty shall be punishable with imprisonment up to three years, or with fine which may extend up to two lakh rupees, or with both. Remarks For the purposes of this section, "computer source code" means the listing of programmes, computer Commands, design and layout and programme analysis of computer resource in any form.

Offence (Section No) Hacking with Computer System (66) Penalty Whoever commits hacking shall be punished with imprisonment up to three years, or with fine which may extend up to two lakh rupees, or with both. Remarks Whoever with the intent to cause or knowing that he is likely to cause wrongful loss or damage to the public or any person, destroys or deletes or alters any information residing in a computer resource or diminishes its value or utility or affects it injuriously by any means, commits hacking.

Offence (Section No) Publishing of information which is obscene in electronic form (67) Penalty shall be punished on first conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years and with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees and in the event of a second or subsequent conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years and also with fine which may extend to two lakh rupees. Remarks Whoever publishes or transmits or causes to be published in the electronic form, any material which is Lascivious or appeals to the prurient interest or if its effect is such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it.

Offence (Section No) Protected system (70)(1) Penalty The appropriate Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare that any computer, computer system or computer network to be a protected system. Remarks shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years and shall also be liable to fine. Any person who secures access or attempts to secure access to a protected system in contravention of the Provisions of this section.

Offence (Section No) Penalty for misrepresentation (71) Penalty shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees, or with both. Remarks Whoever makes any misrepresentation to, or suppresses any material fact from, the Controller or the Certifying Authority for obtaining any licence or Digital Signature Certificate, as the case may be.

Any police officer, not below the rank of a Deputy Superintendent of Police, can search and arrest without warrant any person found therein who is reasonably suspected or having committed or of committing or of being about to commit any offence under this Act.

Things which can be confiscated are Hardware which can include any data-processing devices (such as central processing units, memory typewriters, "laptop" or "notebook" computers); internal and peripheral storage devices (such as fixed disks, external hard disks, floppy disk drives and diskettes, tape drives and tapes, optical storage devices, transistor-like binary devices, and other memory storage devices), peripheral input/output devices (such as keyboards, printers, scanners, plotters, video display monitors, and optical readers); and related communications devices (such as modems, cables and connections, recording equipment, RAM or ROM units, acoustic couplers, automatic dialers, speed dialers, programmable telephone dialing or signaling devices, and electronic tone-generating devices).

The Indian Penal Code (IPC) was amended according to the IT Act 2000. Amendments include making false electronic record, forgery (for purpose of cheating, of Court or public register etc, for purpose of harming reputation), forged electronic record, falsification accounts.

India needs more computer savvy police, lawyers, judiciary and computer forensic experts who can help prevent, detect and fight these crimes. Forensic experts do the following :

1. make the equipment operate properly;
2. retrieve information;
3. unblock "deleted" or "erased" data storage devices;
4. bypass or defeat passwords;
5. decipher encrypted data.

Perfection, thank you for posting this information. To all on here: keep in mind that although this seems to cover everything, I personally know that there's many many loopholes that make certain instances 100% legal... You just need to know how and when to get out of a situation. Alot of things require that the defaulter know what he's doing, and, purposfully intends to damage the system in some way... If said defaulter does not plan to harm anyone of any information, etc, or.. the prosocutor cannot prove beyond resonable doubt, that such was the intent, than the trial must be dismissed..

Just my two cents..

Hi,

Very useful information :)

Thanks a lot