Cyber Crime History (1820) to Today's enforcement law’s (2013)

Cyber crime has shown a serious threat to society since many decades. We will not believe the first cyber crime recorded in late 1820.Yes, it's a shocking fact!!!

Abacus, which is thought to be the earliest form of a computer, has been around since 3500 B.C. in India, Japan, and China. Joseph-Marie Jacquard, a textile manufacturer in France, produced the loom. This device allowed the repetition of a series of steps in the weaving of special fabrics. This resulted in a fear amongst Jacquard's employees that their traditional employment and livelihood were being threatened. They committed acts of sabotage to discourage Jacquard from further use of the new technology.

Now, Technology has transverse  to many folds from standalone computers to messed network(like personal area network (PAN),local area network (LAN),home area network (HAN), storage area network (SAN),campus area network (CAN),Backbone network, Metropolitan area network (MAN), wide area network (WAN), virtual private network (VPN)) and etc. with different Technology modes.

To manage and maintain confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability of such complex system, a CyberLAW has to be enforced to minimize the challenges in the legal world. The disputes arise for any challenges, whether Statutory or otherwise, are terms as "CyberLAW".European Union, USA, United Nations Commission On International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) have already framed important laws to regulate cyberspace. In India, Information Technology Act (ITA) is also based on the UNCITRAL model, all cyber laws are contained in Information Technology Act, 2000.

The below list provide high-level analysis pertaining on Cyber Crime as associated IT LAW.

Cyber Crime	Brief Description(Example)	Relevant Section in IT Act	Punishments
Cyber Stalking	Stealthily or harass  a person or a group,  false accusations  identity theft(tracking his chat)	43,65,66	3 years, or with fine up to 2 lakh
Cyber Pornography including Child Pornography	Publishing Obscene in Electronic Form involving children	67,67(2)	10 years and with fine may extend to 10 lakh
Intellectual Property Crimes	Source Code Tampering, Piracy, Copyright infringement etc.	65	3 years, or with fine up to 2 lakh
Cyber Terrorism	Protection against Cyber Terrorism	69	Imprisonment for a term, may extend to 7 years
Cyber Hacking	Destruction, Deletion, Alteration etc.	66	3 years, or with fine up to 2 lakh
Phishing	Banking Financial Frauds	43,65,66	3 years, or with fine up to 2 lakh

India in top 10 league for Spear Phishing

We discussed the aim of phishing and the modus-operandi of achieving it. Likewise, Spear Phishing is an attempt directed at specific individuals or companies to steal sensitive information rather than targeting to mass community. The probability of success, in this case, is much higher.India is upcoming country, with strong expansion in various verticals and specialized in providing IT Consulting services across the Global. One year back, India was not in a league of this competition; however, now it holds 3% share for hosting a phishing site. This is very less number but it looks to be an alarming situation down the line.  Today, the country has clearly established a footprint on the international cyber map for being in the list of top 10 hosts of phishing sites globally.

The most targeted Indian sites were classified in various categories - information technology (14.40%), education (11.90%), product sales and services (9.80%), industrial and manufacturing (7.30%), and tourism, travel, and transport (5.80%). 

The attack leaves a devastated footprint when targeted to specific customer-centric vertical.  Privacy protection is a crucial element of today’s  growing e-service demand.One of the most glaring attacks was the recent purchase of more than 15,000 online tickets on Kingfisher Airlines by fraudsters who somehow got hold of the credit card information of several cardholders, many of them foreign nationals. While it is not clear where the fraud originated, some estimates peg the loss to the carrier at Rs 17 crore.

In fact, Major Bank has been targeted and now in a race of taking corrective actions like user awareness and establishing a monitoring mechanism to track and block the site at Service Provider end. This does not look to be simply since it can be a target from the globe with different "Law of the Land" rules.

Countermeasures to avoid phishing attacks:

• Do not click on suspicious links in email messages. In the case of any doubt, perform the simple step as mentioned in my previous blog (like identifying the email address in the message header and IP address) to identify if it’s a phishing mail.
• Do Not reveal sensitive information over the call.
• Do not enter personal information in a pop-up page or screen
• Ensure the website is encrypted with an SSL certificate by looking for the padlock, ‘https’, or the green address bar when entering personal or financial information
• Update your security software frequently, which protects you from online phishing
• And lastly, Inform respective organization about the same to prevent further broadcasting.