Hackers beware you are being watched
New Delhi, May 8 (UNI) Sending offensive SMS, or threatening e-mails, posting or watching pornographic material on the web site can send you behind the bars for five years with fines running into lakhs, this was revealed at the seminar on ‘enforcement of cyber laws’today.
Speaking at the seminar ” Enforcement Of Cyber laws” organised by The National Project Committee(NPC) and The Cyber Appellate Tribunal (CAT), Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan today said the reach of computers and internet has become a boon to the society but its misuse has to be curbed. It is the duty of the legal officers to protect such offences and we have proper laws to do so. The latest cyber law is technology proof and can be implemented with the changing laws, Justice Balkrishnan said.
He said the invention of internet and computers is a great scientific revolution and a boon to the society. We have to see that it does not become a curse to the society.
More and more people are being victimised by the perpetrators of crime and our effort is to impart training to the judges, adjudicating officers as well as police personnel, to tackle such crimes, Justice Balakrishnan said.
The Information Technology Act was enacted in 2000 but with passage of time , as the technology developed the new methods of committing crime in computers surfaced. In order to plug in the loopholes the act was amended in 2008 and made effective from October 27, 2008, Supreme court judge Justice Altamas Kabir said.
With what started as a game or entertainment has developed into a transaction of a serious nature.Business transactions are available at the click of the mouse and that is why UN stepped in and came out with the cyber crime laws in the year 1996, Justice Kabir who is also the chairman of the Cyber Law enforcement committee said. India in 2000 framed its own cyber laws with an objective to give legitimacy to the digital knowledge and data and our laws are quite comprehensive, he said.
Allahbad High Court Justice Yatindra Singh said not all cyber crimes are reported because there is lack of confidence among the public. People mistakenly assume that they are anonymous and cannot be caught while committing a cyber crime but it is not so, Justice Singh added. They are being watched and their identity can be detected from the server as it retains all records of the user, justice Singh said.
Acting Chief justice of Delhi High Court, Justice Madan B Lokur said cyber crime has spread extensively and we are concerned with the security of the Delhi High court and have to be careful that the judgements are not hacked, he said. The National Crime Record Bureau shows that only 217 cyber crime cases are pending in the courts which would be disposed off soon, he added.
Mr R. Chandrasekhar , Secretary Department of Information Technology said while implementing the cyber laws we have to keep inmind the jurisdiction of laws of the land of various places. The laws which come into the force are the laws of the land of the complainant or the affected person, the laws of the land of the place where the server is hosted and the laws of the land of the accused, Mr Chandrasekhar said. Though the cyber crime has dissolved national boundaries, the actual users are physical bodies, Mens rea (intention) which can be tracked eventually.
Mr Rajesh Tandon Chairperson of the Cyber Appellate tribunal said now with the amendments of the IT-ACT 2000 in operation , even sending vulgar SMS is a crime. We have covered all digital and electronic gadgets under the cyber law crimes, he added.
Lawyer Karnika Seth, who has authored a book on Cyber Crimes said it is very important to educate the youngsters about the cyber crimes and its repercussions. There should be clarity in the laws so that the young computer users do not fall prey to the cyber crimes, she added.
Dr Gulshan Rai, director General director General, Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) said in the cyber crime cases, the evidence can be procured from the service provider as each computer is numbered and all data lies in the pockets of the server. We can easily retrieve from the pocket the source of the crime and can be dealt with accordingly, he added.
Talking of the PMO (prime Minister office) which was hacked recently, Mr Rai said the hacker had made efforts to hack the PMO computer but we thwarted his efforts. We could even find out its origin, he added.
Sangeeta Sharma
UNI SNG SY 1859