The known and unknown dimensions of Cyber Crime!

Abhishek Srivastava
Cyber Expert and Advocate
Supreme Court of India, Allahabad High Court (Lucknow Bench)

The developments and advancements in Internet have made life easy and practically the real and virtual life have merged significantly. The whole world is at the tip of our fingertips. The easement of online shopping platforms, online gaming platforms, online classes and jobs, social networking and online banking platforms have taken care of all the aspects of human interactions. However these platforms pose a threat which is complementary to these advancements as these platforms generate enormous amount of DATA which is stored and accessed frequently by these systems. This attracts Cyber Crimes.

What is Cyber Crime?

Cyber crime is crime committed by illegally accessing; manipulating or processing the data stored on other computer devices or networks which belongs to someone else. It is important here to understand that cyber crime is crime which is committed using computer against a computer or other personal device, over the Internet.

Types of Cyber Crime

Cyber crimes are of following category as defined under Budapest Cyber Crime Convention, 2001:
• Offences against the confidentiality, integrity and availability of computer data and systems which covers illegal access and distributions of virus and other malicious software etc;
• Computer related offences which covers monetary and banking crimes and frauds;
• Content related offences which covers sexual contents and violations of Intellectual property.
These three broader categories of crime have brought all the modern Internet age crimes under its ambit.

Factors affecting increase in Cyber crime

The easement of online shopping, online gaming, classes and jobs, social networking etc has increased the DATA generated, stored and accessed using computing tools. The advancements in the technologies of hand-held devices like laptops, tablet and mobile phones and the speed of Internet have also contributed immensely in this process. Handling this huge amount of data requires dedicated security teams, systems and networks to provide a robust system of communication. However, this poses a great threat to the data which is travelling through the communication channel and sometimes it can be accessed and misappropriated by the cyber criminals who exploit the high Internet speed and anonymity over the Internet to commit criminal activities.

Challenges in Cyber Crime investigation
The key challenges in cyber crime investigation are:

• Jurisdiction: The major issue in cyber crime investigation is that of jurisdiction. The cyberspace is a boundary less territory. The concept of sovereignty is not applicable in the Internet world. So it is challenge to investigate the cyber crime cases.
• Anonymity: Another issue is that of anonymity of computer networks where the users mask their identity over the computer network. This conceals their network and addresses which makes cyber criminals hard to trace.
• Attribution: Another issue is cyber crime investigation is that of attribution which is determination of who or what committed the crime. The use of remote access devices and bot-nets may render back-tracking the criminals hard.
• Loss of data: This refers to the issue where the data is stored over multiple virtual devices and or networks. By using this technique the investigation may take turns into vague dead ends also the data may be lost as the true or prime data may be stored over some other system.
• Modus operandi: This refers to the problems tracing criminals who don’t follow a particular modus operandi of crime. Such criminals belong to unorganized cyber criminals. These criminals often work alone or in small groups and their intention of committing the crime is also not specific to just monetary gains but to feel superior to the victims. They commit crime by using their knowledge of computer systems and often prey on young and elderly.
How to report a Cyber Crime?

Cyber crimes in India can be reported in three modes:

• Making written complaints to Cybercrime cell
• Filing complaint on the National Cyber crime portal
• Making offline complaint to the police station
Making complaints to Cybercrime cell:
A written complaint may be filed to the cyber crime cell which should be addressed to head of the Cyber crime cell and it should contain the information of the victim or informant like name, contact details and mailing address. The complaint should also disclose what kind of crime is committed against the victim. In Uttar Pradesh, the Cyber crime headquarters is located in Lucknow. Also there are eight important Cybercrime thana established to tackle day to day incidents which are setup in thr cities of Agra, Prayagraj, Bareily, Gorakhpur, Kanpur, Lucknow, Merut, and Varanasi.
Filing complaint on the National Cyber crime portal:

The complaints can also be filed on the National Cyber Crime Portal which is a great initiative take by the National Government whereby the process of filing complaints by the victims is made easy.

The complaints over the portal are related to reporting of offences against Women or children and reporting other cybercrimes. While reporting of offences committed against women and children, the details of the victim are kept anonymous.

The details of the incidence are to be provided by the victim or informant like category of cybercrime, location where the incident occurred, platform where incident occurred, uploaded evidence like photo, video, documents or link etc, date and time of the incident etc. If the details of the suspect are available with victim those details are also to be provided over the portal. Any other necessary details which may help in investigation are also required to be provided.
After registering the complaint the victim is provided with copy of the report which can be downloaded from the portal.

Making offline complaint to the police station:

In cases where there is no cyber cell or cyber police station, the traditional mode of filing of complaints is also made available to the public where the complaint may be filed to the nearest police station. The information of the victim or informant like name, contact details and mailing address is to be provided along with the other necessary details like that of nature of cyber crime committed, evidences to substantiate the claims like in case of fraudulent transaction the statement of the bank, message of transaction provided by the bank etc. Also it is important to not to tamper the device on which the crime is committed.

What are some best practices to be adopted to avoid Cyber crime?

The Government and the investigation and security agencies are doing their best to provide us with necessary assistance if we fall prey to cybercrime but as a matter of habit we should adopt to best practices so that risks of falling victim to Cybercrimes may be avoided.
• Over Social Networking
o Avoid accepting friend requests from unknown persons;
o Avoid sharing live location or details of your trips and journeys;
o Avoid sharing key life moments over the social media;
o Avoid sharing pictures of passports, boarding pass, PAN Card, Aadhar Card and other details of your communication address etc;
o Avoid sharing picture of toddlers, young children and their location of schools etc;
o Avoid sharing intimate pictures of oneself and spouse etc;
o Use different passwords for different social networking accounts;
o Try to use different email accounts for different purposes;
o Avoid giving permissions to cookie files as they act as trackers to access your information;
• Online banking
o While opening the website make sure the address bar is showing proper address of the bank and it is being opened over the secured “https” server;
o Avoid sharing online passwords, CVV number, phone number, ATM or debit/credit card pin number etc;
o Use strong passwords which can be made by reviewing the password policy provided by the bank website;
o Avoid taking calls from people convincing you that they are calling from your bank;
o If you have multiple banking accounts use different passwords for logging into different banking accounts;
o Date of birth, Anniversary, mobile number etc are some of the weakest passwords options avoid using them;
o Avoid storing old transaction OTP’s in phone as they can be used to create OTP’s which may come in future;
• Online Shopping
o Avoid storing card details on online shopping portals;
o Avoid using auto-debit feature as it poses risk to the banking transactions;
o It is best to use different email address for online shopping;
o Using prepaid cards is best way to make payments over online shopping portals;

Abhishek Srivastava
B.Tech (Computer Science Engineering), LL.B (Gold Medalist)
Cyber Expert and Advocate
Supreme Court of India, Allahabad High Court (Lucknow Bench)