Indian Law: Cyber Crimes and Its Classifications

Cyber crimes are criminal activities executed on the Internet by means of a computer. Cyber crimes include various unethical activities on the Internet, such as unauthorized access to computer networks, email bombing, denial of service attack and virus attacks. Indian laws are becoming strict on tracking down cyber crimes as it is understood now that a smart hacker can cause more damage with a keyboard than with a deadly weapon.

Indian Law: Top Three Categories of Cyber Crimes

Cyber crimes have been categorized based on the nature and purpose of the crime. Three broad classifications of cyber crimes are:

• Cyber crimes against a person, through hate mails, defamatory content or cyber harassment.
• Cyber crimes against property, include computer vandalism or transmission of harmful programs.
• Cyber crime against the government, include offences such as invading confidential defense websites, promoting terrorism and so on.

Cyber crimes have been further comprehensively classified by David L. Carter as given below:

Computer as Target of Cyber Crime

These cyber crimes are committed with an intention of causing damage to a computer system or accessing the important data stored in a computer. This type of crime includes illegal activities, such as stealing data or information, theft of computer software, theft of information that has high market value and blackmailing based on personal information gained from computer.

Computer as an Means of Cyber Crime

This category of cyber crimes includes the use of computer as the means of conducting cyber offences. Computer programs are often modified by the hackers for committing frauds. Such crimes include practices, such as deceptive use of ATM cards and bank accounts, credit card frauds, scams associated with e-commerce, online fund transfers and stock transfers.

Computer as Incidental to Cyber Crime

This class of cyber crime includes hacking or unlawful access to information, passwords or credit card numbers, spamming, gambling, insurance frauds, pornography, threats by e-mails, and cyber stalking.