Crime 2.0

The communications revolution over the last couple of decades has qualitatively improved our lives, but there’s a dark side. The more wired we become, the more vulnerable our data is to attacks from cyber criminals. America’s FBI believes that in 2009 cyber crime was even more lucrative than drug trafficking, raking in more than a trillion dollars. Almost everybody with an internet connection and an e-mail address would have been the target of one form of cyber crime or other, ranging from requests for money that seemingly come from friends to Trojan worms and viruses that seek to exploit security holes in a user’s computer to flush their bank accounts or credit cards.
Law minister Veerappa Moily’s calling for a special police force to deal with cyber crimes is a step in the right direction, but his call for more legislation is unwarranted.

Parliament pushed through the IT (Amendment) Act in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008. The Act has fairly strict provisions to combat cyber crimes, like child pornography, identity theft and electronic fraud. Some would argue that it gives the government far too much power over information transmitted through computer systems. In the event, extra legislation is unnecessary. What is needed is enforcement of the laws we do have.

It doesn’t help that cyber crime comes in many forms, ranging from illegal downloads of music and video files to identity theft, or that it is international, which makes it difficult to prosecute culprits even when they can be found. To that extent, India needs trained experts in cyber security and forensics not merely to provide layers of defence to consumers but to dispense advice and trace perpetrators when cyber crimes are reported. International cooperation between police forces is essential if criminals are to be brought to justice. Judges also need special training to tackle cyber crime. The government can also do more to sensitise people to the dangers of the internet and conduct information campaigns advising them on what constitutes safe online behaviour.

There is also the danger that, as our systems get more networked, sensitive data and, later, infrastructure will be attacked using not bombs, but malicious code. Reports suggest that countries are already testing their expertise in this new form of warfare, as the recent attack on computers in the PMO and MEA, allegedly emanating from China, indicates. India must strengthen its security systems sufficiently to withstand such attacks, and perhaps even develop an ability to counter-attack. 

Source:Times Of India.

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