Apart from the traditional crimes, in this era of development and information technology new variety of crimes are taking place in India as well as the world which were not heard 15-20 years back. The world of internet provides every user all the required information, fastest communication and sharing tool making it the most valuable source of information. However the means of free flow of information give rise to a worryingly high incidence of irresponsible behavior. Cybercrime is a global phenomenon and women are the soft targets of this new form of crime. The vulnerability and safety of women is one of the biggest concerns of any criminal or penal law but unfortunately women are still defenseless in cyberspace. Cybercrime is emerging as a challenge for national security. The cyber world in itself has virtual reality where anyone can hide or fake his identity, this gift of internet is used by the criminally minded to commit wrongful acts and then hide under the blanket provided by the internet. Cybercrime is any criminal activity that involves a computer, networked device or a network.
Defining cybercrime
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) divides cybercrime into three categories:
crimes in which the computing device is the target — for example, to gain network access;
crimes in which the computer is used as a weapon — for example, to launch a denial-of-service (DoS) attack; and
crimes in which the computer is used as an accessory to a crime — for example, using a computer to store illegally obtained data.
The Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, to which the United States is a signatory, defines cybercrime as a wide range of malicious activities, including the illegal interception of data, system interferences that compromise network integrity and availability, and copyright infringements.
cyber crimes cases are enhancing now a days so much as many of the people are staying in home they don’t have their job rather the reason how much qualified they might be but ,as with their qualifications good in hacking skills and with the idea of eduaction in social engineering the hacks ,the crimes are of different types as
Cyberextortion which is a crime involving an attack or threat of an attack coupled with a demand for money or some other response in return for stopping or remediating the attack , Identity theft: An attack that occurs when an individual accesses a computer to glean a user’s personal information, which they then use to steal that person’s identity or access their valuable accounts, such as banking and credit cards.Credit card fraud: An attack that occurs when hackers infiltrate retailers’ systems to get the credit card and/or banking information of their customers. Stolen payment cards can be bought and sold in bulk on darknet markets, where hacking groups that have stolen mass quantities of credit cards profit by selling to lower-level cybercriminals who profit through credit card fraud against individual accounts, Credit card fraud: An attack that occurs when hackers infiltrate retailers’ systems to get the credit card and/or banking information of their customers. Stolen payment cards can be bought and sold in bulk on darknet markets, where hacking groups that have stolen mass quantities of credit cards profit by selling to lower-level cybercriminals who profit through credit card fraud against individual accounts, Cyberespionage: A crime involving a cybercriminal who hacks into systems or networks to gain access to confidential information held by a government or other organization, Software piracy: An attack that involves the unlawful copying, distribution and use of software programs with the intention of commercial or personal use, Exit scam: The dark web, not surprisingly, has given rise to the digital version of an old crime known as the exit scam.
There are few reasons which explains why women’s are more targeted as :
1) Psychological reason, Emotional exploitation: To overcome depression and loneliness women especially, homemakers; tend to find a support outside their family circle. It is because of this reason that women decide to make strangers their confidante. With technology they easily get to interact with strangers through chat rooms, video chats, instant messages etc. while sitting at home. In order to come out of the loneliness, they indulge in chatting. Chatting with stranger becomes some sort of a catharsis.
2.computer illiteracy: Partial computer illiteracy refers to the fractional incomplete knowledge in handling computer system and its application. Computer literacy does not only include browsing the internet through Google or the use of social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter or Orkut. It should include privacy protection, protection from spy ware, internet viruses like Trojans, tracking cookies etc.
3) Sociological perspective: nurturing practices and the patriarchal Indian society- Indian society is predominantly patriarchal in nature and this is a major reason for women becoming victims of cybercrime. Out of the fear of causing denigration to her family, she shies away from going to the police station and also because she is made to believe that she is the person who is responsible for the crime done to her by being trapped foolishly.
4) Cyber harassment leads to social harassment: The developments of technology have made it easy to communicate and also to exchange information which has led the increase in cyber harassment because it enables the perpetrators to hide their identity in the virtual world.
The term “cyber-crimes” is not defined in any statute .finds laws that penalize cyber-crimes in a number of statutes and even in regulations framed by various regulators. The Information Technology Act, 2000 (“IT Act”) and the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (“IPC”) penalize a number of cyber-crimes .
Identity thefts and associated cyber frauds are embodied in the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860 – invoked along with the Information Technology Act of 2000. The primary relevant section of the IPC covers cyber frauds: Forgery (Section 464) Forgery pre-planned for cheating (Section 468).
In conclusion the citizens need to be more vocalize about these crimes and even be aware about the frauds and stop sharing personal data, and stop being feared of any threats and even laws need to be more strict .
