ETHICS AND CYBER CRIMES IN INDIA

By - Kushangi Sameliya & Rohan Talreja, Bharati Vidyapeeth New Law College, Pune

Abstract:

When the internet was developed the founding fathers barely had the idea that the internet can also be misused for criminal activities. In today’s era there are many disturbing crimes happening in cyberspace. Cybercrime includes all those activities which are done with the criminal intention in the cyberspace. Cyberspace can be defined as the world which is computer generated and the laws prevailing in this area is called as Cyber Laws and all the users who use internet comes under the jurisdiction of these laws and has a worldwide jurisdiction. Cyber Law can be defined as that branch of law which delas with the legal issues related to internet networking and information technology. In short, cyber law is the law which governs the internet and the computers. Cyber Law is so important in today’s world as it cover all the aspects of workings related to internet whether it be social media or online transactions everything needs to be protected.

In this paper we will be discussing about the Cyber Crimes in India and ethics related to it. We will be further discussing about the need of Cyber Laws as the number of cases are increasing day by day related to internet. Cyber Crime is emerging as a serious threat to an individual’s life and it must be controlled as soon as possible with the help of Cyber Laws and bringing necessary amendments. This article provides a glimpse of Cyber Crimes in India and the ethics that must be followed while using a computer or internet services.

Keywords- Cyber Crimes, Cyber Ethics, Cyber Laws, Internet

Introduction:

Ethics refers to standards of rights and wrongs that prescribes a man what to do usually by keeping in mind about the society, morality, rights and obligations, fairness, equality etc. ethics also include standards which are related to rights such as right to life, right to dignity, right to privacy, freedom of speech and expression. The world of internet today has become like a parallel universe of life and living. Internet has made possible those things which were unimaginable a few years ago. The internet is becoming a fast way of living for billions of people and everyone is basically dependent on the internet for each and every job as there is a huge reliance on these machines for every aspect of work. But with the advantages of use of internet also comes the disadvantages of it. With the daily use of internet in every aspect of life there is a greatest disadvantage of internet i.e., cyber-crime. Cyber-crime means crime done with the help of computer or internet where computer is used as a tool or as the target and includes everything from hacking a system to denial-of-service attacks.  Cyber-crime has been reported around the globe and is now among the most important revenue sectors for crimes organised globally.

Threatening email, assuming someone else’s identity, pornography, sexual harassment, defamation, phishing and SPAM are some of the examples where the computer is used as a source to commit crime online whereas software privacy, hacking, viruses and worms are examples where the computer becomes the target of the crime.