Cybercrime is defined as a crime
in which an electronic device is the object of the crime (hacking, phishing,
spamming) or is used as a tool to commit an offense (child pornography, hate
crimes, etc.).

These days, too
many people and organisations are becoming victims of cyber-crimes. Cyber
attackers/hackers are opting cyber-hacking as a weapon to generate easy money
in single stroke without much hassle by hacking and intruding into personal
data of persons, companies and government agencies using virus such as ransom
virus.

As a consequence,
common people feel that no data or information is safe in this digitalized
world which is terrorized by the cyber criminals.

According to the
official reports 1, 44,496 cyber security attacks observed in the country
during 2014-16 period.  5,693, 9,622 and 11,592 cyber-crime cases were
registered during 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively.

Tremendous upsurge
in the utility of computers, smart phones and internet by citizens and lack of
knowledge amid most of citizens on the aspect to safe guard their data and
information is considered as the major component that contributed to raise in
cyber-crime cases.

These official
statistics expose the imminent need to take certain immediate measures to build
a robust cyber mechanism in place which will be well armored and equipped with
right tools to hunt down the cyber criminals.

In order to sternly
deal with cyber criminals who are habituated to commit cyber-crimes such as
financial frauds, circulation of communal and pornographic contents, the
Central Government is deliberating to establish an Indian cyber-crime
coordination centre in Delhi – with the underlying intent to repose the lost
confidence of common man about the safety of data or information stored in
cyberspace.

States governments
are also mandated to establish State cyber-crime coordination cells at the
headquarter-level and also establish district cyber-crime cells.

Central government
has further allocated funds to constitute a cyber-forensic
laboratory-cum-training centre for police officials in each state.

As a part of its
efforts to eradicate (or at lease reduce and minimize) cyber-crimes Central
Government will preserve a list of suspects and the leads generated via
cyber-crime cases investigations and share such list with law enforcement
agencies.

Going forward,
cyber hackers need to be aware of the hefty price they are going to pay for
committing cyber-crimes as Central government will initiate stringent action
against such hackers and websites which contravene India’s laws and circulate
child porn, and communally and racially sensitive content.

It is hoped that
with the establishment of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre at Central
level and associated bodies at State level will strengthen the cyber mechanism
in the country and punish the cyber criminals with stringent punishment –
ultimately triumph the end objective (i.e to make common man feel confident
again that the data or information owned by them in cyberspace is secure, safe
and free of cyber threats).

Research and inputs
by Paruchuri Baswanth Mohan

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About the author :

Bhumesh Verma is a lawyer with over 2 decades of experience in advising domestic and international clients on corporate transactions (M&A, Venture Capital, Private Equity, Startups, corporate advisory, etc.) and features in “The A-List – India’s Top 100 Lawyers” by India Business Law Journal. He keeps writing frequently on FDI, M&A and other corporate matters and is a guest faculty as well. He can be reached at [email protected].