Authored By: Wajiha ali namazi
Keshav memorial college of law
ABSTRACT:
This article is all about the increase in cybercrimes, the lack of specified and proper punishments, and raising awareness among people about the different cybercrimes and advancements in them due to the fearlessness among wrongdoers. This is also about measures to be taken by the young girls who are the real target of the cyber criminals. It’s all about the advancement in crime, yet having the same legal system without any advancement in these issues.
INTRODUCTION:
Hey everyone, I am here with an intriguing topic. It’s all about the things we use day and night for everything except a few. We use the internet and cyberspace for communication, work, entertainment, etc. Everything nowadays is nearly impossible without the internet. So we need to be careful. This cyberspace is also the place of the wrongdoers who are fearless, as getting caught is difficult, so they do as they wish.
Where there is a will, there is a way, We need to take initiative to implement some prominent provisions. This is the only solution for the problem we are facing, but first, we need to find the specified problem, so that we can get the perfect provision into existence and get the problem solved.
There are cyber crimes increasing day by day, the unpredictable crimes are now easily possible these days: UPI scams, fake money requests, QR manipulations, credit & debit card scams, etc. The following is the chart showing the cyber scam trend in India:
The Advancement of Cyber Crimes:
Many cybercrimes already existed, but now they have become more advanced
Phishing was done through emails, but nowadays, it’s being done through SMS and many other communication platforms.
Hacking was there as the website defacement, but nowadays it has come to mobile phones, and now through hacking, people can control all your activities of phone activities and gain access to your personal data.
Cyberbullying: Harassment, intimidation, or threats through social media, messaging apps, or online gaming platforms. It can have severe emotional & psychological impacts on victims, especially children & adolescents.
Cyberstalking: causing fear or distress to the victim through repeated harassment or intimidation through electronic communication.
Sextortion: asking for sexual favours from the victim by use of threat and harassing the victim Online Grooming: getting into relationships with minors for sexual exploitation through cyberspace.
Ransomware Attacks: encryption of a victim’s data & demands a ransom for its release through malicious software.
Cryptocurrency Scams: Fraudulent schemes involving cryptocurrencies, such as fake investment opportunities or Ponzi schemes.
Loopholes and Jurisdiction Challenges:
Many severe punishments prevail if such acts are done in the real world, but in cyberspace, they are easy and fearless to commit.
The crimes like cyberstalking which include sending repeated message even after getting ignored several times insisting them to respond on those texts sent by the wrong doers, being involved in activities of someone obsessively, creating fake accounts to trouble people, harassing people by way of threatening, blackmailing, sexting, unauthorized use of social media, emails, location apps.
Most of the above crimes are witnessed by the young girls who are targets of these kinds of digital wrongdoers.
Then the victims who suffered will keep quite without complaining anyone about the thing happened to them which is also one of the reasons these criminals are living happily without any trouble, victims must be bold enough to tackle the situations and should have the spirit of fighting against injustice happened to them so that any other person should not suffer as she suffered.
The stricter punishments make the crimes look dangerous and make people fear doing them. But since cyberspace can be handled from anywhere, having extra-territorial jurisdiction, which makes it difficult for protectors like cyber cells to catch the mess creators, leading them to become stronger day by day.
We need to take care of ourselves first by:
- getting knowledge of cyberspaces and the digital world,
- taking all the measures to be protected from these wrongdoers.
Measures to be taken:
- Do not interact with known people online; they may be manipulators who may insist you do what you don’t want to do.
- Be aware of suspicious websites.
- Don’t trust job-providing pages on social media
- Ask for authenticity if required
- Never trust people online in any case
- Never open the links shared through SMS or Emails: those may act as access to your phone • Report immediately in case of any abnormality in your transactions.
- Never fear the threats
- Take immediate action whenever you feel insecure
- Call and complain regarding the threats received or any such manipulations • Be strong while such a thing happens
- Make your friends and family aware of basic cautions while using the internet • Tell them about the measures to be taken if they are in danger in cyberspace • Be careful while applying for jobs online, as they may take your important ID proof and create a fake identity of you
- Never share your card details with anyone online, as bank scams are common these days
After taking all the measures sometimes unfortunately we fall into troubles and these troubles are due the advancement in crime not because you did something wrong so, in those moments you need to be strong and try to solve it with the help of elders, seek help from cyber cell authorities, few things come where we alone are not enough. So seeking help does not lower you in front of anyone, but these things elevate you in different aspects so that you grow in all manners and live in society happily. If not you, but knowing person of yours is in trouble, then don’t make fun of them/but make it obvious that it would have happened to anybody, and try to help him/her out with the guidance of elders.
Encourage Cyber Security Courses
The Government should encourage courses such as cyber security, ethical hacking, and many more by implementing such courses in the syllabus so that no one can skip getting educated in this perspective. Though all may not have an interest in it, at least they may protect themselves, and if not so, at least they will be able to find out if any such suspicious activity occurs and rush to the cyber cell. Increase the awareness among the youngsters so they can obtain a
Legal Reforms and Stricter Punishments
But now, after the recent enactments done by the Indian legislation have brought a new direction in the world of cybersecurity. There are many amendments done in the IPC [Indian penal code] and a new enactment, BNS[Bhartiya Nyaay Sahita ], came into existence, which gave great relief to the victims of cyber crimes like cyber stalking, etc, by declaring severe punishments for the wrongdoers. So that may create a threat to the wrongdoers from committing the crime.
Sections: 303,318,335-344,351,354,356,74,66,316,327 are now used for punishing different wrongdoers in cyberspace at present in different related cases.
The above-mentioned sections are of theft, stalking, harassment, defamation, obscene publications etc. They are somehow made related to digital crimes and punished accordingly with the punishments given under these sections. But now it’s high time we need a specified separate section for cybercrimes, which would help everyone grow using the internet and end the threat of these digital wrongdoers.
However, there is a clear direction to have an overhaul of the IT Act, 2000 as well, which will become the “Digital India Act” and is likely to be in place after the General Elections later this year. Also, the Government from the above is making sure that the laws are very tightly knitted together, with the Digital India Act being the overarching Act in the space of cybersecurity, AI, and data privacy, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, and the likely sectoral level laws all weaved into a comprehensive framework.
But as we all know, the enactment execution takes a lot of time, so we need to be careful till then. And we shall be ready with our suggestions for the executions.
Conclusion:
The initiatives that the government must take in this context are: they must encourage the field of ethical hacking, and must have a team consisting of high-tech knowledge so that they can help find the cybercriminals. When we find them and punish them rigorously so that would result in a huge change in cyberspace, which would help all the users be safe and secure using the internet.
Now it’s made absolute that the wrongdoers will be punished no doubt, but we shall always be careful with the internet and its use, as we all know, prevention is better than cure, and the process of getting justice takes time, only we victims who suffer at the end. Be aware, be safe, guys.
REFERENCE(S):
Cybercrimes in India (scriptonet, 03 April 2025) https://www.scriptonet.com/journal/cyber crimesinindia/#:~:text=Several%20types%20of%20cybercrimes%20are%20prevalent%20in% 20 accessed on 09 May 2025
Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, Act No. 45 of 2023, s 303, s 318, s 335-344, s 351, s 354, s 356, s 74, s 66, s 316, s 327
Information Technology Act 2000, Act No. 21 of 2000, s 69, s 67
Srinjoy Banerjee & Puja Tiwari Recent Changes to the Cybersecurity Regulatory Space in India on 04 Apr 2024 < https://iclg.com/briefing/20423-recent-changes-to-the-cybersecurity regulatory-space-in-india> Accessed on 10 May 2025
