On January 1, 1983 both the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) and the Defense Data Network officially changed to TCP/IP protocol suite, laying the foundation of modern day internet. Three to four decades have passed and now it has become quite an essential part of everyday life. Almost every person and entity makes use of global Internet connectivity to carry out their financial transactions, exchange of services & goods, communication & networking, exchanging videos, music, and pictures. The users find unmatchable quick cyber solutions to all their problems.
Like every scientific invention, the internet also has two aspects. It is utilised for noble causes by one section of the society, while the same internet is misutilised by another, the cyber criminals. These tech-savvy criminals would exploit vulnerabilities present in various devices to commit crimes using the Internet and is coined as cyber-crime. They can go to any extent carrying-out attacks on a nation’s sovereignty, conducting espionage to steal military secrets and other state secrets, financial fraud, identity theft, computer vandalism, stealing corporate information, DDOS attacks, and recruiting criminals to carry out antisocial activities in the world. The rise in cyber-crimes poses a severe threat to the nations and calls for an immediate application of digital forensic solutions. Otherwise, it would critically disrupt the existing infrastructures like air traffic control, power supply, financials, information of national security, and would launch terrorists like the attack in the physical space.
India and Cyber Crime
India has witnessed a rapid increase in cyber-crimes over the years. According to NCRB, 50,035 cyber offences across all categories were registered in the country, up from 44,546 in 2019. Which not only include cases related to hacking and obscene transmission, but phishing, spamming and malware attacks too. A total of 18,420 persons were arrested and 18,189 charge-sheeted for different cyber-crimes, but only 1,369 were convicted. According to a recently concluded report, India has overtaken the United States of America in spamming, which in turn is the major source of creation of botnets and malware distribution.
Other initiatives include establishing state-of-the-art cyber labs by NASSCOM to train police officers, and the establishment of the Data Security Council of India (DSCI) to protect data and cyberspace.
Emerging Cyber Crimes in India
Cyber-crimes can be committed in any form and the offender makes best use of the latest technology and tools to exploit vulnerabilities present in the system or the network. Cyber crimes have a different definition. However, in short, it can be termed as any crime that involves the use of information technology.
“With India going digital, the risk of cyber-attacks has increased considerably”, says one of the professionals catering to digital forensics solutions. The following are some of the emerging cyber crimes in India:
- Hacking- cybercrime under section 66 of ITAA 2008
- Distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attack – cybercrime under section 66 ITAA 2008
- Spreading malware and viruses- a cybercrime under section 66F of ITAA 2008
- Website defacement
- Skimming and Spoofing
- Spamming and Pharming
- Salami attack
- Cyber Defamation
- Cyber terrorism
As stated above, India has surpassed the United States of America in spamming, and is not much behind in spoofing and hacking too. According to the experts offering cyber forensic solutions, the continuous developing trend of the country has raised the eyebrows of international intelligence as well. This makes India vulnerable to international cyber-attacks.
Internally, India is facing cyber-attacks in the form of data modification, financial fraud, cyber-bullying or stalking, pornography, theft of trade secrets and IP, and data theft. These crimes are carried-out by offenders using a computer system as a tool.
Creating Unreachable Cyber Forensic Solutions
No matter what the mode of cybercrime is being carried out, the branch dealing with these cybercrimes must come up with unbreachable cyber forensic solutions. This department is expected to-
- Protect the computer system and Internet network
- Discover, recover files
- Reveal the hidden files as well as the content of the temporary files
- Should have legal access to the protected or encrypted file
- Provide expert consultation
In addition to aforementioned cyber forensic solutions, the entire department has several sub-branches that take care of every crime committed in different fields. The sub-branches include wireless forensics, malware forensics, email forensics, database forensics, disk forensics, mobile device forensics, SatNav forensics, and many more.
Pelorus and Cyber Solutions
It is not about using the technology, but using it in the right direction is all what matters. The entire network needs to have thorough surveillance with the use of cutting-edge technology, with the help of law enforcement agencies. Pelorus offers cyber solutions services and products related to digital forensics, intelligence, security, and surveillance to meet the requirements. The solutions have helped in the speedy redressal of the crimes and investigations. We are just a call away.
