With its worldwide popularity, the risk of Internet crime has also risen considerably. Precaution has always been better then cure so it’s in our hands to safeguard our personal information when we make any online transaction. With every bit of information you transmit through the Internet or store online, the risk of falling victim to the Internet crime also rises. Identity theft is at its all time high! Some of the various gullible trends that have been rising through the Internet include hacking, stalking, fraud, phishing, theft, spreading Malware and harassment! This not only causes a financial distress but more then often leads to the psychological stress.

Some of the ways that can help you to guard your safety in the Internet world and help you escape from falling prey to Cyber Crime are listed below. Do remember, your safety is at your own hands!

Awareness: Before you start the campaign to safeguards yourself from cyber crime, keep in mind that you know about the risks you are going to face! The right knowledge equips you to fight with a right mindset! Awareness is the most important weapon that will come to your rescue at the most difficult times!

Be Vigilant: These days most of the people who surf online are the members of social networking sites. Being social is nice but trusting everyone regarding your personal information can drown you into deep waters! Most of the cyber criminals maintain a good relationship at the start and at later stages they exploit that information for their own good. Do not let them exploit your trust! Be conscientious of the information you share with others online.

Don’t pass your Password: If any link in your email asks for your personal information or your password, quickly mark it as Spam and report it! Most of these emails are used to phish for your personal information. They will allure you with schemes such as ” Congrats! You’ve been chosen winner for a trip to Switzerland”, all excited you may give your information but in the end you’ll realize the big loss you made for yourself! Keep in mind, if you are dealing with a valid organization, it will never ask you for your password. Another way to keep your personal information secure is by changing passwords at some regular intervals. Though make it easy for yourself to remember!

We all enjoy using the Internet. It has been a valuable source of information since almost a decade now! Do not let anyone make it a bad experience for you by making you prey to their bad motives. So, to prevent yourself from becoming a victim to cyber crime keep in mind these basic tips, be vigilant and conscious of the information you share through the intranet connection.

For example, it was news to me that only 20 percent of identity theft involves credit card fraud.  According to numbers recently released by the Federal Trade Commission, identity thieves use stolen information in a variety of ways.  Without giving criminals any new ideas, let me just say that becoming a victim of ID theft can mess up your whole life, not just your credit score.

Another surprising reality:  Only 11 percent of identity theft is committed by high-tech means.  In fact, 48 percent is committed by a person known to the victim.  Taken together these two pieces of information say that the secretary at your insurance agent’s office or your wife’s ne’er-do-well cousin is more likely to steal your identity than is some pimply hacker in former East Germany.  Even if you shred every piece of paper, always look over your shoulder at the bank, and touch a computer, you could still become a victim.  Unless you monitor everyone you do business with (and all their employees) and every person you know, you are vulnerable.

Identity theft become so common and continues to grow because it is an easy crime to commit and a difficult one to catch.  Incidents of fraud commited by persons using stolen identities increased by 22 percent between 2007 and 2008 alone. As a matter of fact, the occurence of identity theft has risen steadily for ten years.  With the economy being what it is, a continuation of this trend seems likely.  

People who commit this crime are not your standard criminal.  Often they see ID theft as almost a “victimless crime” since recent fraud protection legislation puts most of the financial responsibility on lenders.  Criminals — many of whom are just desperate — move quickly once they have your information.  The average fraud takes place within a week of the stealing of personal information.

The damage happens fast, but repairing it takes an average of 70 aggravating hours.  Sometimes the damage is never undone completely.  Some victims do not find out that they are victims until months or years after the criminal has stolen their identity.  Sometimes the IRS audits a victim for income earned by the criminal, perhaps a felon who used the victim’s identity to get a job.  Other victims get a rude awakening when it turns out that the thief has committed other crimes using their identity.  Can you imagine learning about a criminal record (yours) that you had no idea existed?  It happens.

Prevention is the best medicine.  Identity theft is a lot like a disease in that preventing it is preferable to treating it.  If you  are unlucky enough to get the disease, early diagnosis is essential to successful treatment.

That brings me to a bit of good news: Tools have been developed to help you protect yourself.  Look for those in a future article, or just click the link at the bottom of this article to try it for yourself for free.

Whatever you do, do not take this lightly!  If you have anything to lose, someone is trying to take it.

Now what do you do? It is like a bad movie scene and it seems as if this type of crime will get worse and worse.

Why that may be you ask?

With this new technological age, thieves don’t have to rob a person face to face, nor rob a bank and other establishments. Why? Getting the person’s information in obtaining employment, credit and bank accounts and other ways to get money or credit, does this.

This activity, called Identity Theft, is so common that it has already affected millions of victims in the United States and Canada. Over the past few years, news stories about it have been reported. These stories make people aware of the crime. Also, campaigns and laws have been pass to build up the public’s awareness as well as to combat the growing problem.

In September 2003, the Federal Trade Commission said that people who become victims of identity theft spend an average of $1,400 and close to 200 hours just cleaning up the damage to their personal and financial character.

The only catch is once this crime becomes more barefaced; the identity theft victim may spend more money and time just to clean up the issue. In terms of frustration, it’s going to cost more than anyone thinks or even knows.

Should you be one of those unlucky ones that do not have the kind of money it would take to fix your credit record, you know what being a casualty of identity theft is all about. You know how you can become a victim and you know there are steps to fight against this terrible epidemic.

How does identity theft work? It’s a crime which a person or group of persons use an individuals personal information. This means telephone number, name, phone card, credit card and social security number. It is done without the person’s knowledge for criminal acts. Acts typically range from financial fraud or purchasing consumer goods by using their credit. This will leave the person to pay the bill unless they can prove it was not them that got the credit. Typically, until they look on their credit report or try to get loans, they will not know anything is wrong.

Although a serious crime, thieves, once they have the information, will commit at least eight different crimes in the victims’ name.

* make purchases or order goods without the * intention to pay
* apply for credit
* open bank accounts
* apply for loans
* apply for government benefits
* obtain cable or utility services using the another person’s (victim) name
* forge checks or bank drafts
* use victim’s accounts to obtain money through wire transfers using the victim’s accounts
* and other similar acts of fraud.

Identity theft doesn’t just apply toward individuals but also businesses… this is especially true for those of medium and limited businesses. It happens when a person applies for goods under a business’ name.

People need to be active in not becoming an identity theft victim and make sure that all private documents and data are protected and not given into the wrong hands. Only through these steps can be stop ourselves from being a victim. It is important people stop the thieves before they strike.

Indian Approach towards the Fight against Cyber Crime

INTRODUCTION

Internet in India is growing rapidly. It has given rise to new opportunities in every field we can think of, be it entertainment, business, sports or education. Internet also has its own disadvantages. One of the major disadvantages is Cybercrime – illegal activity committed on the internet. The internet, along with its advantages, has also exposed citizens to security risks that come with connecting to a large network. Computers today are being misused for illegal activities like e-mail espionage, credit card fraud, spam’s, software piracy and so on; criminal activities in the cyberspace are on the rise. As the cases of cybercrime grow, there is a growing need to prevent them.

Legislation   

Information Technology Act (IT Act) 2000

The government of India introduced the Information Technology Act, on 17th October 2000. Information Technology Act (IT Act) 2000, is the India’s only cyber law. The IT Act is aimed to provide legal recognition for transactions carried out by means of electronic data interchange and other means of electronic communication, commonly referred to as “electronic commerce”.

India has done a good job by enacting a cyber law. It is the 12th country of the world having a cyber law. It covers areas like e-governance, e-commerce, cyber contraventions and cyber offences.

Information Technology ACT 2000 Effects in Combating Cyber Crime

According to Section 75 of the Act, the Act applies to any offence or contravention committed outside India by any person irrespective of his nationality, if such act involves a computer, computer system or network located in India. The IT Act prescribes provisions for contraventions in Chapter IX of the Act, particularly Section 43 of the Act, which covers unauthorized access, downloading, introduction of virus, denial of access and internet time theft committed by any person. It prescribes punishment by way of damages not exceeding Rs. 1 crore to the affected party. Chapter XI of the IT Act discusses the cyber crimes and offences interalia, tampering with computer source documents (Sec. 65), Hacking (Sec.66), publishing of obscene information (Sec.67), unauthorized access to protected system (Sec.70), breach of confidentiality (Sec.72), publishing false digital signature certificate (Sec.73).

The implications of IT Act 2000 provisions for the e-businesses would be that email would now be a valid and legal form of communication in India that can be duly produced and approved in a court of law. Companies shall now be able to carry out electronic commerce using the legal infrastructure provided by the Act. Digital signatures have been given legal validity and sanction in the Act. The IT Act also addresses the important issues of security, which are so critical to the success of electronic transactions.

One of the first cases where the accused was convicted under the IT Act provisions was the case of State of Tamilnadu V. Suhas Kutty. The case related to posting of obscene, defamatory and annoying message about a divorcee woman in the yahoo message group. E-Mails were also forwarded to the victim for information by the accused through a false e-mail account opened by him in the name of the victim. The posting of the message resulted in annoying phone calls to the lady in the belief that she was soliciting. The accused was found guilty of offences under section 469, 509 IPC and 67 of IT Act 2000 and the accused was convicted and was sentenced for the offence to undergo RI for 2 years under 469 IPC and to pay fine of Rs.500/-and for the offence under Section 509 IPC sentenced to undergo 1 year Simple imprisonment and to pay fine of Rs.500/- and for the offence under Section 67 of IT Act 2000 to undergo RI for 2 years and to pay fine of Rs.4000/-.

Eight years have passed since the act was enacted and in these eight year’s technology has changed at a much faster pace. Though law cannot possibly be expected to keep pace with changes in technology, still there are few areas in the current cyber laws which need some attention.

Some Important Shortcomings of the Information Technology Act, 2000

Pornography

The term ‘pornography’ when used in relation to an offence is not defined in any statutes in India. But Section 67 of the IT Act lays down the law that obscenity is an offence when it is published or transmitted or caused to be published in any electronic form. The expressions, ‘publishing’ or ‘transmission’ have not been specifically defined under the IT Act.

Even the punishment for pornography is not sufficient in India and in the proposed amendment in IT Act the imprisonment is being reduced to two years from the present five year imprisonment. Though legislations worldwide contain severe provisions for child pornography there is no mention of child pornography in the Indian Act. It is interesting to note down that the Information Technology Act prohibits publishing of pornography but viewing of pornography is not an offence under the act.

Data Protection in Internet Banking

The Information Technology Act talks about unauthorized access but it does not talk about maintaining integrity of customer transactions. The act does not lay down any duty upon banks to protect the details of customers and clients. U.K has a data protection law which was enacted 10 years back that is in 1998 under which banks or any person holding sensitive information may be held liable for damages if it fails to maintain adequate security protection in respect of data.

Spamming

Recently the Government of India revealed that as much as 76 per cent of e-mails originating from India are spam’s, although the country accounts for only one per cent when compared with top 25 spam-producing nations. The business of spamming is not only lucrative but is also unregulated to a greater extent. The laws for the prevention of spam in India are missing. Even the IT Act, 2000 fails to address this issue.

USA and the European Union have already enacted anti spam legislation.

In the United States spam is legally permissible according to the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 provided it follows certain criteria. If the spam fails to comply with any of these requirements, then it is illegal.

Article 13 of the European Union Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications (2002/58/EC) provides that the EU member States shall take appropriate measures to ensure that unsolicited communications for the purposes of direct marketing are not allowed either without the consent of the subscribers concerned or in respect of subscribers who do not wish to receive these communications, the choice between these options to be determined by National Legislation.

Identity Theft

The IT Act, 2000 does not have any specific provision to deal with Identity theft. It is clear that Indian politicians just do not understand the problem associated with personal identity theft that India employees of outsourcing firms commit. In the face of the controversy generated over leakage of personal information of UK customers through an Indian web marketing firm, prime minister of India has asked the Information and Technology department and industry association Nasscom to consult all stakeholders and give suggestions for changes in the existing laws and, if necessary, to ensure that any breach of secrecy, illegal transfer of commercial and other privileged information and any other form of cyber crime is made a punishable offence.

These are some of the important shortcomings of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Though an amendment was proposed in the Act in 2005, the bill has still not been passed and moreover the bill also fails to address these issues and shortcomings. It seems quite evident that by the time the bill is passed, it would have become obsolete and ineffective.

Challenges to Legislative Measures

Cyber law in India is in its infancy and is struggling hard to meet the contemporary Information and Communication Technology (ICT) requirements. ICT Trends in India-2006, ICT Trends in India-2007, Cyber Security Trends-2007, etc have proved that India has not paid enough attention to the legal framework for the information society and legal enablement of ICT systems in India. To worsen the situation we have a weak cyber and ICT security in India. Cyber and ICT security in India is an ‘ignored world’ and the same is not going to improve due to the faulty cyber security strategy of India. This precarious situation has lead to an insufficient critical ICT infrastructure protection in India. The critical ICT infrastructure protection and management in India have still not got the attention of government of India and private industry players. In short, the ICT strategy of India needs rejuvenation so that we may have a sound cyber law and effective ICT and cyber security.

To compound these problems, many victims of cybercrime are unwilling to file their cases with the authorities. The true magnitudes of cybercrime, as well as demographic statistics on perpetrators and victims, are unknown because most incidents of cybercrime go unreported. The reason behind this is that the victim is either scared of police harassment or wrong media publicity. For minority and marginalised groups who already bear the brunt of media bias, reporting online harassment to the police may simply draw further unwanted attention.

The good news is that, despite these limitations, cyber crimes are detected and culprits are being punished. In October 2002, the Delhi High Court restricted a person from selling pirated Microsoft software over an Internet auction site. Some of the big cities in India where cyber crime cells do exist, there is potential for improvement. There is an immense need for training, and more cities need to have such cells.

Conclusion

There is an urgent need for unification of internet laws to reduce the confusion in their application. For e.g. for publication of harmful contents or such sites, we have Indian Penal Code (IPC), Obscenity Law, Communication Decency law, self regulation, Information Technology Act 2000 ,Data Protection Act, Indian Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code etc but as they deal with the subject vaguely therefore lacks efficient enforceability mechanism. Due to numerous Laws dealing with the subject there lays confusion as to their applicability, and none of the Law deals with the subject specifically in total. To end the confusion in applicability of Legislation picking from various laws to tackle the problem, i would suggest unification of laws by taking all the internet laws to arrive at Code which is efficient enough to deal with all the problems related to internet crimes. Although these legislations talk about the problem but they don’t provide an end to it. There’s need for a one Cyber legislation which is co-ordinated to look after cyber crimes in all respects. With passage of time and betterment of technology in the present date, has also resulted in numerous number of Information technology related crimes therefore changes are suggested to combat the problem equally fast.

According to the U.S. Postal Service, one reason is the carelessness of how many of us handle sensitive documents. One of the best investments you can make for your home or office is a paper shredder. There are people who make a living out of looking for a copy of someones un-shredded bank statement, credit card bill, tax return or any number of documents with sensitive account numbers!

This article is an attempt to educate you of those dangers and give you some genuine facts and a solution or two. If you have ever known someone who had their identity stolen then you know what we are about to tell you is true.

Last year alone, more than 9.9 million Americans were victims of identity theft, a five billion dollar crime wave!

The number of id theft victims and their total losses are probably much higher. Itâ??s hard to pin down, because law enforcement agencies may classify id theft differently â?? it can involve credit card fraud, Internet fraud, or mail theft, among other crimes. It can even involve your credit report because when you order a copy of yours unless you request that only the last 4 digits be listed, the entire number is there just waiting to be stolen! I know this myself because I recently ordered my credit report be mailed to me and there was my entire social security number on EVERY page for all to see!

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) reported that only four percent of victims cited stolen mail as the source of personal information. Even so, U.S. Postal Inspectors, charged with protecting the nations mail system from criminal misuse, are leaders in the fight against identity theft.

What Should I Do If I Am A Victim of Identity Theft?

According to the FTC, if you are a victim of identity theft there are four steps you should take as soon as possible, and keep a record with the details of your conversations and copies of all correspondence.

Place a fraud alert on your credit reports, and review your credit reports.

Fraud alerts can help prevent an identity thief from opening any more accounts in your name. But one is too many.

One of the best favors you can do for yourself is order LifeLock the guaranteed Identity Theft program. When we set our site up we decided to only recommend vendors that we had confidence in personally.

What sold us on LifeLock? The fact that their founder and CEO Todd Davis does their advertising and gives his Social Security number in all their ads. When I first heard this I figured it had to be an advertising ploy. After further checking them out both my daughter and I both signed up. They have lived up to everything they said and as a bonus we stopped getting those pre-approved credit card offers and the majority of our junk mail also stopped.

Here is what LifeLock says about themselves:

Stop Identity Theft. Guaranteed.

By now youâ??ve heard the stories about individuals whose identities have been stolen by identity thieves. Theyâ??re not pretty stories . . . people working for hundreds of hours over many years to get their lives back in order, even innocent individuals ending up in jail! We can protect against this ever happening to you. Guaranteed. Up to $1 million.

LifeLock doesnâ??t just report unauthorized use of your credit information, we prevent it by working with the credit bureaus to make sure youâ??re contacted to approve any credit transaction before it takes place. We also remove your name from pre-approved credit card offers and junk-mail lists, where identity theft often gets started.

Weâ??re the leaders in proactive identity theft protection as youâ??ve probably seen in coverage in The Wall Street Journal and Chicago Tribune, and on MSNBC, CNN, and many other national news outlets. Weâ??re so sure of our system our CEO confidently publishes his own Social Security number in all our ads.

Is this fraud alert something you can do yourself? Yes however since this is not a priority with most people it will get put off until its too late. Then you have to un-do what could have been prevented in the first place for approximately 33 cents a day. Thats pretty cheap insurance. This is an investment in protecting your peace of mind and your good name as well.

If youâ??ve already become the victim of id theft you can contact them for help on getting your good name back!

With the increase of identity theft, I wouldnt put it off another day. Once your identity is compromised it can take months or years to get it fixed. Contact LifeLock today.

For more information on Identity Theft, Click Here