Cyber Crimes During Covid-19 – A Pandemic Within A Pandemic.
An article by C. Kapil Sagar,
2nd Year Law Student at MarwadiSiksha Samithi Law College,
Osmania University, Hyderabad.
· History of Crimes – The Why:
For good or bad, from the beginning of mankind as we know it, crime i.e. committing a forbidden act or actions has always plagued us. Take the very story of Adam and Eve and the consequences that ensued thereof.
Since then, the reasons for committing a crime, though varied in terms of the methods and the scale and the number of people involved, have mostly been very simple as opposed to complex, as some psychologists and other so-called criminal experts would like us to believe. Some people do it for the money, some for control and the apparent power that comes from it, some due to bad influences either during childhood or after growing up even and while others do it because they just can as they are inherently bad by nature and they simply love it.
· The Start of the Internet Era:
In the current age we live in everything, from information to services to goods to entertainment and the list is endless, is available to us at, quite literally, our finger tips. However nowadays one easily forgets or doesn’t even know the beginnings of the internet much less the need to know the same.
The internet was first created in the 1960’s by the U.S. Dept. of Defense and was named Advanced Research Projects Agency Network or ARPANET in short. The very first message it was used to send was a simple message of “LOGIN” from UCLA to Stamford but even that crashed both the computers, which were in the sizes of small houses.
Then, in the 1970s,the internet adopted the Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol, or TCP/IP for short, a set standard as to how data is to be transmitted between computer networks. However, it was not until, the 1980’s that ARPANET adopted TCP/IP standard which is still how the modern Internet works.
Next, in the 1990’s came the World Wide Web which most still confuse it with the internet as a whole. However, a couple of very interesting events happened just before the World Wide Web was introduced to the whole world.
· Beginnings of Cyber Crimes:
In 1988, the first computer worm called Morris worm, named after its creator Robert Morris, was created to wreak havoc and damage the Computer systems and operations of large MNCs. And then in 1989, the first known Ransomware attack was created which locked the computer systems of Health Care industries and would only unlock their systems on the condition that the targeted hospital pays the blackmailer the required amount of money.
In my view, these 2 incidents are of paramount importance as it shows that the criminals who commit cyber crimes were, are and always be much ahead of the general public, cyber security experts and the governments at large in not only understanding these complex technologies but also know how to manipulate them in order to commit the cyber crimes.
· Evolution of Cyber Crimes and their types:
However, over the years with the advancement of not only the internet, it’s related technologies but also due the inherent and vibrant creativity of man, the types of cyber crimes have evolved into many different types namely:
1. Social Media Crimes.
2. E-Commerce Platform Crimes.
3. Job Crimes.
4. Banking and Financial Sector Crimes.
5. Cyber Stalking.
6. Cyber Bullying.
7. Pornography.
8. Vishing.
9. Phishing.
10. Unauthorized access to a computer A.K.A hacking.
11. Web Hijacking etc…
Possible types of Advanced Cyber Crimes in the future:
Most of the cyber crimes today are being orchestrated by the human beings however we do certainly live in very interesting times. The reason being in almost every field where humans use computers for their work, it’s no more done all by themselves. There is a new ‘Person’ of sorts, who has been created and employed to make our work much easier.
Now the interesting question arises from the legal stand point that since the Artificial Intelligence now a days has become so advanced to the extent that it has started to act on its own, what if it inadvertently commits a cyber crime all by itself even though the creator of that particular AI program has taken all due care during the creation of that AI? Do we have laws governing those? Who will be held Liable and how?
Another Interesting area in the future of Cyber crimes is the area of blockchain technology. Without going into the complexities of what Blockchain technology is, its uses, advantages and disadvantages, do we have any laws regulating this very important area of Cyber Technology? At least in India we do not and the it is of paramount importance that the government comes up with proper laws and legal frameworks regarding these 2 very important Cyber areas as most companies both Private and Public have already started using these technologies a while back. And if there is any misuse of these platforms by the Cyber criminals, then it’s the general public whose lives and going to be on the line.
· Conclusion:
One can go on forever as to why one commits a crime and how cyber crimes have accelerated at a much faster rate during the Covid-19 era but the main takeaway from all the above is that the times we live in are the most technologically advanced era which one may have never imagined at the start of the invention of the computer or the World Wide Web and these technological advancements are only going to be increased at a much more rapid pace along which the kind of cyber crimes, both in number and the complexities thereof, will always be on the rise.
Hence, there is an urgent need to come up with not only more robust laws and punishments governing the area of cyber space of not only the current technologies and of the future as well, but, also the people implementing these legal frameworks need to work in a swift and decisive manner even if it means to cut through any proverbial red tape where it may be required to do so.
Unless this is done and the people are more educated about cyber crimes, sadly they will not only continue to be exist but they continue to rise at an exponential rate and millions of people will continue to lose their money, identities and sadly their lives as well.
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