3. Introduction to Cyber Law:
Cyber law is a term that encapsulates the legal issues related to use of
communicative transactional and distributive aspects of networked information
devices and technologies. It is the law governing cyber space. Cyber space is a
very wide term and includes computers, networks, software, data storage
devices (such as hard disks, USB disks etc), the Internet, websites, emails and
even electronic devices such as cell phones, ATM machines etc.
Cyber space:
1.The term "cyberspace" stands for the global network of interdependent
information technology infrastructures, telecommunications networks and
computer processing systems. As a social experience, individuals can interact,
exchange ideas, share information, provide social support, conduct business,
direct actions, create artistic media, play games, engage in political discussion,
and so on, using this global network. Cyberspace is the electronic medium of
computer networks, in which online communication takes place.
"Cyberspace is the `place` where a telephone conversation appears to occur.
Not inside your actual phone, the plastic device on your desk. Not inside the
other person's phone, in some other city. The place between the phones, the
indefinite place out there, where the two of you, human beings, actually meet
and communicate."
The word "cyberspace" was coined by the science fiction author, William
Gibson 1984, when he sought a name to describe his vision of a global
computer network, linking all people, machines and sources of information in
the world, and through which one could move or "navigate" as through a virtual
space.
Cyber law is the governing cyber space. Cyber space is a very wide term and
includes computers, networks, software, data storage devices (such as hard
disks, USB disks etc), the internet websites, emails and even electronic devices
such as cell phone, ATM machines etc.
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4. Electronic signature & Digital signature:
2."Electronic signature" means an electronic or digital method of
identification that is executed or adopted by a person with the intent to be bound
by or to authenticate a record.
"Digital signature" means a type of electronic signature that transforms a
message through the use of an asymmetric cryptosystem.
Account to Section 2(1) of the Information & Communication Technology
Act, 2006. : "digital signature" means data in an electronic form, which--
(a) is related with any other electronic data directly or logically; and
(b) is able to satisfy the following conditions for validating the digital signature-
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(i) affixing with the signatory uniquely;
(ii) capable to identify the signatory;
(iii) created in safe manner or using a means under the sole control of the
signatory; and
(iv) related with the attached data in such a manner that is capable to identify
any alteration made in the data thereafter.
“A digital signature” (not to be confused with a digital certificate) is an
electronic signature that can be used to authenticate the identity of the sender
of a message or the signer of a document, and possibly to ensure that the
original content of the message or document that has been sent is unchanged.
Digital signatures are easily transportable, cannot be imitated by someone else,
and can be automatically time-stamped. The ability to ensure that the original
signed message arrived means that the sender cannot easily repudiate it later.
Electronic signature: Identification data in electronic form which is attached to
or logically associated with other electronic data to serve as a method of
authentication.
Information Technology is encapsulating all the aspects of life across the world.
It has brought transition from paper to the paperless world. With the increasing
usage of internet in the world, the criminals are also increasing in the field of
information technology. The cyber criminals are able to use the software by
creating it themselves and manipulating it for their own benefits. It is happening
only because of the simplicity of crimes.
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5. In order to maintain harmony and co-existence of people in the cyberspace,
there is a need for a legal program called as – Cyber Laws. Cyber laws are
basic laws of a society and therefore, have implications on each aspect of cyber
society such as business, governance, entertainment, crimes, education,
information delivery, etc. The cyber crime is no longer limited to time, space or
a group of people. Hence, there is a need of cyber laws.
Cyberspace is an intangible dimension and therefore, it is impossible to
regulate and govern it using conventional law. As the internet is worldwide, it
goes across borders and is not visible. In cyberspace, there are many cases
where so called conventional crimes are done using the computers or the
internet such as criminal threats delivered through e-mail, spreading of
pornographic material, websites that defame someone, etc. In these types of
cases, the computer is merely a tool used to commit the crime.
Cyberspace has complete disrespect for jurisdictional boundaries. A person
in Bangladesh could break into a bank’s electronic vault hosted on a
computer in USA and transfer millions of Dollars to another bank in
Switzerland, all within minutes. All he would need is a laptop computer, a cell
phone and some talent.
Cyberspace is absolutely open to participation by all. A ten-year-old in
Bhutan can have a live chat session with an eight-year-old in Bali without any
regard for the distance or the anonymity between them.
Definition of 'Economic Efficiency'
A broad term that implies an economic state in which every resource is
optimally allocated to serve each person in the best way while minimizing waste
and inefficiency. When an economy is economically efficient, any changes
made to assist one person would harm another. In terms of production, goods
are produced at their lowest possible cost, as are the variable inputs of
production. Some terms that encompass phases of economic efficiency include
allocation efficiency, production efficiency and Pareto efficiency.
Explains 'Economic Efficiency'
3.“Economic efficiency” is a term typically used in microeconomics when
discussing product. Production of a unit of good is considered to be
economically efficient when that unit of good is produced at the lowest possible
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6. cost. Economics by Park in and Bade give a useful introduction to the difference
between economic efficiency and technological efficiency
A state of economic efficiency is essentially just a theoretical one; a limit that
can be approached but never reached. Instead, economists look at the amount of
waste (or loss) between pure efficiency and reality to see how efficiently an
economy is functioning. Measuring economic efficiency is often subjective,
relying on assumptions about the social good created and how well that serves
consumers. Basic market forces like the level of prices, employment rates and
interest rates can be analyzed to determine the relative improvements made
toward economic efficiency from one point in time to another.
Need for Cyber Law:
Cyberspace is an intangible dimension that is impossible to govern and
regulate using conventional law.
Cyberspace has complete disrespect for jurisdictional boundaries.
Cyberspace handles gigantic traffic volumes every second.
Cyberspace is absolutely open to participation by all.
Cyberspace offers enormous potential for anonymity to its members.
Cyberspace offers never-seen-before economic efficiency.
Electronic information has become the main object of cyber crime. It is
characterized by extreme mobility, which exceeds by far the mobility of
persons, goods or other services.
A software source code worth cores of rupees or a movie can be pirated
across the globe within hours of their release.
Theft of corporeal information (e.g. Books, papers, CD, ROMs, floppy
disks) is easily covered by traditional penal provisions.
4. “CD-ROMs” (Compact Disc, read-only-memory) is an adaptation of the
CD that is designed to store computer data in the form of text and graphics, as
well as hi-fi stereo sound. The original data format standard was defined by
Philips and Sony in the 1983 Yellow Book.
What is hacking?
5. Hacking is the practice of modifying the features of a system, in order to
accomplish a goal outside of the creator's original purpose. The person who is
consistently engaging in hacking activities, and has accepted hacking as a
lifestyle and philosophy of their choice, is called a hacker. Computer hacking is
the most popular form of hacking nowadays, especially in the field of computer
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7. security, but hacking exists in many other forms, such as phone hacking, brain
hacking, etc. and it's not limited to either of them.
Due to the mass attention given to black hat hackers from the media, the whole
hacking term is often mistaken for any security related cyber crime. This
damages the reputation of all hackers, and is very cruel and unfair to the law
abiding ones of them, from who the term itself originated. The goal of this
website is to introduce people the true philosophy and ethics of hackers,
hopefully clearing their name and giving them the social status they deserve.
5. Computer crime:
Cyberspace also brings together every service and facility imaginable to
expedite money laundering. One can purchase anonymous credit cards, bank
accounts, encrypted global mobile telephones, and false passports. From there
one can pay professional advisors to set up IBCs (International Business
Corporations, or corporations with anonymous ownership) or similar structures
in OFCs (Offshore Financial Centers). Such advisors are loath to ask any
penetrating questions about the wealth and activities of their clients, since the
average fees criminals pay them to launder their money can be as much as 20
percent.
6. Virus Introduction:
In computers, a virus is a program or programming code that replicates by
being copied or initiating its copying to another program, computer boot sector
or document. Viruses can be transmitted as attachments to an e-mail note or in a
downloaded file, or be present on a diskette or CD. The immediate source of the
e-mail note, downloaded file, or diskette you've received is usually unaware that
it contains a virus. Some viruses wreak their effect as soon as their code is
executed; other viruses lie dormant until circumstances cause their code to be
executed by the computer. Some viruses are benign or playful in intent and
effect ("Happy Birthday, Ludwig!") and some can be quite harmful, erasing data
or causing your hard disk to require reformatting. A virus that replicates itself
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8. by resending itself as an e-mail attachment or as part of a network message is
known as a worm.
Cyberspace handles gigantic traffic volumes every second. Billions of emails
are crisscrossing the globe even as we read this, millions of websites are being
accessed every minute and billions of dollars are electronically transferred
around the world by banks every day.
7. Electronic records:
Electronic, or machine-readable records, are records on electronic storage media
Electronic record, as defined regulations means any information that is recorded
in a form that only a computer can process and that satisfies the definition of a
Federal record per the Federal Records Act definition supplied above. Federal
electronic records are not necessarily kept in a "recordkeeping system" but may
reside in a generic electronic information system or are produced by an
application such as word processing or electronic mail.
2(7) of ICT Act 2006 "electronic record" means data, record or data
generated, image or sound stored, received or sent in an electronic form or
microfilm or computer generated microfiche;
8. Electronic Filing:
In its simplest form, electronic filing is the substitution of an electronic
document for a traditional paper document. With the evolution of Internet
technology, electronic filing has become a highly secure and reliable method for
sending, receiving, and managing legal documents and case information.
9. IP (Internet Protocol) is the primary network protocol used on the Internet,
developed in the 1970s. On the Internet and many other networks, IP is often
used together with the Transport Control Protocol (TCP) and referred to
interchangeably as TCP/IP. IP supports unique addressing for computers on a
network. Most networks use the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) standards
that features IP addresses four bytes (32 bits) in length. The newer Internet
Protocol version 6 (IPv6) standard features addresses 16 bytes (128 bits) in
length.
Data on an Internet Protocol network is organized into packets. Each IP packet
includes both a header (that specifies source, destination, and other information
about the data) and the message data itself.
10. Www: The term WWW refers to the World Wide Web or simply the
Web. The World Wide Web consists of all the public Web sites connected to
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9. the Internet worldwide, including the client devices (such as computers and cell
phones) that access Web content. The WWW is just one of many applications
of the Internet and computer networks.
11. Definition of HTTP: The Hyper Text Transfer Protocol provides a
standard for Web browsers and servers to communicate. The definition of
HTTP is a technical specification of a network protocol that software must
implement. HTTP is an application layer network protocol built on top of TCP.
HTTP clients (such as Web browsers) and servers communicate via HTTP
request and response messages. The three main HTTP message types are GET,
POST, and HEAD. HTTP utilizes TCP port 80 by default, though other ports
such as 8080 can alternatively be used.
12.Web Page:
A web page or webpage is a document or information resource that is suitable
for the World Wide Web and can be accessed through a web browser and
displayed on a monitor or mobile device. This information is usually in HTML
or XHTML format, and may provide navigation to other web pages via
hypertext links. Web pages frequently subsume other resources such as style
sheets, scripts and images into their final presentation.
Web pages may be retrieved from a local computer or from a remote web
server. The web server may restrict access only to a private network, e.g. a
corporate intranet, or it may publish pages on the World Wide Web. Web pages
are requested and served from web servers using Hypertext Transfer Protocol
(HTTP).
13. Electronic Transaction:
An electronic transaction is the sale or purchase of goods or services whether
between business, households, individuals, governments and other public or
private organizations conducted over computer mediated networks. The goods
and services are ordered over those networks, but the payment and the ultimate
delivery of goods or service may be conducted on or off-line.
14. An electronic certificate:
An electronic certificate satisfies the ―accompany‖ requirement if the certificate
is identified by a unique identifier and can be accessed via a World Wide Web
URL or other electronic means, provided the URL or other electronic means and
the unique identifier are created in advance and are available, along with access
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10. to the electronic certificate itself, to the Commission or to the Customs
authorities as soon as the product or shipment itself is available for inspection.
Section 36 of ICT Act 2006 : Issue of certificate.—The Certifying Authority
may issue a certificate to a prospective subscriber only after the Certifying
Authority—
(a) has received an application in the prescribed form requesting for issuance of
a certificate from the prospective subscriber;
(b) if it has a certification practice statement, complied with all of the practices
and procedures set forth in such certification practice
(c) if the prospective subscriber is the person to be listed in the certificate to be
issued;
(d) if all information in the certificate to be issued is correct; and
(e) Whether the prospective subscriber paid such fees as may be prescribed for
issuance of certificate.
15. Electronic commerce or e-commerce:
Electronic commerce or e-commerce refers to a wide range of online business
activities for products and services. It also pertains to ―any form of business
transaction in which the parties interact electronically rather than by physical
exchanges or direct physical contact.‖
Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or e-comm., refers to
the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as
the Internet and other computer networks. Electronic commerce draws on such
technologies as electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet
marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI),
inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Modern
electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at one point in
the transaction's life-cycle, although it may encompass a wider range of
technologies such as e-mail, mobile devices and telephones as well.
Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-
business. It also consists of the exchange of data to facilitate the financing
and payment aspects of business transactions.
E-commerce can be divided into:
E-tailing or "virtual storefronts" on Web sites with online catalogs,
sometimes gathered into a "virtual mall"
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11. The gathering and use of demographic data through Web contacts
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), the business-to-business exchange of
data
E-mail and fax and their use as media for reaching prospects and
established customers (for example, with newsletters)
Business-to-business buying and selling
The security of business transactions
16. An e-form (electronic form) is a computer program version of a paper
form. Aside from eliminating the cost of printing, storing, and distributing pre-
printed forms, and the wastage of obsolete forms, e-forms can be filled out
faster because the programming associated with them can automatically format,
calculate, look up, and validate information for the user. With digital signatures
and routing via e-mail, approval cycle times can be significantly reduced. With
electronic submission of completed forms, you can eliminate the cost of
rekeying data and the associated errors.
2(5) of ICT, 2006 "electronic form" with reference to information means any
information generated, sent, received or stored in media, magnetic, optical,
computer memory, microfilm, computer generated microfiche or similar device
or technology;
Forgery is the process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or
documents with the intent to deceive. Copies, studio replicas, and reproductions
are not considered forgeries, though they may later become forgeries through
knowing and willful misrepresentations. Forging money or currency is more
often called counterfeiting. But consumer goods may also be counterfeits if they
are not manufactured or produced by the designated manufacture or producer
given on the label or flagged by the trademark symbol. When the object forged
is a record or document it is often called a false document.
This usage of "forgery" does not derive from metalwork done at a forge, but it
has a parallel history. A sense of "to counterfeit" is already in the Anglo-French
verb forger, meaning "falsify."
A forgery is essentially concerned with a produced or altered object. Where the
prime concern of a forgery is less focused on the object itself – what it is worth
or what it "proves" – than on a tacit statement of criticism that is revealed by the
reactions the object provokes in others, then the larger process is a hoax. In a
hoax, a rumor or a genuine object planted in a concocted situation, may
substitute for a forged physical object. The similar crime of fraud is the crime of
deceiving another, including through the use of objects obtained through
forgery. Forgery is one of the techniques of fraud, including identity theft.
Forgery is one of the threats addressed by security engineering.
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12. 17. Internet:
The internet in simple terms is a network of the interlinked computer
networking worldwide, which is accessible to the general public. These
interconnected computers work by transmitting data through a special type of
packet switching which is known as the IP or the internet protocol.
Internet is such a huge network of several different interlinked networks relating
to the business, government, academic, and even smaller domestic networks,
therefore internet is known as the network of all the other networks. These
networks enable the internet to be used for various important functions which
include the several means of communications like the file transfer, the online
chat and even the sharing of the documents and web sites on the WWW, or the
World Wide Web.
It is always mistaken said that the internet and the World Wide Web are both
the same terms, or are synonymous. Actually there is a very significant
difference between the two which has to be clear to understand both the terms.
The internet and World Wide Web are both the networks yet; the internet is the
network of the several different computers which are connected through the
linkage of the accessories like the copper wires, the fiber optics and even the
latest wireless connections. However, the World Wide Web consists of the
interlinked collection of the information and documents which are taken as the
resource by the general public. These are then linked by the website URLs and
the hyperlinks. Therefore World Wide Web is one of the services offered by the
whole complicated and huge network of the internet.
The use of IP in the Internet is the integral part of the network, as they provide
the services of the internet, through different layers organization through the IP
data packets. There are other protocols that are the sub-classes of the IP itself,
like the TCP, and the HTTP.
18. Stalking is a crime. Under the Crime (Domestic and Personal Violence)
Act 2007, stalking includes the following of a person about or the watching or
frequenting of the vicinity of, or an approach to a person’s place of residence,
business or work or any place that a person frequents for the purposes of any
activity
Stalking involves a persistent course of conduct or actions by a person which
are intended to maintain contact with, or exercise power and control over
another person. These actions cause distress, loss of control, fear or harassment
to another person and occur more than once.
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13. Stalking can involve threats or sexual innuendo and the stalker generally tries to
intimidate or induce fear in the person they are stalking. The person being
stalked may only realize they are being stalked once they identify a pattern of
strange or suspicious incidents occurring, such as:
phone calls
text messages
messages left on social networking sites (My Space, Face book)
notes left on their car
flowers left at their home
an awareness that they are being followed
being continually stared at by another person.
The person being stalked often develops a sense of loss of control over their
lives and is forced into changing their life routine and behaviors’.
Stalking is committed when a person:
Intentionally and persistently
Without legitimate reason
Engages in a course of conduct directed at another specific person
Against their will
This causes the other person to develop fear, or to believe that harm
would come to them
Paper:
A substance in the form of thin sheets or leaves intended to be written or printed
on, or to be used in wrapping. It is made of rags, straw, bark, wood, or other
fibrous material, which is first reduced to pulp, then molded, pressed, and dried.
A book is a set of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of ink,
paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one
side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf, and each side of a leaf is
called a page. A book produced in electronic format is known as an electronic
book (e-book).
Books may also refer to works of literature, or a main division of such a work.
In library and information science, a book is called a monograph, to distinguish
it from serial periodicals such as magazines, journals or newspapers. The body
of all written works including books is literature.
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