CYBER CRIMES & ITA 2008

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Every user of Computers in India has a responsibility for preventing occurrence of Cyber Crimes with the use of facilities under his control. This is a duty cast on the citizens of India as “Due Diligence”. —Naavi

DISCLAIMER Information contained in this book represents the personal views of the author and are meant for academic discussion only. It does not constitute legal advice. Reasonable care has been taken to ensure accuracy of factual information contained in the publication. If any errors are still prevailing the same may kindly be informed to the publishers and necessary corrections will be incorporated in subsequent versions. Neither the author nor the publisher shall be liable for any loss or damage sustained by any person for action taken based on the information contained in the book.

This book Cyber Crimes & ITA 2008 by Vijayashankar Nagarajarao is self-published by the author. All the printing & distribution process of the book is powered by 24by7 Publishing 13 New Road, Kolkata - 51, India https://www.24by7publishing.com [email protected] +91 9831 470 133 +91 9433 444 334 Copyright © 2021 by Vijayashankar Nagarajarao Cover Design by 24by7 Publishing Copyright © cover design by 24by7 Publishing All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. This book is sold subject to the conditions that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher‘s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published. MRP: INR 600.00 First Published in May, 2021 Version 1.00 ISBN: 978-93-90979-22-6 Powered by

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Preface to the New Edition This book was first released in 2011 and subsequently amended from time to time in its E Book status. In 2015, a print version had been published by Sardar Vallabhai Patel National Police Academy, (NPA) Hyderabad and used for its training of IPS officers. Recently, a request was received from NPA for an updated printed version of the book. This edition therefore has been compiled as an updated version. In 2019, the Government of India introduced the Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 (PDPB 2019) in the Parliament which is likely to become a law in 2021. When this is passed, Section 43 A of the ITA 2000/8 would be deleted. Hence Personal Data Protection Act of India (PDPAI) would be an extension of ITA 2000/8. However, PDPAI has only one section on criminal offence and is otherwise an Act to introduce mandatory proactive measures by the industry and the Government for protection of Privacy of Indian citizens following the famous ―Puttaswamy Judgement‖ of the Supreme Court on 24th August 2017. Though a committee by T K.Vishwanathan recommend some changes to ITA 2000/8, in 2017, the same have not been implemented. On 25th February 2021, Government released amended rules under Section 79 of ITA 2000/8 introducing new Intermediary guidelines and Digital Media Ethical Code which has been discussed in this book. This has been challenged in the Supreme Court and there is also a rumour that ITA 2000/8 may be further amended separately. If these developments do take place, they will be updated in due course. Some new case information has also been added to the original edition along with an addition of the Section 65B related information. I hope this new version would be found useful. May, 2021

Naavi

Contents Chapter I: Scope of ITA 2000/8 ................................................................................................................................... 17 Applicability of ITA 2000/2008 ..................................................................................................................................... 19 Chapter II: Offences and Conraventions .................................................................................................................... 23 Anatomy of a Cyber Crime .............................................................................................................................................. 25 ITA 2008 Provisions ......................................................................................................................................................... 25 List of Offences in Chapter XI of ITA 2008....................................................................................................... 26 Section 65 ................................................................................................................................................................. 27 Section 66 .................................................................................................................................................................. 29 Offensive Acts under Sec 43 .................................................................................................................................. 33 Section 66A ............................................................................................................................................................... 37 Section 66B................................................................................................................................................................ 39 Section 66C ............................................................................................................................................................... 39 Section 66D ............................................................................................................................................................... 40 Section 66E ............................................................................................................................................................... 40 Section 66F ................................................................................................................................................................ 42 Section 67 .................................................................................................................................................................. 44 Section 67A ............................................................................................................................................................... 46 Section 67B................................................................................................................................................................ 47 Section 67C ............................................................................................................................................................... 49 Section 68 .................................................................................................................................................................. 51 Section 69 .................................................................................................................................................................. 52 Section 69A ............................................................................................................................................................... 55 Section 69B................................................................................................................................................................ 57 Section 70 .................................................................................................................................................................. 59 Section 70A ............................................................................................................................................................... 60 Section 70B................................................................................................................................................................ 60 Section 71 .................................................................................................................................................................. 62 Section 72 .................................................................................................................................................................. 62 Section 72A ............................................................................................................................................................... 63 Section 43A ............................................................................................................................................................... 64 Section 73 .................................................................................................................................................................. 67 Section 74 .................................................................................................................................................................. 67 Abetment ................................................................................................................................................................... 68 Attempt ...................................................................................................................................................................... 68 Summary on Punishments ...................................................................................................................................... 69

Miscellaneous Civil Liability Provisions......................................................................................................................... 70 Section 44 .................................................................................................................................................................. 70 Section 45 .................................................................................................................................................................. 70 Chapter III: Vicarious Liabilities................................................................................................................................... 72 Section 79(ITA 2000) .............................................................................................................................................. 72 Section 79 (ITA 2008). ............................................................................................................................................ 73 Intermediary Guidelines of 2021 ........................................................................................................................... 78 Attribution ................................................................................................................................................................. 78 Section 85. Offences by Companies ..................................................................................................................... 79 Cyber Café Regulation ...................................................................................................................................................... 81 Advisory on Matrimonial Website Cyber Café Regulation......................................................................................... 81 Chapter IV: Digital Evidence ....................................................................................................................................... 86 Presentation of an Electronic Record as Evidence ............................................................................................ 88 Primary and Secondary Evidence .......................................................................................................................... 89 Procedure for Certification ..................................................................................................................................... 92 Digital Evidence Examiner .............................................................................................................................................. 98 Section 79-A .............................................................................................................................................................. 99 Section 45A(IEA): .................................................................................................................................................... 99 Section 47A(IEA) ...................................................................................................................................................100 Verification of a Digital Signature ................................................................................................................................101 Secured Electronic Signature .........................................................................................................................................101 Section 15 ................................................................................................................................................................103 Cyber Forensics ...............................................................................................................................................................105 Types of Electronic Documents encountered...................................................................................................106 Disk Forensics ........................................................................................................................................................108 Examination of a Cloned disk: .............................................................................................................................112 Developing a Report ..............................................................................................................................................113 Guidelines for Seizure of Evidence .....................................................................................................................115 Chapter V: Powers of the Police .................................................................................................................................121 Section 78 ................................................................................................................................................................121 Section 80 ................................................................................................................................................................122 Section 77-B ............................................................................................................................................................123 Powers for Confiscation........................................................................................................................................125 Compoundability ....................................................................................................................................................126 Chapter VI : Jurisdictional Issues ................................................................................................................................129 Yahoo-Nazi Memorabilia dispute .................................................................................................................................130 Principles adopted in US .......................................................................................................................................130

Section 75 ................................................................................................................................................................132 Section 61 ................................................................................................................................................................132 Chapter VII: Adjudication and Cyber Appellate Tribunal: .....................................................................................134 Adjudication .....................................................................................................................................................................134 Section 46 ................................................................................................................................................................135 Salient Features of Adjudication Procedure ................................................................................................................137 PROFORMA FOR COMPLAINT ....................................................................................................................138 Section 47 ................................................................................................................................................................140 Secton 45 .................................................................................................................................................................140 1. Jurisdiction .....................................................................................................................................................140 2. Territorial Jurisdiction ..................................................................................................................................141 3. Serving Notice ...............................................................................................................................................141 4. Hearing ...........................................................................................................................................................142 5. Frivolous Complaints ...................................................................................................................................144 6. Compounding of Contraventions ..............................................................................................................144 Controller of Certifying Authorities .............................................................................................................................145 Section 31 ................................................................................................................................................................147 Section 44 ................................................................................................................................................................147 Section 42 ................................................................................................................................................................149 Cyber Appellate Tribunal (CAT) ..................................................................................................................................149 Section 57 ................................................................................................................................................................151 Section 58 ................................................................................................................................................................152 Chapter VIII: Cyber Law Compliance .......................................................................................................................156 An ATM Fraud in a Bank .....................................................................................................................................157 Data Theft in a Company .....................................................................................................................................158 Chapter IX: Cyber Crimes Outside ITA 2008 ..........................................................................................................160 Chapter X: Intermediary and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules 2021...................................................................162 Chapter XI: Personal Data Protection Act ................................................................................................................165 Appendix-Some Case studies .......................................................................................................................................167 About the Author ............................................................................................................................................................180

Cyber Space is the imaginary space created by binary expressions. —Naavi

Preface to the first edition of the book We all know the benefits of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to the society and why we should encourage its adoption. Public has already adopted ICT into their lives through mobiles, emails, web surfing, e-commerce, e-Banking and e-Governance. Government of India is now preparing to make it mandatory for delivery of all Government services through e-Governance in the next Five years. Every Indian whether he is otherwise computer literate or not will therefore is forced to use IT for his day to day requirements. It is evident in the widespread adoption of ICT by even those who are not computer literate. It is in this context the issue of misuse of technology by deviant members in the society assumes importance. While Computers and Mobiles are used by Citizens for their communication, commerce, entertainment and education and by the Government for Governance, Criminals will not lag behind in exploiting the opportunities for using technology for committing various types of crimes in the society. The responsibility for protecting the citizens from such Cyber Criminals is now before every one of us. It is the responsibility of the technologists to embed security as a part of the feature of any device be it hardware or software. This is ―Information Security‖. At the same time law makers have to ensure that there are adequate laws to create deterrence for the criminals. This is ―Cyber Law‖. Public also need to adopt responsible Cyber behavior to reduce the risks to them. This is ―Cyber Education‖. Along with all these, the ―Law Enforcement‖ consisting of the Police, Advocates, Prosecutors and the Judiciary need to develop adequate skills in understanding Cyber law along with the intricacies of Digital Evidence and Cyber Forensics. Information Technology Act 2000 (ITA 2000) was a milestone in the history of independent India as it provided for the first time legal recognition for Electronic Documents and brought sense to the interpretation of Cyber Crimes. The amendments of 2008 which has created the new version of the act viz ITA 2008 has further expanded the scope of ITA 2000 in a bid to secure the society from Cyber Crimes. This book therefore explores ITA 2008 with a law enforcement perspective to demystify ITA 2008. In all the discussions in this book, we use the terminology ITA 2000 and ITA 2008 as follows. ITA 2000 refers to Information Technology Act 2000 which was notified for effectiveness on 17 th October 2000. ITA 2008 refers to Information Technology Act 2000 as amended by the Information Technology Amendment Act 2008 which was notified for effectiveness from 27th October 2009. We sometimes may use

the term ITA 2000/8 to represent both versions. Normally books on Law or Crimes are full of Case examples since ―Case Laws‖ are considered an important aspect of Jurisprudence. This book however does not contain such discussions. This omission is deliberate since it is felt that the Case laws in India are still in the development stage. Instead of depending on such case laws it is better for professionals to start interpreting laws independently. Hence an attempt has been made to present a debate on ITA 2008 from several angles. Hope this book would fill the gap of a reference book on Cyber Crimes in India and would be found useful.

Feedback from readers is welcome. Naavi

Cyber Crime is a contravention of law where an electronic document is either a tool or target of offence. —Naavi