Monday, December 2, 2002		Feature

Cyber stalkers active, IT Act silent
Lalitha Sridhar

OUR understanding of the virtual world is woefully slim; and of cyber crimes, even less. But, as law enforcers are finding out, their effect on the real world is devastating; preventing and detecting cyber crimes is now being given a priority. Economic offences dog the $1.2 trillion electronic commerce industry worldwide. Even as law enforcers struggle to cope, other — and newer — violations loom large, the victims falling into an anonymous abyss. The Internet can, and often has, become the space for predators seeking women and children.

Studies have shown that about 60 per cent of all Websites are sexual in content. An estimated 1,00,000 pornographic Websites generate revenues in the region of $1 billion annually. The increasing popularity of chatrooms and the vulnerability of personal data to criminal access make women and children the easiest targets for a range of culpable crimes.

The European Union has set up a Commission on Illegal and Harmful Content on the Internet. The USA has a quasi-governmental organisation called the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. But computer sex offenders take advantage of the gullibility of their victims and the inept laws protecting them.

Children are victimised by paedophiles, who are no longer lonely and hunted individuals — they are untraceable instead. Young persons are exposed to pornography, hateful and violent literature, harassment, exploitation and spurious job rackets. Child molesters recruit, seduce and control the future of their victims on the Internet, capitalising on the natural curiosity of children.

Cyber stalking happens when a person is followed and pursued online, privacy invaded, and every move watched. Cyber stalking usually occurs with women, who are stalked by men; or children, who are stalked by paedophiles.

It is believed that over 75 per cent of the victims are female, in the form of harassment that can disrupt the life of the victims and leave them feeling afraid and threatened.

Says V. Lalitha, Assistant Vice-President, Polaris Software Laboratory, Chennai: "In one landmark case in the USA, when a woman rebuffed the advances of a security guard in her office building, he posted her name, address, e-mail ID and phone number in pornographic chatrooms, with sexually explicit invitations promising her ‘availability’. She was besieged by vulgar and offensive propositions, her home was stalked and work life affected by obscene callers. She took the case to court and the man was given a prison term of six years."

With 19.5 per cent of online stalking translating into offline offences, cyber crimes can spill over to the real world with very real consequences.

Lalitha cautions that a common area of cyber stalking is ‘edu’ site. In Mumbai, a 16-year-old-boy was kidnapped by a woman paedophile. Cyber crimes are easy to commit and require very few resources in relation to the damage that can be caused. Family members have to watch out for symptoms in victims, particularly children. Cyber victims could be using inappropriate language or displaying an excessive fear of some places or things.

India is one of the few countries that has adopted the Information Technology Act, 2000. It has been lauded as a good beginning — but it is also seen as a bumpy start. The IT Act defines, among other things, what constitutes tampering with a computer source, hacking of computer document systems and publishing of obscene information.

But in what is widely acknowledged as a glaring lapse, it does not cover cyber stalking or child abuse. Unlike in a real world crime, a cyber crime is generally not preceded by a motive, the time zones can be different and a crime cannot be pinpointed to a particular hour. The crime could originate in one continent and target victims in another part of the world.

Investigators find that data can be easily destroyed while clinching evidence is difficult to collect. Often, only strong circumstantial evidence is available.

Says Sundari Nanda, Deputy Inspector General of the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation’s pioneering Cyber Crime Cell, set up in 2000: "Cyber crime is simply a normal crime facilitated by information technology. Most cutting edge law enforcement functionaries are not tuned into this yet. The minute the e-word comes in, it is the Cyber Crimes CBI Cell that is approached. Our experience has shown clearly that this cannot be a separate category for registration and investigation."

Nanda emphasises the need to orient legal officers and court procedures. "E-mails and computers were extensively used in the terrorist attack on Indian Parliament. We come across cases of rape and murder with an IT component. Besides antiques and wildlife, women and children are victims of trafficking which originated in computers." The CBI reports a spate of complaints originating from dating services and chat rooms.

Problems beset law-enforcement efforts: The IT Act is ambiguous in many places; and multinational companies operating in India refuse to share information and insist they are governed by the US secrecy laws.

Says Nanda: "Meaningful linkages and cooperation between agencies is vital to cyber crime-solving. The Internet users have to be made aware that there is an authority to complain to."

Cyber crimes multiply, meanwhile, undetected and little understood. When the victim does not even understand what his/her rights are, when the law is unclear about what precisely constitutes a crime, and when old infrastructure judges constantly changing technologies, cyber criminals can remain virtually free of both punishment and repentance. - WFS