The Torts in the Cyber World
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This article is written by Aditya Dubey, a student at the Indore Institute of Law, Indore. In this article, the author discusses the concept of online torts, with a major focus on the development of torts in the cyber world.
Introduction
With the invention of computers and the rise of the Internet, a new class of torts has come into existence, namely cyber torts, such torts are committed in various ways as explained later in this article, but the medium through which they are committed is always the virtual machine, i.e., the computer. , a mobile phone or any device that can be used to access the Internet and change information there.
What is a tort?
A tort is a civil wrong for which a remedy is provided in terms of compensation, the compensation that is paid to the plaintiff who suffers the loss and brings a suit in a court of law against the defendant the person who committed the tort against the plaintiff and must prove his innocence in court in terms of the unnecessary loss that All damages are not fixed in amount, it is determined according to the tort committed against the person.
The word tort comes from the French language, in English, it is equivalent to the word wrong, and it comes from the Latin word torture, meaning wrong or injury, and from the word torque, meaning to twist. It is simply a breach of duty that amounts to a civil wrong.
A person who commits a tort is called a tortfeasor and if more than one person is involved, he is called a joint tortfeasor as they are jointly liable for the tortious act and can be sued individually or jointly.
The essential ingredients of the torte
There are three essential elements that constitute a tort, these are:
(1) A wrongful act
A wrongful act is any act that violates the law.
(2) a duty imposed by law, and
A duty that is legally enforceable in court if breached.
(3) The act must give rise to legal or actual damage.
The wrongful act must give rise to a remedy in a suit for liquidated damages (fixed value) or unliquidated damages (value not fixed).
What is cyber wrong?
Computer wrongs include both civil wrongs as well as criminal wrongs, cyber wrongs are wrongful acts committed over the Internet, the only difference between a wrong and a cyber wrong is that a cyber wrong involves the use of technology in its commission. The medium through which a cyber blunder is committed is technology, in the cyber world there are two types of cyber blunders, namely,
- Civil cyber wrongs, such as a cyber tort, or
- Criminal cyber mistakes.
Civil Cyber Mistakes
A civil cyber wrong is one that is committed online and is civil in nature, such as defamation committed online through a computer or any device that has access to the Internet and is capable of changing information or posting something online, such as a mobile phone, or a tablet. Used as a tool to make such mistakes. Although not defined or addressed as civil cyber wrong, summary civil liability is defined under Section 43 of the IT Act, 2000.
Criminal cyber mistakes
A criminal cyber misdemeanor is a serious threat and must be dealt with as soon as possible, a criminal cyber misdemeanor is a criminal misdemeanor committed online through the use of technology, crimes such as hacking, data theft, denial of service attacks, etc. Although no action is addressed as criminal cyber wrongdoing, various wrongdoings of a criminal nature are defined under the IT Act, 2000, as defined under Section 67-A of the Child Pornography Act.
The difference between a conventional and a cyber tort
There is essentially no difference between a conventional tort and a cyber tort except that a cyber tort is committed through a virtual medium such as a computer, a mobile phone, a tablet, etc.
Example: A, a reporter, published an article in a famous newspaper about B, without B’s consent making disparaging statements about B’s sexual preferences. Thus B is ostracized by his friends, and family, who have read about B in the newspaper. Here B can sue A for defamation. Suppose online defamation is committed by A through an article published on a newspaper website with the same information, it will be addressed as cyber defamation.
Difference between cybercrime and cyber tort
A cyber tort is a key factor in violating an individual’s right to privacy in the cyber world as well as in the real world, on the other hand, cybercrime is a very heinous crime that not only affects the individual but also the society. Also although both of these may include similar crimes such as cyberstalking or cyberharassment, they differ in terms of the severity of the crime.
How technology has changed the whole world
Over the years, technology has changed our world in a revolutionary way, creating amazing tools and resources that put extremely useful information at every person’s fingertips.
The digital revolution has been both a blessing, as e-filing has become a consistent thing in courtrooms and now posting information about cases online on websites, and a curse on what was previously possible in the real world. These are also possible in the virtual world, eg, digital defamation, cyberstalking, etc.
Through e-governance, it has become very easy for the Government of India to provide government services, exchange information, etc. thereby minimizing the use of paper and promoting the technological sector. It becomes easy to access everything online instead of papers and files.
The cyber world has different rules than the real world as a large or small nation can field the capabilities of cyber technology for legitimate or even illegal reasons, and even terrorist organizations like ISIS can use social media to create a powerful cyber organization. They have propaganda and cyber units that can hack sensitive information from larger and more developed countries like the United States.
India is new to the digital world and needs some more time to position itself effectively in the cyber world Cyber technology also creates huge security issues, like battlefield tactics, sensitive information about nations, and agreements that nations are going to make with other countries that can be hacked and leaked online.
The increasing number of complexities in online security has resulted in a continued need for career personnel in law enforcement, security protection, and counter-terrorism. All of these require individuals to have a solid educational background as well as job requirements. Even online legal education platforms have launched various courses including courses.
What is the cyber world?
With the rise of technology and the evolution of the digital age, a new virtual world has emerged online called the cyber world. It is still new and evolving every day and in some ways is very similar to the real world, except that the person is virtually present in the cyber world instead of the real world. The rise of technology and the cyber world has resulted in ease of communication, ease of payment, ease of gathering information, etc. But this has also led to some individuals abusing this facility, leading to cyber blunders. Commitment is made when taking advantage of such opportunities available online.
The concept of torture in the cyber world
A tort, as previously mentioned, is a negligent or intentional act by someone that injures another person physically or by violating their legal rights. Cyber torts are crimes committed in cyberspace. They are very important because they are increasing and can have a serious impact on society Everyone in society should be aware of the dangers and damages caused by cyber torts as technology has become an essential part of everyone’s life.
Some examples of cyber torts are harassment via e-mail, cyber stalking or cyber harassment, or cyber defamation.
Different types of cyber torts
Cyber torts are committed in a variety of ways, including:
Cyberstalking or cyber harassment.
Harassment via e-mail
Cyberstalking or cyber harassment.
Harassment via e-mail
Cyber defamation.
Cyber vandalism.
Unauthorized access to someone’s virtual machine.
trafficking
Fraud and deception.
Cyberstalking
Cyberstalking involves following a person’s online presence on various social media or other websites, by posting messages that may be threatening as well as posting on bulletin boards.
Harassment via e-mail
Harassment by email is a very old concept and has been around since the early days of electronic mail, it is very similar to the concept of harassment by letter in real life.
Cyberbullying
There are different forms of pornography on the Internet. It may also include prohibited material such as child pornography, which is also a heinous crime in real life.
Cyber defamation
Defamation is the act of making a statement about a person that is likely to lower his reputation in the eyes of right-thinking people. It can be written as well as verbal. Cyber defamation is similar to defamation in real life except that a virtual machine is involved. Cyber defamation is the type of defamation that is done through virtual means.
Cyber vandalism
Common vandalism is the willful destruction or damage to someone’s property. Thus cyber-vandalism means intentionally causing physical damage of some kind to someone’s computer or virtual machine. These acts can also be in the form of theft of a computer or any computer peripheral.
Unauthorized access to someone’s virtual machine
The activity of gaining access to someone else’s virtual machine without their consent is also a cyber tort because it is a violation of their personal space.
trafficking
Trafficking takes many forms, it can be drugs, ammunition, or even people, etc. With the rise of the Internet, trafficking has taken on a form as cyber-trafficking has also evolved, where the process of trafficking is done online. of a virtual machine.
Fraud and deception
Online fraud and deception have become one of the biggest threats for the government to deal with. These include credit card crime, fake job offers, abuse, etc.
Example: Some organizations of hackers create fake links specifically and send them as emails to collect credit card information.
A cyber false promise mode
There are many forms of cyberbullying, many of which are discussed below,
Email Bombing: This type of mode refers to sending a large number of emails to a person to overload the server.
Social Media: Publicly posting false information about a specific person through social media.
Data Theft: Specific spam emails are sent to every email account, click on one and fill in the information resulting in the loss of personal information.
Example: When a person receives random emails containing a link to an exact replica of a website that requires filling in personal information to log in, filling in the information gives the user who created the replica access to all the information and accounts that the victim was trying to access.
Who can make cyber mistakes?
- People aged 6-16 years (adolescents).
People in this age group are not mentally developed enough to know the consequences of the actions they may take, usually cyber wrongs committed by these people are committed without realizing that such a wrong is being done. - Those who are not aware of cyber mistakes.
India still has a large group of people who are unaware of the wrongdoing they can commit online without understanding the consequences of their actions or the punishment for the crimes they may commit, usually by people from underdeveloped countries. Mistakes because there are no proper rules and regulations against these as the technology may still be a relatively new term in these countries. - Organized hackers
Some organizations are formed by hackers whose sole aim is to cater to political bias, or fundamentalism etc.
Example: Organized hackers are informally hired by political parties to work online and post stuff against their competitors that an individual wouldn’t normally do or even hack their official website and change its entirety. For example, in March 2019, the official website of the BJP was hacked.
- Professional hackers
Independent hackers are usually responsible for all kinds of cyber mistakes made online.
Example: Individual hackers who are not affiliated with any organization are hired by individuals to carry out a specific task online against an individual.
- Terrorist groups
Terrorist organizations play an important role in the world of cyber crime, as they are responsible for motivating and recruiting youth into their organizations to fulfill their agendas, such thing is fulfilled by using social media as a means of connecting with potential individuals. Thus they are driven to do certain acts through the Internet which may be against an individual or against the state.
Information Technology Act, 2000
The Information Technology Act was passed in 2000 to deal with wrongdoing in the cyber world.
The main objective of this act was to provide legal recognition to facilitate electronic records to the government. India has many laws that are very well codified and relevant to this day and age, however, with the rise of the Internet, new legal issues have come up related to it.
Conventional laws in the past were made keeping in mind the society of the time, in keeping with the political, economic, as well as culture of the time. Earlier there was no internet so there was no need for cyber law, however, this is not the case anymore as we have entered the cyber age to deal with legal issues related to the internet and the cyber world.
The laws that India had in the context of crimes committed online could not be explained hence the need to create and enact cyber laws was felt as none of the already existing laws gave any legal legitimacy to activities in the cyber world.
According to its Section 1(2), the Act extends to the whole of India and applies to any offense or contravention committed by anyone outside Indian territory, as further mentioned in Section 75 of the Act. But without a signed extradition treaty, the prosecution of such wrongdoing is very complicated.
The Act is designed to deal with all cyber wrongs that may occur in cyberspace.
The Act was amended in 2008, and the establishment of the Cyber Appellate Tribunal was defined under Section 48 of the Act, the Tribunal was established to deal with all issues related to the cyber world in India and has the same powers as a civil court.
The 2008 amendment made many changes and added many changes to the law, such as redefining the term communication device as well as holding corporations liable for breaches that may occur due to security issues due to poor implementation of data protection practices.
Conclusion
It is not possible for any government in any country to prevent cyber torts or any other online wrongs from being committed by the public on a regular basis. But it is possible for governments to adapt and develop their technology and monitor everyone’s online activities in cyberspace.
Historically speaking, there is no law in the world that has been able to remedy the injustice against which it was made. The same goes for cyber law in India as the cyber world is evolving, new ways are being developed every day to find loopholes and commit wrongdoing on the internet.
Since many people may be unaware of the wrongs that can happen online and the penalties associated with them, the government should devise a strategy to publicize the offenses and the penalties associated with them so that even a regular person can be informed about the consequences. of such actions.
Read more: https://www.velkinews.com/what-is-the-punishment-for-cybercrime/
