The cyber crimes encapsulate a wide range of potentially unlawful acts and illegal activities such as spamming, phishing scams, fraud, cyber stalking, harassment, identity theft, child pornography, cyberterrorism and drug trafficking wherein a computer is either a tool, or a target or both.
In order to protect from these types of computer crimes, the introduction to new digital information and communication technologies has given birth to a new legal concept known as Information and Communication Technology Law or more fashionably – Cyber Law.
While the governments across the world are taking the required actions against cyber crimes, the critics of cyber law warn the dangers of government over-activism on the internet. The repercussions for cyber crimes can vary between countries. Here is the overview of some controversial cyber laws around the globe.
Internet Censorship in China
With the struggling economy of china, the growing number of IT professionals have turned to cyber crime over the past couple of years. China has introduced new three articles to its criminal code which can take an online criminal to seven years imprisonment for cyber crimes. Before three years, there was a penalty for cyber criminals. China has one of the world’s complicated and advanced filtering system which is considered as most powerful and highly repressive. Chinese government has imposed over 60 Internet Regulations onto state-owned ISPs, organizations and businesses who have to comply with the strict censorship system.
India’s Information Technology Act
In it’s 2008 version, the Government of India brought some major amendments to the Information Technology Act of 2000 which has been considered both unconstitutional and controversial. In 2006, the Indian Government established a Computer Emergency Response Team that allows for monitoring of all incoming as well as outgoing internet traffic from India. It can also block the websites for the national security. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, in 2007, there were 429 people arrested in India for cyber crimes, in which 99 cases involved pornography.
The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 (USA)
United States is the country that creates more viruses, spam and malware than any other country int the world. It ranks 6th out of 52 nations based on how it monitors its population aggressively. The maximum penalty for hacking crime in United States is 20 years prison. The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 gives the federal government unprecedented power over the internet and gives the president the ability to limit or shut down the internet traffic in case of cyber security emergency.
These are some of the controversial cyber security measures underway. Today, technology and law are at critical stages and cyber security is taking higher precedence over the rights of netizens. But it is hoped that in recent years the cyber laws will definitely reduce the cyber crime from the globe.
