Porn tops list of cyber crimes in India: NCRB

NEW DELHI, INDIA: India, which has made giant strides in information technology and Internet usage is also surging ahead in cyber crime, according to the recent reports of the national Crime Record Bureau (NCRB).

As per the data available in 'Crime in 2007' report published by the NCRB, the number of cyber crimes registered under the IT Act in 2007 was 217, as against 142 in 2006, an increase of 52.8 per cent. As expected cases of cyber pornography leads the list with 99 cases, which is nearly 46 per cent of the total cases registered.

In 2006 it was 69. Hacking with computer system comes second with 76 cases, which includes loss/damage to computer resource/utility (30) as well as hacking (46). Apart from the cases registered under IT Act, 339 cases were recorded under IPC in 2007 compared to 311 cases in 2006.

A total of 429 persons were arrested in the country for Cyber Crimes under IPC during 2007. According to 'Crime 2007', 63 per cent of the offenders were in the age group 18–30 years (97 out of 154) and 29.9 per cent of the offenders were in the age group 30–45 years (46 out of 154).

Tamil Nadu reported two offenders whose age was below 18 years. If you thought that the cases of cyber crime are limited to metros only, you are wrong. When it comes to crime it is democratically distributed all over India, the data in the report shows.

Analysts say cyber crimes have increased rapidly due to extensive use of the Internet and IT enabled services. Do you think the IT Act has to made more stringent to prevent the threat of cyber crime?