VICTIMS OF CYBER BULLYING AS A SOURCE OF CYBER

CRIME
DR.PRIYA VINJAMURI

ABSTRACT

Information Technology plays a vital and crucial role in all sectors of the society of twenty first century.
Security, a complex subject, depending to a large extent on the type and location of the IT equipment, as a
consequence has become an essential component of Information Technology.

The potential security threats and risks have to be carefully assessed in every situation making it absolutely
important and necessary that all concerned are made aware of the threats and risks that may affect them, and
over which they have control.

OECD, in 1983 defined the term Computer Crime as ‘Any illégal, un-ethical or unauthorized behavior
involving Crime such as automatic data-processing and/or transmission of data’.

National Criminal Intelligence Service (Project Trawler,1996) said ‘ An offence in which a computer
network is directly and significantly instrumental in the commission of the crime. Computer inter-connectivity
is the essential characteristic’

UN Manual on the Prevention and Control of Computer Related Crime (UN 1994, par. 22) states
‘Computer crime can involve activities that are traditional in nature, such as theft, fraud, forgery and mischief,
all of which are generally subject everywhere to criminal sanctions. The computer has also created a host of
potentially new misuses or abuses that may, or should be criminal as well.

The feature of computer crime may be ascertained when the following occur :

 Anonymity (Geo- identification System)

 Convenient - Speed with technical complexity
 Reliability ( Can be questioned)
 Transnational- Jurisdiction
 Exploits the weakness in the laws and enforcement practices

The cyber crimes can be divided into the broad areas of

• Viruses and Computer Contamination

• Crime Related to Unauthorized Access
• Content Related Crimes
• Cyber Crimes in Financial Activities
• Intellectual Property Violations
• Privacy and Confidentiality

The cyber crimes in terms of functionality and use of the computer may be divided into the broad areas of

• Computer as a tool
• Computer as a target
• Computer as an instrument of crime

This paper is an attempt to explain the various threats and risks posed by criminal activity in IT environments at
larger focusing on the broad area of cyber crime related to unauthorised access narrowing on cyber stalking and
cyber bullying. The information in this paper is predominantly from primary and secondary sources and offers
the legal provisions against cyber crime and advice about security procedures and computer crime prevention
methods with respect to cyber stalking and bullying. It is not intended to be a comprehensive study and is only a
study on the area with relevant illustrations.