Page |1

Information Technology Act, 2000

The Information Technology Act, 2000 (also known as ITA-2000, or the IT Act) is an Act of
the Indian Parliament (No 21 of 2000) notified on 17 October 2000. It is the primary law
in India dealing with cybercrime and electronic commerce.

It is based on the United Nations Model Law on Electronic Commerce 1996 (UNCITRAL
Model) recommended by the General Assembly of United Nations by a resolution dated 30
January 1997.
It is based on the United Nations Model Law on Electronic Commerce 1996 (UNCITRAL
Model) recommended by the General Assembly of United Nations by a resolution dated
30 January 1997.
Due to immense increase in the use of internet and dependency of individuals in every field,
a number of new crimes related to Computer and other gadgets based on internet have
evolved in the society. Such crimes where use of computers coupled with the use of internet
is involved are broadly termed as Cyber Crimes.

The salient features of the I.T Act are as follows −

 Digital signature has been replaced with electronic signature to make it a more
technology neutral act.
 It elaborates on offenses, penalties, and breaches.
 It outlines the Justice Dispensation Systems for cyber-crimes.
 It defines in a new section that cyber café is any facility from where the access to
the internet is offered by any person in the ordinary course of business to the
members of the public.
 It provides for the constitution of the Cyber Regulations Advisory Committee.
 It is based on The Indian Penal Code, 1860, The Indian Evidence Act, 1872, The
Bankers' Books Evidence Act, 1891, The Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, etc.
 It adds a provision to Section 81, which states that the provisions of the Act shall
have overriding effect. The provision states that nothing contained in the Act shall
restrict any person from exercising any right conferred under the Copyright Act,
1957.
 Page |2

THE IT ACT, 2000 –OBJECTIVES

 To provide legal recognition for transactions
 Carried out by means of electronic data interchange, and
 Other means of electronic communication, commonly referred to as
"electronic commerce", involving the use of alternatives to paper-based
methods of communication and storage of information,
 To facilitate electronic filing of documents with the Government agencies
 To amend the Indian Penal Code, the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, the Bankers
Book Evidence Act, 1891 and the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934

Types of Cyber Crimes

There are several Cyber Crime which some of them detailed as follows:
Hacking
Hacking is the unauthorized access to computer system or networks. Hackers are people
with sufficient technical ability to gain access to another person’s computer or to a
network through the use of stolen passwords, or interference technology which provides
access to networks and individual computers.
Cyber Terrorism
In the context of Information Technology security, terrorists can come in many forms such
as politically motivated, anti-government, anti-world trade and pro-environmental
extremists. The term cyber terrorism was coined in 1996 by combining the terms cyber
space and terrorism. Cyber-attacks may be carried out through a host of technologies, but
have an attack pattern that may be modelled.

Identity Theft
Identity theft involves acquiring key pieces of someone’s identifying information in order
to impersonate them and commit various crimes in that person’s name. Besides basic
information like name, address, telephone number, identity thieves look for social
insurance numbers, driver’s license numbers, bank account numbers, birth certificates or
passports etc. These informations enable them to commit numerous forms of fraud.
 Page |3

E-bombing
A programme planted surreptitiously with intent to damage or destroy a system in some
way – for example to erase a hard disk or cause it to be unreadable to the operating system
through Trojan horse, virus, worms.

E-mail spoofing
Spoofing is the process of pretending to be another person or process with the goal of
obtaining unauthorized access. E-spoofing usually done by using a bogus IP address, but
it could be done by using someone else’s authentication credentials.

Cyber Stalking
Stalking generally involves harassing or threatening behavior repeatedly such as following
a person, appearing at a person’s home or business, making harassing through phone calls
or vandalizing a person’s property. Cyber stalking is one of the most common crime which
are commenced on internet and using the internet or other electronic means to stalk
someone. This term is used interchangeably with online harassment and online abuse.

Software Piracy
According to Microsoft Company, software piracy is defined as “the copying of a computer
software programme without the permission of the copyright owner”. Certain reports
indicated that more than $7.5 billion worth of American software illegally copied and
distributed around the world each year. In China, 96% of all business software is pirated,
but in Vietnam, it is peaked to 98%.

Child Pornography
Paedophiles and child pornography is nothing unknown to the world. But, the internet has
made it so easy for the paedophiles to organize and distribute the offensive materials
throughout the world. Also, the paedophiles makes them vulnerable of exploitation.

Digital Forgery
Digital technology facilitates to forge a document through printers and scanners by
developing counterfeit currencies, postal cards, revenue stamp, mark sheet, birth
certificate etc.
 Page |4

Cyber Squatting
It has similarities with old strategy or registering trademarks only to prevent others from
using it. Here, the site names in the internet are blocked and then traded by unscrupulous
persons for monetary benefits. Well-known celebrities, governmental establishments etc.,
are the victims of these activities.
The Information Technology Act, 2000 has been designed to give the boost to Electronic
commerce, e-transactions and similar activities associated with commerce and trade, also
to facilitate electronic governance by means of reliable electronic records. Briefly stated,
it may be said that IT act mainly contains provisions relating to e-commerce, e-governance,
electronic record, electronic signature and digital signature.

PROVISIONS OF IT ACT:-
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE: Electronic commerce refers to the business transacted
electronically. The term refers to the trading of goods over the internet. It is online sale
and purchase of goods and services for value by using internet technologies.

Legal recognition of electronic records

Where any law provides that information or any other matter shall be in writing or in the
typewritten or printed form, then, notwithstanding anything contained in such law, such
requirement shall be deemed to have been satisfied if such information or matter is-
(a) rendered or made available in an electronic form; and
(b) accessible so as to be usable for a subsequent reference.
INTERNET: Electronic word has become the most popular form of communication today.
Electronic word is communicated through the internet. The internet system represents the
network of networks under which the interconnected computers the world over,
communicate with each other.
AMENDMENTS TO IT ACT, 2000: The Information Technology Act, 2000 has been amended
in 2002 to 2008 to make it more effective and purposeful. A few minor amendments to
the act were made by Information Technology Act, 2000. The Information Technology Act,
2008 brought about comprehensive amendments to the It Act, 2008. The major objective
of this amendment act is to ensure increased protection of the interests of computer and
internet users against related offenses and cyber terrorism.
 Page |5

DIGITAL SIGNATURE AND ELECTRONIC SIGNATURE: The Law of Information Technology

recognizes the digital signature so that the Internet contract is authenticated and becomes
binding on the parties. These are the electronic equivalent of the handwritten signatures.
The expression “digital signature” has been defined in Section2 (1) {p} of the Act to mean
authentication of any electronic record by the subscriber.
DIGITAL SIGNATURE: Any subscriber may authenticate an electronic record by affixing his
digital signature. The authentication of the electronic record shall be effected by the use
of an asymmetric cryptosystem which envelopes and transform the initial electronic
record into another electronic record.
The digital signature is safer than a handwritten one as it can’t be forged. If a contract is
signed by the parties on the last page, there is no way to find whether other pages have
been tampered with. But digital signatures on the same contract will ensure that original
contract is intact and not even a single letter is changed.
ELECTRONIC SIGNATURE: The expression “electronic signature” has been defined in
Section2 (1) (A) of the Act to mean authentication of any electronic record by a subscriber,
i.e. a person in whose name ‘Electronic Signature Certificate’ is issued, by means of the
electronic technique specified in the Second Schedule of the Act and includes digital
signature.
An electronic record shall be attributed to the originator if it was sent:
1 By the originator himself;
2 By a person who had the authority to act on behalf of the originator in respect of that
electronic record; or
3 By an information system programmed by or on behalf of the originator to operate
automatically.
PENALTY FOR MISREPRESENTATION: Whoever makes any misrepresentation to, or
suppresses any material fact from, the controller or the certifying signature certificate, as
the case may be, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two
years or with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees or with both.