Types of Cyber Crimes

At the onset, let us satisfactorily define “cyber crime” and differentiate it from “conventional crime”.
Cyber crime can involve criminal activities that are traditional in nature, such as theft, fraud, forgery, defamation and mischief, all of which are subject to the Indian Penal Code. The abuse of computers has also given birth to a gamut of new age crimes that are addressed by the Information Technology Act, 2000.

Defining cyber crimes, as “acts that are punishable by the Information Technology Act” would be unsuitable as the Indian Penal Code also covers many cyber crimes, such as email spoofing and cyber defamation, sending threatening emails etc.

A simple yet sturdy definition of cyber crime would be “unlawful acts wherein the computer is either a tool or a target or both”.

Let us examine the acts wherein the computer is a tool for an unlawful act. This kind of activity usually involves a modification of a conventional crime by using computers. Some examples are.