cyber crime - cyber stalking....................

o extensive studies have been carried out on cyber stalking, but the best one I found on the net was this one by Wired Safety. It says that “cyberstalking is on the rise and women, senior citizens and children are the most likely targets.” Well, considering that more than a million women and almost 400,000 men are stalked annually (quoting United States figures, ncvc stats), it follows that cyber-stalking is following suit. As more and more people become computer savvy, the population of cyber stalkers is imitating real life. Unfortunately, no such survey has been carried out in India but from the growing number of cyber stalking cases reported in the media it is clear that cyber stalking, hitherto unknown here is reaching alarming proportions.

An example from India:

Manish Kathuria was recently arrested by the New Delhi Police in India’s first case of cyberstalking. He was stalking Ritu Kohli by illegally chatting on the Web site MIRC using her name. He used obscene and obnoxious language, and distributed her residence telephone number, inviting people to chat with her on the phone. As a result of which, Ritu kept getting obscene calls from everywhere, and people promptly talked dirty with her. In a state of shock, she called the Delhi police and reported the matter. For once, the police department did not waste time swinging into action, and a case has been registered under Section 509 of the Indian Penal Code for outraging the modesty of Ritu Kohli…

A Financial Express report says:

“Cyber crimes in India are slowly evolving from a simple e-mail crime (sending obscene materials over e-mail) to more serious crimes like hacking and source code theft. …there are also cases involving sending obscene e-mails to women colleagues from their male counterparts…usually such messages are sent out from cyber cafes. However, with the help of internet service providers, the police can trace where these mails have been sent from.”

The methods used by cyber stalkers all over the world are the following:

E-mail/ instant messaging
Identity theft
Building hate websites
Posting false profiles
Hacking
Posting fake sex ads/images of victim online
Provoking attacks against the victim by others
Posing as the victim and attacking others
Contacting victim’s family or employer
Posting in a newsgroup or on a bulletin board, online
Following the victim from site to site

Cyber stalkers have been classified into different categories
1) Obesessed lovers.
2) Delusional people who often believe that a stranger is or can fall in love with them…as in the case of fans stalking celebrities.
3) Vengeful cyber stalkers are those who have a grudge against his victim due to some minor or imagined reason.
4) Racist stalkers who target particular communities
5) Egoistic aggressors who want to show-off to their friends.

As this site says:“63,000 internet stalkers travelling the information superhighway, stalking approximately 4,74,000 victims at any given time”

So its best to take some advice from experts:
1) No to sharing personal information online
2) No to filling out profiles on websites
3) No to using gender specific or provocative screen names or e-mail addresses
4) No to flirting or arguing online
5) No to sharing your passwords
6) Yes to setting up a special e-mail address for cyber contact
7) Yes to a good anti-virus program
8. No to replying to cyberstalkers
9) Yes to saving all communications on your computer
10) And yes to reporting cyberstalking to the police! Its a grave matter, so take it as such

India’s new laws aim to protect citizens:

“While it is difficult to monitor people surfing on home PCs, daily entries at cyber cafes should be strictly monitored opines Rohas Nagpal, president, Asian School of Cyber Laws. “The laws for mandatory registration for every first visit by a customer to a cyber cafe is a must across all over India now. Ideally, every person should provide contact details and a photo identity when visiting a cafe for the first time,” adds Nagpal. “
Will the laws deter cyberstalkers?
Many doubt the efficacy of such a rule as cyber cafe owners are often casual in their approach or may be hand in glove with the stalker. However, while this new rule will not deter the hardened stalkers, it will certainly deter any eogistic Tom, Dick or Raju from having fun at the expense of someone else. He will be forced to provide identification like a driving licence before he is allowed to use a computer.
In fact this site reports that soon there will be web cameras installed so that every person’s photograph will be taken before he starts to browse! Besides, special ID cards may be issued.
Why all these laws? Well, the government has been provoked to think up these measures as several high level government functionaries have recieved threatening emails from cybercafes.