Cyber Extortion

                              Cyber Extortion

As the lives of people are moving forward at a fast pace, developments in technology is also taking place. And it is not only in India or in some other particular country, it is happening worldwide. With these developments taking place, crimes are also increasing with that. Now, the people have made a business to stalk a person and then attack on them virtually. After attacking, they blackmail them and extort money or some other thing in return to stop doing what they were doing. This is known as Cyber Extortion. In this, they first capture the computer, software or any network, generally through the kind of ransomware and distributed denial-of-service and then gain the necessary information regarding it. After that, it is used for blackmailing.

There are many types of Cyber Extortion which take place in the society such as:

1. Ransomware- In this kind of attack, first the attacker tricks the victim into opening a particular website or a corrupted file which has been sent through e-mail or on any other platform which activates the ‘ransomware’. After activation, ransomware spreads and infects the computer or the network through which it is operated. It encrypts the servers and data present, making them inaccessible. And for accessing, the aggrieved one has to give money or whatever is the demand of the attacker.

2. Distributed Denial of Service- In this kind of attack, the attacker deploys a network of infected computer systems to send a flood of internet traffic that can cripple a website, sever or system. They are like traffic-jam which obstructs the network and it only paves the way when the demands are fulfilled of the attacker which generally involves monetary benefits.

3. E-mail based cyber extortion- In this kind of extortion, the aggrieved party is attacked through the e-mails. The people are told to open the e-mail and when the victim does that their personal information is disclosed which later get misused. The customer reveals the information as they feel that it will be held confidential but that case does not happen.

In Indian Penal Code, 1860, Section 383 defines that whoever intentionally puts any person in fear of any injury to themselves or someone else and thereby dishonestly induces such person to create fear to deliver any property or any valuable security or anything signed or sealed which have the capacity to generate good amount of money, then this provision takes place. Further, blackmailing also amounts to criminal intimidation in the Indian Penal Code, 1860 which defines that whoever threatens injury to any other person in any form whether the injury to a property or injury to the body, will be booked under the section 503.

Therefore, laws are at place which takes care of people when they get attacked virtually or any sort of thing. Now, the rules are also very stringent which imprisons people and fines and sometimes both. These were not very common before, but as we say in the modern times, with the increasing development in the technological sector, crimes are also increasing and to curb that strict laws and rules and regulations are put into place.