CYBER CRIME and Conventional CRIME

The concept of ‘cyber-crime is a misnomer. Both the terms, conventional crime, and cyber-
crime, are not largely distinct from one another. The ingredients to both of these have an act or
omission, resulting in the breach of rules and a counterbalancing action from the state. Before
digging deep into the concept of cyber-crime, one needs to understand that it does not stand far
away from the concept of a conventional crime.

Ever imagined your own data working against you? Ever heard of someone looting your money
sitting on their comfy bean sofa? In modern-day society, one needs to beware of not only the
conventional pickpockets and burglars but from the data stored in their own phones.

I. Introduction

In the simplest terms, cyber-crime is nothing but a crime committed taking the aid of technology
and the internet. For the sake of convenience, we tend to differentiate the two, but it is important
to note that it is performed by similar criminals for the same type of reasons. In the case of cyber-
crimes, the culprit is relatively harder to locate, distinguish, and get caught. Various individuals
use the web, date, and online networking to take cover behind a virtual character which,
fundamentally, can be anything and anyone they need.

With the new limits we have nowadays, anyone can sort out instructions to use the web further
bolstering their favourable luck and subsequently use it to hurt others. Hacking, which
fundamentally was freakish (or outstandingly unreasonable) until of late, has ended up being
incredibly straightforward on the off chance that someone can get the right information. With
conventional crime, the culprit doesn’t have an indistinct limit from inside digital crime.[1]

While still troublesome, cyber-crime is an altogether less demanding way to deal with getting
what someone needs. Some X individuals by means of web-based networking media could be
your close by a neighbor and you’d never know it. With extending data of PCs and how to use
and control them, digital crimes are more likely than at some other time. Developers from various
countries are upsetting nuclear force plants, individuals are having their characters and entire
lives taken from them. Digital crime, while totally not the same as conventional crime, is at this
point a shocking offense.

II. Distinguishing Conventional Crime And Cyber Crime-A Comparative Analysis

The biggest and the most obvious contrast between the two heads is proof of the offense.
Conventional offenders, more often than not, end up leaving traceable hints of a crime, either in
the form of fingerprints or physical confirmations.[2] On the contrary, the reliance on the virtual
network for the committing of a crime leaves no proof of the cyber-criminals. Hence, this leads to
another difference between conventional and cyber crimes i.e., the extent of examinations.

Since the majority of cybercriminals use aliases at remote working locations, it becomes
treacherous to locate them. Due to this, cybercrimes tend to cause greater damage to society
than conventional crimes. Cyber-crimes also include within their ambit, the conventional crimes
are done with the aid of the internet. For instance, defamation, terrorism, voyeurism, bullying,
and stalking.

Moreover, the perpetrators of the petty conventional crimes usually include illiterate, unorganized
people mainly from the downtrodden sections of the society. However, the perpetrators doing
cyber-crimes are usually educated professionals, organized criminal gangs, ideological hackers
(hacktivists), etc. which forms a disparity in the class of perpetrators.

The other difference between these two terms depends on the evidence of the offenses. In the
customary crimes, the hoodlums ordinarily leave any evidence of that crime like fingerprints or
other actual confirmation.[3] Yet, in cybercrimes, cyber hoodlums carry out their crimes through
the web and there are exceptionally fewer odds of leaving any actual confirmation. Further, these
two terms can be separated based on the utilization of force.

In conventional crimes, a large number of crimes like assault, murder, and theft, and so on
include the utilization of extreme actual force which prompts actual injury on the person in
question. However, in cyber-crimes, there is no necessity of an actual force in light of the fact that
in this kind of crime the hoodlums just utilize the characters or records of other individuals
utilizing digital advances.

Whoever abets any offense will, if the offense abetted is done in consequence of the abetment,
and no express arrangement is made by this Act for the discipline of such abetment, be punished
with the punishment for the offense under this Act under Section 84B of Indian Penal Code.[4]

Under the current Information Technology Act, there is no particular arrangement concerning the
classification of cognizable, non-cognizable or bailable, nonbailable, or in any case consequently
the classification of cyber-crime cases must be decided as per Section 2(a) and 2(c) read with
the First Schedule of the Cr.P.C in which the conventional crimes are mentioned.

The intricacies in getting cybercriminals have inferred that already various individuals have gotten
away with their crimes without facing the same punishment as that of the conventional criminals.
While laws have been eased back to acclimate to these more up-to-date sorts of criminal
movements, the advance has been made. Two or three years prior, malicious software hackers
could take a great amount of money, causing more harm and in-turn escaping the jail-time.
Nowadays prosecutions have tremendously ascended alongside arrests made for the same. It is
difficult to compare the two in terms of their punishment as there is no distinct way to really
differentiate the two.
Crimes can be distinguished into traditional crimes(conventional crime) and cyber
crimes. It is crucial to understand the difference between the two. Both crimes deal with
offences committed by the offender, however, their modus operandi differs. Traditional
crimes are all about the crimes that take place physically; crimes that take place outside the
computer, while cybercrimes are those crimes that take shelter of any computing device and
network to execute.
Traditional crimes or conventional crimes involve crimes such as murder, robbery,
kidnapping and much more. Cyber crimes involve crimes such as phishing, hacking, spoofing
etc.
Example to understand the difference between the both.
Cyberstalking and stalking
Both crimes are similar, however, the medium in which these offences are committed
is comparatively different to each other. Let alone the punishment for the act differs legally.
Traditional crime/conventional crime (stalking)-
In the above picture, it is clearly deciphered that the man is following the woman.
The term stalking defines as ‘an act of repeatedly pursuing a person; obsessive behaviour
towards someone which leads to a threat of life.’ The stalker follows the person 24 x7 to
familiarise his or her daily routine. This type of action usually gives birth to more significant
crimes.
(Person A, harasses person B by continuously stalking from time to time)
Law passed to protect and give justice to the victim- IPC Section 354D (3-5 years of jail)

Cybercrime(Cyberstalking)

The term cyberstalking is defined as ‘any individual who monitors the activity of a person via
social media, emails or through any other electronic communication is considered to be a
cyber offence’. The accused takes the aid of e- communication devices to stalk their prey in
order to threaten the concerned person to be submissive to their demands in future.
Here, the attacker makes use of any computing device ( such computer, mobile, laptop etc )
as a source of weapon to harass by sending emails, making calls, texting and so on.

Law passed to protect and provide justice to the victim- section 66A of IT act.

The Law Enforced to Protect Against Traditional and Cybercrime

Based on the understanding of the crimes and their nature, we have separate laws
focussing on traditional and cybercrime. Conventional law deals with crimes done by the
individual himself, designed to punish with the law concerning it.
However, the conventional law was not adequate enough for cybercrime. So the cyber
law (IT act 2000) was passed by the Indian parliament to control the arena of the cyber
world and introduce digital safety measures; the cyber laws are concentrated upon the
internet and cyberspace.
Nowadays, an organization dependency on cyberspace is becoming an increasingly aspect of
organizational security. The infrastructure of different organizations are interconnected in cyberspace,
therefore the level of risk to security has increased dramatically. The threat to cyber security is growing at
vast rate. There are several types of cyber crime and its classifications are as below:
1. Cyber Crime against Individual
 E-mail Spoofing
 Phishing
 Spamming
 Cyber Stalking & Harassment
 Computer Sabotage
 Malware
2. Cyber Crime against Property
 Intellectual Property Crimes
 Cyber Squatting
 Cyber Vandalism
3. Cyber Crime against Organization
 Hacking
 Password Sniffing
 Denial of Service Attacks
 Virus Attacks
One of the differences between cybercrime and traditional crime is the evidence of the offenses.
Traditional criminals usually leave traces of a сrime, through either fingerprints or other physical
evidences. On the other hand, cybercriminals rely on the Internet via which they commit their crimes, and
it leaves very little evidence about the cyber crime.

The second difference between conventional and cybercrime is length of investigations. Since cybercrime
involves perpetrators using falsified names and working from remote locations, it usually takes longer to
identify the real cyber criminals and apprehend them. In most cases, cyber criminals escape from arrest
because the investigators cannot locate them. Conventional crimes take shorter time period to investigate
because the criminals usually leave evidence that can be used to spot them.

Another difference between conventional crimes and cybercrimes is the force involved. Most of the
conventional crimes (such as rape, murder, arson, and burglary among others) involve the use of excessive
force that results in physical injury and trauma on the victims. On the other hand, cyber crimes do not
require the use of any force since the criminals merely use the identities of their victims to steal from them.