What’s a cyber crime? Who should you report it to? How to stay safe online?

Q1. What is a cybercrime?

Ans: The government defines cyber-crime as “any unlawful act where a computer or communication device or computer network is used to commit or facilitate the commission of crime.”

Q2. What is sexting? 

Ans: Sexting is an act of sending sexually explicit digital images, videos, text messages, or emails, usually by a cell phone.

Q3. What is cyber bullying? 

Ans: A form of harassment or bullying inflicted through use of electronic or communication devices such as a computer, mobile phone, laptop, etc.

Q4. What is child pornography or child sexually abusive material? 

Ans: Child sexually abusive material refers to material containing sexual images in any form; of a child who is abused or sexually exploited. 

Section 67 (B) of IT Act states that “it is punishable for publishing or transmitting of material depicting children in sexually explicit act, etc. in electronic form.”

Q5. What is cyber stalking? 

Ans: Cyber stalking is the use of electronic communication by a person 

i) to follow a person, or attempts to chat, contact a person to foster personal interaction repeatedly despite a clear indication of disinterest by such person; or 

ii) monitor the internet, e-mail, or any other form of electronic communication. 

Q6. What is cyber grooming? 

Ans: Cyber grooming refers to the act of a person who builds an online relationship with a young person and tricks or pressures him/her into doing a sexual act.

Q7. What is an online job fraud?

Ans. An online job fraud is an attempt to defraud people in need of employment by giving them a false hope/promise of better employment with higher wages.

Q8. What is online sextortion? 

Ans: Online sextortion occurs when someone threatens to distribute private and sensitive material using an electronic medium if he/she does not provide images of a sexual nature, sexual favours, or money.

Q9. What is vishing? 

Ans: A vishing is an attempt where fraudsters try to seek personal information such as customer ID, net banking password, ATM PIN, OTP, card expiry date, CVV etc. through a phone call.

Q10. What is smishing?

Ans. Smishing is a type of fraud that involves the use of mobile phone text messages to lure victims into calling back on a fraudulent phone number, visiting fraudulent websites or downloading malicious content via phone or web.

Q11. What is a sim swap scam?

Ans. A sim swap scam occurs when fraudsters manage to get a new SIM card issued against a registered mobile number fraudulently through the mobile service provider. 

With the help of the new card, they get a One Time Password (OTP) and alerts, required for making financial transactions through the victim’s bank account. Getting a new SIM card against a registered mobile number fraudulently is known as a SIM swap.

Q12. What is credit/debit card fraud?

Ans. A credit card (or debit card) fraud involves unauthorized use of another’s credit or debit card information for purchasing or withdrawing funds from it.

Q13. What is impersonation and identity theft?

Ans: Impersonation and identity theft refers to the act of fraudulently or dishonestly making use of the electronic passwords, signatures, or any other unique identification feature of any other person.

Q14. What is phishing?

Ans: Phishing is a type of fraud that involves stealing personal information such as customer ID, IPIN, credit/debit card number, card expiry date, CVV number, etc. through emails that appear to be from a legitimate source.

Q15. What is spamming?

Ans. Spamming occurs when someone receives unsolicited commercial messages sent via email, SMS, MMS and any other similar electronic messaging media. 

They may try to persuade the recipient to buy a product or service, or visit a website where he can make purchases; or may attempt to trick him/ her into divulging bank account or credit card details.

Q16. What is ransomware?

A ransomware is a type of computer malware that encrypts the files, storage media on communication devices like desktops, laptops, mobile phones etc., holding data/information as a hostage. The victim is asked to pay the demanded ransom to get his device decrypted.

Q17. What are viruses, trojans and worms?

Ans. A computer virus is a program written to enter your computer and damage/alter your files/data and replicate themselves.

Worms are malicious programs that make copies of themselves again and again on the local drive, network shares, etc.

A trojan horse is not a virus. It is a destructive program that looks like a genuine application. Unlike viruses, Trojan horses do not replicate themselves but they can be just as destructive. 

Trojans open a backdoor entry to your computer which gives malicious users/programs access to your system, allowing confidential and personal information to be stolen.

Q18. What is a data breach? 

Ans: A data breach is an incident in which information is accessed without authorization.

Q19. What is a denial of services attack?

Ans: A Denial of Services (DoS) attack is an attack intended for denying access to computer resources without permission of the owner or any other person who is in-charge of a computer, computer system or computer network.

A distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack is an attempt to make an online service unavailable by overwhelming it with traffic from multiple sources.

Q20. What is website defacement?

Ans: Website defacement is an attack intended to change the visual appearance of a website and/or make it dysfunctional. The attacker may post indecent, hostile, and obscene images, messages, and videos etc.

Q21. What is cybersquatting?

Ans. Cyber squatting is an act of registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with an intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else.

Q22. What is pharming?

Ans. Pharming is a cyber-attack aiming to redirect a website’s traffic to another, bogus website.

Q23. What is crypto-jacking?

Ans. Crypto-jacking is the unauthorized use of computing resources to mine cryptocurrencies.

Q24. What is online drug trafficking?

Ans. Online drug trafficking is a crime of selling, transporting, or illegally importing unlawful controlled substances, such as heroin, cocaine, marijuana, or other illegal drugs using electronic means.

Q25. What is espionage?

Ans: Espionage is the act or practice of obtaining data and information without the permission and knowledge of the owner.

Q26. Where can you report a cyber crime?

Ans: You can log on to a government of india website — cybercrime.gov.in — and report any cyber crime.

– Nitiriti Bureau