Even as this dot.com era has dramatically improved work efficiency and social networking across the globe, the criminals have exploited a nuisance value of the facilities. Just as the connected world has made it easier to swap pictures and documents, at the same time it has made it easier for malcontents from unidentified destinations to break our computers. Precisely, it has led to birth of cyber crime having virtually no boundaries. Thus posing a very serious threat for the times to come and one of the most difficult challenges before the law enforcing agencies.
The most interesting is that most of the times cyber crimes are not driven by violence, but it’s greed, pride, or play on some character weakness of the victims. We can call these crimes as white-collar crimes. So, the growth of information technology in the shape of Internet has simultaneously led to change in the pattern of crimes. We have witnessed change in the categories of criminals who engage in cyber crimes - ranging from hackers, information merchants and mercenaries, to extremists, deviants etc.
Since opportunity of marketing products on the net is tremendous for companies and individuals, it’s here the cyber criminals come into play. They easily and with fraudulent intention make their messages look real and credible and resort to lingering loot. There are innumerable scams and frauds most of them relating to investment schemes. Many newsletters or the like on the Internet provide the investors with free advice recommending stocks where they should invest. There are innumerable instances where these recommendations have proved totally bogus. Here the cyber criminals lure an investor to a particular stock where there is a sort of fixing and causes loss to the investors.
Then there is a menace of junk mail - an email which contains useless or malicious material. It is easy to create an email ID and here fraudsters often find it easy to spread bogus investment schemes or spread false information about a company or an individual.
Precisely, we all know that every day people receive such fraudulent e-mails sometimes addressed as lottery departments, sometimes as lucky draw mostly using the names of trusted companies and at times from some attorney holder of slain president of an African nation etc., all of which is fraud asking you for your confidential data. The mails are drafted in such a way that people would fall in trap unknowingly. In such instances, the onus lies in the hands of the people who receive such mails to report the details to the police on time.
Even as our state (J&K) is geographically a remote location the Internet, the mobile phone and other such devices are fast integrating into our lives. In the times to come, it would be impossible to imagine life without them and almost everything – from routine matters like research etc. to stay in touch with friends, family and even with colleagues – shall be happening over the Internet or through mobile telephony. 
While having a look at the present growth of Internet in the state, it is visible even to a naked eye that this growth has been proportionate to the growth of cyber criminals here. We all know that no one owns Internet, yet all people across the globe use it. Here some unidentified evil groups of people have already started misusing the technology for their ulterior motives. The rate at which cyber crime is growing in our state is drastic and nothing less than astonishing. Before evil minded persons expand their tentacles through Internet in the state, there is immediate need to organize cyber laws and put them into action.
Meanwhile, as more and more people go online, they will have to take precautions to secure themselves. There are some guiding principles and one should stick to them. One should not circulate his email ID on public platforms, especially social network sites. Never respond to emails from people you don’t know, especially those emails that promise or guarantee you a rosy picture without any accompanying effort.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 27 Apr 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 28 Apr 2012 00:00:00 IST