Cyber Crimes (Part 1)

This is a very burning topic in today's world, cyber crimes, these internet-based, computer-based crimes, people lack awareness about them, and countless queries have come in asking that this be explained a bit. Before 2016, whatever electronic devices existed, the crimes committed through them were addressed by folding them into other special laws, into general law. In 2016, lawmakers felt the need for this, and the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 was formulated at the provincial level. After thorough research, whatever could possibly happen was written down, and after writing it down, it was divided into penalty sections. This Act came in August 2016. Now everyone knows the reason this Act came about, that under internet devices, what you call hackers also fell within this domain. Some people create a fake account, create an account under my name calling it Zaid, and start running it, while I have no idea about it at all, and then when I find out, how do I take legal action against him, how do I take action against him. Now this Act clarified one thing: crimes related to electronic devices are laid out in this Act. Let me go through them one by one, categorizing them, and you listen along.

Now, the crimes described and their punishments: unauthorized access to data information, meaning I had an account, or my data was on my device, and you accessed it without my permission, just looked at it, opened it and looked. If you do this, access someone's account or someone's data without the account holder's or data holder's permission, this is a crime under this Act, and its punishment is three months' imprisonment or a fine, and the fine is up to fifty thousand, or both. Now, if someone gains unauthorized access to my account or my data, and after gaining access takes the next step, copies data from it, or transfers data from it to somewhere else, for this second step the punishment is increased, it becomes six months, and the fine becomes one hundred thousand rupees, or both. Now the third step is: I gained unauthorized access, I copied the data or transferred it, the third step is that I gained unauthorized access and, after gaining access, interfered with that data, started altering it, started changing it, and if this is proven, then the punishment is higher, up to two years imprisonment, a fine up to five hundred thousand rupees, or both. Then there are categories. Critical data means data of a very sensitive, highly sensitive nature. If my data isn't that sensitive, then Sections 3, 4, and 5 respectively apply to me. Now if that data is of a sensitive nature and I only gain unauthorized access to it and do nothing else, then the punishment is three years, a fine of one million rupees, or both, this is Section 6, critical data, unauthorized access to critical infrastructure information systems or data, meaning someone's system that holds important information, critical infrastructure, some programs, any such foundational thing. I'm not that much of a computer expert, so roughly what I understand is that they access data sitting in a computer, and if that data is of a sensitive nature, then three years' punishment, or a fine of one million rupees, or both. Then it comes to: I not only access that critical data or information system but also copy it or transfer it, in that case, five years' punishment, a fine of five million rupees, or both. Now the third stage is that I also interfere with it, I also alter it, interference with critical infrastructure information system or data, I practically interfere with it, I alter it in order to cause damage, for this the punishment is seven years and the fine is up to ten million rupees. Then comes classification of an offence, that the above, or any offence, clarifies this. Let me read the words, whoever prepares uncertain information through any information system or device with the intent to create alarm, which relates to terrorism, or to a person proven guilty of an offence related to the activities of a terrorist organization, a proscribed organization, which may be religious or otherwise, but must be a proscribed organization, whether individuals or groups. The punishment for this is seven years' imprisonment and a fine of ten million rupees, or both. Then comes cyber terrorism. What is cyber terrorism? Cyber terrorism is where the purpose of the crimes described above is to create a sense of insecurity, a state of fear, in the government, in the public generally, in a section of the public, or in a particular community or sect, that is the intensity of it, religious extremism, hate-mongering on religious lines, sectarian hate-mongering, and if someone does this and is caught, and evidence is found, then fourteen years' punishment and a fine of fifty million rupees, or both, and if someone gives a hate speech and puts it on the internet, then seven years' punishment, a fine, or both, and if it's proven that there's a facilitator behind all of this, someone who funds this activity, for instance my purpose isn't to spread religious hatred, my purpose isn't to access someone's data, my purpose isn't to copy someone's data, transfer it, my purpose isn't to interfere with someone's data. When I'm caught and asked, you did this, and I say, no, that wasn't my involvement, Bakar told me to, Zaid told me to, A told me, B told me, do this work for me, I was doing it as a job, he was paying me, I did this for him, he told me this is the way to go, do this, do that, then that facilitator who is funding it is also guilty under Section 12, and his punishment is seven years, a fine, or both. Then comes electronic forgery, then electronic fraud, then making, obtaining, or supplying a device for unlawful use, making a device that you're providing to do something. There's a restriction on SIM cards, if someone provides an unregistered SIM, let me tell you this too, if someone provides an unregistered SIM without properly registering it, the punishment is up to three years and a fine of up to five hundred thousand rupees, or both.