Sections related to cyber theft:

Theft of confidential information: Many business organisations store their confidential

information in computer systems. This information is targeted by rivals, criminals and disgruntled
employees.

Provisions applicable: Sections 43, 66, 66B of IT Act and Section 426 and 378 of Indian Penal
Code.

Civil liability

Section 43A of the IT Act deals with the civil liability of cyber offenders. The section deals with the
compensation that should be made for failure of protection of the date. His was introduced under the
amendment of the act in 2008. The corporate responsibility for data protection is greatly emphasized
by inserting Section 43A whereby corporate are under an obligation to ensure adoption of reasonable
security practices. Further, what is sensitive personal data has since been clarified by the central
government vide its Notification dated 11 April 2011 giving the list of all such data which includes
password, details of bank accounts or card details, medical records, etc.

Penal liability

Penal liability of cracking arises when the intention or the liability of the cracker to harm the system
or steal any important information gets established. If the cracker only trespasses the system without
any intention to harm, it only remains a form of civil liability under section 43A. The criminal
trespass can also result in other penal activities punishable under Indian Penal Code like cyber theft
that can be punishable under section 378 of Indian Penal Code.
Essentials of hacking under section 66

Intention-whoever with a malicious intention breaks into the computer of the other to tamper or steal
the data or destroy it has a wrong intention.

A wrongful act or damage to the data or tries to diminish the value of the data will cover under
hacking.

Laws on hacking in India

Section 43 and section 66 of the IT Act cover the civil and criminal offenses of data theft or hacking
respectively.

Under section 43, a simple civil offense where a person without permission of the owner accesses the
computer and extracts any data or damages the data contained therein will come under civil liability.
The cracker shall be liable to pay compensation to the affected people. Under the ITA 2000, the
maximum cap for compensation was fine at Rs. One crore. However in the amendment made in
2008, this ceiling was removed. Section 43A was added in the amendment in 2008 to include
corporate shed where the employees stole information from the secret files of the company.

Section 66B covers punishment for receiving stolen computer resource or information. The
punishment includes imprisonment for one year or a fine of rupees one lakh or both. Mens rea is an
important ingredient under section 66A. Intention or the knowledge to cause wrongful loss to others
i.e. the existence of criminal intention and the evil mind i.e. concept of mens rea, destruction,
deletion, alteration or diminishing in value or utility of data are all the major ingredients to bring any
act under this Section.

Section 66 – Computer Related offenses

Related Case: Kumar v/s Whiteley In this case the accused gained unauthorized access to the
Joint Academic Network (JANET) and deleted, added files and changed the passwords to deny
access to the authorized users.Investigations had revealed that Kumar was logging on to the
BSNL broadband Internet connection as if he was the authorized genuine user and ‘made
alteration in the computer database pertaining to broadband Internet user accounts’ of the
subscribers.The CBI had registered a cyber crime case against Kumar and carried out
investigations on the basis of a complaint by the Press Information Bureau, Chennai, which
detected the unauthorised use of broadband Internet. The complaint also stated that the
subscribers had incurred a loss of Rs 38,248 due to Kumar’s wrongful act. He used to ‘hack’
sites from Bangalore, Chennai and other cities too, they said.

Verdict: The Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore, Chennai, sentenced N G Arun
Kumar, the techie from Bangalore to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year with a fine of
Rs 5,000 under section 420 IPC (cheating) and Section 66 of the IT Act (Computer related
Offense).