Understanding Laws: Cyber Laws and Cyber Crimes is an innovative attempt to make the complex legal jargons and provisions simpler using practical situations which one may encounter in their daily lives. The book consists of nine chapters, each dealing with a specific area provided under the Information Technology Act, 2000. Other laws regarding copyright, trademarks, evidence, and punishments thereunder, have been discussed, so that there is a comprehensive understanding of the law. The emerging area of electronic contracts, digital signatures, e-governance including e-courts and cloud computing have been separately dealt with and a brief overview on social networking websites has also been specifically provided. Major offences like hacking, data theft, piracy, pornography, email fraud etc., have been elaborated along with the relevant case-laws and procedural issues. This book provides links to relevant videos, concerned authorities and courses on cyber law. This book is an invaluable source of knowledge about how to effectively deal with cyber-crimes in the highly vulnerable circumstances present today. It is a must have for all citizens, including law students, and those intending to join law schools.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Need to Study Cyber Law and Understand Cyber Crimes 1 Structure of the Book 3 1. Overview of the Information Technology Act, 2000 7 What is a Cyber Crime? 7 Background of the IT Legislation in India 10 Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008 (ITAA) 10 Structure of the IT Act, 2000 12 Applicability and Jurisdiction 12 National Cyber Security Policy, 2013 13 Salient Features of the Policy 14 National Policy of Information Technology 2012 14 Other Laws as Amended by the IT Act 16 The Indian Penal Code, 1860 16 viii Contents Page The Indian Evidence Act, 1872 16 The Bankers’ Books Evidence Act, 1891 (‘BBE’) 17 Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 17 2. Regulatory Authorities 19 Department of Electronics and Information Technology 19 Certifying Authority (‘CA’) 20 Controller of Certifying Authorities (‘CCA’) 21 Root Certifying Authority of India (‘RCAI’) 21 Adjudicating Offi cer (‘AO’) 22 Cyber Appellate Tribunal (‘CAT’) 22 Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (‘CERT-In’) 23 Cyber Crime Cell 24 Investigation and Computer Forensics 24 Chain of Custody 25 3. Electronic Governance, Digital Signature and Electronic Signature 27 E-Governance 27 Cloud Computing 27 E-Courts Mission Mode Project 29 Digital Signature and Electronic Signature 29 Digital Signature versus Handwritten Signatures 31 Overview of how Digital Signatures work 32 Authorities Granting and Validating Digital Signatures 33 What is a Digital Signature Certifi cate? 35 Types of Digital Signature Certifi cates 35 Certifi cate Revocation 35 Media for Storage of Digital Signature Certifi cates 36 4. Electronic Records and their Evidentiary Value 37 Electronic Records 37 Essentials of an E-contract 38