Sir: Cyber crime refers to criminal activity where a computer or a network is the source, tool, target, or site of a crime. Although the terms computer crime and cyber crime are more properly restricted to describing criminal activity in which the computer or network is a necessary part of the crime, these terms are also sometimes used to include crimes such as fraud, theft, blackmail and forgery in which computers or networks are used. Cyber crimes of multiple kinds in Pakistan have increased by five times over the past four years, officials say. According to the Cyber Crime Unit (CCU), a branch of Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), 62 cases were reported to the unit in 2007, 287 cases in 2008 and while the ratio dropped in 2009, in 2010 more than 312 cases were registered in different categories of cyber crimes. It has increased much more in the years 2013 and 2014. Rather than making good and constructive use of information technology, people are more interested in its misuse. Many developed countries have introduced different policies and laws to restrain the destructive use of cyber facilities but in Pakistan there is still a lack of a proper system to deal with this. There are a number of cyber crimes in Pakistan, mainly involving pornography, sale of illegal articles, intellectual property crime, email spoofing, cyber stalking, forgery, unauthorised access to computer systems, hacking of social media accounts, theft of information contained in electronic form, virus attacks, internet time theft, password cracking and financial cyber crimes (i.e. hacking credit card numbers and bank accounts) and many more. People need to understand that these are crimes. Government and law enforcement agencies are trying to come up with more appropriate ways to regulate the internet and make more laws but it is a major task because cyber laws vary from country to country. What is illegal in our country might not be illegal in other countries so it is hard to regulate the internet. Some government departments in Pakistan are working and doing their best to find ways to make the internet safer but I personally believe that there is a lot more to be done. More serious steps have to be taken in order to solve these crimes and to prevent them so that people feel secure when using the internet.
SARA NAJAM
Karachi