Law in-depth
Computer based crime
A new legal challenge in Bangladesh
Khaleda Parveen
Computer and its extended application through World Wide Web have penetrated almost all branches of legal scholarship including criminal laws. Owing to the atypical nature of this virtual world with so many actual legal challenges, innovative legislative approach is chosen in many countries to maintain law and order. For example in Bangladesh the issue of amending existing Criminal Procedure Code , the Penal Code and the Evidence Act is on top of the agenda after some recent development on computer-based criminal activities.
Background
On 30th of October 2004 an email was sent to a leading national Daily threatening the life of the leader of opposition Sheikh Hasina. Sender of the message claimed him to be an agent of Al-Queda, (alleged international terrorist group), later discovered as fake, and promised her assassination as early as possible either in Bangladesh or in USA. During this time Sheikh Hasina was visiting the USA.
On 25th of April of every year since 1999, almost all national Dailies published a news with reference to Bangladesh Computer Council that Chernobyl Computer virus, commonly known as 'CIH virus' is supposed to be activated at 00:00 hours of 26th April and might be potential risk for computer's memory. Consequently, on 27th of April, 2004 it was reported that Over 1,000 computers were affected by the Chernobyl virus. The virus erased data from hard disk drive and corrupted the BIOS of computer motherboard.
In 2003 some hackers hacked the password of Barishal District Commissioner's official internet service account and made unauthorized access to internet via this account. Sources said the computer hacking incident was reveled after the DC office received a heavily bloated internet bill .
These are some of the isolated incidents took place in different times in different places of Bangladesh, however with one thing in common- in all these criminal activities computer and/or internet has been used as tool.
Existing criminal laws in Bangladesh
As there is no existing IT law in our country, offences like, threat to life via email, intentional or knowingly causing destruction of any property or wrongful loss or damage via computer viruses, etc. are still dealt with traditional criminal laws. One major problem is that our existing laws do not clearly address the uniqueness of the internet and its related activities.
As our exiting criminal laws are neither up to date enough nor all IT related crimes are covered by the existing criminal laws moreover, these penal provisions do not define computer-based crime and do not provide penalty for that. As well as Procedural laws, e.g. the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Evidence Act, do not provide effective legal procedure to try such cases. In the absence of appropriate laws sometime it is difficult to detect the criminals and made such types of activities punishable offence. Therefore, new laws or in some cases necessary amendments in the existing laws are required.
As a result, with the growth of technology and its essay access paved the way for frequent occurrences of these types of computer based crime. Think tank and people of different spheres of life are more concerned about the issues than before. Keeping this necessity in mind, Law Commission of Bangladesh proposed a law in order to embark upon these criminal activities, named “Information Technology (Electronic Transaction) Act.
Proposed Information Technology (Electronic Transaction) Act:
Law Commission of Bangladesh, proposed a final report on the “Information Technology (Electronic Transactions) Act , with some necessary amendments to the relevant existing laws.
In the proposed IT law of Bangladesh, Law Commission proposed some provisions related to computer based crime and its adjudication procedure. The proposed IT law defines computer related offences e.g., hacking with computer system , damage to computer and computer system , computer virus etc.
In order to dealt with these offences some procedural provisions are also incorporated in the proposed law, such as-
- Appointment and power of Adjudicating Officer (section- 50 &51)
- Establishment of Cyber Appellate Tribunal (section-52)
- Composition, qualifications, term of office, conditions of service, etc. of Cyber Appellate Tribunal (section-53)
- Procedure and powers of Cyber Appellate Tribunal (section-59)
- Power of investigation of offences under this Act (section-87)
- Power of police officer and other officers to enter, search, etc (section-90)
- Besides, the proposed law also includes-
- Penalty for damage to computer, computer system (section- 45)
- Punishment for tampering with computer source documents (section-66)
- Punishment for hacking (section-68)
- Punishment for publishing obscene information in electronic form etc. (section-69)
- Punishment for unauthorized access to protected systems (section-76)
- Punishment for publishing false Digital Signature Certificate (section-81)
- Punishment for publication for fraudulent purpose (section-82)
- Punishment for using computer for committing an offence (section-83)
In order to comply with this new law, Amendment to the Penal Code 1860, the Evidence Act 1872, the Bankers' Books Evidence Act, 1891, the Bangladesh Bank Order, 1972 are also proposed and given in four schedules .
Recommendations
Computer security and related crime is increasingly becoming a major issue for corporations and government agencies. Law enforcement in Bangladesh has endured many challenges over the years. While committing the crime, Lawbreakers have integrated highly technical methods and developed crimes of creative nature. Moreover, the evidence of these crimes is neither human nor physical, rather electronic impulses and programming codes. So it is very difficult to put those activities under the general purview of the existing legislations.
Though Law Commission of Bangladesh propose a comprehensive IT law covering all aspects of information technology, but issues are very new in our country. Gradually people of all sphere of life are consciously thinking about the problem. People need to be more concern. Computer related crime, basic computing etc. are not taught in our law school and lawyers and judges are not specially trained, as a result they are not reasonably aware of such trial.
Though our proposed law is a comprehensive one, it is incomplete in many aspects, like it failed to address the offences related child pornography, computer related fraud, offences related to infringements of copyright and related rights etc. We need a separate Cyber legislation, which will exclusively deals with computer related crime. In addition some amendments need to be made in the Criminal Procedure Code.
Concluding remark
Computer related crimes are also crime; however, of unique nature and based on computing technology and its misuse. One major difference between these crimes and the traditional ones is that computer related crimes are very much global in nature. Bangladesh has taken steps towards fighting such crimes by way of enacting new laws and amending existing penal provisions. Due to a very unique character of these crimes success is likely to depend not on enactment or amendment of laws rather largely on enforcement of laws, which is always a big challenge for Bangladesh.
The author is Lecturer, Stamford University Bangladesh.
