THE ERA of computer began with the analytical engine of Charles Babbage. But with the latest increase and advancement in technology, modern computer started consisting of integrated circuits and microprocessors.

 
Technology is changing like seasons, every year new technology gets introduced. One such technology is the Internet - world’s largest database of any information whether its science, commerce, art or anything for which information can be collected. So we can say that the Internet is the biggest library in the world.
 
Life is a mix of good and bad. The same is true about the Internet. This world of Internet is filled with Trojan horses and viruses to cyber stalking, trademark counterfeiting and cyber terrorism, email fraud, defamation etc, all this without the police control over the Internet unlike the conventional societies. No policemen can patrol the Internet to search for the cyber criminals.
 
Cyber crime specifically deals with computers and networks (such as hacking) and the facilitation of traditional crime through the use of computers (child pornography, Internet fraud). In addition to this, there are other crimes also, which covers the use of computers by criminals for communication and document or data storage.
 
 While these activities might not be illegal but they are often invaluable in the investigation of actual crimes. Computer technology presents many new challenges to social policy regarding issues such as privacy, as it relates to data mining and criminal investigations. Cyber crime can involve criminal activities that are traditional in nature, law such as theft, fraud, forgery, defamation and mischief, all of which are subjected to the Indian Penal Code.
 
Need of cyber laws
 
The government of India felt the need to enact the relevant cyber laws, which can regulate Internet in India. It manages all aspects, issues, legal consequences, conflict in the world of cyber space, Internet or World Wide Web. These were the following reasons for enactment of cyber laws in India:
 

• Although India possesses a very well defined legal system, which covers all possible situations and cases that have occurred or might take place in future, the country lacks when it comes to newly developed Internet technology

 

• To give some legal recognition to the Internet as it is one of the most dominating sources of carrying out business in today’s world

 

• With the growth of the Internet a new concept came into existence known as cyber terrorism, which includes the use of disruptive activities with the intention to further social, ideological, religious, political or similar objectives, or to intimidate any person in furtherance of such objectives in the world of cyber space. It actually is about committing an old offence but in an innovative way.

 
Keeping all these factors into consideration, Indian Parliament passed the Information Technology Bill on May 17, 2000, known as the Information Technology Act, 2000. It talks about the cyber laws and forms the legal framework for electronic records and other activities done by electronic means.
 
Network security
 
It refers to the protection of networks and their services from unauthorised modification, destruction, or disclosure, and provision of assurance that the network performs its critical functions correctly and there are no harmful side effects. Network security includes providing data integrity. Network security is actually very helpful as well as necessary so as to stop the intruders from hacking the data as well as maintaining data integrity.
 
Internet actually started as a simple medium for transmitting data between widely dispersed computers. But now this information medium has been transformed into a sophisticated platform for business data exchange, and issues of transaction security, user authentication and authorisation have taken on greater importance.
 
As use of the Internet has increased, business networking environments have become larger and more diverse, and securing those on a host-by-host basis have grown more difficult. As a result, companies are turning to a network security model. This model enables companies access control into Internal networks comprised of many hosts, as well as the services they are offer.
 
The network security model involves building firewalls to protect Internal systems and networks, using strong authentication approaches (such as one-time passwords and digital certificates) and employing strong encryption to protect particularly sensitive data as it transits a network.
 
Hackers are exploiting security weaknesses exposed by the public’s exploding use of the worldwide Internet for personal and business applications. Security problems revolved around three issues
 

• Authentication: A network user or message must have an identifiable origin
• Integrity: A message or data packet’s contents must be verifiably genuine
• Confidentiality: A message or data packet’s contents must be guaranteed to remain private.   

 
Network security basically consists of two types: Transit security and traffic regulation. When combined, these can guarantee right information securely delivered to the right place. It should be apparent that there is also a need for ensuring that the hosts that receive the information will properly process it, this raises the entire spectre of host security: A wide area, which varies tremendously for each type of system. With the growth in business use of the Internet, network security is rapidly becoming crucial to the development of the Internet. Soon, security will be an integral part of our day-to-day use of the Internet and other networks.