Cyber Law

Over the years, we have enjoyed a burst of communication developments from the first radio in the 1800's to the Internet we have today. It has been a fruitful experience in terms of goals achieved and dreams lived. However, with the positive innovations also came the negative ones that countered what might have been a perfect landscape in technology. Specifically, we talk about cyber crimes.

A cyber crime is anything that violates any right of any Internet user using the Internet itself. This can be anything from cyber stalking to identity theft to cyber terrorism. Because these crimes have been born, people have also worked to protect themselves. Hence, cyber laws were born. These are laws that aim to control and explain the legal aspect of online crimes. And because these online offenses have been committed on a massive global scale, cyber law is now becoming a fast-expanding field in the legal profession.

When you talk about crimes and laws, you also talk about jurisdiction. This refers to the court authority who will be hearing and settling cyber cases. This is, of course, just as important as cyber law as this will define the parameters of enforcement. Often, cyber jurisdiction is a tough case itself because anybody can be committing a cyber crime to anybody who might be on the exact opposite side of the globe. Thus, settlement of these cases are inevitably multi-jurisdictional, which means jurisdiction could be held by more than one country.

Despite their world rampancy, cyber crimes are still not institutionalized in some countries, hence, no cyber laws are created there nor do any apply. Cyber crimes, if, at all, they are recognized as such, differ from country to country in the way they are dealt with. It is an established fact that though a country may not have specific cyber laws in place, there remains a need for solid policies and guidelines to prevent the unrestricted commission of such violations.

Most cyber crimes are the essentially the same. They rob us of our valuable data or let people assume our identity. This is why as Internet users we have to take it upon ourselves to be vigilant and ready for any online crook that may come our way. A good way to protect ourselves from these crimes is by eradicating the link that will connect cyber criminals to us - our IP address.