DPDP Bill 2023 A Comparative Analysis

Introduction:

Digital Forensics, as the term goes, “It is the process of collecting, preserving, identifying, analyzing, and presenting digital evidence in a way that the evidence is legally admitted.”

It is like a detective work in the digital realm, where investigators use various specific methods to find deleted files and to reveal destroyed messages.

The reason why Digital Forensics is an important field is because with the  advancement of technology and the use of digital devices, the role of Digital Forensics in preserving the evidence and protecting our data from cybercrime is becoming more and more crucial.

Digital Forensics is used in various situations such as:

• Criminal Investigations: Digital Forensics enables investigators to trace back cyber threat actors and further identify victims of the crime to  gather evidence needed to punish criminals.

• Legal issues: Digital Forensics might aid in legal  matters involving intellectual property infringement and data breaches etc.

Types of Digital Data in Digital Forensics:

1.Persistent (Non-volatile) Data :-

• This type of Data Remains Intact When The Computer Is Turned Off.
• ex. Hard-disk, Flash-drives

2.  Volatile Data :-

• These types of Data Would Be Lost When The Computer Is Turned Off.
• ex. Temp. Files, Unsaved OpenFiles, etc.

The Digital Forensics Process

The process is as follows

• Evidence Acquisition: This process involves making an exact copy (forensic image) of the storage devices such as hard drives, SSD or mobile devices. The goal is to preserve the original data without changing it.

• Data Recovery: After acquiring the forensic image, the analysts use  tools to recover deleted, hidden or the  encrypted data inside the device . 

• Timeline Analysis: Analysts use timestamp information from files, and system logs to reconstruct the timeline of activities on a device. This helps in understanding how an incident spanned out and who was involved in it.

• Malware Analysis: In cases involving  security breaches, analysts analyze malware samples to understand their behavior, impact, and origins. various reverse engineering techniques are used to analyze the malicious code.

Types of tools:

• Faraday Bags: Faraday bags are generally the first step in digital evidence capture. These bags are generally made of conductive materials, which are used to shield our electronic devices from external waves such as WiFi, Bluetooth, and mobile cellular signals, which in turn protects the digital evidence from external tampering.

• Data recovery : These types of software are generally used for the recovery of deleted files and their associated data.  Ex. Magnet Forensics, Access data, X-Ways

• Disk imaging and analysis :These types of softwares are Generally used to replicate the data storage devices and then perform further analysis on it ex. FTKImager, Autopsy, and, Sleuth Kit

• File carving tools: They are generally used to extract information from the embedded files in the image made. Ex.Foremost, Binwalk, Scalpel

Some common tools:

• EnCase: It is a tool for acquiring, analyzing, and reporting digital evidence.

• Autopsy: It is an open-source platform generally used for analyzing hard drives and smartphones.

• Volatility: It is a framework used generally for memory forensics to analyze volatile memory dumps and extract info.

• Sleuth Kit: It is a package of CLI tools for investigating disk images and its associated file systems.

• Cellebrite UFED: It is a tool generally used for mobile forensics.

Challenges in the Field:

• Encryption: Encryption plays a major challenge as the encrypted data requires specialized techniques and tools for decryption.

• Anti-Forensic Techniques: Anti-Forensics techniques play a major challenge as the criminals often use anti-forensic methods to cover their tracks, making it challenging to get the digital evidence.

• Data Volume and Complexity: The large volume of digital data and the diversity of various devices create challenges in evidence collection and analysis.

The Future of Digital Forensics: A Perspective

‍With the  growth of technology and the vast presence of digital data, the challenges and opportunities in Digital Forensics keep on updating themselves. Due to the onset of new technology and the ever growing  necessity of cloud storage, mobile devices, and the IoT (Internet of Things), investigators will have to develop new strategies and should be ready to adapt and learn from the new shaping of the tech world.

Conclusion:

‍Digital Forensics is an essential field in the recent era for ensuring fairness in the digital era. By collecting, inspecting, and analyzing the digital data, the Digital Forensics investigators can arrive lawfully at  the prosecution of criminals and the settlement of civil disputes. Nowadays with technology on one hand progressing continuously, the discipline of Digital Forensics will certainly become even more pivotal in the case of investigations in the years to come.

Introduction‍

Netizens across the globe have been enjoying the fruits of technological advancements in the digital century. Our personal and professional life has been impacted deeply by the new technologies. The previous year we saw an exponential rise in blockchain integration and the applications of Web 3.0. There is no denying that the Covid-19 pandemic caused a rapid rise in technology and internet penetration all across the globe, bringing the world closer with respect to connectivity and the exchange of ideas and knowledge. Tech advancements have definitely made our lives easier, but the same has also opened the doors to various vulnerabilities and new potential threats. As cyberspace expands, so do the vulnerabilities associated with it, and it is critical we take note of such issues and create safeguards to the extent that such incidents are prevented before they occur. We need to create sustainable and secure cyberspace for future generations.MetaVerse in 2023The metaverse was introduced by Facebook (now Meta) in 2021 as a peak into the future of cyberspace. Since then, tech developers have been working towards arming the metaverse with extraordinary innovations and applications. Netizens came across news like someone bought a house or a plot in the metaverse, someone bought a car in the metaverse, and so on, these news were taken to be the evidence of the netizen’s transition towards the new digital age as we have seen in sci-fi movies. But today this type of news has become history and the metaverse is expanding faster than ever. Let us look at the latest developments and trends in the metaverse-

• Avatar creation - The avatar creation in the metaverse will be a pivotal move as the avatars will represent the user, and essentially it will be the digital, version of the user and will be similar to the user's personal and physical traits to maintain realism in the metaverse.
• Architecture firms - Metaverse has its own set of architects who will be working towards creating your dream home or pro[erty in the metaverse, the heavy code-based services are now being sold just as if they were in the physical space.
• Mining - The metaverse already has companies who are mining gold, silver, petroleum, and other resources for the avatars in the metaverse, for instance, if someone has bought a car in the metaverse, it will still need fuel to run.
• Security firms - These firms are the first line of defenders in the metaverse as they provide tech-based solutions and protocols to secure one’s avatar and belongings in the metaverse.
• Metaverse Police - Interpol, along with its global partner organization has created the metaverse police, who will be working towards creating a safe cyber ecosystem by maintaining compliance with digital laws and ethics.

Advancements beyond metaverse in 2023

‍Technology continues to be a critical force for change in the world. Technology breakthroughs give enterprises more possibilities to lift their productivity and invent offerings. And while it remains difficult to forecast how technology trends will play out, business leaders can plan ahead better by watching the development of new technologies, anticipating how companies could utilize them, and understanding the factors that impact innovation and adoption.

• Applied observability

It advances the practice of pattern recognition. To foresee and identify abnormalities and offer solutions, one must have the capacity to delve deeply into complicated systems and a stream of data. Data fuels this aspect of tech growth in the future.

• Digital Immune System

To ensure that all major systems operate round-the-clock to deliver uninterrupted services, Digital Immune System will combine observability, AI-augmented testing, chaos engineering, site reliability engineering (SRE), and software supply chain security. This will take the efficiency of the systems to a new level.

• Super apps

These represent the upcoming shift in application usage, design, and development, where consumers will utilise a single app to manage most systems in an enterprise ecosystem. Over 50% of the world’s population will utilise super apps on a daily basis to fulfill their daily personal and professional needs.

• AR/VR and BlockChain technology

A combination of better interconnected, safe, and immersive virtual environments where people and businesses may recreate real-life scenarios will be created by combining AR/VR, AI/ML, IoT, and Blockchain, thus creating a new vertical of innovation with keen technologies of Web 3.0.

• AAI

The next level of AI, i.e., Advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI), will revolutionise machine learning, pattern recognition, and computing. It aims to fully automate processes without requiring any manual input, thus eradicating the issues of human error and bad actor influence completely.

• Corporate Metaverse

Aside from its power as a marketing tool, the metaverse promises to provide platforms, tools, and entire virtual worlds where business can be done remotely, efficiently, and intelligently. We can expect to see the metaverse concept merge with the idea of the “digital twin” – virtual simulations of real-world products, processes, or operations that can be used to test and prototype new ideas in the safe environment of the digital domain. From wind farms to Formula 1 cars, designers are recreating physical objects inside virtual worlds where their efficiency can be stress-tested under any conceivable condition without the resource costs that would be incurred by testing them in the physical world.ConclusionIn 2023, we will see more advanced use cases for technology such as motion capture, which will mean that as well as looking and sounding more like us, our avatars will adopt our own unique gestures and body language. We may even start to see further developments in the fields of autonomous avatars – meaning they won't be under our direct control but will be enabled by AI to act as our representatives in the digital world while we ourselves get on with other, completely unrelated tasks. As we go deeper into cyberspace, we need to remember the basic safety practices and inculcate them with respect to cyberspace and work towards creating string policies and legislations to safeguard the digital rights and duties of the netizen to create a wholesome and interdependent cyber ecosystem.

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Introduction 

Digitalization in India has been a transformative force, India is also marked as the second country in the world in terms of active internet users. With this adoption of digitalization and technology, the country is becoming a digitally empowered society and knowledge-based economy. However, the number of cyber crimes in the country has also seen a massive spike recently with the sophisticated cyber attacks and manipulative techniques being used by cybercriminals to lure innocent individuals and businesses. 

As per recent reports, over 740,000 cybercrime cases were reported to the I4C, in the first four months of 2024, which raises serious concern on the growing nature of cyber crimes in the country. Recently Prime Minister Modi in his Mann Ki Baat address, cautioned the public about a particular rising cyber scam known as ‘digital arrest’ and highlighted the seriousness of the issue and urged people to be aware and alert about such scams to counter them. The government has been keen on making efforts to reduce and combat cyber crimes by introducing new measures and strengthening the regulatory landscape governing cyberspace in India.

Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre  

Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) was established by the Ministry of Home Affairs  (MHA) to provide a framework and eco-system for law enforcement agencies (LEAs) to deal with cybercrime in a coordinated and comprehensive manner. I4C handles the ‘National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal’ (https://cybercrime.gov.in) and the 1930 Cyber Crime Helpline. Recently at the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) Foundation Day celebration, Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched the Cyber Fraud Mitigation Centre (CFMC), Samanvay platform (Joint Cybercrime Investigation Facilitation System), 'Cyber Commandos' program and Online Suspect Registry as efforts to combat the cyber crimes, establish cyber resilence and awareness and strengthening capabilities of law enforcement agencies.

Regulatory landscape Governing Cyber Crimes 

Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act) and the rules made therein, the Intermediary Guidelines, Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita, 2023 are the major legislation in India governing Cyber Laws.  

CyberPeace Recommendations

There has been an alarming uptick in cybercrimes in the country highlighting the need for proactive approaches to counter these emerging threats. The government should prioritise its efforts by introducing robust policies and technical measures to reduce cybercrime in the country. The law enforcement agencies' capabilities must be strengthened with advanced technologies to deal with cyber crimes especially considering the growing sophisticated nature of cyber crime tactics used by cyber criminals. 

The netizens must be aware of the manipulative tactics used by cyber criminals to target them. Social media companies must also implement robust measures on their respective platforms to counter and prevent cyber crimes. Coordinated approaches by all relevant authorities, including law enforcement, cybersecurity agencies, and regulatory bodies, along with increased awareness and proactive engagement by netizens, can significantly reduce cyber threats and online criminal activities. 

References

• https://www.statista.com/statistics/1499739/india-cyber-crime-cases-reported-to-i4c/#:~:text=Cyber%20crime%20cases%20registered%20by%20I4C%20India%202019%2D2024&text=Over%20740%2C000%20cases%20of%20cyber,related%20to%20online%20financial%20fraud
• https://www.deccanherald.com/india/parliament-panel-to-examine-probe-agencies-efforts-to-tackle-cyber-crime-illegal-immigration-3270314
• https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=2003158

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