MPPSC 2018 Prelims Paper-I · Question 79 of 100

Correct — B, offender computer skills and victim ignorance of computer technology. The commission's key treats cyber crime as an interaction between two people: an offender who has enough technical/computer skill to exploit a system, and a victim who typically does not understand the technology well enough to protect themselves. Frauds like phishing, OTP scams and identity theft succeed precisely on this asymmetry — a skilled offender preying on an unaware victim. So these two — offender's skill and victim's ignorance — are the pairing the key marks as the essential features.

• (a)Computer technology as modus operandi and intangibility of the environment — This describes the setting of cyber crime — a computer as the tool and a virtual, intangible space — rather than the offender-versus-victim pairing the commission's key names as the two essential features. It is the academically-worded trap, but not the marked answer.
• (c)Hardware and software — These are the parts that make up a computer, not features that define a crime.
• (d)Hackers and crackers — These are types of people/actors, not 'features' of the crime itself.

Cyber crime is any offence committed using a computer, a network or the internet — from hacking and data theft to online fraud and defamation. What makes it distinctive is the gap between the two parties: the offender is technically capable, while the victim is often unaware of how the technology can be misused. That imbalance, rather than any physical weapon or location, is what enables the crime.

Both option (a) and option (b) sound reasonable, which is the whole trap. Option (a) uses textbook-sounding language about 'modus operandi' and an 'intangible environment'; but the commission's key defines the two essential features in terms of the actors — the skilled offender and the unaware victim — so (b) is the answer to pick.

• Cyber crime uses a computer/network/internet as the tool or target of the offence.
• The commission's key names its two essential features as: the offender's computer skill and the victim's ignorance of computer technology.
• This skill-versus-ignorance gap is what most online frauds (phishing, OTP scams) exploit.
• In India, cyber crime is dealt with mainly under the Information Technology Act, 2000.

• Picking the 'sophisticated'-sounding option (a) over the actor-based definition in (b)
• Confusing features of the crime (b) with components of a computer (c) or types of offender (d)

MPPSC asks for definitions, features and types of cyber crime and the relevant IT-Act provisions; UPSC frames cyber crime within cyber security policy and reporting obligations.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In India, which law is the primary framework for dealing with cyber crimes?

  • (a)Information Technology Act, 2000
  • (b)Indian Telegraph Act, 1885
  • (c)Companies Act, 2013
  • (d)Right to Information Act, 2005

  Answer(a) Information Technology Act, 2000.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  A cyber fraud that succeeds mainly because the victim is unaware of how technology can be misused best illustrates cyber crime's essential feature of:

  • (a)victim's ignorance of computer technology
  • (b)high hardware cost
  • (c)slow internet speed
  • (d)lack of electricity

  Answer(a) victim's ignorance of computer technology.