Ans. Private key is the key which creates a digital signature to an electronic record. It has to be corresponding to the public key listed in the Digital Signature Certificate, and it is kept confidential by the subscriber.

Public key is the key which verifies a digital signature which is affixed by the private key, and it is listed in the Digital Signature Certificate. This key is made freely available to the public and the Certifying Authority.

Ans. When an electronic record needs to be authenticated, Digital Signature is affixed to it by means of asymmetric cryptosystem and hash function. Hash Function is nothing but a computer programming algorithm mapping by which the information is translated from one sequence of bits to another, and the latter is known as hash result.

Ans. In Symmetric cryptography only one secret key, which can be words or numbers or characters, is used to encrypt and decrypt an electronic record or a particular message. The sender and the receiver both should know about that key to respectively form and retrieve the message.

In Asymmetric cryptography two keys are used, one is kept confidential by the person who is affixing the encryption to an electronic record or message, known as private key, and the other is distributed generally to the public for decrypting such record or message in order to retrieve it, known as public key.

Asymmetric cryptosystem takes more time than symmetric but is more secure.

Ans. Cryptography is the process by which any information is transformed into cipher text or code, which can’t be read by an individual apart from the intended recipient that is also when the recipient holds the secret key to unlock or decipher such information. Cryptography is meant for security purposes.

Ans. Digital Forensics is a broad term which encompasses the aspects of cyber forensics; where Computer Forensics is a part of digital forensics which deal with only computer related crimes. Mobile Forensics, Network Forensics etc are parts of digital forensics.

Ans. Cyber Forensics is a generic term. It is the process by which evidences that are found in any computer or communication device or any sorts of digital media are recovered and investigated by means of acquiring, examining or analyzing, to make such evidences in a presentable form before the court of law.

Ans. Filing a complaint requires complex procedures from determining the jurisdiction, gathering ample evidences admissible in the court of law, to saving the log files etc. Hence, it is advised to consult a specialized cyber law expert in order to lodge a complaint.

Ans. Several Cyber Crime Cells are established in different cities across India. A cyber crime complaint can be made at the respective cyber crime cell, where the victim computer is located. These cyber crime cells are naturally under the governance of regional police.

Ans. There are generally 3 types of hackers. One is White Hat Hackers: They mainly work for the government agencies or companies, and their functionality is mainly based on development or security, for the public good; another is Black Hat Hackers: They mostly work on their personal capacity for their own financial gains in an unauthorized and illegal manner, by doing harm to others; and the other is Grey Hat Hackers: They fall in between the previous two, whose intention may not be their own personal gain or cause damage, but they may end up committing something which is completely unethical and illegal.

Ans. Even though in a popular notion the term ‘hacking’ refers to a villainous act, hacking mainly denotes when the act is done with good intention in order to develop the security mechanisms for public or an industry. ‘Cracking’ is more exactly what we mean by illegal intrusion in a computer system, in bad faith.

Ans. It is the most common method for many number of cyber crimes. This involves the act of penetrating or gaining unauthorized access to a computer system or network with the purpose of destroying, stealing, or monitoring the data of that system or network.

Ans. This involves the photographs or videos which are considered obscene and not suitable for the under aged viewers. Even though online pornography is not banned in India, Child Pornography, which is about children under 18 years of age engaging in sexually explicit conduct, is banned. Obscenity is dealt under various laws of the country.

Ans. This involves registering a domain name which is identical to an established Brand Name/ Trade Mark/ Domain Name, and thereby making profit by the registrant in bad faith, using such domain name over the goodwill of the other one’s trademark. It can also happen when the registrant tries to sell his domain name to the genuine Brand Name/ Trade Mark holder for an excessive price.

Ans. This involves unauthorized copying or using someone’s copyrighted material over the internet, without their permission, and thereby violating their exclusive right over such material. This can take place against any copyrighted article made by an author over the electronic media, or even in case of copying the legitimate web content.

Ans. This involves illegal copying or downloading of the Copyright protected genuine software programs, and distribution of such products among public or different organizations. This can happen by way way of counterfeiting, i.e. duplicating the software, or illegally downloading the pirated software from the internet, and many other ways.

Ans. These are harmful software of a standalone nature, i.e. they don’t need a host file to attach themselves. While present in a computer system they may cause disruptions like modifying the host operating system and many other.

They are different from viruses on the perspective that they don’t insert a copy of themselves to any other host computer programs in a system. They operate all on their own.

Ans. These are harmful coded programs which attach themselves to other programs, named as hosts, in a computer system, and replicate themselves every time such computer programs run, thereby spreading through the entire system make the computer crash, corrupt data etc.

There are many classifications of viruses based on their functionality. These include Boot viruses, File viruses, Multipartite viruses, Virus Hoax etc.

Ans. These are the programs which stay in guise of a harmless and beneficial program, without the victim’s knowledge. These programs perform malicious activities like, downloading malwares, deleting files, or even monitor activities of the victim, or saving the identity credentials etc. By instilling Trojan horses into a computer, varieties of cyber attacks can be executed.

Ans. Malware is the short form of malicious software. It contains harmful bugs that damage the computer system without the user’s knowledge. It includes viruses, worms etc. The following 3 categories are types of malwares only.

Spyware is a type of malware which is used to track or monitor the user’s activity over the internet without his knowledge.

Adware is advertising supported software, function of which is to play and download advertisements automatically over the internet in a system.

Scareware is the software which shows the user while running the system a frightening message that there are some issues in the system, and by installing or subscribing to such software, the issue can be resolved.

Ans. This involves unauthorized alteration of very small extents from a large source. Most likely such alterations would go unnoticed. This mainly takes place by way of financial frauds.