A Study on Cyber-Crime Awareness Among Students in Chhattisgarh

Mamta Sahu^1,*, Prabhavati Shukla²

^1,2 School of Studies in Psychology, Pt. Ravishankar Shukla University, Raipur, C.G.

Abstract:

The current study's objective is to ascertain students' awareness of cybercrime in the Chhattisgarh region. In the world we live in, technology is now required in every aspect of life from house hold work to running a multinational company and national security. Although technology makes life easier, there are risks associated with it, such as cybercrime (fraud, assault, bullying, sexual harassment, phishing). Students must understand that cyber security awareness is necessary to prevent any kind of cyber-crime. For understanding the cyber-awareness among Students of Chhattisgarh we collected data from Pt. Ravishankar Shukla University in Raipur. The cyber-crime awareness scale created by Dr. S. Rajasekar (2011) was used to test students' awareness of cybercrime using a questionnaire-based survey method. In this study, student demographic information (gender, location) is taken into account when measuring understanding of cyber-threats. . The hypothesis is tested using the t-test. The results show that although male and female students' knowledge of cybercrime is not statistically different, there is a significant difference between students in rural and urban locations.

Keywords: Cyber-crime, awareness, Technology.

1.     Introduction

India is becoming a more technologically advanced Nation, with the second-largest internet population in the world. As the digital world expands, our society becomes more vulnerable. As technology advances, cybercrime poses a serious threat to both our nation and the rest of the world. Cybercrime encompasses offenses involving computers and the internet; these are recognized as white-collar crimes, such as cyber fraud, phishing, hacking, identity theft, data theft, blackmail, harassment, and bullying. In a cybercrime, the computer or the data itself is either the tool used to carry out the offense and provide the necessary inputs for that offense or it is the target or the object of the offense. Cybercrime is the umbrella term for all of these illegal activities. Cybercrimes are committed using technology, and their perpetrators have extensive technological knowledge. In reality, cybercriminals are IT intellectuals who are well-versed in the subtleties of information technology. National boundaries and other obstacles are not recognized or acknowledged by cybercrime.

Generally speaking, cybercrimes fall into one of three categories:

1.     Target cybercrime: this type of crime involves the international destruction of a computer.

2.     Tool cybercrime: this type of crime involves using a computer to perform an offense.

3.     Computer incidental: this type of crime is one in which the use of a computer is only incidentally related to the conduct of the offense.

As technology advances, so do the number of people using the internet and social media. In addition, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, an increasing number of services—whether related to businesses, education, healthcare, government, or consumer services—have shifted to online platforms. People of all ages use the Internet, computers, and social media in this way, but younger people use them more frequently. While technological advancement is a positive thing, it has also led to the emergence of numerous threats, including cybercrime. The fact that young people are less aware of the issue may also be contributing to the rise in cybercrime cases.

The number of cybercrimes reported in India increased significantly in 2021 compared to the previous year. More than 52,000 instances of cybercrime were reported in that year. During the time period under observation, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh accounted for the largest share (Tanushree Basuroy, October 13, 2022). The majority of these cases were filed under the IT Act with the intention of defrauding people or abusing their sexuality.

In 2020, over 18.4 thousand people were arrested on account of cyber-crimes across India. Furthermore, over 18 thousand people were charged with legal proceeding for such crimes. Overall, the highest number of arrest and legal charges were computer related offences, followed by cyber-crimes related to publication and transmission of obscene and sexually explicit data (Tanushree Basuroy, October 13, 2022).

In 2021, the state of Maharashtra in India had the highest number of cyber stalking and bullying incidents against women and children to the rest of the country, with nearly 62 cases registered with the authorities. Telangana followed with 13 cases. Overall, the country recorded approximately 123 cases of such offences that same year. This category of crime came under the purview of section 354D of the Indian Penal Code ((Tanushree Basuroy, October 14, 2022).

A cyber-security software company called Norton Lifelock reported that 27 million Indian adults have experienced identity theft in the past year, and 52% of the population does not know how to protect them from cybercrime.

Additionally, the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal was introduced by the Ministry of Home Affairs on August 30, 2019, to provide a centralized system for reporting online incidents of cybercrime, with a particular emphasis on cybercrime against women and children. The portal's statistics show that, from the country's founding to February 28, 2021, total 3,17,439 cybercrime events and 5,771 FIRs have been recorded, with 21,562 cybercrime occurrences and 87 FIRs in Karnataka and 50,806 cybercrime incidents (National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, 2019).

Types of Cyber-Crime:       

·       Identity theft: In this case, someone steals your identity in order to deceive someone for money, property, or something else.

·       Phishing: Phishing is a type of cybercrime where a person pretending to be a reputable organization contacts a target or targets via email, phone, or text message in an attempt to trick them into divulging sensitive information, including passwords, banking and credit card information, and personally identifiable information.

·       Social engineering: The psychological manipulation of individuals into carrying out tasks or disclosing private information.

·       Cyber-stalking: attackers utilize the internet and other technology to harass or stalk another person by taunting, defamation, false charges and extreme threats.

·       Botnets: Botnets are collections of compromised computers that are utilised to launch different types of frauds and online attacks.

·       Prohibited content: Content that amounts to war propaganda, inciting impending violence, or advocating hatred is classified as prohibited content.

2.     Review of Literature

Goel Urmila (2015), Measured the cybercrime awareness of 120 B. Ed. Students from the Sonipat District, Haryana. Results of the study showed that there is no discernible variation based on gender but location does have an impact on cybercrime awareness.

Spring (2018), conducted a survey to determine awareness of cybercrime using a self-structured questionnaire that includes demographic data and a scale validated by S. Raj Sekhar (2011). The hypotheses are tested using correlational analysis and percentile analysis. Furthermore, information regarding preventing cybercrime is provided. The results show that: 1) male students possess a greater awareness and positive insight than female students; and 2) students between the ages of 18 and 23 exhibit lower perception and awareness compared to those 24 years of age and older. The research also offers strategies for shielding B. Ed. students from cybercrime, which lowers their high vulnerability to victimization

Thakur (2018), investigated the topic of "Gender and Locale Differences in Adolescent Cyber-Crime Awareness." The study used the Rajasekhar Cyber-Crime Awareness Scale on 200 teenagers between the ages of 16 and 18. They discovered a strong correlation between gender and location in their study.

Choudhary (2020), examined the awareness of cybercrime among Haryana's higher education students in relation to a number of demographic variables. 500 students from both traditional and professional courses participated in this study. According to her findings, professional students are more aware about cyber-crime than traditional course participants, but no gender difference is found in this study.

Suvera & Tailor (2020), conducted a comparative study of male and female B. Ed. trainees on Cyber-Crime Awareness. Their paper is based on research done to examine how caste, geography, and sex affect male and female B. Ed. trainees in Gujarat's Navsari district's awareness of cybercrime. There were 360 male and female B. Ed. trainees in the sample. Using a random method, the sample was chosen in equal parts based on gender (male and female), area (rural and urban), and caste (OPEN, SEBC, and ST-SC).Cyber-Crime Awareness Scale developed by Rajshekhar (2011) was used to measure cyber-crime awareness. The data was analyzed using the "t-test." Male and female B. Ed. trainees awareness of cybercrime differs significantly. the data was analyzed using the "t-test." Male and female B. Ed. trainees' awareness of cybercrime differs significantly. The awareness of cybercrime among trainees in rural and urban areas differs significantly. Trainees in OPEN, SEBC, and ST-SC Cyber-Crime Awareness differ significantly from one another.

Statement of the Problem:

A study on Cyber-Crime Awareness among students in Chhattisgarh.

Objective:

¡  To develop basic understanding of cyber-crime and its possible dangers.

¡  To see Cyber-Crime Awareness among college students of Chhattisgarh Region.

¡  To see Cyber-Crime Awareness of college students on the basis of gender.

¡  To see Cyber-Crime Awareness of college students on the basis of locality.

Hypothesis:

1)     There would be no significant difference between male and female students on Cyber-Crime Awareness.

2)     There would be no significant difference between rural and urban students on Cyber-Crime Awareness.

Variables:

3.     Research Design:

ex-post facto research design has been used for present study.

Sampling: for data collection random sampling method was chosen. As per the objective of present study students from Pt. Ravishankar University was selected randomly. 60 students were chosen for study in which 30 were from urban area remaining 30 belongs to rural areas of Chhattisgarh, 30 were males and 30 were females.

Tool description: Cyber Crime Awareness Scale (CCAS-RS) was constructed by Dr. S. Rajasekar (2011) this scale consisted of 42 statements out of which 24 of them were positive statements and the remaining 18 were negative statements. Each statement was set against five point scale of “strongly agree”, “agree”, “undecided”, “disagree”, and “strongly disagree”. After standardization of test only 36 items were remained on the scale where 21 is positive items and 15 is negative item. The score ranges from 36 to 180. The maximum score that one can get in this is 180. Higher score indicates the high awareness on cyber-crime.

Validity: the cyber-crime awareness scale has construct validity as item were selected having the

‘t-value’ is equal to or greater than 1.75. Its intrinsic validity was found to be 0.87 and hence this scale is valid.

Reliability: the reliability of the cyber-crime awareness scale was established by the split-half method using Pearson product moment correlation this only gives the reliability of the half scale and hence the co-efficient of the reliability of the full scale was determined by using the spearman-brown prophecy formula was found to be 0.76 which is high and therefore the scale is reliable.

Norms: z-score and T-score norms have been developed for the cyber-crime awareness scale.

4.     Results:

Findings have given in table no. 1, 2 and 3.table

Objective 2: to see Cyber-Crime Awareness among college students of Chhattisgarh region.

Table no. – 1

Findings have given in table no. 2 and 3.table no. 2 shows that the mean of boys on cyber-crime awareness is 145 and for girls it is 138. The data shows mean difference between males and females but there is no significant difference (t=1.96).

Table no. 3 shows that the mean of urban students on cyber-crime awareness is 150.73 and for rural students it is 133.63. t-value is 5.05 that means there is significant difference between urban and rural students.

Objective:2 To see Cyber-Crime Awareness of college students on the basis of gender.

Hypothesis 2 There would be no significance difference between male and female students on Cyber-Crime Awareness.

Table no. 2 indicates N, mean, SD and t-value of male and female students towards cyber-crime awareness.

Objective: 3 to see Cyber-Crime awareness of college students on the basis of locality.

Hypothesis 2 there would be no significant difference between urban and rural students on cyber-crime awareness.

Table no. 3 indicates N, mean, SD, and t-value of urban and rural students.

Table no: 3- Cyber-Crime Awareness on the Basis Of Locality

                               *P<0.01 level(significant difference)

            Table no. 3 shows that the mean of urban students on cyber-crime awareness is 150.73 and for rural students it is 133.63. t-value is 5.05 that means there is significant difference between urban and rural students.

5.     Discussion:

This study is based on level of cyber-crime awareness among students our first hypothesis that there is no significant difference between male and female students on awareness is proven right but it shows that there is mean difference between male and female, males are more aware about cyber-crime and know how to prevent these threats from happening they use cyber hygiene methods to protect themselves from any possible dangerous. But this mean difference is not significant to prove that males are more aware this may be because males and females both have equal access of internet and equal knowledge opportunities has been given to them.

Our second hypothesis that there will be no significant effect of locality on cyber-crime awareness among students has been proven wrong data shows that there is significant difference between urban and rural students. Urban students are more aware about internet use than rural student this can be due to unequal opportunities or lack of proper knowledge to rural students than urban students.

These studies show similarity from previous studies. Cyber-crime can be most dangerous threats for the wellbeing of students so it is necessary to teach students about cyber security and how can they prevent any attack from internet and secure themselves from these cybercrimes.

6.     Conclusion:

In conclusion, we can assert that college students from the state of Chhattisgarh have above-average awareness of cybercrime. Out of all the students who were selected, 69% showed ordinary or above-average awareness of cybercrime. The findings indicate that being educated and technologically updated has an impact on students' awareness of cybercrime; urban students are more aware than rural pupils. However, the findings indicated that gender had no discernible impact on awareness of cybercrime.

Suggestions:

¡  Study on large sample is suggested for more accurate and generalizable results.

¡  Comparative study on the basis of study area could be done.

Reference:

Basuroy T. (2022).Number of cyber-crimes reported in India 2012- 2021.Statista retrived            fromhttps://www.statista.com/statistics/309435/india-cyber-crime- it-act/

Choudhary, D. M. (2020). Cyber Crime Awareness Among Higher Education Students From Haryana With Respect to Various Demographical Variables. PalArch’s Journal of Archaeology of Egypt / Egyptology, 17(7), Article 7.

Goel(2015).Gender and locale differences in cyber crime awareness among adolescents—ProQuest. (n.d.). Retrieved November 24, 2023, from https://www.proquest.com/openview/a68a1a11f0cb4d04c1fca1ccdbc61461/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=2032134

National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal. (2019). Retrieved November 24, 2023, from https://pib.gov.in/pib.gov.in/Pressreleaseshare.aspx?PRID=1703509

Suvera, D. P., & Tailor, P. R. (2020). Cyber-crime awareness: A comparative study of male and female B.Ed. Trainees.