HYDERABAD: The terms ‘doxxing, sextortion, cyber flashing, cyber bullying’ may be alien to a sizeable chunk of the population, but for the victims, these terms mean horror.
Agencies working to curb cyber crime say that these are modus operandi of cyber criminal and their prey are mostly women and children. The Information Security Education and Awareness (ISEA) working under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), has recently released a handbook detailing the difference modus operandi and how to protect oneself from them. The handbook, titled “Modus Operandi of cyber offences”, can be downloaded from https://www.infosecawareness. in/ handbooks.
Women are more prone to gender or sexual bias and children who are naive in their approach are more vulnerable to cyber crimes. Lack of digital awareness and knowledge to take the support of the law enforcing authorities, in case of victimisation, in the cyber world is a major challenge.
According to ISEA, the handbook is intended to help women and children by providing an insight into various cyber offences and also tips to avoid them. It also helps them gain information related to digital protective measures and the legal mechanism in place, and how to tackle the specific cyber crimes that they are most vulnerable to. In doxxing, the culprit manages to gather the personal identifiable information of the victim likemobile number, personal address, personal email etc.
Accusing the victim with false accusations, they share the victim’s private information online. They also instigate users online to harass and troll the victim based on these accusations, out of personal grudge. As a result, the victim faces harassing calls, messages, posts, emails, etc., and suffers public humiliation. In cyber flashing, the victims receive WhatsApp video calls or an airdrop message on their iPhone, showing the private parts of the caller. The person may capture the victim’s image and blackmail them for money. The handbooks also focuses on fake social media profiles, cyber stalking, online trolling, sexting, revenge pornography, online hate crimes, morphing, sexual abuse while live streaming, child pornography and online grooming.