Has Sri Lanka worked out effective ways of fighting computer crime? - An analysis in respect of investigations under the Computer Crime Act of 2007

Abstract

"Adapt yourself to the changes in the world". This is the natural rule of the world. In the light of this rule, countries of the world have accepted the revolution of technology. Information technology has entered people's lives in the past few decades. Sri Lanka is not an exception to these changes; we can witness main areas of the Information Technology in Sri Lanka such as e-commerce, intellectual property, computer evidence and forensic issues. Trends are developing to shift the nature of crimes from traditional to hi-tech. Therefore, the computer has become a tool for committing the crime. This paper examines to what extent the steps are taken so far have been effective in fighting computer crimes in Sri Lanka. The research questions are: Has Sri Lanka worked out effective ways of fighting computer crimes? To what extent are legal provisions of investigations helpful in protecting citizens from computer crimes? This paper focuses on the Computer crimes in Sri Lanka and its implementation. Therefore this paper mainly discusses the investigations under the Computer Crimes Act No 24 of 2007 and its components and loopholes. This paper adopts certain analytical methods in approaching this issue. According to the Computer Crimes Act of Sri Lanka, "Computer Crime" is used to cover all crimes and frauds that are connected with or related to computer and information technology. In addition, Sections 15 to 24 in part II of this act contain the law on investigations. Even though we have provisions on computer crimes and investigations, there are practical problems with the existing law. Further, different countries have adopted different policies on cybercrimes and cybercrime investigations which have been left out in our Act. At the moment we may not have countless victims affected by computer crime except traditional offences, it is our duty to take precautionary measures regarding this issue and take serious concern on investigations of computer crimes and cybercrimes.