Beware of the Job Offer

In recent days, several e-mail frauds offering jobs have been noticed in Tamil Nadu.  These appear to be the tip of the ice berg and there must be several hundreds in Tamil Nadu and may be thousands in India who might have lost amounts from US $ 150 to US $ 2000.

Some of these cases have been referred to the Police. However the local police are not able to take up international investigations involved in this regard since they will have to refer them to Interpol through CBI. CBI is not interested in such cases where the frauds of individual nature and values which according to them are insignificant.

The market is therefore fertile for several more such frauds unless the concerned members of the society do not take some action.

The first and foremost is to take the information about such frauds to the public through local Press and TV. I urge local press to take up this cause and provide enough publicity to such frauds so that people are alerted.

Second is to provide a "Fraud Complaint Collection Mechanism" (Naavi.org can act as the Information collection service and any person can send details to naavi@vsnl.com.

We must remember that most of these frauds may even be providing money to drug and terrorist syndicates and hence cannot be considered as ordinary crimes and people should suffer if they are ignorant enough to get themselves conned.  Details

Bob Woolmer's Murder and Cyber Forensics

The news that Bob Woolmer was  murdered by strangulation has shocked the entire world even outside the Cricket fraternity. The investigative speculation is that Bob Woolmer had been writing a book in which he would have revealed some secrets which could be embarrassing for some.

The preliminary investigations suggest that a manuscript of the book that Woolmer was writing is missing from his room. If this is true, there can be another vital evidence that the police may look for. It is unlikely that Woolmer would not have used his computer for writing the  book and hence any drafts that he might have prepared would have been prepared in the computer only. It is therefore to be expected that Woolmer's laptop needs to be forensically analysed for any existing files or deleted files .

The key to the case therefore lies in Cyber Forensics....More

World Cup Related Phishing Attacks Expected

Security Experts have warned that "phishing Attacks" amy be launched on popular World Cup sites. It has been said that the recent FIFA World Cup was used by online fraudsters to plant malicious codes bu inviting public to pseudo sites ob false pretext. Netizens are therefore warned to be careful in dealing with unknown sites. In a typical attack of this nature, one may receive an e-mail inviting the recipient to be a member of an online game or some similar activity. The e-mail may have an embedded trojan which may get installed in the user's computer if it is not properly protected with anti virus software. Also some e-mails persuade the users to install programmes for online alerts and desktop score cards etc which if executed may go pass even the normal anti virus protections. Some may install key loggers or otherwise try to steal passwords to banking accounts. Installation of a good antivirus software and a firewall is therefore the first preventive step one needs to take besides being cautious of unknown sites. It is however true that there are many genuine Worldcup related websites which would offer interesting activities that enhance the World cup enjoyment which Netizens would like to participate in. Infact it is ironic that Naavi.org known more for its Cyber Law related activities is itself running a "Naavi Cricket Rating" section during the next two months to track the performance of all the players in the world cup. Obviously, one can advise the Netizens to watch the pedigree of the site and decide when and where to place trust on web content.

Naavi calls for IT industry to participate in Cyber Security Managment

Speaking at a National seminar on Cyber Security in Bangalore organized by Computer Society of India on the theme, "Is India ready for Cyber Security?", Naavi urged IT Companies to start contributing towards building a Cyber Security Infrastructure to support Government efforts. Suggesting that "India" does not mean only the Government, he said that a CERT in private sector should be thought off as an NGO. He also raised the issue that Cyber Security cannot be achieved until the hold of "Proprietory Software" on the economy is loosened. He lamented that research organizations such as CDAC have not been in the forefront of research in developing user friendly OS and applications under Open Source. He said that neither the software nor the chips or even the routers whose internal functioning is not known can be trusted for the purpose of security.

Is India becoming a hub for Nigerian Frauds?

It is alarming to note according to this report that several rings of Nigerian Fraudsters are located in India. It is time that we step up our efforts to educate the public on such frauds. Will the Government of India be a part of the public information campaign?

Can there be news paper advertisements alerting public about such frauds? Will the IT industry contribute to such cause?..These are some questions that public should raise. ..Report in HT

Turkey Responds Where India Fails

Youtube.com has become a symbol of a global uprise in information warfare where the freedom of publishing of a video is being misused by many to denigrate people of repute. While the Indian Government has failed to take action against Youtube.com when Mahatma Gandhi is being ridiculed, A Court in Turkey has ordered banning of Youtube.com for carrying  a video deemed insulting to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.

YouTube faced a court-ordered national ban in Brazil for several days in January after footage of a model cavorting in the sea with her lover kept reappearing on the site. In the Turkey case, You tube has now confirmed that it has already removed the content. It must be noted that regarding the objections raised by India on Youtube carrying videos derogatory to Mahatma Gandhi, Youtube has not taken any preventive action. Perhaps it is waiting for a court verdict in India. related article

Google Faces Domain Name Challenge in China

Google has been challenged in China in respect of domain names gmail.cn. It appears that Google has failed to register the name in the sunrise period and has allowed an ISP in China to register the name. If so, it would be interesting to see the legal battle since it may settle the issue of companies deliberately failing to register the name when an opportunity is available and challenge the registration subsequently. Report in ciol.com

Can a Website be declared a Protected System?

Section 70 of ITA-2000 had provided for the "Appropriate Government" to declare any system by Gazette notification as a "Protected system". The reasoning behind such an enabling provision was to make "Attempt to access" an offence punishable under the Act. Knowing that the punishment under the section could be a maximum of 10 years, it was envisaged that this section would be used sparingly. Also if the State Government has to draw powers under the Act for any aspect, it has to be under Section 90.  It would be necessary for " The appropriate Government may, by order in writing, authorise the persons who are authorised to access protected systems notified under sub-section (1)"

It appears that some State Governments have been using the section lightly and using it to declare every computer used in the Government office as a "Protected System". (This  is evident from the TN order.which declares even the Websites as "Protected System" and making every Netizen who accesses the website as a potential offender.). Also the order does not fully meet with the requirements of Section 70 read with Section 90 for it to be a valid order if questioned.

In order to clarify on this point and to avoid such frivolous notifications, the new ITA 2006 has suggested that only such computers "which  directly or indirectly affects the facility of Critical Information Infrastructure" can be declared as  a protected system.". Accordingly, only those computers "the incapacitation or destruction of which shall have debilitating impact on national security, economy, public health or safety" can be declared as "Protected Systems".

Hopefully the amendment would prevent orders such as one referred to earlier which are against the legal intention.

Mashelkar Report on Patents Withdrawn

One must congratulate Dr Mashelkar for his bold stand to withdraw his committee's report on TRIPS in-compatibility of Pharma patent system in India based on the criticism that the report had been a reflection of an industry sponsored report. The report will now be re written. We have to wait and see if this means a relook at the recommendations itself or a mere re drafting of the report with the same conclusions. Either way it reflects the quality of such reports and how the expert committees are manipulated by vested interested. In the Cyber Law regime, we have seen how the ITA-2000 is sought to be diluted to  reduce the responsibilities of the intermediarie. Unfortunately, in this case the lack of understanding of the implications by a larger section of the society has enabled the report to be accepted by the Union Cabinet and converted into a bill which is likely to be passed soon.   Report in BS