Indian Banks Closed by Technological Incompetance

April 30:  Over the last few weeks there have been an alarming increase in the number of disruptions in the Indian Banks due to failure of technology. ...It was observed that recently Indian Overseas Bank was literally closed for four days with further disruptions on subsequent days . This was not due to any cyber terrorism but because the Bank  tried to migrate the server to a new place and the system had compatibility issues. State Bank of India and State Bank of Mysore also are reported to have had two to three days disruptions in Bangalore recently for more or less similar reasons. Now for the last few days Corporation Bank is experiencing similar down time....More

Video Rights of Harbhajan Singh Slapping Sreeshant in IPL venue

April 28: The bizarre incident of Harbhajan Singh reportedly punching/slapping Sreeshant has raised many issues on Cricketer's discipline. Simultaneously, it has brought to focus the issue of "Video Rights" as well. ....It must be noted that circumstantial evidence suggests that a criminal assault took place on the stadium (a public place) which had been under the control of BCCI  at the time of the incident. The Police have to therefore take cognizance and file a case under IPC. The main accused would be Bhajji and there would be vicarious liability on BCCI as the organizer under whose control the incident was allowed to happen.

By withholding the video from publication, BCCI is preventing Police from accessing evidence of a criminal act and are therefore committing a punishable offence under CrPc.  ....We urge some public spirited organization in Mumbai to initiate a judicial proceeding to force Police to take action mandated in law... Details

EU to Curb Promotion of Terrorism on Internet

April 22: It is reported that a meeting of the justice ministers of EU has  agreed that using the Internet to publish bomb recipes or call for acts of terrorism to be committed should count as a criminal offence. They have agreed to introduce  law to recognize  "public provocation to commit a terrorist offence, recruitment, and training for terrorism" which would be punishable "also when committed through the Internet." as a new kind of offence ...Report

In the Indian Context, IPC defined crimes are already extended to Internet based activities and hence no specific law may be required. However, since GOI is trying to introduce the clause on "Cyber Terrorism" in the proposed amendments to ITA 2000, it may be possible to ensure appropriate explanations to be introduced in ITA 2000 to bring such offences under ITA 2000.

In view of the  interpretation in certain quarters of law enforcement that c offences  not specifically covered under sections of  ITA 2000 donot come under their investigative jurisdiction and the consequent failure to provide protection to the citizens against Cyber Crimes it may be worthwhile to introduce a fresh clause in ITA 2000 Amendment Bill 2006 to the effect that

"All offences under any other Act in India committed with the use of Electronic Documents or where an Electronic Document is a target of the offence will be deemed to be also offences under this Act with the same quantum of punishments as proposed in the respective Acts. Such offences will also be deemed to be contraventions for the purpose of Section 43 of this Act "

Comments are welcome

Privacy Rights Over ridden by Copyright?

April 18: There is an ongoing attempt in India to amend the Copyright Law to be in tune with the DMCA of USA. In this connection IPR watchers would remember that one of the provisions of DMCA which threatens the IT Community is the provision regarding "Contributory Infringement" according to which certain actions by the IT community such as development of software, re-engineering of software for compatibility or security consideration etc could be considered as "Infringement". In this context it is interesting to note that the proposed amendments to Copyright law in India is expected to have the following clause.

Section 65(A) (2) : " Nothing in sub-section (1) shall prevent any person from ...

(e) doing  anything  necessary to circumvent technological measures intended for identification or surveillance of a user.."

Does this mean that "Privacy Invasion" through "Surveillance of a user" would be permitted?..

This question has relevance to the case where insertion of a code in the DVD by SONY for such purpose  raised a big opposition in USA and culminated in SONY withdrawing the DVDs from the market. It also has relevance to Microsoft's practice of introducing codes that monitors and reports on the activities of the user without his permission.

Privacy protectionists should explore the said provision of the proposed amendments to the Copyright law and act in time to prevent it from getting into the statute. Comments are welcome

Searching for Solution to The threat of Cyber Crimes

April 15: Business Entities have of late been realizing that threats from Cyber Space have increased beyond the critical point where they can either be ignored or covered as a normal business loss. As Cyber Crime is getting more and more targeted towards financial benefits, the CEOs need to realize that "Cyber Extortions" are a reality. The "Internet Underground Mafia" is developing on the  successful model of the physical world where extortionists have donned the robe of "Protectionists", "Politicians" and compromised law enforcement through threats, corruption and other illegal means.

If Netizens don't wake up and claim their "Right to Protection", they will soon be reduced to the sorry state of their citizen counterparts and become helpless observers of the erosion of the society. Detailed Story Here

 

Responsibilities of Bankers for Online Frauds

April 12: Increasing Phishing and other kinds of financial frauds have opened up a debate on the liabilities of Bankers for the losses suffered by their clients due to the frauds. In India the liability depends on whether the Bank can be considered to have exercised "Due Diligence" or not. Presently, Banks are transacting under Password access security system where as the law stipulates that the authentication of an electronic document should be with the use of digital signatures. Bankers are however consciously absorbing the risk in conducting the Banking transactions with Password based access system. Hence they would be liable for any loss to a customer arising out of the password theft etc. The situation is similar in US where the normal banking norm is to give an option to the Customer to dispute a debit within a reasonable time. UK appears to be taking a slightly harder line with the announcement of a Banking code where the users are being made responsible for not using certain common security norms.

There will be a discussion in India also if such a Code is required. Before jumping to follow the UK norms instead of the more customer friendly US norms it is necessary for us to also debate if the security norms used by Indian Banks is at the same level as that of the UK Banks.

Naavi.org strongly feels that without the PKI enabling of Banking transactions in India, no self imposed guidelines should be considered as sufficient due diligence. Also the security norms which are intended to be imposed under the likes of the UK Banking Code should be brought in through a "Cyber Crime Insurance Process" to the Bank's customers rather than as a "Fine Print Disclaimer" in the Accoutn Opening form. Related Article

Cyber Crimes in India increase 50 times in 3 years !

April 8: According to a CERT report, 392 cases of Phishing, 223 of network probing and 358 of virus propagation were recorded in 2007. In 2007, it tracked 5,863 Indian websites that had been defaced by international hackers. It also tracked 1,805 open proxy servers that facilitate anonymous browsing. The agency also detected over 25,000 bot-infected systems. According to CERT, it recorded only 23 cyber security-related incidents in 2004 compared to a whopping 1,237 in 2007.

Blackboard  Patent Rejected?

April 2:  It is reported that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a preliminary decision that rejects  44 claims Blackboard Inc. made regarding the controversial patent it was granted for an online-learning system. The patent in dispute involves a course-management system in which a single user with a single log-on could have multiple roles in multiple classes. For example, someone who was a student in one course and a teaching assistant in another could log on once and get different levels of access to all the course materials. Report in chronicle.com

Online CAT poses Security Challenge

April 1: The prestigious CAT (Common Admission Test) in which lakhs of students participate each year in India seeking admission to Management courses in IIM and other institutions is set to go online from  next year. According to the plans made public examinations will be conducted in batches within a certain time and results may be announced together. The move to take the examination online is an inevitable development and is therefore welcome. However the importance of the examination indicates that the security threats to the fair conduct of the online examination is a reality. The threat risks should therefore be not only countered by proper measures but also should be audited under the Techno Legal perspective to retain the confidence of the student community on the examinations.... More.. TOI Report