Social media more addictive than alcohol

A new study has found that checking email andsocial media is more addictive than cigarettesand alcohol. 

US researchers who carried out an experiment to test the will power of 205 people, aged 18 to 85, in the German city of Wurtzburg found that most of them were more likely to give in to urge to tweet or check email than other cravings likedrinking or smoking. 

Desires for media may be comparatively harder to resist because of their high availability and also because it feels like it does not 'cost much' to engage in these activities, even though one wants to resist...
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Vodafone - World's Largest Mobile Telecom Company Under Cyber Attack

Hackers have targeted the world's largest mobile telecommunications company  Vodafone. A hacker named THA Disastar from The Hackers Army has breached the security of vodafone Germany, Australia, Italy, Portugal, Denmark, Romania, Turkey, and Czech Republic. The hacker has released a pastebincontaining all the credentials which he has stolen such as customer login details, Online portal, Broadband service, web-mail and so on. Here are some screen shots submitted by the hacker:


Not only Vodafone, earlier THA Disastar has hacked the official website of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Karnataka, President of Guyana. Before that Tha Disastar has hacked and defaced the anonyops.com. 
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4 Indian Govt. Websites Hacked By XtReMiSt (MLA)

After remaining silent for a while yet again a dangerous hacker of Muslim Liberation Army namedXtReMiSt strikes again. As expected he again targeted high profile sites of India. In this attack he has successfully hacked and defaced four Indian Govt. websites and they are Vasantrao Naik State Agricultural Extension Management Training Institute, Department of Sericulre (Maharashtra State), Lepakshi | Andhra Pradesh Handicrafts Development Corporation Ltd, Official website OF NVSRO SHILLONG.

List of Hacked Sites:- 

http://www.vanamati.gov.in/

http://www.mahasilk.gov.in/

http://www.lepakshihandicrafts.gov.in/

http://nvsroshillong.gov.in/

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Scamsters using I-T Dept website to dupe people: experts

Cyber experts have warned Internet users of phishing scamsters who are luring people with government domain names and sending unscrupulous e-mails to collect financial and personal information.
Mail boxes of people are being hit by an e-mail sent from "ref.init@incometaxindia.gov.in", informing them of a tax refund pending with the department which can be collected by entering their financial and bank-related information by clicking on a given hyperlink in the mail. The Income Tax Department's web link also has the address "www.incometaxindia.gov.in." which gives the scamsters' email a genuine image and even prompts people to share the information.

According to private cyber security firm XCySS, such e-mails show that the department had not properly secured its server.

Mukesh Saini, chairman of the firm, said, "It seems that the website has an open proxy domain which allows anyone to assume the name of the Income Tax Department domain and send mails from it and it can be changed if the mandarins of the department instruct their service providers". If someone received an e-mail or found a website to be pretending of the I-T Dept, the e-mail or website URL could be forwarded to phishing@incometaxindia.gov.in with a copy to incident@cert-in.org.in.

"This is a very serious mistake on part of the I-T Dept and service providers which are maintaining their servers. There are some settings which need to be done in the the server on which the web site of the department of hosted," Saini said.

According to Saini, a former Naval commander, open proxy can be misused for sending notices, if not phishing messages, and extortions can be made by unscrupulous elements.

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Man uploads obscene images of colleague after she ends relationship

The Andhra Pradesh police have arrested a man for allegedly opening a fake Facebook account of his former woman colleague and publishing obscene pictures.

T Satish, an engineer working with an MNC in Bangalore, was arrested on Thursday and officials of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) seized a laptop and a hard-disk from his possession, used for uploading allegedly obscene images of the victim.

Satish confessed that he and the victim used to work together in Hyderabad and had become good friends. Satish had, taking advantage of his friendship with the victim, blackmailed her into giving her approval to their marriage. He hacked her email account and transmitted her obscene pictures to the contact list. He also created a fake Facebook account of hers and published her obscene pictures and sent the same to her friends and relatives....

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MR held for uploading obscene videos on Facebook

NAGPUR: A medical representative (MR), father of a minor son, was arrested by MIDC police station for allegedly uploading obscene videos of his girlfriend on her Facebook profile and sharing it with all her friends.

Ajay Gajbhiye, a resident of Kunjilalpeth on Rameshwari road, said he uploaded the videos after the girl, a second year dental student, forced him to end their relationship. When the girl contacted social networking professionals to delete the account, Gajbhiye made two fake accounts in her name and uploaded the videos again.

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Tweaking names is cyber fraudsters’ new game

HYDERABAD: Hoping to bring about a change in their lives, people often take to numerology and add or delete an alphabet from their names. Strange as it might seem, cyber fraudsters are using the same formula to divert lakhs of rupees to foreign countries. Two such cases were reported in the city recently. 


import and export businessman Subhash Chandra (name changed) from Hyderabad, was intimated by his client that one lakh euros was transferred to his account online. When Subhas Chandra checked his account, theamount was not credited......


The fraud was executed from Nigeria and the money was transferred to Europe. The fraudsters usually access e-mail IDs of those businessmen who post it on their company's website..... 


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Nigerian 'kingpin' arrested in multi-crore online banking fraud

KOLKATA: Beware before clicking a mail sent by any unknown person. You could be a victim of 'sphygmograph' - a hi-tech e-fraud - and within days fraudsters may empty your bank account.

Investigators say that Felix, who has been in India since 2006, is one of the masterminds of the racket which has swindled crores of rupees from people in the last year alone.

The scamsters used to send lucrative mails randomly across the country. The mails could be in different forms. You could get a job offer from a multinational company. Or a lottery or even a greetings. When a recipient clicked on the mail, a Trojan virus would penetrate their system.

It remains dormant when the victim logs out of the mail account. When he logs back in, the virus starts copying every stroke on the keyboard and the details of the mail and sends to the mother server operated by the fraudsters. Soon after getting the copied details, the fraudsters start monitoring the victim's mail. If he logs into his bank account online to check his balance, the racketeers get every detail, including the password. If the victim's account balance is lucrative then transfer the money to another account opened in a fictitious name.....

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Indian kids most bullied on cyberspace

Three out of 10 parents in India say their children have been victims of cyberbullying and a majority of them through social networking sites like Facebook.


The survey done by Ipsos - a global market research company - found that 45 percent of Indian parents believed a child in their community was being cyberbullied, while a majority (53 percent) parents are aware of the issue.

Cyberbullying is when a child or group of children -- under the age of 18 -- intentionally intimidate, offend, threaten or embarrass another child or group of kids specifically through the use of information technology, such as a website or chat room on internet, a cellular telephone or another mobile device. 
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Beware of phishing scams during tax season

As tax season approaches, everyone is preparing and gathering information. With all of the important personal documents circulating, be careful not to allow others access to that information.

When tax time comes around, crooks follow. A big problem this time of year is phishing e-mails. Scammers use the phony messages in attempts to obtain personal information.....

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RBI warns about scam mails

RBI has issued another warning about scam e-mails & SMSs, and has asked people to stay away from such messages. 

E-mails, usually from foreign countries, claiming you have won a lottery prize worth millions of dollars, seeking your account details for verification, are old hat. RBI itself has been the target of scamsters who have used its name in a fake e-mail asking people for personal details for verification. RBI never asks for these details through e-mail..... 
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Man gets 1-yr jail for defaming ex-wife

HYDERABAD: A computer instructor, who reportedly posted objectionable images of his former wife on the internet, was awarded one-year imprisonment by the VIth additional chief metropolitan magistrate, Nampally court, on Thursday. This is the first conviction in a cyber crime case in the state since the Information Technology Act became operational. 
30-year-old Sanaulla Faisal, a resident of Kilwat, after getting a divorce in 2003, started posting his former wife's nude photographs on various sites.
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Increased the students who were victims of bullying to the Internet

An interesting study reveals that 28.3% of Greek students have fallen victim "kyvernoekfovismou" (cyberbullying), while 14.6% admitted to have been "terrified" other.

The survey was conducted by the Greek Society for the Study of Internet Addiction Disorder and Prevention Center OKANA Kos.

Even according to the findings, girls are more often victims of bullying on the Internet, while boys are more often perpetrators. The phenomena of cyberbullying (usually through a social network, email and forum) is particularly high in the world and their consequences are particularly harmful to child psychology and performance in school.....

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Facebook hopes to re-friend China despite censors

As Facebook prepares to go public it has its sights on China, where the social media titan is blocked, but analysts say its chances of re-entering the market of half a billion Internet users are slim. 

Facebook, which has more than 800 million users around the world, is the leading social network in all but six countries, notably Russia, where local rivals are preferred, and China, where it has been banned for years. 

Beijing blocked Facebook along with micro-blogging site Twitter after blaming it for fanning social unrest in the northwestern region of Xinjiang in 2009, though many web users access the site via virtual proxy networks. 

Prior to the ban, web users in China enjoyed uncensored access to Facebook.... 
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Nigerians use IPL name to run fake lottery scam

An organised gang of ‘phishing’ fraudsters, with no connection to the game of cricket per se, and being run by four Nigerians from two south Delhi flats, found a unique use for the popular IPL franchise.
Chukwulota, 33, and Benjamin, 35, had cheated several victims on the pretext of a bogus, non-existent lottery by sending fake text and email messages with official logos of the International Cricket Council (DLF-IPL).

The gang had misused the official logos of DLF-IPL, the Mumbai International Airport, the Airport Authority of India, the Ministry of Finance, the Central Board of Excise and Customs and even the United Nations (UN) to allure victims.

The gang used to send text messages or emails at random claiming that the victim had won a certain amount in the IPL lottery or a similar scheme and asked them to send personal details to their UK office...

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‘Impossible to censor social media’

Supporting the internet giants like Google and Facebook, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has said that internet is so far away from us to expect to censor it. He does not agree with this whole thing about Google and Facebook being called to censor everything. 

He said that he too has faced ‘mindless abuse’ by unidentified people on his Twitter account. 


The CM favored self-regulation in the social media, saying it is impossible to censor everything in the web. Omar said, “Some amount of self-regulation is needed in the social media where you get the worst kind of abuses by anonymous people......


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Audit firms involved in scams face heavy fines

Jail up to 10 years and fines up to three times the scam amount await chartered accountants and audit firms found guilty in corporate frauds. Audit firms, including the global Big 4 - Pricewaterhouse, KPMG, Deloitte and Ernst & Young - for the first time face punitive action, closure of business and stiff penalties for financial frauds as the government proposes a stricter regime to check scams and irregularities......


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Wikileaks.org Hacked By Sec Indi Security Team

Sec Indi Security Team strikes again. This time also they have maintained their class. If you dig the history you will find that this group has already made thier influence in the cyber space. Earlier they have found SQL-i vulnerability on the official website of US Senate, also they have hacked the Admin panel of famous Indian website click India. Now they have targeted Wikileaks official website. And as expected they have found a Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in wikileaks website. ......


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Don't be a victim of cyber crime

Searching online for a good bargain to snatch an iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy S2? A good number of Internet users regularly visit online retailers to find out prices, features and discounts. Surveys have shown that e-commerce in India has picked up even in rural areas. Convenience, ease and great deals on offer have resulted in a spurt in online shopping. This is good news for retailers.

Unfortunately, it's good news for hackers too. As online shopping becomes the most preferred method for purchasing items, online shoppers will also become the most preferred cybercriminal targets. Hackers have already devised many tricks to lure online shoppers into the game.

It all starts the moment you enter key search phrases like “cheap deals for smartphones” or “best mobile phone deals”. The same goes for cheap holiday packages. Online security solutions firms say that if you have clicked on certain links and answered a few queries online, you probably might have given out details of your credit card or online banking PINs.

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British headmaster of Bangalore school held for sending vulgar messages to boy student

Paul Francis Meekan, the British headmaster of Trio World School in Kodigehalli, was arrested on Saturday for allegedly sending vulgar messages through a social networking website to one of his boy students. 


"The accused used to frequently call my son to his chamber and talk about sex. He used to force my son to share his views on the subject. He posted sexual remarks on my son's social networking website account," the victim's parents said in a statement to the police....... 


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