India is in a state of denial on cyber security: Kamlesh Bajaj

Kamlesh Bajaj, former government servant and now CEO of the Data Security Council of India (DSCI), tells Aditi Phadnis that India must beware another attack on its cyber security and suggests ways in which this can be countered.
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Online impostor held for harassing woman

A Najibabad resident has been arrested for harassing a woman on social networking sites, threatening her and blackmailing her family after befriending her under a fake ID on Facebook and Orkut.
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Karunakaran said the woman started avoiding Akram on learning he was an impostor but he pestered her to marry him. When she refused, he made fake profiles of her on these sites and posted false and offensive information, even disclosing the woman's mobile number. Thereafter, he informed the woman's mother and other relatives about the profile through electronic means. He met the mother and blackmailed her to pay Rs 5 lakh, if she did not want the complainant to be disgraced or become the victim of an acid or blade attack.
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India to widen scope of cyber-security coordinator

India is to widen the scope of its cyber-security coordinator in the wake of incendiary Internet data that swept the country earlier this month and forced an exodus of northeastern people from Pune and Bangalore, although a senior official said that there is no move to take up the issue with Pakistan.

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India has also reiterated a demand made three years ago to toughen cyber laws to prevent such hate campaigns, the official said.

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India to appoint a cyber security controller in National Security Council

Waking up to the new threat of cyber jehad, India has decided to appoint a cyber security controller in the National Security Council.

Official sources confirmed that the recent incident of morphed images being uploaded on a mass scale to create panic in parts of India; has got the Indian Government in a situation where it has to learn on the job.

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NTRO was missing from govt's initial bid to block inflammatory web content

As the security establishment was scrambling to contain fake and inflammatory messages spreading across the internet that contributed to violence and exodus of thousands, one agency was conspicuous by its absence in the crucial initial phase: the intelligence agency that is supposed to counter such cyber crises.

In a bizarre twist to the government's response earlier this month to contain India's first real cyber challenge, the National Technical Research Organization (NTRO) was completely absent from the operation in the initial phase.
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On August 14, the Centre had issued a nation-wide alert about safety of northeast origin people, and by August 17, it had imposed stiff restrictions on SMSs and MMSs over mobile phones. On August 18, the home ministry had forwarded the first list of internet sites and URLs to be blocked.

There were 75 websites and URLs on the first list given to CERT-IN (Computer Emergency Response Team-India) for blocking. Almost all of them were identified by the Intelligence Bureau and some probably by the Research and Analysis Wing. Not one of them was provided by NTRO.
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The absence of NTRO in the critical initial phase fits into the larger lack of clarity within the security establishment over countering inflammatory messages on the web. The initial rush to block websites and Twitter handles led to widespread uproar against India's intolerance towards internet freedom.
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Power grids easy meat for cyber rogues

NEW DELHI: India's power systems could be vulnerable to crippling cyber attacks on a scale that can have serious implications for national security and economy, an enquiry into the July 30-31 grid collapse that grabbed global attention has said.

Although cyber attacks have been ruled out in last month's grid collapse, destabilization of the energy sector could lead to a "cascading effect on national security and economy. It points out that main vulnerabilities are in transmission and distribution sectors.
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A well-delivered cyber assault can disrupt services to critical users like hospitals and metro rail systems and such an attack may choose to target distribution where the bulk of automation is evident.
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Winning Cyber Battles Without Fighting

In military operations, good leaders never make a move without the best available intelligence and a strong sense of situational awareness. To do otherwise is tantamount to flying blind, something a good pilot or business leader should avoid.

Unfortunately, too many leaders of industry and commerce seem to be flying blind in today’s cyber domain.

“The Cyber-readiness Reality Check,” an independent survey recently commissioned by the company, CounterTack, Inc., reveals that more than one-third of cyber security executives at companies with revenues greater than $100 million are unable to see an attack once it finds its way inside the perimeter of their systems.

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The problem is exacerbated when senior leadership defers to the IT department in all matters pertaining to information security. “That’s our CIO’s responsibility,” is a comment often heard when speaking with senior and chief executives about cyber defense.

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While IT security departments certainly must bear responsibility, the executive leader at the top of any organization should understand and take ownership of the problem if security is to have a fighting chance of attaining the resources needed for effective self-defense.

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Pakistan plans bigger cyber attack?

A highly-classified government report on the recent incident of what has been described as the worst cyber attack on the country has said that it should not be treated as an 'isolated incident' as this exercise was not merely aimed at spreading communal hatred, but also to test the effectiveness of network of 'modules and sleeper cells' of subversive outfits in states like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Kerala.

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Outfits like the Jamaat-e-Islami, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, Simi and Indian Mujahideen are already on the watch list of intelligence agencies for spreading communally-sensitive messages and pictures that triggered a massive exodus of people from the Northeast.

Intelligence agencies in their report have warned that outfits like HuJI, Indian Mujahideen, Simi and even the PFI have a formidable network in southern India and have 'increased their support base manifold' in the last few yeas in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

Thus, the report adds, this incident should be treated as a warning signal to sensitise security agencies to launch a massive offensive against these groups in the affected states.

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Targeted cyber attacks aimed at critical infrastructure

The trend we’ve seen until now is that targeted attacks use customised malware and refined targeted social engineering to gain unauthorised access to sensitive information. However, cyber criminals are increasingly targeting critical sectors including energy for mass destruction, say industry players.
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Symantec has identified a new series of targeted attacks, dubbed the Shamoon attacks, where critical infrastructure including power is coming under threat. According to the global security service provider’s July 2012 intelligence report, during the first half of the year, the total number of daily targeted attacks continued to increase at a minimum rate of 24 per cent with an average of 151 threats being blocked each day during May and June.

The report also states that globally the defence industry has been the biggest target in the first half of the year, with an average of 7.3 attacks per day.

India may not be immune to the global trend. After all, we became the top spam-sending nation during the first quarter of 2012. The country contributed to about 20 per cent of the globe’s total spam volume followed by Indonesia (13 per cent), South Korea (12 per cent), and Russia (10 per cent).
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Cyber criminals are abandoning spam emails only to resort to other more lucrative means such as targeted attacks.
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Balance Internet freedom with national security: US to India

The United States advised India to ensure Internet freedom while seeking to preserve national security, as the Indian government asked social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter to check pages carrying inflammatory messages.

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The general principle of respect for freedom of expression, respect for the unique characteristics of the online environment, needs to be respected, even as they work through whether there are things these companies can do to help calm the environment..........

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Living with the reality of virtual threats

The recent revelations of Pakistan-based websites unleashing doctored pictures of alleged atrocities against Muslims in order to inflame passions in India has once again drawn attention to the enormous potential of the Information Age to challenge our security assumptions.

The computer is the instrument of our age; cyberspace is the oxygen of the internet. So much in our interconnected, globalised, and technologically advancing world depends on cyberspace.

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To a layman, cyber security means simple things: a password that is not stolen, a message that remains confidential, a child that is not exposed to a stalker or paedophile online. When they type in a web address, that is where they should go and not to a spam site. When they click a link that looks genuine, they should not be cheated by a plausible fraud. Their work online should not be tampered with, and so on……………..

THREATS to cyberspace

The international relations theorist Joseph Nye has discerned four different types of threats to cyberspace. The most dramatic is Cyber War — the unauthorised invasion by a government into the systems or networks of another, aiming to disrupt those systems, to damage them partially, or to destroy them entirely.

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Second threat is Cyber Espionage. Governments can invade the systems of their rivals to steal sensitive information that would be useful for their own purposes. These attacks are usually hard to discover and the case of Operation Shady RAT, the world’s biggest hacking ever, is rather phenomenal.

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Cyber Crime is the third kind of threat, and the most familiar. While this also has military and political implications, it affects the lives of ordinary Internet users more closely………………...

Cyber Crime also includes pornography, Internet stalking, and personality imitation.

Finally there is Cyber Terrorism. This includes websites spreading extremist propaganda, recruiting terrorists, planning attacks, and otherwise promoting terrorists’ political and social objectives………

Social networking websites are also increasingly becoming targets, not only because of the massive databases they provide, but also in order to spread malware that infect computers. On Facebook there are 50 million Indian users and even if a small fraction of them click unsuspectingly on a malevolent but seemingly ordinary link, you have that many computers opened up to risk and infection.

Another use of social networks, seen recently in India, is to spread inflammatory material with a motivated agenda, such as the doctored pictures of alleged atrocities against Muslims in Assam and Myanmar that incited violence in Mumbai and threats of retaliation elsewhere. Though this does not constitute cyber terrorism in itself, it constitutes a new security threat that cannot be ignored.

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India’s own style of dealing with cyber threats leaves much to be desired. It is relatively chaotic and there is a constant insecurity that our cyber-defences are insufficient.

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21-year-old Goan kills himself after MMS clip goes viral

A 21-year-old in Goa has killed himself after an MMS that featured him with his girlfriend went viral.

The police says that Arjun Mainkar from a village in North Goa, hanged himself on August 5 . His suicide note says that his girlfriend's family had allegedly threatened to harm his sister as revenge for the MMS.
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After the MMS was allegedly shot by Arjun, his family as well as his girlfriend's had decided that the couple should get married.

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‘Govt’s Internet crackdown needs to be transparent’

As the government cracks down on websites and social networks that it says are responsible for posting inflammatory and hateful content that led to a mass exodus of people from North-eastern states from south Indian cities, online activists are decrying the lack of transparency with which the government is blocking websites and content.

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“The debate on social media diverts the attention from the issue at hand. While the spotlight is on the role of Twitter,Facebook, SMS and MMS in making people flee Bangalore, there is hardly any discussion on the socio-economic conditions of north-eastern people living in South India. Social media solely cannot be blamed for the events in Britain, Arab or India, said Commander Mukesh Saini (retired), a cyber security expert.

“Misinformation on social media itself cannot become into a monster unless supplemented with some real world information”, he said.

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Will work with social media to prevent misuse of technology: Sibal

Admitting to difficulties in identifying people using websites to spread communal hatred, the government today said it was working with social networking sites to create an institutional mechanism to prevent misuse of technology.

Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said some social networking websites have agreed to share user information with the government but there were some procedural issues involved.

 “We have to make efforts in consultation with the websites and impress upon them to create an institutional mechanism to prevent misuse of technology. If there was misuse of technology there should be provision for punishment, Sibal said adding no such provisions were available at present.”

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With social media curbs, govt is barking up the wrong tree

The most striking thing about the government’s latest efforts to clamp down on social media platforms and block websites, ostensibly to spike rumour-mongering of the sorts we saw last week, is the extent to which it has the enthusiastic support of many in the mainstream media.

The government has thus far blocked 254 websites on the grounds that they bore inflammatory messages that contributed to the fear psychosis among people from the north-east and triggered their ‘exodus’ from some of India’s cities.

The government has additionally threatened to take legal action against Twitter, evidently because it has “refused to cooperate” in the crackdown on web sites with inflammatory messages. Facebook and YouTube are, on the other hand, cooperating with the government and, according to the Telecom Secretary, have validated the government’s claim that many of these inflammatory messages were uploaded from Pakistan.

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Yet, in attempting to clamp down on social media platforms like Twitter, the government may be resorting too readily to the censorship instinct, and worse channelling its energies in entirely the wrong direction. In this particular instance, it may be barking up the wrong tree.

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4 held for sending provocative SMS

The cyber crime cell of the Pune police arrested four men late on Monday night for allegedly circulating provocative SMSs in the city regarding the violence in Burma that led to attacks on students from the northeast in the city last week.
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The SMS and a doctored MMS purportedly about the violence in Burma are suspected to have triggered a string of attacks on people from northeast living in the city, forcing many to leave for their home states.
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Do Indian Enterprises have Legal Remedies for Cyber Crime?

Enterprises in India are in the forefront when it comes to offering cloud and mobile apps to their employees in online banking, retail, manufacturing and many other sectors. However, these companies are profoundly unprepared and mostly unaware of the mobile app threats lurking in app stores. These enterprises are also victims of large data thefts and various other cyber crimes. However, most of them are left with the only option of revamping their IT systems, and hardly any of them take up the matter legally. The million-dollar question is — does our country have a proper legal framework to assist enterprises against cyber crime.
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Centre, Twitter in face-off over PMO parody accounts

The government and popular social media site Twitter are locked in a confrontation over half-a-dozen accounts that the Centre feels "misrepresent" the Prime Minister's Office but which the web-based platform has so far refused to shut down.

The clash over the accounts is playing out at a time when the government has also asked social media to remove sites posting incendiary and untrue information on the Assam riots and its fallout. On this count, too, Twitter hosts certain pages found to be objectionable.
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China to trigger electricity crisis in India?

China could carry out a cyber attack against India with the help of computer hardware and spare parts, according to a report by intelligence agencies. The agencies further believe that China would become an expert in such stealth attacks by 2017. 

According to the intelligence agencies, an extractor tool used in the production of electricity is imported from China and two such companies involved in the import of the equipment are already under the scanner. 

The agencies believe that China could use its equipment to create hurdles in India’s development march in the near future. An electricity crisis could be the result of such a design and has the capability to slow down Indian economy.
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Social media becoming double-edged sword

The online hate campaign targeting people from the northeast has put the spotlight on the power of the social media network in India, which counts more than 60 million users, and how this burgeoning community can be manipulated for insidious propaganda.

The unprecedented exodus of people from the northeast, abetted by hate messages, has also opened the debate about issues related to internet freedom and content regulation. India, which is looking into the alleged role of Pakistan-based elements in using morphed images on internet, has blocked over 250 websites for orchestrating the online campaign of hatred.

The last two years have seen an explosion of social media in the country with overwhelmingly young users. According to a report by iCRossing, nearly 36 million people in the country use Facebook. Of these, nearly 50 percent users are aged below 50. Estimates for 2012 posted on the India pages of various network sites show that microblogging site Twitter and LinkedIn have nearly 15 million users each in India.

This mushrooming is a double-edged sword. Social media has created a vibrant online community and widened public discourse, allowing a platform for activists with a thousand causes.

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The wide spectrum of subscribers' database which cuts social and language divides - with Facebook using Hindi as one its languages - has the potential to make the networks national security risk.

Not every user is discerning and the fact that there are no entry barriers makes the sites porous. Anyone can log in.

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