Cybercrime a major threat to national security: Defence minister

NEW DELHI: Defence Minister A K Antony has said that the Union Government is aware that cyber-crime is becoming a major threat to national security and the armed forces are bracing to cope with the challenge.
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In a written reply to Ramesh Bais, Uday Singh and HariManjhi in Lok Sabha today, Antony said 'usage of pen drive on computers connected to internet has been banned as a policy due to inherent security threat posed by pen drives'.

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"A Cyber Security Policy 2008 issued by the Ministry of Defence is under implementation, which inter-alia, includes continuous awareness campaign, audit of networks, strengthening of cyber security activities and maintaining of air gaps. Cyber security issues are also coordinated by National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) at the national level," he added.

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Bangalore leads in cyber crimes

Of the 11,791 cases of cyber crimes reported in the country last year (2011), 117 were registered in Bangalore alone.

\Also, Bangalore accounted for 77.48 per cent of the 151 cases registered in the State in 2011 under various provisions of Information Technology (IT) Act.

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But this is very much in line with the trend witnessed across the country, which recorded 288, 420, 966 and 1791 cases of cyber crime in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, respectively.

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One major challenge is increased hacking, with the NCRB recording 233, 510 and 983 cases in 2009, 2010 and 2011, respectively in the country.

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While reported cases rose from 105 in 2008, 139 in 2009, 328 and 496 in 2010 and 2011, respectively, the number of arrests increased to 90, 141, 361 and 443 in these four years.

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As per the information of Computer Emergence Response Team (CERT-In), the number of attacks on government websites showed a marked rise this year with the first seven months reporting 273 such incidents.

The total attacks on government websites were 201, 303 and 308 in 2009, 2010 and 2011, respectively.

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Xtreme RAT malware targets US, UK, other governments

By Lucian Constantin, IDG News Service              Nov 25, 2012 11:34 AM

The hacker group that recently infected Israeli police computers with the Xtreme RAT malware has also targeted government institutions from the U.S., U.K., and other countries, according to researchers from antivirus vendor Trend Micro.

The attackers sent rogue messages with a .RAR attachment to email addresses within the targeted government agencies. The archive contained a malicious executable masquerading as a Word document that, when run, installed the Xtreme RAT malware and opened a decoy document with a news report about a Palestinian missile attack.

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After analyzing malware samples used in the Israeli police attack, security researchers from Norway-based antivirus vendor Norman uncovered a series of older attacks from earlier this year and late 2011 that targeted organizations in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Their findings painted the picture of a year-long cyberespionage operation performed by the same group of attackers in the region.
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Georgian police chiefs cuffed in cyber spy plot

By Phil Muncaster

Several senior police officials and the former deputy interior minister of Georgia have been arrested on suspicion of spying on former opposition leaders and attempting to influence the result of October’s parliamentary elections.
The arrests come after new prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili’s coalition swept to power at the election, ending the nine-year rule of the government of president Mikheil Saakashvili, who remains in his post until October 2013.

 

The 11 interior ministry officials and former deputy interior minister and current vice mayor of Tbilisi, Shota Khizanishvili, are accused of hacking their opponents’ PCs to illegally obtain personal information. Phone taps of calls between leaders of Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream coalition are also alleged, AFP reported.

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