Police probe Soham phone hack claims

Pune: Facebook (FB), the social networking site, not only connects you to friends but can also help the police track down missing persons.

The latest instance being that of the Pune rural police tracking down Manohar Venkatraman Nemanivar (33) who was missing from 11 years from his home in Nanded.

After Manohar went missing from Nanded on December 28, 2000, his father Venkatraman who owns two restaurants in Nanded filed a missing complaint with the Nanded police station on January1, 2001.

Manohar's family could trace Manohar, when he unwittingly contacted one of his childhood friends via Facebook recently. His Facebook status also revealed the fact that Manohar used to visit the Saibaba temple in Shirdi often. This enabled the cyber crime cell of the Pune rural police lay a trap for Manohar at Shirdi, where they nabbed him on July 5.

Sub-inspector Vikas Kumbhar of the cyber crime cell of Pune rural police told, "Manohar was working at a resort in Goa as a waiter and when he came to know that his family was searching for him, he fled from Goa. However, we were able to track his whereabouts from his updates on Facebook and nab him when he was on his way to Pune from Shirdi.''

Manohar's family had come in large numbers from Nanded to meet him at the Chavannagar rural police headquarters on Wednesday. His father Venkatraman told, "I am speechless as I am yet to digest the truth but happy that my son has returned by the grace of God.''

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Complaint against finance company

RAMGARH: Patratu police have lodged an FIR against a finance company of a big corporate house and a cyber cafe in Bhurkunda in connection with a cyber crime. Manohar Kumar of Jainagar village under Patratu block of Ramgarh district was cheated of Rs 70,000 through a fake email which had informed him that his request for a loan of Rs 10 lakh had been sanctioned and directed him to deposit he processing fees in two bank accounts.

Happy to have received the mail, Kumar deposited the money with the accounts mentioned in the email. When he visited the branch office of the finance company, he came to know that the email was fake, Patratu OC Madan Prasad said adding that an advertisement was published in a newspaper related to an attractive offer for loan up to Rs 10 lakh.

Kumar applied for loan as per direction given in the advertisement. However officials of the finance company denied to have released such advertisement, police said. "We have also conducted a raid in a cyber cafe in Bhurkunda," Prasad said. The matter is being investigated by police.

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Security guard held for ATM card theft

HYDERABAD: Cyberabad Cyber Crime investigators on Saturday arrested a 32-year-old security guard for stealing a software company employee's ATM card and fraudulently withdrawing money from her account.

The incident came to light when 29-year-old M Swetha, working with the Cybage Software Pvt Ltd, DLF Towers, Gachibowli, lodged a complaint with the Cyber Crime police station stating that some unknown person withdrew Rs 13,500 from her account using her ATM card. Based on the complaint, the Cyber Crime police registered a case and took up investigation.

"N Chandra Sekhar, working as security guard at DLF Towers, was caught based on CCTV footage. He confessed during interrogation that he used to steal Swetha's debit card and password from her bag during lunch hour and withdraw cash from Citibank ATM at DLF Towers. Later, he used to stealthily return the card," K S Rao of Cyber Crimes, told STOI. He used the card four times between April 20 and June 29.

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It’s war! Anti-cyber crime alliance formed to defeat hackers

A new global organisation that joins tech companies with police forces around the world - the International Cyber Security Protection Alliance (ICSPA) – has been formed against rising cyber crime in the aftermath of breaches at RSA, Sony and Citibank.

ICSPA brings together businesses, governments and law enforcement officers, and by investing in new training, an international exchange of expertise will create a powerful network to counter global cyber crime.

Member companies include Yodel, McAfee, Trend Micro, Cassidian, Core Security Technologies, Transactis and Shop Direct Group.

ICSPA plans to disrupt cyber criminals’ activities by providing law-enforcement agencies with more resources, tools and expertise in countries that face the greatest challenges, thus helping them to be more successful in their fights.

Cloud-based security software firm Trend Micro, which employs 200 people in Cork, is one of the founding members of the new organisation.

Anthony O’Mara, senior vice-president of Trend Micro EMEA, said: “The fight against cyber crime requires a sophisticated and co-ordinated effort from all those concerned, but it also requires organisations with exceptional expertise to really take the lead.

“Trend Micro is proud to be a founding member of the ICSPA and applauds the Rt Hon David Blunkett MP, Prime Minister David Cameron and the other organisations involved for their support for this important initiative.”

The impact of cyber crime

Research from Trend Micro indicates that businesses and individuals face a growing threat from cyber crime.

The dangers to enterprise have been amply illustrated this year alone, with intrusions into several major corporations, such as RSA, Sony, Citibank, the European Council and Epsilon, to name but few. These attacks often result in the theft of valuable intellectual property or customer databases.

Stolen personal information and financial details are offered for sale in a wide range of underground online forums. The more popular forums often have many thousands of members and also host advertisements for online shop fronts trading in stolen information. These forums operate on a similar basis as legitimate online auction sites where buyers and sellers give and receive feedback in order to establish “trust” before making a purchase.

Trend Micro's research demonstrates how cheaply cyber criminals sell the proceeds of their activities – and just how much money they can make out of it:

• US$800 buys a passport from an EU country
• US$500 buys a UK driving licence
• US$80-US$150 buys a credit card “dump” - data that can be written to the chip or magnetic strip
• 2 cents-15 cents buys a credit card blank
• US$180m in 12 months is what one gang made from peddling fake security software, designed to fool the victim into believing their PC is already infected

This latter scam is a particular growth area for cyber criminals. For the victim, it means they unwittingly give away their personal information and credit card details to purchase the bogus software, infect their computer and to make matters worse, pay for it. One such campaign analysed by Trend Micro diverted 300m visits to the malicious landing pages in just one month.

In welcoming the launch of the ICSPA, Cameron said: “Our government has already injected an additional £650m to help improve our national infrastructure and protect against cyber crime, but the very nature of this threat calls for more than a national response; it demands a truly global response and that is what the International Cyber Security Protection Alliance is all about.

“By forging new relationships between businesses, governments and law enforcement officers all over the world, by investing in new training, and by building an international exchange of expertise, the ICSPA is forming a network powerful enough and wide enough to face down cyber crime,” Cameron said.

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Cyber crime on the rise

LUDHIANA: Unlawful acts on the Internet ' cyber crime ' is on the rise with increasing technology. Some time ago, a collegiate had visited the cops to register her complaint against an unknown online criminal, who had created a social networking profile on her name. The girl had reported to the police that her photographs were also uploaded to the fake profile.

The previous month, cops had received eight such complaints. Cyber crime cell in charge Bhupinder Singh said, ''It is mostly women who are targeted. Profiles of girls are created by fraudsters, for selfish motives.''

In another happening, an employee of the entertainment industry of Mumbai who is a Ludhiana resident, complained to cops that someone had made a fake social profile on his name with false credentials and through this profile, the criminal had duped a girl of Rs 20,000 by assuring her a job in some multi-national firm.

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Woman arrested for duping US-based NRI over Internet

Hyderabad: City police today arrested a woman for allegedly cheating an NRI youth from United States of Rs. 14 lakh by promising to marry him.

Cyber-crime wing of Crime Investigation Department (CID) arrested Deepika Reddy alias Deepthi Vallapuri in this connection.

The youth had filed the complaint of cheating and impersonation against an unknown woman on June 20.

U Rammohan, SP, Cyber Crime, said that the complainant, a software engineer, came to know Reddy through a matrimonial website.

Her profile said she was a doctor. Subsequently, she befriended the complainant over the Internet and said she was ready to marry him.

Later, she started asking for money, saying it was meant for donating to charitable causes.

In all, he parted with Rs. 14.32 lakh, before realising that he was being taken for a ride.

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Resigned to cybercrime

SINGAPORE - According to the Global Malware Problem: Complacency Can Be Costly study commissioned by M86 Security, and conducted by Osterman Research, 49 per cent of responding companies acknowledged that security breaches occurred, but accepted them as a cost of business.

M86 Security is a provider of secure Web gateways as well as Web and email content security. Osterman Research is a United States-based research house focused on gathering information from IT decision makers and end users of information technology.

The study was done online in May 2011 and represents a cross-section of industries, with 92 per cent of respondents as decision makers and influencers in their organisations' IT departments.

The survey was conducted to assess how serious the malware concern was in today's state of global cybercrime.

The report shows that malware problems continue to rise, with 27 per cent of respondents stating that malware problems increased in the past 12 months.

"What's surprising is the degree of complacency (often driven by lack of budget or adequate information) these companies exhibit in light of the increase and complexity of the recent cyber attacks - even among those tasked with caring for data, which can include customer information and intellectual property, said president of Osterman research Michael Osterma.

"The pervasiveness of malware demonstrated in this study indicates a real need for businesses to educate themselves on the latest threats, in order to protect against serious security breaches," he added.

CEO of M86 Security John Vigouroux said: "Cybercrime as a 'business' has exploded," and added many organisations provide an "open door to cybercriminals on antiquated security technologies".

He also said a "majority of businesses felt they were better protected than other organisations whilst experiencing the same number of attacks as their peers".

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No let-up in cyber crime as fraudsters spread their web of deceit

An IT firm in Gurgaon involved in developing the source code of an upcoming software worth millions has implemented new security measures to ensure protection against cyber-attacks. The internet and local networks are fortified, cyber consultants are hired, and the employees are frisked at the gate to check if they are carrying any USB disks. One morning, a senior employee, involved in the software work, walks through the gates listening to her iPod. She plugs the device in, goes through the main systems, downloads the software source code, and after encrypting it on her iPod, walks out calmly. She is never seen on the premises again.

This incident occured in 2010, and is one of the typical cases of cyber crime taking place in IT and BPO sectors in Gurgaon. The woman finally sold the data to a rival software company for a huge profit, said Anup Girdhar, a cyber crime expert, who is a consultant with several IT firms in the city.

Being a cyber criminal is all about being inventive, a step ahead of the times, and two steps ahead of the police. According to Girdhar, new forms of cyber crimes are invented frequently. The most common form is social engineering. And it is mostly committed by company employees, he said.

Each day Gurgaon sees 20-30 cases of cyber crime committed in the corporate sector. On the one hand, the police are updating their apparatus to fight cyber crime, but simultaneously, the cyber criminals are also becoming more cunning and are able to pull off such acts effectively, added Girdhar.

New forms of hacking mainly imply new means to crack the system and attain sensitive and valuable data. But the BPO owners of the city believe that the Gurgaon police lack even the basic skills to handle routine cyber-crime cases. They lack the seriousness needed to handle data theft cases, said Sanjay Kumar (name changed).

Kumar ran a BPO in Gurgaon till three years ago, when a cyber crime incident in the company made him approach the police. First, they wouldnt register the case, as they thought it wasnt a case of cyber crime, he said.

It took Kumar six months to get an FIR registered, and the investigation is still under way. I have moved my company to Bangalore. The Gurgaon police need to get their act together if they are serious about cracking these cases. The will is missing, he added.

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2 nabbed for online fraud

HYDERABAD: The Cyber Crime Police, Cyberabad, arrested two persons, including a Nigerian national, Nebeolisa Olisaeloka Sunday alias Mike, 31 and an Indian student, Bharath Bhushan, 24, in Delhi for siphoning off Rs 1.82 lakh from a Hyderabad-based person's bank account, which occurred on May 13 at ICICI Bank, Madhapur.

The police seized net cash of $5,100, Rs 4,000 (Indian currency), MTS data card (9136966232), two laptops, a Rolex watch, four cellphones and other documents from their possession. The Cyber Crime Police, Cyberabad received a complaint from a private employee, N Venkata Raghu Vara Prasad, 32 stating that someone had hacked his bank account and siphoned off Rs 1,82,565. The culprits had debited the amount and transferred the same to eBay vide bill Nos 000225488530 and 00022548979 and purchased some articles.

After correspondence with the bank, he approached the Cyber Crime Police and lodged a complaint. Accordingly, police registered a case and began investigation.

Source:- Google.com

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198 websites hacked, 90 pct of hackers locals

KUALA LUMPUR, June 27 (Bernama) -- Of the 198 Malaysian websites hacked recently, 90 percent of the hacking was done by locals, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

Information Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim said although some of them were able to damage some websites, they were unable to infiltrate the software.

Answering Datuk Md Sirat Abu's (BN-Bukit Katil) question during the question-and-answer session, Rais said the government would not let allow these unscrupulous individuals to continue their activities.

"The government remains cautious...individuals should not abuse their skills for hacking activities," he said.

Rais also said that the government was in the midst of improving Internet access, especially in rural areas, so that it was at par with developed Asian countries such as Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

He said the latest project implemented created a broadband network allowing Internet access for about 1,000 villages and farming areas.

"From that number, almost 400 villages were already provided the facility at existing speeds," he added.

Rais said the big project was expected to cover all targeted villages by year-end.
"We are also in the process of increasing the capacity and quality of the core network, or backbone known as backhaul, by creating more Internet traffic exchange centres nationwide," he said.

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