Security & Cyber-Crime
Government may soon find BlackBerry solution
May 16, 2008, Kalyan Parbat and Joji Thomas Philip, The Economic Times
This news report talks about the recent developments in the controversy over monitoring Blackberry traffic in India. It started when the Canadian company Research in Motion (RIM) that owns Blackberry services in India, refused to share the decryption code with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). This had raised security concerns since the security agencies could not monitor the data that were being sent due to the high encryption codes.
One held for posting obscene Orkut message on Sonia
May 18, 2008, The Times of India
This news story is about an IT professional who was arrested on charges of posting derogatory comments on Sonia Gandhi, the chief of the Congress party, on a community named 'I hate Soniya Gandhi' on Orkut, the popular social networking site. The police traced the person through the IP address as well as the user information provided in the e-mail by which the comment was posted. The interesting part, however, is that the owner of the community has not been charged.
DoT asks RIM to set up server in India
March 29, 2008, Thomas K Thomas, The Hindu Business Line
This news report talks about the controversy over monitoring Blackberry-to-Blackberry traffic in India. It started when Research in Motion, the Canadian company that owns Blackberry services, refused to share the decryption code with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on grounds that it is proprietary.
IP address can mislead in online crime
January 19, 2008, Indiatimes Infotech
This news item reports the sad case of a software professional who was wrongly convicted on charges that he uploaded offensive pictures of Shivaji on Orkut. The mistake, it is assumed, was done by making incorrect inferences on the IP addresses given to the police during investigation by the Internet Service Provider (ISP).
Bangalore major link for web crime
February 5, 2008,Deccan Herald
This news story observes that Bangalore has become an important link in the cyber crime chain. It quotes experts as saying that cyber criminals use sophisticated, professionally developed tool-kits sold in the underground economy to carry out attacks.
Intermediary liability and the future of the Internet in India
October 14, 2007, Rishi Jaitly, Google Public Policy Blog
The author examines the issue of intermediary liability in the Internet world and presents his viewpoint on the Government of India's take on the same. Internet content reaches the end consumer through a variety of intermediaries such as ISPs, search engines, email services etc.
Online? Beware, you are under watch
October 24, 2007, Indiatimes Infotech
Online crime is on the rise, not only affecting developed nations but also increasingly becoming a problem in developing countries. Many Indian netizens, especially those in the young population, are unaware of the risks of being online, even though more users are becoming targets without knowing it. The article warns of the dangers of online crime, which affects everyone from teens on social networking sites to consumers and businesses carrying out e-commerce transactions.
India ranks 14th in phishing attacks
August 26, 2007, Pritha Roy Choudhury, Merinews
The article reviews the proceedings of the recent Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) workshop which analysed the major issues regarding the degree of control that should be exercised on the Internet. Cyber crime has assumed significant proportions in India as exemplified by the fact that India is now a major target for phishing attacks.
Orkut's tell-all pact with cops
May 1, 2007, Times of India
The social networking site Orkut has entered into an informal arrangement with the Mumbai police which will not only block forums and communities which contain inflammatory content, but also provide the IP addresses from which such content has been generated. This agreement termed as 'the priority reporting tool' is apparently aimed at improving communication between Google and the police.
Cyber cafes in cops' Net
April 7, 2007, Mumbai Mirror
The Mumbai city police is planning to install a software to monitor all cyber cafes in the city and maintain a database of users. This primary aim of this move is to deter offenders who operate in cyber space.
