Cyber Law Update August 2008 - Issue no. 7

A classic cyber war?

It is again eventful times in cyberspace. It all started earlier this month with the entry of Russian troops into neighbouring Georgia’s South Ossetia, a region not reconciled to its present political status within Georgia, and with strong affinity for North Ossetia that is part of Russia. Reported in The Hindu Businessline

Public, private sectors at odds over cyber security

The government has largely argued that the private sector is better suited to tackle the problem. But big corporations say it's too big for them to handle.
By Joseph Menn, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Three very big and very different computer security breaches that have dominated recent headlines did more than show how badly the Internet needs major repairs. They also exposed the huge rift between corporate America and the federal government over who should fix it, cyber-security experts say. Reported in La Times

Thousands of cyber attacks each day on key utilities Jonathan Richards

Computer networks controlling electricity supplies, telecommunications and banking are being attacked thousands of times a day in a new cyberwar against Britain waged by criminals and terrorists — some of them backed by foreign states — the Government has said. Reported in Times Online

Hacker gets into Federal Emergency Management Agency's phone system

The FBI is investigating more than $12,000 in calls made when a hacker broke into the Federal Emergency Management Agency's phone system.
Source: newschannel5 Reported in Crime-Research

Hackers attack Iraq's vulnerable computers

Ahmed Khathem, the head of Iraq's newly formed cybercrimes division, sits in a borrowed office, at a borrowed desk, working on a laptop borrowed from one of his subordinates.
It is his unit's lone computer, highlighting the country's vulnerability to a community of Iraqi hackers defacing websites and attempting to hack into sensitive internal networks.
Source: USAtoday.com Reported in Crime Research

Indian hacker alleged brain behind biggest cyber-heist

LONDON: An unknown Indian hacker is being charged with the greatest cyber-heist in history for allegedly helping a criminal gang steal identities of an estimated eight million people in a hacking raid that could ultimately net more than 2.8 billion pounds in illegal funds. Reported in Economic Times

Survey: IT staff would steal secrets if laid off

Computerworld UK — Most IT staff would steal sensitive company information, including CEO's passwords and customer details, if they were laid off, according to a new survey from Cyber-Ark.
A staggering 88 percent of IT administrators admitted they would take corporate secrets, if they were suddenly made redundant. The target information included CEO passwords, customer database, research and development plans, financial reports, M&A plans and the company's list of privileged passwords. Reported in IT World

Cyber-threat environment becoming increasingly severe

Today's cyber-threat environment is increasingly severe, compounded by the emergence of new types of attacks.
This is according to TippingPoint, an intrusion prevention company which also provides IPS-secured (intrusion prevention system) network. They say the situation is worsened by the shrinking time between the discovery of vulnerabilities and the development of ways to exploit them, plus the dissolving network perimeter. Reported in Network World

The new multiple face of Internet threats

E-mail viruses are so yesterday. These days, it's your browser that has online criminals salivating.
Network worms and viruses spread by mass e-mails are unlikely to ever become extinct, but they are no longer the primary weapon used by the bad guys of the virtual world to steal your identity or life's savings. Reported in Canada.com

Hard disks seized from 3 cyber cafes

21 Aug 2008, Ahmedabad/Vadodara: Three cyber cafes in Vadodara's old city area were searched by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch and local Special Operation Group (SOG) officials in connection with Ahmedabad blasts late on Wednesday after information that those behind the blasts, including computer expert Abdul Subhan alias Taufique Bilal from Mumbai, visited these cafes. The investigating team seized 28 hard disks from all three cafes and sent it to Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) tests. Reported in Times of India

Dalhousie to help U.S. catch cyber terrorists

A major software project is underway by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to monitor levels of Internet traffic and detect possible security breaches — and Dalhousie University is going to help build it. Reported in The Chronicle Herald

More tools developed to crack cyber crimes

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Law enforcing agencies are now armed with more software tools to fight cyber crimes with a premier centre claiming to have developed them.
Emailtracer, CyberCheck, Siman and Calltrack are some of the softwares (sic) developed indigenously by the Resource Centre for Cyber Forensic (RCCF) here. Reported in Economic Times

Cyber forensic tools will soon be considered as evidence

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Evidence gathered using various cyber forensics tools developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) would soon be considered as evidence in cyber crimes.
Necessary amendments in this regard would be made in the IT Act, said Communication and Information Technology Minister A Raja. He was speaking at a function organised in connection with the dedication of the Resource Centre for Cyber Forensics (RCCF) at CDAC here to the nation on Saturday. Reported in NewIndPress

City turning a hackers' den

HYDERABAD: The source code theft involving a senior techie could be a highend cyber crime but the city's netizens have been witness to a range of cyber concerns from hacked email accounts, credit card frauds to the most common crime of posting pornographic material on the profiles of social networking site members.
And this has made internet security experts brand Hyderabad as a hackers' den. They say the city has become a haven for cyber crimes, and that among the southern Indian cities Hyderabad perhaps also ranks the highest on the cyber crime radar with city internet security firms receiving cases of corporate data theft, email frauds and impersonations and mobile phone related crimes. Reported in Times of India

Covering Cyber Threats

Companies spent more than $6.3 million on data breaches in 2007
By Greg Bordonaro
As companies face a host of new risks associated with their digital data, insurers are scrambling to create a whole new field of coverage: cyber liability.
Costly and legally troublesome problems ranging from data breaches to infringement cases are on the rise, and 43 states, including Connecticut, have passed laws spelling out rules for companies that experience them. Reported in Hartford Business
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Cyber Law Update August 2008 - Issue no. 6

Cyber warfare is a military twilight zone

Before Georgia and Russia started shooting at each other, they were already fighting on the Internet. Georgian government and media websites had been almost paralysed by hackers following the so-called 'Distributed Denial of Service' attacks that began weeks before. Such cyber war techniques constitute an increasing threat, one that's now being taken seriously by the military. Reported in Radio Netherlands

Tracking a Cyber Attack

The conflict between Russia and the former Soviet Republic of Georgia has underscored the relative anonymity of cyberattackers. During the conflict, attacks were launched against Georgia’s Internet infrastructure, and a debate continues over who might be responsible.

With that debate likely to continue indefinitely, policy-makers are realizing that in cyberspace, ascribing blame might be nearly impossible.

Although the Russian government has denied involvement, it is still under suspicion, along with organized crime groups and garden-variety hackers. Reported in FCW

Malaysia Should Be Ready To Face Cyber Threats

SHAH ALAM, Aug 15 (Bernama) -- Malaysia, which appears safe from cyber attacks like those experienced in other parts of the world, should brace itself for such a threat.

Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor wants the country to prepare itself for the threat which could affect individuals, corporation and the government. Reported in Bernama

Black Ice: Cyber-terrorism and the Private Sector

Corporate America is still in denial about the threat of cyber-terrorist attacks against critical facilities in the energy, telecommunications and financial industries. Reported in Computer World

Terrorism cyber-recruiter jailed

LONDON (Reuters) - A man described by prosecutors as a terrorism "Mr Fix-it" who recruited young people to al Qaeda's ideology over the Internet, was jailed for 12 years on Tuesday while one of his accomplices received a 10 year term. Reported in Reuters

NCC Wants Checks on Cyber Criminals

The Nigerian Computer Society (NCS) has called on the Federal Government to pay particular attention to the devastating impact of cyber criminality and terrorism in the e-commerce and electronic fund transfer landscape. Reported in This Day Online

Microsoft, Google and Yahoo sued by the Indian Government

Microsoft, Google and Yahoo were issued notices by India's Supreme Court on Wednesday, following a complaint that they were promoting techniques and products for the selection of an unborn child's sex through advertising and links on their search engines. Posted on Blogging Madeeasy

Chandigarh police get hi-tech gadgets to combat cyber crime

Chandigarh, Aug 17 (IANS) A machine to recover deleted SMSes and another to scan through any suspected hard disk, these are among the latest gadgets acquired by the Chandigarh police to tackle cyber crime. Reported in Sindh Today

Start of school means kids need to be cyber-savvy
Tech group gives tips for back to school

WASHINGTON — Americans for Technology Leadership, a coalition of technology and consumer groups, recently launched its monthlong campaign to help educate parents on ways to make sure their kids stay safe online when they head back to school.

Children face an enormous number of possible roadblocks to their Internet safety, including cyber-bullying threats, cyber security issues such as spam, computer viruses, identity theft, spyware, phishing scams and Internet predators. Reported in Sea Coast Online

India figures in top 10 spammers' list

NEW DELHI: India figures among the top 10 spam sending countries, accounting for nearly 3% of spam sent globally in the second quarter of 2008, according to enterprise security firm Secure Computing’s Internet Threats report. Spam or unsolicited e-mails sent from emerging markets is expected to grow as internet infrastructure improves. Reported in Economic Times

Hackers too playing games at Olympics

NEW DELHI: Olympic buffs, beware! Internet hackers are trying their best to steal data from your system and corrupt it. Hackers send mails related to Olympic events with interesting subject lines and then trap surfers in their net. Internet users in India have been found more vulnerable as people are overenthusiastic over the prospect of getting two individual medals for the first time in the history of the games. Reported in Economic Times

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