Many countries of the world have built up cyber security forces to protect their online data and information from potential threats like hacking, phishing, and spamming.

India however, has not yet taken cyber crime seriously. The country has been on the receiving end lately and has recorded some major cyber crime cases. The Bangalore Facebook Id Password hack fiasco in November being the latest one in the long list.

It is disappointing to realise that a country like India is not well prepared to deal with enemy internet invasions. Indian authorities lack a planned secured  military cyber command and follow lenient regulatory steps to deal with cyber invasions from countries like China, Pakistan and others.

In the high profile Cyber security conference held in Munich on 5th Feb 2012, the deliberations on cyber security indicated the perplexed approach of some nations in avoiding cyber crimes and hack invasions.

Although India’s presence hardly figured in the discussion, it was evident that a country like India needed to pull up their socks in order to deal with the ever increasing cyber threats. It is a known fact that many new terrorist organizations are using modern technology as a shield to disguise and confuse the security system of the country.

Swedish Foreign Minister, Mr. Carl Bildt expressed the fear of losing valuable data to terrorist and hackers due to improper Cyber management and security system. He said,

“ Stealing and using Stuxnet (A worm used to sabotage nuclear devices) might be more easy and dangerous than nuclear weapons.”

Well planned cyber attacks can cripple a nation’s economy, strategic networks, banking and communication infostructure and military assets. Unlike other attacks, here the enemy remains largely unknown and the attack carries a huge risk factor.

Recent past has seen Chinese hackers infiltrating the Indian diplomat’s classified documents and stealing valuable information related to India’s security, defence and military. If India wants to avoid such invasions, serious steps regarding this issue must be taken.

Following the recent problem, e-mail service providers including Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL have formed a coalition to fight against online phishing and fraudulent activities. The new efforts are believed to reduce the frequency of phishing activities online.

Phishing Emails are attempts to trick Internet users and obtain personal and financial details. Users often believe the information they provide is sent to a legitimate source, only to realize later, that they have been fooled. Some underlying innovations have been put into effect for the protection of  Internet users against phishing and other such online fraudulent acts.

The above mentioned companies are aiming to offer a helpful, safe and secure web environment for  online trading. By planning to promote technological tools that cater to better and secured mail services, these biggies are surely being collectively constructive.

The success of this new idea of authenticating -Emails will allow business entities and corporate giants to communicate with people on a whole new level. A customer can trust an e-mail guiding him to a link which can be prove lucrative to his financial and account information.

DigiMouth Speak -

The fact that companies like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are taking such incredible measures to stop phishing is a positive sign towards building a better future. Companies are working together to create new tools for authenticating Emails. Can we can trust this surprising, yet amazing alliance with delivering great results? Only time can answer that.

Being no stranger to the “hacked community”, BSNL has been a victim before as well where the same entity has managed to take away sensitive data such as email addresses, names and contact details of the subscribers. The Pakistan Cyber Army have been proudly possessing this valuable information claiming that the information is absolutely safe with them and that government organisations should take this as a learning lesson to strengthen their security.

The hack was initially spotted on the 4th of December 2011, at 2:21 a.m. by a group consisting of five hackers with an id named enc0der, x-cop, k3rnel, sm0ky and nginx-adm1n.

The website seems to be running with no glitches currently, but we strongly suggest that BSNL take some serious steps to strengthen their security!!

Max Schrems, a 24 year old Austrian law student has filed 22 complaints against the social network for holding his private data that he had deleted from Facebook.

Schrems had asked Facebook to provide him with data pertaining to his Facebook account in June. When Facebook sent him 1,200 pages worth of data, he realized that a lot of data, which had been deleted by him on the social network was found in the report.

“I discovered Facebook had kept highly personal messages I had written and then deleted, which, were they to become public, could be highly damaging to my reputation. I’m not saying there was anything criminal or forbidden there, but let’s just say that, as someone wanting to work in law, there was stuff which could make it pretty impossible for me to get a job. By holding on to data its users assumed was deleted, Facebook was acting like the KGB or the CIA”,

he said

Facebook had segregated Schrems’s data into 57 different categories. A log list was also attached in the document containing the dates, time and IP addresses of his logins. Apart from this, other details like deleted comments, friend requests and even chat history was provided.

After seeing the shocking data, Schrems filed 22 complaints against Facebook with the Irish Data Protection Commissioner. The authority will soon audit the social network and if they are found guilty, Facebook will have to pay the fine.

A Facebook Spokesperson commented on this matter saying,

“Facebook provided Mr Schrems with all of the information required in response to his request. “It included requests for information on a range of other things that are not personal information, including Facebook’s proprietary fraud protection measures, and any other analytical procedure that Facebook runs. This is clearly not personal data, and Irish data protection law rightly places some valuable and reasonable limits on the data that has to be provided.”

Schrems has even started a Website, called Europe Versus Facebook to make people more aware about how the social network holds back private data.

After this new case, Facebook will have to take some significant measures to make their network more safer and transparent for users in the near future.

The website, named Good to Know provides visitors with an array of information like tips on creating strong passwords, understanding how cookies work etc. The website has been designed for new as well as regular Internet users.

Citizens Advice Chief Executive Gillian Guy said,

“We are delighted to be working in partnership with Google. Citizens Advice is all about straightforward, simple advice on the issues that matter, so helping people take control of their safety and privacy online is right up our street.”

The Good to Know Website has been divided into four main categories consisting of Staying Safe Online, Protecting Data on the Web, Protection of Data on Google products and Managing Data.

Under each category, there are various articles which speak about tips that users can follow to be sure of a healthy online environment.

Many people have been victims of Online fraud and hacking has been growing at an alarming rate. Google and Citizens Advice hope to curb this with the Good to Know Website.

For Internet users who have opted for Google products like Gmail and Google + , this new move can help restore their faith in the search engine giant’s commitment for safety.

Under the new law, ‘House Bill 55′ any person who has been convicted for sexual abuse offenses like Indecent behavior with juveniles, Computer-aided solicitation of a minor, Video voyeurism and certain other offenses.

House Bill 55 makes sure that every loophole has been covered and has banned sex offenders from using the following services:

Internet Chat Rooms: Sex offenders cannot use any websites that allows them to broadcast messages to the general public via the Internet.

Social Networking Websites: Any social network like Facebook, Google + or Twitter has been banned for sex offenders. They are not allowed to create pages, chat or reply on forums after the new rule comes into affect.

Peer to peer networks: The law prohibits the use of any server where files are shared between systems on a network for the offenders.

Offenders who break this law will have to pay a hefty fine of $10,000 for the first offense and may have to serve a jail term of up to 10 years. On the second offense, the fine doubles to $ 20,000 and up to 20 years in prison.

There have been many instances in the past where rapists have used social media as a mean of luring innocent victims. With the new law, Louisiana users can expect a more safer online environment in the future.

The report says that infection trends were significantly higher in India as compared to other countries. Various parameters were used in the report which included Worms, miscellaneous Trojans, Adware, Viruses, Trojan downloaders, droppers, password stealing and monitoring tools.

In the second quarter of year, Worms became the single biggest problem for Internet Security in India followed by Trojan attacks. Despite this, the risk of the third most common threat of potentially unwanted software dropped by a small number as compared to before.

India appears to be a hot spot for the spread of viruses as well with 11.003 percent of all spambot IP addresses located in India.

The table below shows the statistics of total attacks in India as compared to the world.

Vinny Gullotto, GM for Microsoft Malware Protection Center said,

“We encourage people to consider this information when prioritizing their security practices, SIRv11 provides techniques and guidance to mitigate common infection vectors, and its data helps remind us that we can’t forget about the basics. Techniques such as exploiting old vulnerabilities, Win32/Autorun abuse, password cracking and social engineering remain lucrative approaches for criminals.”

SIRv11 even went on to suggest various measures that firms can take to decrease the risk of malware. These included Building products and services with security in mind, Educating customers and employees, upgrading to latest products and services and Considering cloud services.

The whole report can be read on the Microsoft Security Intelligence website.

Online protection has always been a serious issue with many big firms. These reports will act as an eye opener for many Indian firms who have been lacking in better Internet security infrastructure.

According to the reports by the Wall Street Journal on Monday, the U.S. Government asked WikiLeaks volunteer Jacob Appelbaum to hand over a list of E-Mail id’s of people he had interacted with via mail since the past two years.

The government order restricted itself to only obtaining E-Mail ids and did not include scanning the emails sent or recieved by Appelbaum. The report says that the government did not put any criminal case against  Jacob Appelbaum.

Appelbaum’s Internet Provider, Sonic claims that it fought the court order but lost the case and had to give in to the Government’s demands unwillingly.

Google, which was indirectly involved in the law suit declined to comment on the matter. It is not yet clear if the search engine giant appealed against the order or allowed access to the private data.

The Government has been jittery about the growing popularity of WikiLeaks and have been taking several steps to curb the content on the controversial website.

Recently, microblogging portal Twitter fought a similar case when the government asked them to hand over private data of several WikiLeaks supporters on Twitter. As of now, Twitter has not handed over the data to the authorities.

This invasion of privacy gives the debate over the controversial Electronic Communications Privacy Act a new turn. According to the law, government authorities can secretly obtain private electronic data if required.

With Internet privacy being an ongoing concern with many social activists, this new development is only going to make things worse for the U.S. Government.

The study was conducted by Friedland Security as a part of U.K Home Security Report.

As part of the survey, 50 convicts were asked about the various factors they use while targeting a house. The results showed that three quarters of the felons used social networking websites like Facebook or Twitter to look for vulnerable people.

The reason for targeting social networking sites is the ease at which they could find out about people’s activities. Many social network addicts have the habit of posting status messages of their plans.

“They can see people’s status updates, with people on Twitter saying ‘I’m away on holiday having a great time. If they know where you live it’s like an open invitation.”

security expert Jonathan Lim said in an interview for Sky News.

Besides social networking websites, other web platforms like Google’s Street View are also used by the thieves to find houses. The service by Google allows users to watch photographs of individual houses. This lets burglars easily plan out escape routes and gives access to other vital information.

After this new finding, the new privacy settings for status updates on websites like Facebook will prove to be helpful to many.

Earlier this year, tech blog PC Pro had reported about a scam where employees of Comantra were conning Microsoft customers.

The scam involved the conmen calling up vulnerable customers by posing as Microsoft associates. They would then go on to say that a virus has been detected on their PC’s and can only be removed using a malware. Customers were charged close to £185 for the software.

When Microsoft investigated the matter, they confirmed the allegations and went on to cancel the Gold Status.

“We were made aware of a matter involving one of the members of the Microsoft Partner Network acting in a manner that caused us to raise concerns about this member’s business practices. Following an investigation, the allegations were confirmed and we took action to terminate our relationship with the partner in question and revoke their Gold status”,

a spokesperson for Microsoft said.

Comantra has denied its involvement in the scam and said that Microsoft’s decision came as a surprise move for them.

According to Director Rajesh Bajaj, Comantra followed the sales script given to them by Microsoft and their employees did not cheat any of its customers.

Mr. Bajaj added that the reports were a result of ‘negative marketing’ from its competitors and it cannot comment on PC Pro’s report.

With the growing amount of competition in the market, it would be hard to point out if Comantra is innocent or guilty.