Global News Post: Cyber Crime

INDIA: Govt. to Block Suspect Marketing Websites, Payments

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<st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">NEW DELHI</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> (NNN-PTI) -- The government has decided to
crack the whip on fraudulent multi-level marketing companies that have duped
hundreds of investors in the country by blocking their websites and tracking
their online transactions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Corporate
Affairs Ministry, the nodal department in this regard, has decided that its investigative
arm - Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) - will coordinate with
Department of Information Technology and Central Economic Intelligence Bureau
(CEIB) to identify suspect websites and transactions and take strict legal
action.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Sources
said such companies, operating from various locations within the country, have
defrauded the public for amounts which could easily run into hundreds of
crores.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">"There
are various entities (multi-level marketing) doing business in <st1:country-region w:st="on">India</st1:country-region> through websites and many such entities do
not have a registered office within <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Therefore, in order to
prevent funds being transferred outside <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region>, the website of major
establishments doing multi-level marketing business need to be stopped through
gateways by Department of Information and Technology (DIT).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">"This
issue will be taken up with DIT very soon and details of such companies will be
provided to it for blocking the payments," an official privy to the
development said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">For
multi-level marketing websites operating clandestinely and conducting hidden
transactions, the Ministry will ask the Financial Intelligence Unit under
Finance Ministry to track and supply snoop data on them so that SFIO can take
action.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The
FIU is mandated to generate suspicious transaction reports based on inputs
provided by banks and other financial and economic bodies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The
Ministry is mulling adding an enabling provision in the Companies Act to
initiate legal action of attachment of properties of individual directors of
such companies by moving the Company Law Board (CLB) in this regard.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The
Ministry, during a recent meeting of the SFIO and its regional directors,
mooted a plan to activate its marketing intelligence unit to keep a tab on
fraudulent innovative systems developed by such companies to cheat the public
and investors. --NNN-PTI<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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INDIA: Govt. to Block Suspect Marketing Websites, Payments

NEW DELHI (NNN-PTI) -- The government has decided to crack the whip on fraudulent multi-level marketing companies that have duped hund...

Russian Hacker Arrested in Cyprus over U.S. Attacks

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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MOSCOW (RIA Novosti) --- A 25-year-old Russian man suspected of staging cyber-attacks on Seattle-based Amazon.com and other U.S. online retailers has been arrested in Cyprus, the Seattle Times reported citing U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“This defendant could not hide in cyberspace, and I congratulate the international law enforcement agencies who tracked him down and made this arrest,” Durkan said in a statement on Thursday.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Dmitry Zubakha was indicted by a Seattle Grand Jury in May 2011 for “conspiracy to intentionally cause damage without authorization to a protect computer” and for “possession of stolen credit card numbers” in a separate case.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">According to U.S. authorities, Zubakha and his accomplice, Sergei Logashov, carried out two “denial of service” attacks against Amazon.com in June 2008. Both attacks overwhelmed Amazon.com’s servers and caused their systems to crash.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The suspects staged similar attacks on Ebay.com and Priceline.com, and “took credit for the attacks in hacker Internet forums.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Both men have also been charged with aggravated identity theft for the illegal possession of more than 28,000 stolen credit card numbers.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">They could face up to 12 years in prison if convicted.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Zubakha is awaiting extradition to the United States, while Logashov is still at large.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
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Russian Hacker Arrested in Cyprus over U.S. Attacks

MOSCOW (RIA Novosti) --- A 25-year-old Russian man suspected of staging cyber-attacks on Seattle-based Amazon.com and other U.S. online re...

India: Kerala Leads List on Obscene Postings on Internet

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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">NEW DELHI  (NNN-PTI): Kerala is the most literate state in the country but when it comes to posting obscene articles or photos on the Internet, people from God's own country seem to be also on top, if one goes by government data.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">About 27 per cent (136) of the 496 cases of obscene publication registered in the country last year were from the southern state, topping the list in this regard<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Around 55 per cent of the 245 cyber crime cases reported last year were from Kerala.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">According to the 'Crime in India 2011' report released recently by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Kerala is way ahead of Andhra Pradesh which came second with 52 cases followed by Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh with 40 cases each.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In a list of 53 cities having a population of over one lakh, Kerala's commercial capital Kochi ranked fourth with 12 cases of obscene publication and was behind Bengaluru (19), Jodhpur (15) and Ludhiana (13). There were seven cases from Malappuram, five from Kozhikode and four each from Kerala's capital Thiruvananthapuram and Trissur among others.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Keralites also used the cyber world to indulge in eve- teasing or harassing women with a motive in 85 cases registered, second only to Andhra Pradesh (98) in this connection. While 13 cases in Kerala related to settling scores, in 32 it was for money.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At the all-India level, the report said cyber crimes went up by a whopping 67 per cent last year in the country while the number of those arrested for such incidents rose by 140 per cent.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">According to the report, the number of such cases touched 2,213 (registered under IT Act and IPC sections) in 2011 from 1,322 the previous year.-NNN-PTI<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

India: Kerala Leads List on Obscene Postings on Internet

NEW DELHI (NNN-PTI): Kerala is the most literate state in the country but when it comes to posting obscene articles or photos on the Inte...

Cyber Attacks on Chemical Firms Traced to Chinese Computers

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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">An American company says at least 48 chemical and military-related companies have been targeted in cyber attacks traced to computers owned by a man in central <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">China</st1:country-region></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">U.S.-based Symantec Corporation said the attacks targeted 29 chemical companies and 19 other companies, most of them based in the <st1:country-region w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Britain</st1:place></st1:country-region>. It said the purpose of the attacks appeared to be industrial espionage.<span>  </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Symantec said the attacks used innocent-seeming e-mails to place malicious software on computers at the target companies. It said the attacks were traced to a computer system owned by a man in his 20s who lives in the Chinese <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">province</st1:placetype>  of <st1:placename w:st="on">Hebei</st1:placename></st1:place>.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The security company said it could not tell whether the man was acting on his own or on behalf of someone else.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The Chinese government has repeatedly been accused of using computer hackers to steal industrial secrets and disrupt the activities of competitors. <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Beijing</st1:city></st1:place> strongly denies the charges and says it is also the victim of computer hackers.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Symantec did not identify the targeted companies but said most are involved in manufacturing advanced chemical compounds with military applications.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">It said the same computer servers were used earlier this year in attacks aimed at human rights groups and the automotive industry.---VOA News</div></div>

Cyber Attacks on Chemical Firms Traced to Chinese Computers

An American company says at least 48 chemical and military-related companies have been targeted in cyber attacks traced to computers owne...