Phishing scams in India and legal provisions

“phishing, noun, the fraudulent practice of sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers, online.”

SUPPOSE, ONE day you open your email, and find a weird looking mail from your bank, beware, it could be something phishy! A message in your inbox from your bank with which you have an internet enabled account asking to update your account with your personal information, login detail, etc., on the pretext of upgradation of server of the bank, should not be opened. You would also see a link, by clicking on which you would be linked to a look alike website of your bank, which looks quite authentic and convincing. However, you may be smart enough to know that this is a trap by a con to get your vital personal information to make fraudulent financial transactions and swindle your money. But there are many others who are not as smart as you, and fall into the trap and pass on their vital login details and lose their valuable money.

Phishing is an internet-age crime, born out of the technological advances in internet age. “Phishing" is a newer form of social engineering. Typically, Phishing is a form of social engineering, characterised by attempts to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords, usernames, login IDs, ATM PINs and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business in an apparently official electronic communication, such as an email or an instant message.

The phishing attacks will then direct the recipient to a web page (mirror webpage) so exactly designed to look as a impersonated organization’s (often bank & financial institution) own website and then they cleverly harvest the user's personal information, often leaving the victim unaware of the attack.Phishing has become so rampant that even the Oxford English Dictionary added “Phishing” to its latest publication making it a definitive word of English Language.

It defines “Phishing” as:

As per the American Banker’s Association “Phishing attacks use 'spoofed' e-mails and fraudulent Web sites designed to fool recipients into divulging personal financial data such as credit card numbers, account usernames and passwords, Social Security numbers, etc. By hijacking the trusted brands of well-known banks, online retailers and credit card companies, phishers are able to convince up to 5 percent of recipients to respond to them.”

The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), which is an industry association focused on eliminating identity theft and fraud from the growing problem of phishing and email spoofing defines Phishing as a form of online identity theft that employs both social engineering and technical subterfuge to steal consumers' personal identity data and financial account credentials. According to the Annual Report of the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), Deptt. of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, (Govt. of India) in the year 2009, the CERT-In handled about 374 phishing incidents.

Major factors for increase in Phishing Attacks:

There are three major factors behind the recent spurt in phishing attacks worldwide particularly in India: Lack of awareness among public: Worldwide, particularly in India, there has been lack of awareness regarding the phishing attacks among the common masses. The users are unaware that their personal information is actively being targeted by criminals and they do not take proper precautions when they conduct online activities.Lack of awareness about policy – The fraudsters often count on victim’s unawareness of Bank/financial institution policies and procedures for contacting customers, particularly for issues relating to account maintenance and fraud investigation. Customers unaware of the policies of an online transaction are likely to be more susceptible to the social engineering aspect of a phishing scam, regardless of technical sophistication.Technical sophistication – Fraudsters are now using advanced technology that has been successfully used for activities such as spam, distributed denial of service (DDoS), and electronic surveillance. Even as customers are becoming aware of phishing, criminals are developing techniques to counter this awareness. These techniques include URL obfuscation to make phishing emails and web sites appear more legitimate, and exploitation of vulnerabilities in web browsers that allow the download and execution of malicious code from a hostile web site.

Techniques of Phishing attacks Man-in-the-middle attacks: In this class of attack, the attacker sits between the customer and the real web-based application, and proxies all communications between the systems. This form of attack is successful for both HTTP and HTTPS communications. The customer connects to the attackers server as if it was the real site, while the attackers server makes a simultaneous connection to the real site. The attackers server then proxies all communications between the customer and the real web-based application server – typically in real-time.

URL Obfuscation Attacks: Using URL obfuscation techniques which involves minor changes to the URL, the fraudster tricks the user to follow a hyperlink (URL) to the attacker's server, without the users realizing that he has been duped. URL Obfuscation uses the unspoken, unwritten secrets of the TCP/IP protocol to trick users into viewing a website that they did not intend to visit.

XSS (Cross-site Scripting): Cross-site scripting attacks (XSS) make use of custom URL or code injection into a valid web-based application URL or imbedded data field. In general, these XSS techniques are the result of failure of a site to validate user input before returning it to the client’s web-browser.

Phishing scenario in XSS:

•Victim logs into a web site

•Attacker has spread “mines” using an XSS vulnerability

•Victim fall upon an XSS mine

•Victim gets a message saying that their session has terminated, and they have to to authenticate again

•Victim’s username and password are send to attacker

(To be continued)

VAIDEHI SACHIN GETS AWARD for HACKER5

Author of book “Cyber Terror”, Vaidehi Sachin was awarded the Best editor, Hacker5 at the Hira Manek awards by Chief Justice ,which was successfully organised on Feb 5, 2011 at Birla Matoshree Auditorium. Thanking for the award she spoke about the global threat and the wage of third world war that would have no bloodshed, no arms or weapon, but will give a major jolt to our nation.

Highlighting more on the issue, she said, “The complete war would be virtual, which would take India 15 years back from now since sixty percent of our infrastructure is online based and a war would mean nothing but destruction and devastation. And, it will take ages to recover.”
There has been a tremendous growth in the cyber arena and hence we saw websites of several countries hacked by hackers of their counterpart. With the recent CBI website hack of India along with many other websites, also the latest wikileaks have given the indication of a waging war. Adding further she said, “Everyday thousands of government websites are been scanned by hackers and always hunt for weaker sites. Unfortunately, despite warning the concerned officials about the threats and loopholes in website, the authorities never paid attention nor took initiative to fix the issues resulting hacking of website like of CBI. The government should take this matter seriously and understand the danger it pose to the nation.”

She also said that the Government should secure the cyber space by uniting or utilizing the skills of the hackers of our country. Vaidehi Sachin has initiated a Cyber security firm ‘kaizen’ which is looked after by a well known hacker Gaurav singh (rascal). She along with her young team of hackers is giving cyber security to main streams like stock exchange, power, judiciary and defence. According to them, they want to set a new trend by saying no to the monotonous way of commercializing security agencies.

As predicted by the NASSCOM, unfortunately there are no courses relating to hacking or cyber security in India which are authentic or government approved. Although people who have commercialized it and hit the headline by making huge commercial success, they are unable to fulfil the basic needs of security.

Concluding the speech, Vaidehi said, “It is very saddening that hackers are always seen as criminals in our country they rarely get awarded or rewarded due to the lack of social acceptance and taboo. But, it is not the truth. Hackers are highly skilled and can be very useful for the nation. Their efforts should be appreciated. I thank Hira Manek and its founder Mr. Hardik Hundiya for appreciating the rarer side of the society.”

Stringent Cyber Law– need of the hour

I ndia is far behind in terms of technology to understand SPAM, which takes over the personal security for ride without anyone being aware of it. Is there any spam law in India? Indian government is yet to give its answer for this. Everyday, every hour we see unwanted messages buzzing on our mobile without any sense. It is high time that developing country like ours have a legislation regarding unsolicited commercial SMSes that pops up leaving people irritated. Few service providers claim that if anyone makes a compliant to them, only then they can control these kinds of issues within forty five days. But, in reality this rarely happens. These kind of This SMSes over mobile communications are nothing but ads, news, rumors and promotion = SPAM. Nowadays even in the name of friendship club prostitution and flesh trading is done over SMS. These SMSes are never sent by any service provider but from some third party. These vendors hold huge number of database with mobile numbers of customers which they pass/sell for ads, promotion for few amounts of rupees. It is advised to be alert because, generally in shopping malls, people are given forms to fill in the name of any lucky draws. These people are generally found chasing the customers entering the mall. In some cases, people are even cheated in the name of voting via SMS. Getting greedy over all unwanted schemes and discounts, we land up in mess disclosing all our personal details to these spammers. Is this ever observed by any Cyber Bureau of India? Definitely yes since they too have cell phones and email ids and these spammers doesn’t spare anyone. When they are aware of these spams happening then why don’t they take any action? Is it really difficult to crack such syndicates?

The another kind of spam we all entertaining are “TD-sell 1.own property @2000pm in **** city near developed housing and resorts. “ Details contact - +91 900776 *****, you own so and so club holiday package, or won a lottery “BL- GIFT 2. Congrats you won a brand new fast track watch from smart platinum. In order to get – claim, delivery charges 755/- Rs contact: #+91 98345 ***** . TA-TKR 3. Tomorrow there will be holiday to school, colleges n gov office due to protest over some issue. These kinds of messages are broadcast to lakhs of user at a time. What if rumor, threat or abusive messages are been broadcasted? Can we get lakhs of customers’ mobile numbers in 5000 Bucks? Do we really have any Privacy act / law? This never happen in other countries – the reason is that they have strict spam law and if someone violates the law, the spammers are cracked over night. Why India lack in cyber security? The reason is that we have failed to sense these kinds of next generation threat.

First Mumbai police cyber cell website was hacked, and then vulnerabilities in traffic and highways police websites were found. Inspite of informing them about the loopholes, the issues are not been fixed yet. Pak Cyber Army already declared that they have rooted into maximum government websites, CBI was recently hacked and our expertise was exposed in front of the world. Now mumbaicustom.gov.in is on the hit list of them. The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) continues to be a source of worry for security agencies as intelligence inputs suggest that the premier nuclear facility and its staff housing area are on the hit-list of Pakistan-based terror groups. Extra-vigilant security officials are having a tough time in manning the "Anu Shakti Nagar", the residential complex housing nearly 10,000 people adjacent to the facility, battling BARC authorities for regulating campus' entry and exit, official’s privy to the arrangements said. Recently, two labourers from Kashmir were detained by security personnel manning the complex and released only after their background check was done."BARC has been constant sources of worry for us. Lashker-e-Taiba's American terrorist David Headley had carried out a survey of the location which has made us extra-vigilant," said one of the security officials.Intelligence inputs from various agencies indicate that BARC continues to be one of the favourite targets of LeT whereas other terror groups including the Jaish-e-Mohammed could also make attempts to attack it.

Last month on 31st Jan, Punjab Sind bank was hacked but bank authorities were not even aware of this. Gulshan Rai from CERT informed them every thing well in advance but nothing was done. 90 percent of government websites are on the hit list of Pakistan hackers but Indian government is yet to wake up.

There are many so called ethical hacking classes mushrooming in India, the so called brands of these organizations cater hackers to create threat in common man’s life so that they send one of the ward to learn this baseless ethical hacking. They are using hackers for their business promotions. If someone disagrees to this, then my question is that if these institutions are producing hundreds of hackers a month, then why do we lack securities?

Don’t take Hacking as hobby or craze. As said by NASSCOM there was a shortfall of 35,000 to 45,000 cyber security professionals in India in the year 2010, but its 2011 and still this gap is not filled. It estimates that the demand for Cyber security Professionals, at that time, would be around 90,000 in India. This figure is estimated to touch about 2, 00,000 worldwide. The industry estimates much higher demand in the local as well as overseas market with more and more attacks on systems worldwide. While in college if you had successfully hacked your way into your friends orkut account, edited it and had fun, and were even involved in hacking your college website and adding your ideas to your dean’s thoughts then you may be a budding hacker. And let us inform you that Hacking is illegal! But what if you get paid for what you are good at and still be considered within the law. Surprising but yes, you can be an Ethical Hacker. It is quiet natural to hear from people in the IT field that, what we know today will become of no use tomorrow. With so many changes happening in the IT world this is very common. People are looking towards amassing more knowledge as with recession, companies are willing to hire only those people who are competent enough and also have the skills that can be useful for the company. One area which is still in a lot of demand is that of mainframes. But too many people don’t opt for a career in mainframes. This is because most people love concentrating on the programming side rather than venturing into such fields. One main reason is that they find mainframes to be boring and most companies don’t rely on mainframes, so this gives less of career opportunities. Mainframes will always be in demand as they are the most reliable. Compared to present day languages and other open systems they are not susceptible to virus attacks. This is a huge plus point. Businesses like banks, insurance, retail and money markets which process huge amounts of data need to use mainframes as no other system can be trusted to store huge amounts of data.

We need to wake up……………………….

Journalist to Launch www.sabkileak.com

The disclosures made by WikiLeaks have given a blunt and candid assessment of how American foreign policy is conducted. On Right Left and Centre, Wikileaks revelations has not only embarrassed America and exposed America's Diplomatic secrets but also India and several other countries. WikiLeaks has succeeded in hitting the reset button on International relations and politics.
India has become a hot spot of corruption, what with mega scams like the CWG, 2G, and Adarsh scams breaking out impoverishing the country's exchequer by 100s of billions of rupees. Politicians, fat-cat industrialists, and bureaucrats have formed an unholy nexus, which is bleeding Mother India like never before. The rich is getting richer, while the poor is being pushed deeper into the abyss of abject misery and poverty. How can we tackle this problem? Do we need an Indian Julian Assange to lead a crusade against our corrupt netas and babus?

In a way WikiLeaks has helped the common people to know the true faces of their politicians and leaders. Though it seems to be a wonderful source of true information, unfortunately the Indian government has made it an offence to own any website based on the lines of WikiLeaks.

Supreme Court advocate Pavan Duggal, who specialises in cyber law, points out that starting a site like WikiLeaks could make the owner liable to paying a fine of up to Rs 5 crore per contravention under the IT (Amendment) Act, 2008. One may even attract a criminal liability of three to ten years in jail under various statutes and the Indian Penal Code.

“At one side where the government gives each and every individual the right to freedom and information, on the other side they are restricting the citizens from their expression. Is this justified? There should be a media like WikiLeaks in India which will expose the corrupt practice of our leaders,” says Amar Pawar, a BPO employee.

As per the RTI Act, information sought had to provided to the citizen within a period of maximum 30 days, but citizens in our country have to wait for more than two years to elicit any information from concerned departments. List of pending cases runs in thousands and remains without addressed. Since the voice of the common people goes unheard most of the times, their issues remain unnoticed. A journalists group plans to come up with a website named www.sabkileak.com which would be solely based to inspire transparency, exposure of evils for wider interest of nation; and thereby to bring blots on our system to books. Several cases go pending even though government officials and contractors have access to skeletons-in-the-cupboard, they find it risky to approach courts or journalists or any civilian out of the purview of government service on the grounds of safety of their interest. Thus, www.sabkileak.com shall facilitate relaying of such material uploaded by such government servants; who wish to expose evils in the system.

“People must get to know the truth of their leaders and its government. This can lead to bad apples being dropped off from the basket. Policies that have direct influence on you can be debated with justice. The country can eventually move forward due to its transparency. I would support www.sabkileak.com since it is serving the nation for betterment,” says Chandrashekhar Shetty, a resident of Bhandup.

When AV contacted some of the personalities, here is what they said:


YP Singh, Ex-IPS officer - Looking at the corruption rate, there is a need of WikilLeak like website. I welcome www.sabkileak.com which will help the people to know the true faces of corrupt politicians. People are aware of corruption happening in the governance but no one protest or take any action against it. SabkiLeak will help to strengthen the people’s power to fight against corruption.

Shaina NC, BJP spokesperson Mumbai Unit - If SabkiLeak is for the welfare of the people then it would be fine but if it is used for blackmailing purpose then it would turn as a huge problem. I welcome this website and hope to see it soon.

Abbas Kazmi, Advocate - SabkiLeak should be handled by a strong and prominent personality. If these types of website come into existence, then hundreds of corruption cases will come into light. This will help the country to grow at a faster rate.

Amin Solkar, Advocate - Initially RTI proved to be a powerful tool to curb the issue of corruption to a great extent. But, today hundreds of RTI cases are pending. SabkiLeak will help the nation to overcome this barrier.
Vijay Mukhi, Cyber Expert - It is a great move. This will help the common people to know how corrupt their leaders are. Thus, it will help nation to bring the issue of corruption to.
source- http://www.afternoonvoice.com/

HINDU, MUSLIM GODS ABUSED, STRIPPED ON FACEBOOK

Facebook is the most famous social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. But, this social networking site has become the modest weapon to abuse, insult and express hatred towards religions. Distressingly, a facebook page named Hindu has several images of both Hindu and Muslim gods cropped and merged with nude human bodies. Not only this, the page also includes pathetic and adult comments.
The owner or developer of the website http://www.hindunet.org/ has misused the facebook by creating a page with contents hurting sentiments of both Hindu and Muslim religion followers. The page has 79,872 followers and their only reason to be there seems to abuse other religion. Very sadly, there are number of images in which the Hindu gods are shown in compromising position. Whereas, there are also images which a pig is shown holding the holy Quran. Some pictures are so distressing that it cannot be explained. “It is surprising to know that these kinds of pages are entertained. Isn't there anyone to moderate? Facebook should look into this matter,” says Kiran Raghavan, a Bank employee.
The images can be found on the link http://www.facebook.com/ pages/Hindu/24525368223?v=photos. In one of the images, three Hindu gods are shown as 3 idiots as in the movie poster. Another one shows a pig resting over the Kaba of Mecca. Almost every deities are been abused. Every post is related to sexuality.

Harish Gupta, a resident of Borivali says, “Facebook should ban these kinds of pages which is spreading hatred towards other religions. People should protest against these anti-religion pages and make things safe for the future.” Adding further he said, “We should not get instigated rather we should live in peace and love. All religions are equal.”
Few months ago, Pakistan had banned facebook for a month of time due to the abuse made towards Islam. "Many pages are been created to target religions but still no proper actions have been taken. It is necessary that admin department of facebook should take care on these kinds of sensitive issues since this can result into a major physical war between the existing religions. Virtual war has already started this kind of stuff may also adversely affect the cyber space of many countries," said Mohammed Shaikh, a Dahisar resident. “These pages are intentionally made by people who possess evil intentions. Facebook is used by millions of people with different mentality and approach towards life. Though we cannot stop their evil thoughts but they can be definitely banned and discarded,” says Rehan Ali, a businessman. When AV contacted Vijay Mukhi, he said, “Government must issue letter to these kinds of websites and put an end to the insult of any religion. The miscreants should be booked under IT Act.”
www.afternoonvoice.com

Fairer side of hacker

She in odd world

The experience of women at the entry levels of the hacking scene, mostly in online chat groups, is one of relentless sexual harassment. It is a hard battle for women to be respected in a culture dominated by teenage boys for women hackers, there’s a different kind of glass ceiling to break. Hacking has traditionally been a man’s world. But women are quietly breaking into the hacker subculture, a loose group of computer enthusiasts who meet in online chat rooms and at real-life conventions.

Not surprisingly, as in other male-dominated spheres, these women are often harassed and mocked by certain insiders — though here it is by teenage boys, who make up most of the “entry levels” of hackerdom.
The chat rooms where beginning hackers often learn technical tricks are stocked with “little hacking boys from hell … how awfully rude they are, and how intelligent they are,” according to a hacker who goes by the handle Natasha Grigori and heads antichildporn.org, an organization of hackers who track down child pornographers on the Net.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

But the few female hackers don’t network with each other — in fact, some of their greatest trouble comes from other women, called “scene whores” — hacker groupies who use sex to get ahead. Fortunately, the few women who break through to the “elite” ranks of hacking find that at the top, what matters is your technical skills, not your gender.
“If you can match their [male hackers’] skill level and better it, they’ll give you every ounce of respect. … It’s when a female comes in and tries to play on her being feminine, that doesn’t get you anything,” says Blueberry, a 32-year-old woman from Brisbane, Australia, who founded condemned.org, another anti-child porn organization.
ABCNEWS.com spoke to more than a dozen female hackers from the United States, Australia and New Zealand for this two-part series. Last week’s piece (see related story, right) looked at who the female hackers are; this week, we examine the challenges they face.
A note about names: Like most hackers, these women choose to go by online handles. Real names will be specifically marked as such.

Hackers vs. Scene Whores
Courtnee, a 20-year-old hacker from the Pacific Northwest, says the prevalence of “hacker groupies” makes it more difficult for true female hackers to get respect. (www.twistedlens.com)
there are plenty of women at hacker conventions — they’re just not all hackers. Some are girlfriends, some wives. But the female hacker’s nemesis is the “scene whore.” These latex-clad hacker groupies haunt conventions and offer teenage boys cyber sex in chat rooms to boost their own self-esteem, female hackers say.

“The average woman, in today’s society, could remain unnoticed,” says Blaise, a 29-year-old woman from New Zealand. “Looking at an average woman in a computer society that consists of mainly antisocial men, she will be the center of attention. It’s those girls that give every woman a reputation...and that are what you have to prove yourself against before you gain any respect.” And the prevalence of scene whores has shattered any female solidarity that might exist among the hacker community, as groupies fight over the most highly skilled men and real female hackers fight the boys’ assumption that all women in the scene are groupies.
“When I first started in the scene, this one person said, you know, you can be my cyberwhore and you’ll be elite through association,” says Blueberry, who says she rejected the advance.
Dark Tangent, head of Defcon and a prominent male hacker, remembers a “scene whore” having videotaped sex with a male hacker in an elevator at the convention’s Las Vegas hotel. He warns of “evil groupies” who condition poorly adjusted male hackers to think of women as sex toys.
Natasha says she regularly has to throw women out of the IRC chat room that she hosts because they disrupt the tech talk by offering cybersex to her teenage charges.
“It’s really bad as far as the women ripping each other to shreds. This whole cybersex thing really bothers me,” Natasha says.
“A_kitten,” a 34-year-old woman from California whose Web site features sexy photos of herself, has been described as everything from a “scene whore” to a “cult leader” by terrified male hackers unwilling to give names to a reporter for fear of her “legion of groupie script kiddies” who used to crash sites on her command.
She doesn’t deny using her femininity to get her way in a male-dominated society.
“People just assume that since I am a girl and I have that power that I must be abusing it,” she says. “I think some guys are intimidated or offended by the natural power that women possess.”
But “St.” Jude Milhon, a prominent hacker from Berkeley, Calif., doesn’t see using feminine wiles as part of the spirit of hacking. “It wouldn’t be sporting. Simply be present, honest, reasonably competent, female, and everyone’s aghast.”
Fighting to Be Heard But it’s a hard battle for women to be respected in a culture dominated by teenage boys. The experience of women at the “entry levels” of the hacking scene, mostly in online chat groups, is one of relentless sexual harassment.
British sociologist Paul Taylor, author of Hackers: Crime in the Digital Sublime, terms this the “Wild, Wired West,” a rough-and-tumble social environment determined by the attitudes of insecure teenage boys trying to impress each other with “typed testosterone.”
“It’s almost like some Lord of the Flies-type environment,” he says, referring to William Golding’s novel about a group of teenage boys who descend into feral savagery when cut off from civilization.
The anonymity of online interaction also fuels sexual harassment, making it more difficult to enforce social rules and freeing the most maladjusted young men to take out their sexual frustrations on people with feminine handles, Taylor says.
“The first time I posted, I posted with a woman’s nickname. I was ripped to shreds: ‘You’re a woman, get off here, we’re not going to help you,’” Natasha says. When RosieX, founder of the Australian cyberfeminist magazine GeekGirl, got into the online bulletin board scene in 1990, she found women so intimidated by that attitude that they pretended to be male to avoid harassment.
“I was frustrated, because I wanted to learn skills and all the boys wanted to do was f---,” she says.
Even a_kitten, who takes pride in her power over those boys, sneers at them.
“For every 50 jerks on IRC, I stumble upon one nice guy that I can talk to,” she says.

Non-Sexist Elite
But the sexual gantlet seems to fade with experience. Defcon’s Dark Tangent says top-rank hackers generally stay away from the IRC channels, waiting to see whose thirst for knowledge is great enough to survive the savage atmosphere. To them, skill is all that matters, not the body it comes in.
“When you interact with people such as the L0pht, or the cDc or the most experienced members of the hacker culture, gender is a non-issue. It’s what you know that matters, and less who you are,” says Javaman, a Philadelphia-area hacker. “There is sexism at the lowest levels, but among the more skilled people, the more able people, it really is a non-issue.”
And at conventions, hackers seem to love nothing more than a woman who can fix a network breakdown. Though they’re tormented online, for some reason the rare women in hacking are treasured in person, female hackers say.
“Girls are victimized only in the bodiless state … in the flesh, they’re objects of wonder and fascination,” says Milhon.

Hacker Hangouts
There’s much debate among hackers as to what exactly is the hacker “scene.” There are plenty of hackers who aren’t part of the scene, and plenty of people - such as “scene whores,” girlfriends and just hangers-on - who aren’t hackers but who also hang out with them. Here are some places hackers congregate:

IRC chat rooms: Hackers largely eschew AOL chat and Instant Messenger for this older form of chat. Rooms like “#hackphreak” are full of “script kiddies,” aggressive teenage boys who form the bottom of the hacker food chain. More experienced hacker groups have invitation-only rooms to which they invite promising techies. Scene whores are common here, and female hackers often have to fight off the foul-mouthed boys.
2600 meetings: A step above the IRC bunch, this in-person, scheduled meetings (named after a hackers’ magazine) let young hackers around the country socialize with their nearby peers.
Conventions: At annual meetings like Defcon in Las Vegas and HOPE in New York, thousands of male and female hackers get together to discuss computer security. Top hacking groups give lectures, people trade lots of software and script kiddies try to “prove their skills” to their elders.

Private clubs: This is where the top minds trade information. On Web pages, through e-mail and in person, groups of experienced hackers push their machines to the limit in the search for advanced technical knowledge.

Mobile numbers, addresses on Facebook 'a security risk'

A security expert has warned that users should remove their home addresses and phone numbers from their Facebook accounts. Graham Cluley said the website now gives third parties access to that information. The website said in a blog post at the weekend that it would give developers of applications access to the contact information of users who install their apps. "These permissions must be explicitly granted to your application by the user via our standard permissions dialogs. Please note that these permissions only provide access to a user's address and mobile phone number, not their friend's addresses or mobile phone numbers," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Facebook's Jeff Bowen as saying. However, Sophos security expert Cluley, has raised doubts over the move. "You have to ask yourself - is Facebook putting the safety of its 500+ million users as a top priority with this move?" he said."It won't take long for scammers to take advantage of this new facility, to use for their own criminal ends." Cluley advised that users should take personal info such as home addresses and mobile numbers off their pages. "You can imagine, for instance, that bad guys could set up a rogue app that collects mobile phone numbers and then uses that information for the purposes of SMS spamming or sells on the data to cold-calling companies," he said. (ANI) A security expert has warned that users should remove their home addresses and phone numbers from their Facebook accounts. Graham Cluley said the website now gives third parties access to that information. The website said in a blog post at the weekend that it would give developers of applications access to the contact information of users who install their apps. "These permissions must be explicitly granted to your application by the user via our standard permissions dialogs. Please note that these permissions only provide access to a user's address and mobile phone number, not their friend's addresses or mobile phone numbers," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Facebook's Jeff Bowen as saying. However, Sophos security expert Cluley, has raised doubts over the move. "You have to ask yourself - is Facebook putting the safety of its 500+ million users as a top priority with this move?" he said. "It won't take long for scammers to take advantage of this new facility, to use for their own criminal ends." Cluley advised that users should take personal info such as home addresses and mobile numbers off their pages. "You can imagine, for instance, that bad guys could set up a rogue app that collects mobile phone numbers and then uses that information for the purposes of SMS spamming or sells on the data to cold-calling companies," he said.

ANYTHING FOR INDIA - MY INDIAN CYBER ARMY

W henever I come across the word Indian cyber Army, I recollect the young hackers of my country, who gave meaning and existence to the term “Indian cyber army”. This word is not someone’s personal property or treasure. This is a life style of Indian hackers, they are the one who protest and disagree to the atrocities of other country. They are none other than the hackers of my country. This word gives sense of belongingness. Indian cyber worriers, Indian cyber soldiers or Indian cyber army whatever it may be the bottom line is that they belong to my country and they are there for the country. By saying this I am not approving their misdeeds but let me be little bias and take liberty to disagree with the forces around, the one who are trying to snatch this name from particular group in the name of law and order.
I too own www.indiancybersoldiers.com and www.Indiancyberarmy.info , that dose not mean I gave recognition to this term. I am encashing the famous name by registering a stupid domain in my name thats it or maximum can register some NGO. but that dose not I can stop some one using these names the way they want. May be for security, defacement, or any other reason, Ethical or unethical this is again subjected to the principles of that perticular group. No one can stop or ban someone using this name the reason Indian Cyber Army is not someone’s own property or commodity. It is an integrity and existence of this hackers group.
My dear friends please never hesitate using this name as per your desires and wish. By using these names you are not doing any crime even if I register it under any NGO or Home department or some Cyber cell. This is just an eye wash. We the Indians have by birth some fundamental right to live and execute, if someone encroaches your fundamental rights no matter who so ever it is, let it be government or police or some so called custodians of law, you can very well show them their limits. And their limits are nothing but to hold the domain they have and execute their rights in given limits.
One has to admit that we are facing "next generation threats" and are worried over the complex world of cyber warfare amid reports of Chinese and Pakistani spies targeting the Indian military establishment. Though attacks from hackers can come from anywhere in the world, cyber onslaughts have been more frequent from China and Pakistan, which have reportedly been peeking into India’s sensitive business, diplomatic and strategic records. CHINA, PAKISTAN POSE THREAT AS PER reports from the cyber industry, China and Pakistan hackers steal nearly six million files worldwide every day. A report by US-based Defence Systems magazine found that there were 25 million new strains of malware created in 2009. That equals a new strain of malware every 0.79 seconds. The report underlines how the current cyber threat environment is dramatically changing and becoming more challenging as the clock ticks.
To address cyber defense, which is also under threat from terrorist outfits that have their own trained recruits, officials said the army frequently upgraded its comprehensive cyber security policy to pro-actively deal with and anticipate these threats. The force has established the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) to respond to attacks targeting the army's critical systems and infrastructure. These are high level talks and in spite of having such cyber cells, experts, cyber security establishments the cyber terror has no stoppage. No break or no assurance. As I said its next gen threat so every individual child of this country, should learn cyber security and hacking. If someone wants to use this Name Indian Cyber army, I am generous enough to give this liberty and assurance to the hacker of my country.
Anything For INDIA

Hacker between Wikileaks, attempts at censorship and chaos

Rob Gonggrijp, founder of the Amsterdam provider XS4ALL , hacker scene said at the opening of the 27th Chaos Communication Congress ( 27C3 ) in Berlin on Monday that the coming years after the by Wikileaks triggered the Cable Gate are simply not quite mastered. The publication of hundreds of thousands of previously classified as secret U.S. diplomatic papers "is pressure to increase internet censorship," said the former editor of Hack-Tic . The FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies pressed for a new law on Internet surveillance, after which they Provider encrypted communication in plain text would have passed already. Overall, attempts to deprive the world, internet freedoms, including freedom of information massively restrict. The hacker community share the principles of Wikileaks, but not all their relatives were in a "war" with a superpower, Gonggrijp said: "We do not compromise the freedom of expression." The Dutchman criticized in this sense, the union activists Anonymous . It does not work, the server PayPal or Mastercard, the Wikileaks spinning off of the money supply, short term tie up and little attention to direct an order. Real "hackers" would but at least not their real names in the metadata can be sent out press releases here, quipped Gonggrijp. Those who do not have enough "maturity" as a traveler reaches have data yet, should be better not to connect to the network. For the hacker to enter rulers and citizens with similar whistleblower Wikileaks and Internet platforms in the new territory together. "Many politicians recognize that their advisers to tell them not to what is going on." Is the tax they had in hand, but it could not really move, let alone turn things around. The most sought therefore looking engine only halfway relaxed and hope "that the accident happened later." This opening sets the stage for tens of thousands of spin doctors who examined her speed to sell the truth to the public. Hackers and geeks would not know all the answers to the current problems, but had at least parts of it. remained generally Gonggrijp in his skeptical view of 2005 that the hacking community after 11 September 2001 and then built up the monitoring infrastructure, "lost the war" did. He sees the consequences but not as fatal as it was five years ago. It will probably a bit "chaotic" in the coming years - and many news sites would look similar, as is already the conspiracy specialized in the hacker's Blog Fefe . The data not only travelers from the Chaos Computer Club ( CCC ), the conference traditionally held after the Christmas understood, but already slightly better than the rest of the world, "how does chaos" and to master it. Also, a small group of thoughtful people could thus change the world, but before were still enough slots available. Gonggrijp therefore considers it important, and trust between hackers to strengthen cohesion. He advocated for it, even the annual meeting in more and more from all seams bursting Berliner Congress Center ( bcc ) at Alexanderplatz "can grow to be careful" and to seek a larger venue. This year CCC had the much sought after around 4,000 tickets available for four days for 70 € per piece only available in advance among the people brought. The Congress was thus well within a few hours before sold out, single day tickets will only be on Tuesday in manageable quantities to give it. This was despite the streaming offers too much "fresh blood" from outside the conference held and prevented from visiting, complained Gonggrijp. That the Chaos Communication Congress with an increase to a similar fate befall the event as a mass without great networking factor decried Defcon in Las Vegas, believes the veteran hackers do not like. These have been at a lower number of visitors on a problem of booze and too many participants from military and government also suffered. Jeremie Zimmermann, spokesman for the civil rights group La Quadrature du Net warned, also warned that "increasing power" politics and economics from attacking the network. This copyright will, above all, the hook of "piracy" and the enforcement effort, as the negotiations on the disputed ACTA showed. "We have a battle to beat the heads, called Zimmermann, therefore the hackers. This is about staking psychological frameworks. to make clear "is about is to exchange and share" culture that promotes. Culture and knowledge, ultimately exist only if they were shared. Wikileaks assured full support to Zimmer. courtasy- heise online CATTECHIE HERE AGAIN