ITA-2000 Amendment Bill Introduced..15/12/06..2000
The much awaited ITA-2000 amendment bill specially designed to protect Intermediaries such as baazee.com has been introduced in the Indian Parliament.
Naavi
http://www.naavi.org
Is India Becoming a Criminal Friendly Country?
The extraordinary interest shown by writers like Ms Arundati Roy to save Afzal Guru (Convicted with death penalty for terrorist activity involving an attack on Indian Parliament) raises a doubt if India has become a Criminal Friendly country. How can a group of novelists proclaim that evidence against Afzal Guru is not good enough for legal scrutiny when a court has already examined the same and come to the conclusion that it is good enough for a death sentence? unless these intellectuals respected for their respective achievements in different fields are under the influence of terrorists themselves. ..Or are they responding to threats?. The intellectuals should realize that they are pledging their reputation for a cause which is meant to weaken the country. From the days of independence, it appears that Indians are slowly drifting to a culture of 'Freedom for Criminals' even at the cost of danger to our free existence. Under these circumstances, it is no surprise that when the criminal friendly amendments to ITA-2000 become law, there would be a wide support from intellectuals of all description for "progressive thinking".
Even the Supreme Court in its recent decision has shifted its responsibility to Press Council on publishing of "Obscene" content in print . This can clearly be interpreted as a "License to Publish Obscene content" in print and will soon be quoted in support of "Orkut" and other similar sites who thrive on obscenity.
Politicians have anyway already expressed their views and shown a clear support for all kinds of domestic and international criminals and do not hesitate to make them the ministers.
There appears to be a pattern developing in the Indian society that is becoming more tolerant towards crime and even terrorists. Sociologists need to analyse the long term impact of these early indicators.
Naavi.org expresses its grief and concern over this tendency to make India a law less country. Perhaps Naavi.org is amongst the minority group which is still under the influence of what once was a pride..nationalism and patriotism. Your comments on this "Changing Profile of Indians towards Criminal Friendliness" is welcome.
Naavi
http://www.naavi.org
Trend Micro Predicts Cyber Wars in 2007
Trend Micro, one of the leading IT security companies predict an increase in cyber wars in 2007. They also predict that the Social Networking sites such as Orkut and Myspace would be used for gathering more information for focussed attacks on people. Netizens should therefore be wary of posting their profiles in the Social Networking sites. Use of Internet based telephone calls for committing frauds is also predicted.(121206/2000)
Naavi
http://www.naavi.org
Orkut Blocking Investigations
An issue had been raised yesterday "Is Orkut a Rogue Site?". A further corroboration towards this conclusion is presented with the reported attitude of Orkut to investigator's enquiries. It is stated that it would take up to one year to get IP address information from Orkut, obviously, more than sufficient for criminals to go scot free. It is time that Orkut is made to respect Indian laws or shut itself out of the Indian market. India does not need a virtual monster which could be a haven for criminals...(121206/1200)
Naavi
http://www.naavi.org
Orkut needs to be banned
If there is one project which has seriously gone wrong on the Indian Cyber Space, it is Orkut. Every day one controversy or the other appears to be surfacing. After the Indian Flag burning, Defamation of Shivaji, Buddadev Bhattacharya's profiling, it is now the controversy regarding the use of the site to profile Mumbai Underworld dons. An incident has also been brought to our notice by a lady that her picture has been used on a profile which carries on indecent conversations. In all these cases, the management of Orkut has shown no inclination to act to curtail the activity.
It also appears that many of the pages of Orkut commuinities, host pages with malicious codes. Terrorists and criminals appear to have been using the site for promoting their nefarious activities. From all these developments that has been observed so far, it appears that Orkut itself has become a rogue site and is promoting a new culture of "Virtual Underworld". A serious question has to be therefore asked if Orkut can serve any useful purpose to the community and deserves to be blocked by law.
If Orkut does not respond positively to clean up its site, it deserves to be banned immediately. At least this would be a lesson for other operators not to indulge in such unethical practices to make money at the cost of the community. We therefore support strong action by Mumbai Police to shut down Orkut with immediate effect.
Naavi
http://www.naavi.org
Nepal Passes Cyber Law
Nepal has passed Electronic Transactions Act 2006 to provide a legal regime for electronic commerce in Nepal. The Act replaces the ordinance of 2005
Naavi
http://www.naavi.org
Trends in Cyber Security
IBM X Force has predicted the following trends in the Cyber Security situation in 2007
• “Spear phishing” (targeted attacks on online consumers) will evolve beyond simply targeting online banking users, aiming at several other sources including pension sites, investment portfolios and healthcare benefit sites. The next generation of these types of ID theft malware will continue to get smarter and build user profiles for hacked accounts in an attempt to automatically log in to multiple sites with the same stolen credentials.
• Enterprises will start to see that multi-factor authentication is cumbersome and ineffective against threats that are present before and during secure transactions to online banking, and will take an active role in securing employee Web transactions.
• With the growth of behavioural engines, desktop antivirus engines will no longer be categorised as standalone devices, but rather as part of a larger complementary security system.
• The frequency of exploits through Web browsers will increase, driven by commercial malware distributors such as SpyWare.
TRAI Promotes Carbon Credit
In a bid to promote use of environment friendly energy sources by Telcom Companies, TRAI has propsoed to offer a better revenue sharing arrangement and Carbon Credit benefit. This is a significant development as it draws the Carbon Credit system close to ICT industry. Soon this could be a matter of interest to all IT Companies too. It may be recalled that Naavi through Digital Society Foundation has been trying to establish a Carbon Credit Link with farmers in an attempt to bring the benefits of the Digital Society to the rural community. However sufficient response in this direction has not yet been received from other stake holders and the measures announced by TRAI may develop more interest in Carbon Credit system by the ICT industry.TRAI proposes `carbon credits' for telcos .
Naavi
http://www.naavi.org
Chennai Police Express Helplessness
The accompanying report suggests that Chennai Police has expressed helplessness in preventing hosting of pornographic websites with content produced in Chennai on an industrial scale. Unfortunately, it is not the legal support that is lacking to prevent such anti social activities but a lack of determination and will to take action. If appropriate action is not taken on the ground that there is little local impact of the crime, there will be a day when another Dr Prakash will emerge, threatening resepctable women in Chennai into acting in digital blue movies. From the big screen, sleaze shifts online.
Naavi
http://www.naavi.org
Blogging without Problems
Blogs have become very popular in the Internet and it is estimated that there are more than 60 million blogs in Cyber Space making it as big as the website space. However, often websites are maintained with a little more caution while blogs are maintained casually leading to legal problems. This article in ET explores the Blog space and Naavi's tips to be a responsible blogger. Speak Softly..ET Related article in Naavi.org Article at University of Michigan
Naavi
http://www.naavi.org
ITA-2000 Amendments.. Some Changes Expected
The incessant campaign of Naavi.org on the proposed amendments to ITA-2000 might have had some impact on the Government. It is understood that the Government is making some changes from the original draft. However to what extent the Government is willing to retrace its steps curbing the egos involved will be known only when the full draft of the revised amendments is made public. Let's wait and watch.
Naavi
http://www.naavi.org
Life Imprisonment for Pornography publisher in China
It is reported that a person has been convicted for life imprisonment in China for maintaining a pornography website. It is interesting to note that India at the same time is considering diluting the provisions of Section 67 of ITA-2000 by reducing the imprisonment term from 5 years to 2 years and exempting Intermediaries except when he has received the actual knowledge or has conspired or abetted in the crime.
Naavi
http://www.naavi.org
Employee Sells Domain Name Ownership Fraudulently
An employee of a web service company in Ahmedabad is reported to have sold ownership of five websites to a French national by misusing the administrative rights associated with the domain name registration. The accused appears to have tried to extort money from the genuine owners. The websites involved in the fraud were ahmedabad.com, talash.com, talashinfosoft.com, evyapar.com, and allindiagift.com...
Naavi
http://www.naavi.org
ISP Service Comes under Consumer Rights Scanner
In a landmark judgment in a consumer forum in Delhi, the broad band service of Sify has been held as a "Service" for the purpose of Consumer Protection Act and compensation has been ordered for deficiency of service.
Naavi
http://www.naavi.org
Another Landmark Judgment in USA on "Digital News Publication"
In a case (Barrett v. Rosenthal ) under Communication Decency Act, The Supreme court in California has held that "Re-posting of defamatory information" cannot be sued. The implications of some of the interpretations drawn under this case could be far reaching. This reflects on the liability of an intermediary for publishing of information which could amount to defamation. But since the instant case arose out of a posting in a news group, it may actually affect interpretation of liability in case of news group and blog postings. It is however necessary to observe that the judge did make a reference that the case should be seen in the context of Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act and concluded that "Any further expansion of liability must await Congressional action".
Naavi
http://www.naavi.org
ITA-2000 shakes up Chartered Accountant Aspirants
The students who took up this year's CA examination were reportedly rattled by the paper which contained 25 marks of questions on Information Technology Act 2000. While one can sympathize with the students who had apparently skipped the chapter and therefore have spoiled their chances of success in the examination, we do appreciate the fact that the examiners gave the right weightage to ITA-2000 that deserved in a CA examination. With all accounting having been computerized, digital signatures having been made mandatory for submission of certain returns, audits being conducted under the Computerized environment, it is inevitable that the study of ITA-2000 was essential for a CA and the examiners have brought in the focus which was required
Naavi
http://www.naavi.org
Pune Police Take action against Orkut
After the Indian flag burning and Buddhadev's impersonation, it was Shivaji bashing which finally has caught up with Orkut. It has been reported that a derogatory remark was posted in a community with about 100 members on October 29th. A complaint was lodged by National Students Union of India workers and Pune Police are investigating. It is further reported that a case has been booked under Section 67 of ITA-2000 and Sections 292 and 295 of IPC. Police have also tried to shut down Cyber Cafes where people were found surfing the site according to a news paper report.
Naavi
http://www.naavi.org
Mobiles To Be Jammed near Prisons
Haryana police have issued instructions to mobile operators to install signal jammers in the Prisons to prevent use of mobiles by prisoners. While the intention is good, mobile operators are questioning the need for jamming since they claim that the jammers may immobilize mobiles in the surrounding areas too. They claim that it is lot easier to control the physical movement of mobiles into the prison rather than using jamming devices. While there is truth in their claim also, it is difficult to believe that either it is impossible to localize jamming or to install a monitoring device instead of jamming so that if the prison area cannot be isolated for jamming at least the Police can monitor all calls in the zone as an intelligent measure. Hopefully a mutually acceptable solution will be found so that prisoners do not continue to do their criminal business sitting inside the prisons.
Naavi
http://www.naavi.org
Phishing Attack on SBI Customers
A phishing attack has been noticed on the customers of State Bank of India. It is reported that the cloned website has since been blocked. As is common in such attacks, the customers of the Bank were sent an e-mail inviting them to visit the website and enter their log in IDs and passwords. The enclosed report suggests that Cert-In has observed phishing attempts on other Indian Banks but is keeping the information under wraps. SBI has also not placed any alerts on its website.
The suppression of information from the customers is not conducive to educating of the customers and could be a cause for more customers falling prey. Naavi.org urges that both CERT-In and SBI should take steps to keep the potential victims informed so that they can exercise caution.
Naavi
http://www.naavi.org
Two Day Orientation Programme in Hubli for Police
Cyber Law College and G K Law College, Hubli conducted a two day orientation programme in Hubli for Police Officers on Cyber Crimes.
Naavi
http://www.naavi.org
Separate Law For Credit Card Frauds?
It is reported that Indian Payment Card Risk Council (IPCRC) an association of 16 prominent banks issuing credit cards in the country have pressed for separate separate ‘Card Crime Legislation’. Report in HT.
It is necessary however to debate whether any new law is in fact required since the IPC and ITA-2000 already have enough provision for every kind of frauds involving Credit card. It must be recognized that the Credit Card is an "Electronic Document" and "Card Data" is "Information Residing Inside a Computer". Creating fake cards, making changes in information on the card or on the data base amounts to Section 66 offence under ITA-2000. Fraud itself is covered under IPC. Online misuse of card is also covered under Section 43 of ITA-2000. Additionally, frauds such as Lebanese loop or skimming in which credit cards are involved are also covered under Sections 66 and Section 43 of ITA-2000 (Unless they are changed through amendments)
Before a new law is passed IPCRC must explore if there are any specific problems that are not addressed by the present laws.
Naavi
http://www.naavi.org
posted by Naavi @ 6:28 PM
