WISH YOU A HAPPY AND SECURE YEAR 2009
The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly...it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.
Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister
password cracking
The process of attempting to guess or crack passwords to gain access to a computer system or network. Crackers will generally use a variety of tools, scripts, or software to crack a system password. The goal of the cracker is to ideally obtain the password for root (UNIX) or system and administrator (Windows, NT). Password cracks work by comparing every encrypted dictionary word against the entries in system password file until a match is found.
ScienceDaily
May 27, 2008
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080523095755.htm
Shalini Kesar, a computer scientist at Southern Utah University in Cedar City, has devised an antifraud strategy for business. Writing in the International Journal of Business Information Systems from Inderscience Publishers, he suggests that managers should be made aware of security issues and send out cues to junior staff that they have this knowledge.
Combating digital fraud within any organizations is a growing problem for management. Researchers in this field and security practitioners have recently begun to emphasize the need to take into account the "social" aspects of information security. They also emphasize that a lack of communication at the wider organizational level is often associated with computer fraud.
"Computer fraud can result from incompetence, ignorance, negligence in the use of Information Technology or deliberate misappropriation by individuals," says Kesar. This results in the destruction of not only the main information systems but also backup systems, causing damages up to hundreds and thousands of dollars.
Kesar points out that reported cases of computer fraud only represent a tip of a potentially large iceberg. Anecdotal evidence suggests that employees pose one of the greatest threats because they are in a better position than "outsiders" to engage in computer fraud, Kesar adds.
Opportunistic computer fraud could be minimized, however, he says simply by raising managers' awareness and knowledge of how organizational structure can affect the effectiveness of security measures. Kesar uses the case of a well-known serious fraud that took place at an international bank together with the business theory of management theorist Henry Mintzberg to demonstrate how security breaches might be avoided by educating management.
"Lack of awareness of social and technical issues among managers largely manifest themselves in a failure to implement even the most basic safeguards and controls," the researchers conclude, "Concomitantly, if management ignores wider organizational structural issues then this too increases the likelihood of a potential offender committing computer fraud."
These two main insights point to Kesar's seemingly obvious solution, which simply involves teaching management and then subtly communicating management's new-found knowledge to employees.
Prasun Sonwalkar in London
PTI
May 31, 2008
http://www.rediff.com///money/2008/may/31credit.htm
More cases of international credit card fraud with links to India have come to light in Britain, even as authorities refused to rate the problem from Indian cities as very high.
In a latest incident, a British journalist discovered that money was withdrawn from his bank account in Chennai this week, while nearly 500 others in Bournemouth suffered the same fate.
British security officials have been grappling with card-cloning, by which card details are surreptitiously recorded during transactions at petrol pumps and supermarkets, and emailed across the globe for illegal withdrawals from ATM machines.
In the last one year, several cases have come to light when British consumers found that money was withdrawn from their accounts from Mumbai, Chennai and other parts of India.
Petrol pumps have been the most vulnerable to such scams. In Bournemouth, south England, Gavin Haines, a feature writer for the Daily Echo, a leading local newspaper, was alerted by his bank after money was withdrawn from his account in Chennai last Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
"I can't afford to lose 400 pounds on a weekend. It was my only bank account at the time and they didn't have access to money. I've now got to go through the claims process," he said.
However, Mark Bowerman, an official of the Association of Payment and Clearing Services (APACS), the UK trade association for institutions delivering payment services, told PTI: "India is not in our top ten list for this type of fraud".
The list is headed by the United States, and followed by Italy, Australia, France and Spain. Apart from Haines, nearly 500 people have complained of similar withdrawals overseas in scams apparently linked to the Malthurst West View Service petrol station in Bournemouth.
The location was raided by the local police this week. Among the countries from which the attempts have been made to withdraw money are Malaysia, Egypt, Canada, Portugal, Australia, China, India, the Philippines, Ghana, the USA, the Netherlands and Taiwan.
In 2007, the police received more than 200 similar complaints about the Murco service station in Southbourne Grove, Bournemouth. Three men were arrested but were later released without charge. The garage is under new management.
Card-cloning, also known as skimming, involves retrieving card details and pins (personal identification numbers) to withdraw money fraudulently from people's bank accounts.
In spring last year, thousands of motorists were hit in a skimming scam involving garages across England. The Sri Lankan government claimed the money was being used to fund Tamil terrorist activity on the island. Officers from the cheque and card unit of the Dorset Police's economic crime unit are liaising with APACS to investigate the latest allegations.
Mandy White, a resident of Charminster, said that nearly 2,000 pounds had been taken out of her partner's account in 19 transactions in the Philippines on Sunday. APACS spokeswoman Jemma Smith said customers' details were often sold over the Internet at the touch of a button.
She added: "Under the UK banking code, if you are the innocent victim, you can expect to get your money back".
Express News Service
May 31, 2008
Pune : The city police on Friday arrested 52-year-old Flora Akkavan of Dhanlaxmi society in Dhanori who duped two persons of Rs 5 lakh. She claimed the crime was committed to make good about Rs 20 lakh she lost to a group of online fraudsters based outside India who promised to make her richer by $ 10 million (about Rs four crore) in double quick time.
The police have seized 30 bundles of ‘black-and-green paper’ having size similar to that of a 100-dollar note and a diplomat’s bag that Flora had got from the fraudsters. Each bundle carries a label — United States of America $ 50,000. Police Inspector Bhanupratap Barge of crime branch who busted the racket said that the fraud had its roots in Nigeria and Thailand.
Barge said that Flora claimed she had received a fraudulent email sometime prior to April 2007 saying that former Philippines President Asteda wanted to secretly transfer $ 120 million to a bank account in USA and assured to pay her $ 10 million.
Flora said she got another email asking her to pay $ 8,000 (about Rs 4.5 lakh) for opening an account in Crew Bank in USA. She was then told that $ 120 million had been transferred to her Crew Bank account. A few days later, she got an email that $ 110 million had been transferred to Asteda’s account while the remaining $ 10 million was being given to her as promised.
Flora was again asked to pay $ 8000 for transferring the money from USA to India via Thailand. Flora gave this money to a foreigner at Hotel Ambassador in Mumbai. Then in November 2007, she was called to Delhi to collect her kickback money of $ 10 million.
She got the parcel containing a diplomat’s box with bundles of green and black paper. The foreign national who gave the parcel said that these were US dollars coated with green and black colour and demonstrated how the currency could regain its original shape by washing away the coating on the notes with a chemical.
The fraudster said they would send the chemical to her soon and left. Police said that Flora spent about Rs 20 lakh in the process but never got the chemical. Still hopeful of getting her money, she approached Pradeep Baldev Rajput (22), a real estate agent in Wadgaon Sheri.
Flora told him that she has sold three software packages in USA for Rs 17 crore and that the money has already landed in India via ‘a secret channel’ route. She also took Rajput to a cyber café to show the demonstration of notes are converted to dollars by washing with a chemical on a website - doilrich007.
Flora said a Swiss Bank manager would be coming to India with the chemical and lured Rajput to invest Rs 50,000 for purchasing the chemical, saying he would be paid back Rs 2.5 lakh in one month. Later, she managed to extract Rs 1 lakh from Rajput and about Rs 3.5 lakh from his friend Anil Vasant Upshant with the same promise.
As months passed, Rajput realised that Flora was cheating him and his friend and lodged a complaint with the crime branch. A team led by inspector Barge arrested Flora and the case has been transferred to Vishrantwadi police station for investigations.
The police have recovered an Iranian passport from Flora as she was married to an Iranian national. While the foreigners who cheated Flora remain unidentified, police suspect that she has cheated more persons like Rajput.
30 May 2008
PTI
http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/May302008/scroll2008053070772.asp?section=scrollingnews
Ahmedabad, PTI: A city-based IT firm owner Maulik Dave was arrested yesterday by the city crime branch based on a complaint filed by the representative of the US-based firm in India, police said.
Police have arrested an IT firm owner for allegedly stealing database from a US-based company and selling it to other company.
A city-based IT firm owner Maulik Dave was arrested yesterday by the city crime branch based on a complaint filed by the representative of the US-based firm in India, police said.
"We have been following Dave's activity after we received a complaint from a US-based firm which said important official data were stolen from their database," ACP, Crime Branch, Usha Rada said.
"Dave had worked with the US-based firm on some IT project and had access to their database. The company has alleged that Dave had stolen data from their server and sold it to some other US-based company," Rada said.
According to sources, the data, which contained personal details of clients of the US-based firm, could be worth lakhs of rupees.
Sources also said that Dave, who used to operate from his home in the Vejalpur area of the city, was not alone and had an accomplice who is yet to be traced.
Dave was produced before a city court today. The court has sent him to three days police custody.
Further action in the case will depend on outcome of the interrogation, police added.
