NEW DELHI: Concerned over cyber attacks as well as misuse of social media for terror indoctrination, the Union home ministry on Wednesday constituted an expert study group to draw up a comprehensive roadmap to tackle cyber crimes in the country. The group, which will comprise senior academicians specialising in computer science and cyber security professsionals, will suggest measures to tighten cyber monitoring and recommend possible partnerships with the public and private sector, NGOs (both domestic and foreign) and international bodies towards this end.

The announcement of the expert study group comes days after Union home minister Rajnath Singh told the Lok Sabha that there was a need to strengthen cyber monitoring in the wake of growing use of internet and social media by global terror outfits like ISIS to indoctrinate the youth. Singh was responding to concerns raised by MPs in the wake of arrest of Bangalore professional Mehdi Masroor Biswas for operating a pro-ISIS Twitter account.

The five members of the expert panel are Dr Rajat Moona, Director General CDAC, Pune; Professor Krishnan, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru; Dr Gulshan Rai, Director General Cert-In; Dr Manindra Aggarwal, Professor, Computer Science, IIT, Kanpur; and Dr D Dass, Professor IIT, Bengaluru. Joint secretary (Centre-state) in the home ministry Kumar Alok will be its convenor.

"Recently, various issues relating to cyber crimes have been flagged at various fora including Parliament. India with a fast growing economy is susceptible to international and domestic cyber attacks and there is a need to ensure cyber crime-free environment," a home ministry release said recalling that there was nearly 40 per cent year-on-year increase in cyber crimes registered in the country over the past 2-3 years.

"In order to comprehensively address the issues of cyber crimes, Union home minister Rajnath Singh has approved the setting up of an expert group consisting of academicians and professionals of repute to prepare a roadmap for effectively tackling the cyber crimes in the country and give suitable recommendations on all facets of cyber crime," said the release.

The Terms of Reference of the Expert Group include preparing a roadmap to effectively tackle cyber crimes in the country and give suitable recommendations on all its facets; recommend possible partnerships with public and private sector, NGOs, international bodies and international NGOs; and, lastly, to recommend any other special measures/steps the expert group may like to recommend with regard to tackling cyber crimes.

Also see-

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-five-member-expert-group-to-tackle-cyber-crimes-2046860

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LEGAL : Facebook To Face Lawsuit Over Scanning Users' Messages

By Nate Raymond

Reuters

24/12/2014

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/24/facebook-lawsuit_n_6378076.html?utm_hp_ref=india&ir=India

By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) - Facebook Inc must face a class action lawsuit accusing it of violating its users' privacy by scanning the content of messages they send to other users for advertising purposes, a U.S. judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton in Oakland, California, on Tuesday dismissed some state-law claims against the social media company but largely denied Facebook's bid to dismiss the lawsuit.

Facebook had argued that the alleged scanning of its users' messages was covered by an exception under the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act for interceptions by service providers occurring in the ordinary course of business.

But Hamilton said Facebook had "not offered a sufficient explanation of how the challenged practice falls within the ordinary course of its business."

Neither Facebook nor a lawyer for the plaintiffs responded to a request for comment Wednesday.

The lawsuit, filed in 2013, alleged that Facebook scanned the content of private messages sent between users for links to websites and would then count any links in a tally of "likes" of the pages.

Those "likes" were then used to compile user profiles, which were then used for delivering targeted advertising to its users, the lawsuit said.

The complaint alleged that the scanning of the private messages violated the federal and California state law.

According to Tuesday's ruling, Facebook ceased the practice at issue in October 2012. But the company said it still does some analysis of messages to protect against viruses and spam, the ruling said.

The lawsuit was filed by Facebook user Matthew Campbell and seeks class action status on behalf of U.S. users who sent or received private messages that included website addresses in their content.

The case is Campbell v. Facebook Inc, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 13-5996.

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2014 : The Top Hacks of the Year

by Ondrej Krehel

23 Tuesday Dec 2014

http://blog.lifars.com/2014/12/23/hacks-of-the-year-rundown/

As we approach the end of the year, lets have a look back at the top hacking incidents of 2014. This year, we might have witnessed the most damaging attack of the decade. It will not be easy beating the Sony attack.

SONY

On November 24th all of Sony Pictures employees computer screens started showing a picture of a skeleton and a message threatening to release sensitive data to the world. As a response to the hacking, Sony shut down all its systems, including email servers, to prevent more data leakage. All this effort however was not enough, the attackers who identify themselves as the Guardians of Peace (#GOP) claim to have stolen over 100 TB of data. They have so far released some 40 GB of data a tiny fraction. The attackers demanded (and succeeded) of Sony Pictures not to release a controversial movie named The Interview a comedy about the assassination of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. As a response Sony cancelled the release of the movie. FBI investigation blames North Korean government for the attack, while North Korea denies any involvement.

HOME DEPOT

The Home Depot, a major chain of home improvement stores in the U.S. had suffered a very large data breach. Over 56 million customers credit and debit card information was exposed. According to report, the cybercriminals behind the attacks infiltrated the companys systems at least 5 months prior to discovery. Many blamed Home Depot for not having proper security measures in place.

REGIN APT

Called the most advanced cyberespionage campaign to date, the Regin APT is a highly complex,state funded threat. The Regin malware carried the ability to intercept and manage GSM communication systems. The main countries of focus are Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, and others. It is believed the campaign was designed by the British intelligence agency GCHQ and the NSA.

THE FAPPENING

A collection of nude celebrity photos and videos was stolen from Apples iCloud online storage in September, published on 4Chan, and later released in a number of parts for download via torrents. The database included many well-known celebrities, such as Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Uptons very revealing photos. Apple claimed that their cloud storage has not been breached, many were left unconvinced.

THE SNAPPENING

After iCloud, next in line to get breached was the picture messaging app Snapchat. Photos on Snapchat auto-destroy, but there are services that are able to save these for you one of which (snapsaved.com) was hacked. The entire 13GB database was made available for download on Pirate Bay.

CHASE

One of the largest breaches this year (although not the most devastating) was the J.P. Morgan Chase data breach, where over 76 million households and 7 million businesses. According to Chase, no financial information, SSNs, login information, etc., was stolen. Only emails and phone numbers and addresses were compromised.

Although there were others, including many attacks involving crypto-currencies, these comprised the top 6 hacking incidents in our opinion.

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MONITOR : 30 Million Thailand Line app users being monitored, claims Thai govt

By Darshik Jariwala

December, 23rd 2014

Free mobile messaging apps like WhatsApp, Viber, Tango and Line regularly receive requests from various countries every year to provide them access to the messages being sent and received to and from their respective countries. Line, a fairly well known messaging app had received a similar request last year from the Thailand government.

Now, more than a year later, the Thai government claims they have complete access to monitor the messages sent and received by more than 30 million Line users in Thailand. They claim they can monitor over 40 million messages that are being sent each day by the Thai citizens.

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Minister Pornchai Rujiprapa said in a press conference yesterday, We can monitor all the nearly 40 million LINE messages sent by people in Thailand each day,, as reported by TheNation. He said approximately 33 million people in Thailand use Line application. Pornchai further states, If you receive LINE messages that offend the monarchy and threaten national security, you can lodge a complaint with police. We can trace where the messages originally come from,. Other important figures present at the same press conference include Deputy Prime Minister Yongyuth Yutthawong and the Prime Minister and National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) chief General Prayut Chan-ocha.

The purpose stated in the request sent last year by the Thailand government was to help them gather data on people suspected in in crime such as trading arms and drugs. And also people who may challenge or question the Thai monarch.

Interestingly, a Line spokesperson contacted by TechCrunch denied having provided any user information with the Thailand government. Even assuming the fact that Line may have infact not shared any information with the Thai government, the controversy itself is bound the affect Line market in Thailand and probably other countries who may be reluctant to use the app. Line has not provided any further information or explanation on the matter besides plainly denying it.

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IT Term of the day

DMA

Stands for "Direct Memory Access." DMA is a method of transferring data from the computer's RAM to another part of the computer without processing it using the CPU. While most data that is input or output from your computer is processed by the CPU, some data does not require processing, or can be processed by another device. In these situations, DMA can save processing time and is a more efficient way to move data from the computer's memory to other devices.

For example, a sound card may need to access data stored in the computer's RAM, but since it can process the data itself, it may use DMA to bypass the CPU. Video cards that support DMA can also access the system memory and process graphics without needing the CPU. Ultra DMA hard drives use DMA to transfer data faster than previous hard drives that required the data to first be run through the CPU.

In order for devices to use direct memory access, they must be assigned to a DMA channel. Each type of port on a computer has a set of DMA channels that can be assigned to each connected device. For example, a PCI controller and a hard drive controller each have their own set of DMA channels.

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Quote of the day

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.

Rabindranath Tagore

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