National program to highlight online dangers

A national scheme has been launched in WA which aims to help parents and teachers educate children about online dangers.

The ‘ThinkUKnow’ course covers a range of internet subjects including online sexual exploitation, cyber bullying and scams.

The course is run by the Australian Federal Police.

The Minister for Home Affairs Brendan O’Connor says it is the best way to protect children who are vulnerable when using the internet.

“So this is about providing information, alerting parents to potential dangers, emphasising the importance of discussing these issues with their children.”

Man guilty of stalking friend who later killed himself

A 21-year-old Bacchus Marsh man has pleaded guilty to stalking a former friend, who later killed himself.

The Melbourne Magistrates Court heard Shane Gerada wrote a letter of apology, for tormenting 17-year-old Allem Halkic.

The boy received five threatening text messages in a 24 hour period, before he jumped from a bridge.

One text message threatened to put him in hospital.

The prosecution said it was a case of cyber bullying, but did not allege that Gerada caused the teenager’s death.

Gerada’s lawyer said his client’s conduct was naive and immature.

Magistrate Peter Reardon said he would convict Gerada but would not send him to jail.

He was ordered to complete 200 hours of community work.

China journalist club shuts website after attack

(Reuters) – The Foreign Correspondents Club of China said on Friday it had shut its website after a burst of hacker attacks, days after attacks on the Yahoo email accounts of some foreign journalists covering China were discovered.

Technology | Media

“We do not know who is behind the attacks or what their motivation is,” the club’s board said in an emailed statement explaining it had decided to shut down temporarily the site after two days of “persistent” attacks.

The club has traced the online assault to IP addresses in both China and the U.S., but added that these machines could have been taken over by hackers in other locations.

The hacking was the latest of several recent incidents that have brought to light the Internet vulnerabilities of people or groups whose work may raise hackles in China.

Yahoo email accounts of some journalists and activists whose work relates to China were also compromised in an attack discovered this week, with some users still shut out from their accounts, rights groups and foreign correspondents said.

Google’s recent decision to move its Chinese-language search services out of China came after the company discovered it had been the victim of “a sophisticated cyber attack originating from China,” and found that the Gmail accounts of dozens of activists connected with China were being compromised.

China’s government has said it condemns Internet hacking and was not behind the attacks on Google. Some analysts, however, say such attacks have the hallmarks of a sophisticated organization.

Cyber security and laws, a draw among youth in Hyderabad

Hyderabad, Sep 13 (ANI): An increasing number of students are drawn to learn cyber security as they foresee a bright future in this upcoming field.

With information technology (IT) gaining popularity the security of data compiled, stored and transmitted is of utmost import.

According to a study, the requirement of employees to prevent cyber crimes in India is higher in India than other countries.

Therefore many students in the ‘Cyberabad,’ another name for Hyderabad, have started opting cyber security as a course to be a professional in the field.

Presently, cyber security has good prospect in the job market.

“E-commerce has made a very huge impact in every country’s economy. So whenever you use Internet, you need security. It is a very booming and open market that is going to be coming in few days,” said Vikram, a student of cyber security.

The IT world is today faced with problems like spams, viruses and worms. Besides cyber terrorism and cyber warfare are the latest trends of nuisance, reportedly increasing at a rapid pace. It is felt that a proper cyber infrastructure is needed to combat all these problems.

Certainly, Zaki Qureshi, a software professional, has come forth to ensure Cyber Security by teaching various aspects to prevent cyber crime.

Qureshi, 38, IT expert feels that the government must take a pro-active role in ensuing foolproof cyber security.

“The government should take a serious initiative on awareness, training technology transfer and then we can call it as security development. I mean to say, you have to have a proper infrastructure in place. For all these, it takes a long time. It’s not a one-day or a two-day initiative. It will probably take half a decade,” said Zaki Qureshi, a software professional and an expert in cyber security.

Cyber security is very important to protect the IT services in corporate establishments, government organisations as well as the ones used by the general public.

Unfortunately, cyber security in India is yet to pick up among the IT users, said Qureshi. By, Jyoti. N (ANI)

Hyderabad students learn intricacies of cyber security

Hyderabad, Sep. 13 (ANI): Aiming to prevent cyber crimes in the country, students in Hyderabad are learning and mastering the intricacies of cyber security.

In the fast developing countries where information technology (IT) has reached the apex, the security of data compiled, stored and transmitted is of utmost import.

According to analysts, the requirement of employees for preventing cyber crimes in India is higher as compared to other countries.

“E-commerce has made a very huge impact in every country’s economy. So whenever you use Internet, you need security. It is a very booming and open market that is going to be coming in few days,” noted Vikram, a student of cyber security.

In the times when cyber terrorism and cyber warfare have tried to cripple infrastructure of various nations, a proper cyber mechanism is the need of the hour.

“The government has to take serious initiative on awareness, training technology transfer and then we can call it as security development. I mean to say, you have to have a proper infrastructure in place. For all these, it takes long time. It’s not a one-day or a two-day initiative. It takes probably half a decade,” said Zaki Qureshi, a software professional and an expert in cyber security.

Cyber security is very important to protect the IT services in corporate establishments, government organisations as well as the ones used by the general public.

The same must be a part of the national policy. Unfortunately, cyber security in India is yet to pick up among the IT users, noted Zaki Qureshi. (ANI)

Pak Telecom authority denies planning to snoop on all phone calls, e-mails, sms’

Islamabad, Sep.9 (ANI): The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has rejected reports regarding it forming a regulation committee to monitor telecom traffic including phones calls, e-mails and text messages, The Daily Times reports.

Commenting on the reports regarding the PTA’s plans of having a monitoring cell to keep tab of all telecommunication traffic, a PTA spokesperson said monitoring cyber and telecom traffic does not come under the authority’s mandate.

The spokesperson, however, said the PTA has installed latest filters to check illegal telecommunication traffic coming into the country.

Earlier, it was reported that the PTA has drafted a plan to monitor all telecommunication traffic, including landlines, mobile services and emails.

It was also reported that the PTA has already prepared a code of conduct for monitoring. (ANI)

“Mars spectacular” event on August 27 a hoax, say astronomers

Washington, August 27 (ANI): Astronomers have confirmed that an email promising a “Mars spectacular” event on August 27, when the Red Planet will look as large as the full moon, is nothing but a hoax.

According to a report in National Geographic News, the anonymous message from an unknown part of the globe says that the red planet “will look as large as the full moon” in the night sky, and that “no one alive today will ever see this again.”

The claim has been bombarding people’s inboxes worldwide every summer for five years.

Today, the Mars hoax has grown into a kind of cyber legend-one that astronomers are still struggling to debunk.

“The possibility of seeing Mars as large as the moon strikes the imagination,” said Marc Jobin, staff astronomer at the Montreal Planetarium in Quebec.

“The sad reality is that a lot of people have little comprehension of astronomy and are unable to call the hoax,” he added.

But, there is a thread of truth that inspired the prank several years ago.

Planets are not on perfectly circular orbits, and during their elliptical paths around the sun, planets can vary in their exact distances to each other over time.

On August 27, 2003, Mars made a historically tight approach to Earth, coming about 56 million kilometers away.

Such a near pass hadn’t happened in nearly 60,000 years, and it won’t happen again until August 28, 2287.

In 2003, planetariums had sent out notices alerting stargazers of the real astronomical event.

“At the time, through the telescope, Mars looked as large as the full moon would with the naked eye,” explained Geza Gyuk, astronomer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, Illinois.

Through a backyard telescope with a high-power eyepiece, viewers could even make out many surface features on Mars’s disk.

With the naked eye, Mars still appeared as nothing more than a brilliant orange-colored star in the sky.

Still, an email hoax was born.

If the red planet actually did appear as huge as purported in the Mars hoax email, the planet would be just 750,000 kilometers from Earth, or about twice as far away as the moon.

According to Jobin, at that distance, life on Earth would likely be doomed.

Given the interplay of gravity between the planets and the sun, a much closer Mars “would have extreme consequences on the shape of the Earth’s orbit, with our planet swinging much closer and much farther away from the sun,” he said. (ANI)

Indian hacks RAAF website over student attacks in Australia

Sydney, July 16 (ANI): An Indian hacker broke into the Royal Australian Air Force website and defaced it with a threatening message aimed at the Australian Government, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

The Department of Defence confirmed that the hack took place between Monday and Tuesday, forcing it to pull the entire RAAF website offline and replace it with a page explaining that there had been “technical difficulties”.

The site has now been restored, the paper said.

While the department would not reveal who perpetrated the hack, Indian television channel Times Now reported the message warned the Australian Government to stop attacks on Indian students or else face further cyber attacks.

The message read: “This site has been hacked by Atul Dwivedi. This is a warning message to the Australian government. Immediately take all measures to stop racist attacks against Indian students in Australia or else I will pawn all your cyber properties like this one.”

A Defence spokeswoman said the RAAF website was not used to conduct official air force business and no sensitive information had been stolen.

The Defence Security Authority is conducting an investigation. (ANI)

Pak Govt. launches crackdown against text, email propaganda

Islamabad, July 13 (ANI): The Pakistan Government has launched a crackdown against those involved in spreading “propaganda” against senior government officials through emails and text messages.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Sunday announced that the new government campaign aims at limiting the growing number of emails and text messages questioning the government, the Daily Times reports.

According to an interior ministry press release, a similar crackdown has been initiated against a banned organisation, which is spreading malicious propaganda against the Pak Army.

The crackdown requires the director general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to keep a check on propaganda material, and take necessary action. Under the Cyber Crimes Act, violators can be imprisoned for up to 14 years.

The government has also requested Interpol to identify the owners of any email addresses and websites registered abroad that spread such messages. (ANI)

N.Korea suspected of being behind cyber attacks on S. Korea, US

Washington, July 9 (ANI): North Korea is suspected of launching an unprecedented large cyber-attack this past weekend against South Korea and a smaller number of US government web sites.

The Internet attacks are not isolated, but closely tied a broader North Korean military strategy, including its recent missile and nuclear weapons tests, the Christian Science Monitor quoted analysts, as saying.

“The cyber attacks are part of an asymmetric warfare strategy,” says Nicholas Eberstadt, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.

“Part of an effective confrontation with the US war machine would be the ability to disable US information systems,” he added.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service “believes North Korea or its sympathizers” of having masterminded an Internet attack on the web sites of government agencies, including the office of the South Korean president and the foreign and defense ministries, according to Yonhap, the South Korean news agency.

Korea Communication Commission official Lee Myung-su said the computer virus had infected 18,000 personal computers and at least 11 South Korean government sites.

US sites hit by the virus included the Treasury Department, Federal Trade Commission, and Secret Service.

The Internet attacks represent a new area of confrontation in a period of uncertainty in North Korea dominated by rising concern about the health of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-il.

The attacks on South Korean websites suggest cyber warfare may be in lieu of attacks long predicted in the West or Yellow Sea or along the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas. (ANI)

Patil for alternative dispute settlement mechanism

Thane (Maharashtra), June27 (ANI): President Pratibha Patil today called for introducing mobile courts in remote areas and alternative dispute settlement mechanism in order to make justice affordable and accessible to weaker sections of society.

Speaking after inaugurating the Maharashtra Judicial Academy at Uttan in Thane District, Patil expressed concern over the increase in court and lawyers fees.

The academy has been established by the Bombay High Court to train members of the higher and lower judicial services.

Calling for immediate changes in the country’s judicial system Patil asked the Government, the Legislature, and the Judiciary to work together to strengthen the institutional aspect. The Indian judiciary needed to be more transparent, effective and people oriented, she added.

She also expressed her concern over the problems faced by litigants due to the backlog of cases pending before the various courts.

The President called for promoting training in cyber laws, environmental laws, intellectual property rights and gender sensitivity and implementation of E-courts in order to better management.

She told members of the judicial service that they needed to work with commitment and responsibility as people continue to repose great hope on the judiciary. (ANI)

Potter fans conned with ‘free early movie premiere link’ by hackers

London, June 27 (ANI): Harry Potter fans are being conned with a phoney link placed by cyber criminals that claims to lead them to a free sneak preview of the new film.

Hackers have been trying to trap fans into watching the soon to be released Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with the link.

Viewers are told they must download and install a “streamviewer” in order to watch the premiere, which in reality downloads “malware” that secretly records personal information such as passwords, and bank card numbers.

Fraudsters then gather these details to sell them over the World Wide Web or use the information for other swindles.

Michael Greene, vice president of Product Strategy for PC Tools, said fans were being targeted due to the hype surrounding the new release.

“It’s a case of curiosity kills the cat… If you want to see the Harry Potter video before it’s released you are going to click on the link. But it’s likely you’ll get an infection on your computer,” Sky News quoted him as saying.

“It’s not uncommon to target major events. The malwriters need an audience in order to deliver the malware,” he added. (ANI)

Gordon Brown to appoint Britain’s first cyber security chief

London, June 24 (ANI): The British Prime Minister is set to announce the appointment of the nation’s first cyber security chief who will be responsible to protect the country from terrorist computer hackers and electronic espionage.

Brown’s decision comes amid fears that the computer systems of government and business are vulnerable to online attacks from hostile countries and terrorist organisations.

Neil Thompson, a senior civil servant, will be charged with protecting the national computer network, The Independent reports.

Just a month back, US President Barack Obama had declared that he was making it a “national security priority” to protect the US computer network from attack, and that he would set up a “cyber security office” in the White House.

Brown’s plans were endorsed by the Cabinet on Monday, after a presentation by the Security minister, Lord West of Spithead.

Concern has grown in Whitehall that hackers are targeting its computer systems, and those of Britain’s largest companies.

In August 2008, the Government’s first national risk register highlighted Britain’s vulnerability by cyber spies.

“The UK does remain subject to high levels of covert non-military activity by foreign intelligence organisations. They are increasingly combining traditional intelligence methods with new technical attacks,” it said.

The security services are also fighting a constant war in cyberspace against extremist Islamist Internet sites, that attempt to radicalise young people or co-ordinate attacks.

Officials have said the biggest threat comes from China, but they have also expressed worries about the activities of criminal gangs based in Russia.

Britain has discussed ways of boosting computer security with foreign allies including the US. (ANI)

US launches all out cyber war against hackers

Washington, May 30 (ANI): Computer hacking is becoming a growing threat and the US Department of Homeland Security sees it as a future battleground.

To counter this new menace, the department has instructed the Air Force Office of Special Investigations to launch a cyber war against hackers seeking to disrupt and destroy vital U.S. military networks, reports CBS.

“What we want to do is protect the way we do business, protect the Air Force, and protect our country from this kind of harm,” Brigadier General Dana Simmons said.

At the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, agents identify and attempt to neutralize criminal, terrorist and espionage computer threats of every kind. They have 11 field offices around the world.

Using brains and bytes, agents like Paul Alvarez play a high-tech game of cat and mouse – running traces, tracking IP address, assessing damage, plugging security holes in the network by erasing viruses and fixing programs and searching for the source of nameless, faceless intruders. There are thousands of attempts every day.

“We basically peel the onion layers back to find out where the core attack came from,” Alvarez said.

“We call them hot points. We’ll chase them from computer to computer to end point to find out who really did it. The only constant in the attacks: they come around the clock, and from around the globe. Now you’re seeing a wide variety-from major criminal enterprises to foreign adversaries,” Alvarez said.

At risk: missile defense systems, communications networks – everything that makes the military work.

The Department of Defense says it has spent more than 100 million dollars in just the last six months repairing the damage done by cyber attacks. (ANI)

Campaign against cyber crime in Kolkata

Kolkata, May 22 (ANI): In order to tackle cyber crime, the Kolkata police joined hands with the Public Relations Society of India, Kolkata Chapter and Calcutta Telephones and organised a workshop here to spread awareness about cyber security.

Cyber crime still remains a vague phenomenon for most Internet users, as they are not aware as to what actually constitutes cyber crime and what laws are against it.

Most cases of cyber crime also go unreported because of the strong inhibitions amongst Internet users especially children and teenagers.

“We have been planning to launch a city-wise movement from the next month where we will involve the professors, It specialists and everybody to fight the evil of cyber crime. A lot of campaigns do not reach us. Young children do not report crime relating to cyber. So we are going to start a huge awareness campaign,” said Gautam Mohan Chakravorty, Commissioner of Police, Kolkata.

There are incidents of tampering with pictures on the Internet, and other such incidents.

“This cyber crime whatever it is, hacking or pornography, it is because parents don’t give time to their children. The children do not know what is good or right,” said Deblina Choudhury, student.

Cyber crime is understood as a crime wherein a computer or network is used as a tool, target or source of crime. It consists of fraud, theft, blackmail, forgery, hacking, infringement of copyright, child pornography and so on.

There are hardly any statistics available on the increase in cyber crimes and the records are not reliable because net users, mostly teenagers and children, fail to report cyber crime.

As per reports three in four children online are willing to share personal information about themselves and their family in exchange for goods and services. And one in five children are argeted by a predator each year. (ANI)

Hackers can’t hack top-secret data of military: Internet scientist

Beijing, May 21 (ANI): An acclaimed Internet scientist has said that there is no way hackers could access top-secret data by penetrating the firewalls of military on government networks.

Former National Computer Network Emergency response team’s Director Professor Fang Binxing said there is no scientific basis to blame either China’s military or the government for hacking other nations’ networks because most of them are “out of reach”.

Binxing’s statement came after the foreign media blamed the Chinese authorities of infiltrating military networks and government computers in more than 100 countries.

A specialist on Internet security said that Networks containing sensitive intelligence are impenetrable, because the militaries isolate their networks completely from the public domain to prevent hacking.

“If there have been cases of key intelligence being stolen, I believe there would have been undercover agents within the organizations facilitating the theft you cannot simply do it with computer technology,” he added.

Fang Xingdong, a Beijing-based Internet technology expert, said China has become a staging post for hackers worldwide, who use the country’s network security vulnerability to launch attacks on other countries.

“Hackers often use computers based in China as their ‘springboard’. That makes it confusing even for the US military,” he added.

According to an Internet security report released on April 15 by Symantec, the California-based anti-virus software maker, about 71 percent of the computers hacked in the Asia-Pacific region are based in China, which has a cyber population of 300 million.

At the same time, 38 percent of hacking attempts worldwide originate in the US, compared with 13 percent in China, the report said.

“The US military is picking on China because it wants to make its claims appear more plausible,” Fang Binxing said.

Canadian-based researchers have also claimed that a cyber spy network based mainly in China hacked into classified documents from government and private organizations in 103 countries, including the computers of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan exiles.

The researchers also dubbed the alleged infiltration “GhostNet” but “whether it’s called ‘GhostNet’ or something else, it’s just an expression, not a technical term in any sense,” Fang said.

The academician also rebutted reports by foreign newspapers claiming that China’s indigenously-built security operating system “Kylin” has links to military use. (ANI)

Miley Cyrus hits back at weight critics

London, May 18 (ANI): Miley Cyrus has hit back at cruel bloggers who mocked her body after she was pictured frolicking on a Bahamas beach in a bikini.

The Hannah Montana star was spotted in the Bahamas soaking up the sun in a mix and match bikini. But her idyllic break was rudely interrupted when negative remarks about her weight hit the web.

The teenager, then, took to her personal Twitter page to blast critics of her weight, branding them ‘hateful’ bullies, reports the Daily Star.

She wrote, “Talk all you want. I have my flaws. I’m a normal girl (sic) theres things about my body I would change but stop with calling me f*t in post.

I dont even like the word. Those remarks that you hateful people use are fighting words. The ones that scar people and cause them to do damage to themselves or others.

“People that are so okay with being so hateful disgust me and need to spend last time on a gossip website and more time a. reading your bible b. reading stories/articles about what happens when cyber abuse and name calling happens. Kids hurt themselves,” she added. (ANI)

Social networking sites can help protect youngsters from cyber bullying

Sydney, May 12 (ANI): An inquiry into cyber bullying has revealed that young victims can use friendships on social networking websites to help protect themselves.

Gillian Calvert, the NSW Commissioner for Children and Young People, told the inquiry that cyber bullying should not be viewed as a new phenomenon.

“We see cyber bullying as an extension of bullying rather than a new threat,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Calvert as saying.

“It’s behaviour that’s been around for a long time that’s just got a new platform, if you like, or a new environment,” she added.

The commission’s survey showed that youngsters were against online filtering to curb the problem, as it could stop them from accessing Internet sites for homework and socialising.

“They said that filtering can have unintended consequences on their use of the Internet. Overall, the advantages and benefits of the internet far outweighed the bullying costs for them,” Calvert said.

She said that children had spoken of the value of social networking sites in giving them “the connection and friendship network that the kids identified were the things that were often protecting against bullying.” (ANI)

No options ‘off the table’ for U.S. response to cyber attacks, says official

Arlington (Virginia,US), Masy 12 (ANI): The U.S. military’s response to a cyber attack would not necessarily be limited to cyberspace, the head of the U.S. Strategic Command, Air Force General Kevin P. Chilton, has said.

The president and the defense secretary would decide the United States’ response to a cyber attack, Chilton told reporters during a breakfast roundtable, adding “Our job would be to present them options, just as every other combatant commander would do.”

Stars and Stripes further quoted Gen. Chilton as saying that he would not rule out a kinetic response to a cyber attack.

“I don’t think you take anything off the table when you provide options to the president to decide,” he said. “You don’t take any response options off the table from an attack on the United States of America. Why would we constrain ourselves on how we would respond?”

The Defense Department’s networks are probed thousands of times per day, Chilton said.

The intrusions are geared toward espionage – gathering information rather than slowing or manipulating the department’s computers, he said. Information stolen includes personnel and medical records.

While those intrusions were against unclassified networks, the information is still important, he said.

Chilton said the threats ranged from bored teenagers to criminals and to nations – although he did not name which nations. (ANI)

Parents urged to stop kids’ ‘sexting’

Sydney, May 03 (ANI): Parents will be urged to keep an on eye on their kids in a campaign to stop an alarming rise in the number of teenagers involved in ‘sexting’.

The New South Wales (NSW) government is set to launch a campaign to warn about the risks of sending sexual images of themselves via mobile phone and posting them on social networking websites.

Sexting involves sending suggestive or sexual images through mobile phones that can then be posted on the Internet or forwarded to other people.

The government has produced a fact sheet for schools, parents and young people to warn about the possible lifetime consequences of the growing practice.

It is urging parents to speak to kids about the issues and to check their social networking websites such as MySpace and Facebook sites.

“The easy availability of new technologies and social networking sites can turn what can seem an innocent joke or flirtatious fun into a potentially devastating experience – with young girls most at risk. Sexting can lead to public humiliation, cyber bullying or even sexual assault,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Services Minister Linda Burney as saying.

“There is an urgent need for us to address this issue quickly. I urge parents to warn their children about the consequences of sexting,” she added.

She said the Community Services Department had received reports of girls as young as 13 sending sexually explicit images to their boyfriends’ mobiles, which are then passed on to their friends.

“Everyone needs to understand that, first and foremost, it is illegal to take sexual photos of children and young people and it is also an offence to pass them on,” she said.

“Young people do not often think about the consequences of their actions. What they now think is an innocent joke or just flirting can be very damaging if it falls into the wrong hands,” she added. (ANI)