Cyber Crime is a BOOMING Business

From compromised machines to mass email lists for spamming, electronically-transferring funds out of bank accounts to phishing attacks—India’s 100 million internet users have become prime targets for hackers across the globe.

A report, titled “Global Risks for 2012”, shows cyber attacks on governments and businesses are considered to be one of the top five risks in the world. Be it cybercrime, cyber-espionage or cyberwarfare — they are on a steady rise. The reason: highly lucrative payout hackers get from stealing data. “There are high profit margins and low-detection rate by law enforcement agencies. Further, half of the data thefts (on both individual PCs and enterprise PCs) are executed from remote or stolen server locations, which only makes prosecution difficult,” points an ethical hacker employed with a large Indian IT outsourcing company.



E-mails, personal data and financial data are the most sought after “goods” in the black market, says Pankaj Jain, director, ESET India. “The e-fraud business that has been traditionally flourishing in India is credit card cloning. The cloning itself is mostly performed by Nigerians living in India, though the card data they get are usually from Russian and former Soviet Union hackers on underground forums,” he says.

The fast-maturing cyber crime economy
Even as enterprises and individuals struggle with internet threats, the underground cybercrime economy has moved on to organised entrepreneurship. An ethical hacker from New Delhi, who regularly accesses the digital black market where cybercriminals advertise and trade stolen information and services, shared how the advertisements are done. “Search, compare, and if you find a better offer we will return your money…,” reads an ad selling user data in black market journals. With the economic crisis looming large, such claims and ads are on the rise.

“Today, the main concern for the data sellers is to generate trust among their clients,” the ethical hacker tells Business Standard. He added that data sellers have started offering free “trial” access to stolen bank or credit card details as well as money-back guarantees and free exchanges. “Since there is a great deal of competition in the cyber black market, the rule of supply and demand ensures that prices are competitive, with operators even offering bulk discounts to high-volume buyers,” says a security consultant at a leading pharmaceutical R&D unit in Bangalore.

Preying on enterprise data
The booming Indian economy, coupled with the growing buying power of individuals, is attractive to hackers. “Many industries like BPO, software, automobiles, pharmaceuticals among others are doing business across the globe from India. This certainly brings India on the wish list of hackers for data breaches and monetary gains,” says Amit Nath, country manager (India & Saarc), Trend Micro.

Hackers mostly use chance or targeted approach. “Chance approach is used when volume matters, ie, for stealing credit card, bank account and email account information. Such attacks usually consist of sending malware, trojans through mass emails, social network scams and infected links,” says Jain of ESET.

Targeted approach is used when the criminal has a certain intent or victim in mind and the attack is tailored to make use of certain security flaws in the system. These attacks are usually used to target organisations, government or celebrities. A compromised PC could be used by a hacker in his network for attacking other computers, and also for studying the web browsing pattern or interaction of the user on the internet.

Today, teams of ethical hackers or security consultants work with most leading corporates and R&D outfits, tinkering with corporate IT networks to ensure the data exchanged between employees is not mishandled or, worse, stolen by rival companies.

Threats are not always limited to financial fraud alone, says Atul Khatavkar, VP (IT Governance Risk Compliance), AGC Networks. He says, “There could be cases of intellectual property theft, too. For example, the vice-president of an e- learning firm – sacked from the company later – was accused of stealing the source code of the company’s future product. He subsequently used the product for his new venture, and the e-learning firm had to book nearly Rs 47 crore in losses due to the theft.” Government and defence data, too, is always in demand, especially by hackers in China and Pakistan, lists ESET.

Not wishing to be left behind, many enterprises are leveraging on social media tools. In a report, ISACA advises that enterprises must consider the risks of employee access to social media sites while on the corporate network.

for more information on how to protect your identity / cyber crimes / or any other private investigator work, please contact the private investigators at A2Z Invesigations www.a2zinvestigations.com

source:http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/cyber-crime-is-nowbooming-industry/462549/

Warrant Needed for GPS Tracking, High Court Says

In a rare defeat for law enforcement, the Supreme Court unanimously agreed on Monday to bar police from installing GPS technology to track suspects without first getting a judge’s approval. The justices made clear it wouldn’t be their final word on increasingly advanced high-tech surveillance of Americans.

Indicating they will be monitoring the growing use of such technology, five justices said they could see constitutional and privacy problems with police using many kinds of electronic surveillance for long-term tracking of citizens’ movements without warrants.

While the justices differed on legal rationales, their unanimous outcome was an unusual setback for government and police agencies grown accustomed to being given leeway in investigations in post-Sept. 11 America, including by the Supreme Court. The views of at least the five justices raised the possibility of new hurdles down the road for police who want to use high-tech surveillance of suspects, including various types of GPS technology.

“The Supreme Court’s decision is an important one because it sends a message that technological advances cannot outpace the American Constitution,” said Donald Tibbs, a professor at the Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel University. “The people will retain certain rights even when technology changes how the police are able to conduct their investigations.”

A GPS device installed by police on Washington, D.C., nightclub owner Antoine Jones’ Jeep and tracked for four weeks helped link him to a suburban house used to stash money and drugs. He was sentenced to life in prison before an appeals court overturned his conviction.

source: http://www.pinewswire.net/article/warrant-needed-for-gps-tracking-high-court-says/

for more information about GPS Tracking systems or if you are in need of a private investigator in New Jersey or New York, please contact the professionals at www.a2zinvestigations.com

Anonymous: Facebook is next, on January 28

Anonymous: Facebook is next

In a YouTube video that appears to be linked to a known Anonymous account, the hacker collective offers a linked program in order to attack Facebook.

A frame from the Anonymous video.

(Credit: Screenshot by CNET)

"While it is true that Facebook has at least 60,000 servers, it is still possible to bring it down."

These are the words of the anonymous voice that purports to represent Anonymous in a video posted to YouTube today.

"An online war has begun between Anonymous, the people, and the government of the United States," the narrator begins. The reason: SOPA, PIPA and other perceived threats to Internet rights.

In order to bring down Facebook, the video asks for everyone who understands and supports Anonymous' position to participate in this online protest. This is a protest that began over the last week, says the narrator, with attacks on the CBS.com, Warner Brothers, and FBI sites.

The narrator suggests that anyone who supports the cause download a program in order to participate in a Facebook attack.

The attack, he says, needs to be coordinated for a specific time in order to bring down the servers. So the time chosen is 12 a.m., January 28.

"Do not fear," continues the narrator. "There is no way you can get caught." He adds: "They cannot take down that large of a group."

What is at stake, he says, is the fate of the Internet.

The YouTube account associated with this threat appears to have some Anonymous connection. There is more than one of the group's videos posted to it.

However, not so long ago, another YouTube video was posted, purporting to be in Anonymous' name, in which the promise was that Facebook would go down November 5. It didn't.

What isn't entirely clear from the video is why Facebook has been singled out. Is it the company's relatively tardy opposition to SOPA? The video seems to simply align Facebook with the government, without offering further explanation.

Between now and Saturday, there will be claims and counterclaims as to the possibilities of this operation.

I have contacted Facebook to seek the company's reaction and will update accordingly.

Can people truly live without status updates? Perhaps Saturday we will see.

Update, 2:10 p.m. PT: A tweet from the AnonOps Twitter account denies that this video has anything to do with Anonymous: "Again we must say that we will not attack #Facebook! Again the mass media lie."

Facebook, for its part, told me through a representative that it's ready for attacks from Anonymous or anyone else.

The representative said: "We expect Anonymous just like we expect any other attack on any other day. Due to our size, we face the same threats as seen everywhere else on the Web, but we have developed partnerships, backend systems, and protocols to confront the full range of security challenges we face. Facebook has always been committed to protecting our users' information, and we will continue to innovate and work tirelessly to defend this data."

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57363931-71/anonymous-facebook-is-next-on-january-28/#ixzz1mdrfmiz1

If you would like more information on how to protect your own identity, please contact the professionals at A2ZInvestigations.com

‘Infidelity plus’ – the new defence against murder

Posted on February 3, 2012 by admin

A partner’s affair can no longer be treated by courts as a defensible reason to lose control and kill – but it can be a factor

Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge gender-neutralised his reasoning. Photograph: Ian Nicholson/PA

Parliament made clear two years ago that sexual infidelity should not be allowed as a defence for murder, whatever the circumstances. A partner’s affair could no longer be treated by courts as a defensible reason to lose control and kill.

However, giving judgment last week, on three domestic killing appeals, Lord Chief Justice Judge ruled: “Where sexual infidelity is integral to and forms an essential part of the context the prohibition does not operate to exclude it.”

It seems that parliament says infidelity doesn’t count and the court says it does.

Killing a wife for infidelity was “classic” provocation under the law prior to 2009. The courts were littered with cases in which men blamed their partner’s adultery for making them kill her.

In the case of Morgan James Smith in 1999, Lord Hoffman noted that historically one of the legal justifications for killing due to losing self-control had been finding a wife in adultery. It was regarded as “the highest invasion of property”.

In 2008 Justice for Women asked a senior judge why he had accepted a plea of guilty to manslaughter instead of murder, when a man had stabbed his wife in fury.

“Because it was classic provocation,” he said. “She was leaving him for another man. I would have been practically ordering them [the jury] to give a verdict of manslaughter!”‘

Lord Hoffman, again in the case of Smith, understanding that this still prevailed, said: “Male possessiveness and jealousy should not today be an acceptable reason for the loss of self-control leading to homicide.”

And that is what this legislation attempted to do. The exclusion of infidelity as an allowable trigger for a loss of self-control defence was not because legislators thought it didn’t make both men and women angry but because it is contrary to modern public policy to allow it as a defence to murder.

Lord Judge accepted that the statute does not allow infidelity to be a “qualifying trigger” capable, in law, of causing someone to lose self-control but, because all the circumstances at the time of the killing have to be examined. If infidelity is present it has to be looked at and may add to the potency of any other conduct which might cause a loss of self-control. So if there can no longer be an infidelity defence there is instead a sort of “infidelity plus” defence, notwithstanding the statute says: “In deciding whether a loss of self-control had a qualifying trigger, the fact that a thing done or said constituted sexual infidelity is to be disregarded.”

Clearly nobody in future will assert that they lost control because of infidelity. The defence will always be “infidelity plus”. For example, she was unfaithful plus she goaded me about it.

Lord Judge studiedly gender-neutralised his reasoning but that does not alter the context that it has been men who kill their unfaithful partners and it is still very rare that the opposite is the case.

Consequently this is mainly a reversal for women, as well as a setback for parliament which intended to pass a law that recognised, like Lord Hoffman, that harmful culture must change. It should be appealed to the supreme court (though without Lord Phillips, who has already criticised the provision).

The campaigning women who fought for this change for women, and are devastated at how quickly the courts have undermined it, should be reassured that the new law has raised the bar considerably for those who kill and plead loss of control.

The defence is only allowed if the conduct provoking the cause of the loss of control was “extremely grave”, gave the defendant “a justifiable sense of being seriously wronged” and would have made someone with “a normal degree of tolerance and self-restraint” lose control and kill as well. These are all far higher tests than before .

Further and importantly, women and men who kill their violent partners now have an equivalent plea if fear of serious violence made them lose self-control. The earlier law of provocation did not work for women, its basis being that the defendant was angered to kill and such women were not angry but afraid. At that time, the court of appeal was helpful, stretching the law of provocation to help, but it took this statute finally to end the appalling injustice which otherwise prevailed where angry men and women who killed their partners were acquitted of murder and frightened men and women who killed their abusers were convicted of it. This surely is new, good, clear-sighted justice and it is unaffected by last week’s judgment on the three domestic killing appeals.

Only one of these appeals succeeded, where the trial judge followed the statute and prohibited the defence of loss of control through infidelity from going to the jury. That man, Jon-Jacques Clinton must now be retried on the defence of “infidelity plus”. In the other two, while the old law might have produced acquittals both were convicted by juries rejecting their case under the narrower new law. Ironically, perhaps the same would have happened to Clinton if his defence were put to a jury. We shall soon see.

Despite the totemic setback for campaigning women, in this judgment, progress has been made in the Coroners and Justice Act and the days when one can legitimately say, as many protesters did about this case last week “Justice for who? Not for women” ought, in this aspect of the law of murder, at least, to be moving towards a close.

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/23/infidelity-plus-defence-murder?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+theguardian%2Fcommentisfree%2Frss+%28Comment+is+free%29

for more information about infidelity or if you think your spouse is cheating, contact the private investigators at A2Z Investigations – www.a2zinvestigations.com