Tuesday, September 8, 2009

India could become cyber-crime hub

ndia is vulnerable to cyber crimes as 97 per cent of Indians, who use information technology, are not aware of how to be secure, and the situation has been further complicated with the surfacing of the 10 minute E-mail.
Cautioning that India could become one of the potential hubs of cyber crimes, the director of Intelligent Quotient Security System, Pune, Mr Herald D’Costa said, “10 minute E-mail is the most dangerous E-mail, that had been developed and is being misused to cheat, to issue threats and even play truants.”
Talking to this paper he said, “It is a disposable E-mail ID, in which an E-mail gets destroyed in just 10-minutes time and no traces can be found. This is the biggest draw back of this particular technology. Terrorists also can use it or someone can send it in the name of terrorists to a businessman, layman, or anybody and can cheat.’’

Mr D’Costa said according to Net craft, India stands 4th in the banking technology frauds in the world. Every year 15,000 cyber crimes are registered. While explaining, he said in Maharashtra, a person went to a police station saying he got an E-mail informing him that he had won Rs 8 crore and to get the prize money he had to pay a certain amount. After paying this amount, he did not get any money or reply. It was then that he realised that he was cheated, but it was too late.
The people need to be made aware this as many get E-mails as if they are coming from their banks to ask their account IDs and passwords for verification purposes. They should divulge information because this personal information can be used by cyber criminals, who sent the E-mails and in turn money could be withdrawn from their account, he informed.
Mr D’Costa said, “People should refrain from using card-money, they should stop using credit cards as this has more chances of being used in a fraud. A crorepati can become roadpati in no time, however, he added that debit cards to some extend are safer.
He cautioned the public to refrain from E-banking from public places like cyber cafes or other such places.
Many banks tell ID account holders to use virtual keyboards for entering the passwords during E-banking transactions, but this also is not found to be 100 per cent secure in many of the E-banking websites. Even if people use virtual keyboards the password is stored in the hard disc, which can be recovered by using forensic software, which are freely available on the Internet.
People should opt for E-banking transactions only after ensuring that it is a genuine web site. If people want to do any E-banking then they should demand for a token from the banker. A token is a device that generates an unique number, displayed on the device after his password has been given. He should enter this code after the password is entered. This code is valid for only 8-10 seconds, then it expires. This is a safe method for E-banking.
He said any account holder opens an E-banking account, he should request the bank to send a transaction check after any transaction is done through E-banking or through plastic money. This particular act may save many of the crimes which committed through plastic cards.
Every organisation or institute that takes the credit cards for their customers should follow some general guidelines.
A genuine credit card will always be glossy or shining while a duplicate or clone one will be rough. In case of genuine plastic money, first four digits of plastic card will display just the name of the account holder in bold, while in case of duplicate one there is nothing of this sort. If the card is used globally, then at the back of the plastic card the security code will always be displayed whereas, in a duplicate card the security code is always masked with a white paper. Internally whenever a card is used globally it is a mandatory norm set by the bank, that the security code should always have hologram, whereas a duplicate will never have a hologram. In case of genuine plastic money just above the magnetic tape you will have customer care center toll free number, whereas a duplicate will never have it. “There are many critical points by which we can avert cyber crime frauds,” he informed

-Abhishek

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