Beware of the 'HACK TRAP'

Don't fall for that elusive e-mail with an enticing subject line asking for your personal details. It's a cyber criminal who is using a facade to lure you into a trap. Don't just delete the mail, report it to the cyber cell!

The Mumbai police are waking up to battle the rampant increase of crime in the cyber world. All of us, at some point would have been victims in the virtual world, ranging from falling prey to deadly viruses, to internet stalking or the more serious hacking and character assassination.

The Mumbai police, apart from spreading awareness by holding workshops in schools and colleges and issuing advice to parents has also launched a drive to secure over 2 lakh wi-fi connections in the city.

According to statistics, there were 76 cases of cyber crime registered in 2010 as compared to just 6 cases in 2006.

"Cyber crime and white collar crimes is the new trend and is committed by people from the middle and upper middle class," remarked Sanjeev Dayal, Mumbai police commissioner at the annual police meet held recently. "It's a kind of crime where the educated are involved," he added.

The city's first cyber police station, which was set up in 2006 and the police are making efforts to create more awareness amongst the public. We give you a brief take on the kinds of cyber crime that you need to be wary of and guidelines to avoid being a victim.

Watch out for these cyber crimes

Hacking:
Hacking means an illegal intrusion into a computer system, network or your personal email id. The motive can range from monetary gains such as stealing credit card information, transferring money from various bank accounts to their own account followed by withdrawal of money. It could also be for revenge or a desire to access forbidden information

Cyber stalking:
Cyber stalking is a repeated act of harassment or threatening behavior of the cyber criminal towards the victim through the internet. A vast majority of stalkers are dejected lovers or jilted ex-lovers, who intend to harass the victim because they failed to satisfy their secret desires. Many a time, the stalker posts phone numbers or email address of the victim as willing to solicit sexual favours. The stalker even uses filthy and obscene language to incite the person.

Virus Dissemination:
Malicious software that attaches itself to other software. (virus, worms, Trojan Horse, Time bomb, Logic Bomb, Rabbit and Bacterium. These are malicious viruses

Phishing:
This is an act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs users to visit a website where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card details, social security and bank account numbers, already available to the legitimate organisation. The website, however, is bogus and set up only to steal user information.

Tips for adults, children and teens:
1. Do not give out identifying information such as name, home address, school name or telephone number in a chat room.
2. Do not send your photograph to any one on the Net without initially checking with the parent or guardian.
3. Do not respond to messages that are obscene or threatening.
4. Never arrange a meeting without informing your parents.
5. Remember that people online may not be who they seem to be
what you need to register a complaint
If you are a victim of hacking

Bring the following information:

• Server Logs
• Copy of defaced web page in soft copy as well as hard copy format, if your website is defaced
• If data is compromised on your server or computer or any other network equipment, keep a soft copy of original data and soft copy of compromised data.
• Access control mechanism details i.e. who had what kind of the access to the compromised system
• List of suspects - if the victim suspects anyone

If you're are a victim of e-mail abuse, vulgar e-mail;
Bring the following information-

• Extract the extended headers of the offending e-mail
• Bring a soft copy as well hard copy of the offending e-mail. Do not delete the offending e-mail from your inbox.
• Save the copy of the offending e-mail on your computer's hard drive.

Where to complain
Cyber Crime Investigation cell
Annex III, 1st floor, Office of the Mumbai Commissioner of Police,
DN Road, Mumbai 400001

How to safeguard yourself
1. Ensure your passwords have both letters and numbers, and are at least eight characters long. Avoid common words. Some hackers use programs that can try every word in the dictionary.
2. Don't use your personal information, your login name or adjacent keys on the keyboard as passwords
3. Don't share your passwords online or over the phone
4. Protect yourself from viruses by installing anti-virus software and updating it regularly
5. Use different passwords for different websites.
6. Send credit card information only to secure sites.

original article here

Hacker Jailed After Spying on Computer Users Using Their Own Cameras

A hacker spied on countless computer users by manipulating their home webcams.

Matthew Anderson, 33, is understood to have sent out 50million ‘spam’ emails containing an attachment for recipients to click on. All of those who did so – believed to be 200,000 – had their computer infected with a virus that left it effectively ‘enslaved’.

Anderson was then able to rifle through private files and saved photographs – and even switch on web cameras attached to the computers. At his leisure he then sat spying into the living rooms or bedrooms of strangers. The victims will have been completely unaware of his watching eyes.

When he was caught in a four-year police operation, officers found he had stored pictures and film of dozens of people in their own homes. Among clips was that of a 16-year-old girl bursting into tears when Anderson began changing words on her computer screen. He then gloated to a fellow hacker about tormenting her, revealing he had been using her webcam for hours, viewing her sisters, and lamenting the fact they were not naked.

Anderson was working in an international hacking gang called ‘m00p’ with at least three others. Only one other, from Finland, has been caught. He was jailed for 18 months today after pleading guilty to ‘unauthorised modification of computer systems’ at Southwark Crown Court in London. However, he is likely to serve just nine months. The court heard the father-of-five, who was born in Rochdale, carried out his crimes in the home of his mother Ruth, 54, in Banffshire, Scotland.

He claimed through his barrister that he joined online chatrooms after being left house-bound by panic attacks in his early 20s. Publicly he ran a computer security firm – offering to protect clients, ironically, from people like himself.

Simon Ward, defending, said Anderson was motivated by ‘the feeling of power that comes from the knowledge that you have control over something that others don’t know you have the control of’.

As well as private home computers, Anderson targeted the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, Oxford University and government computers. But he avoided military sources for fear of detection.

The ‘cutting edge’ software behind his virus has been ranked as among the best in the world.
Anderson was caught after the m00p gang was investigated jointly by Scotland Yard and Finnish authorities when a computer expert at John Radcliffe hospital raised concerns. Anderson was found to have profited by £12,000 by selling on to legitimate marketing firms email addresses harvested from computer address books.

But it was the webcams he used and the personal data, including nude photos and bank account details, which he had access to and copied that is particularly chilling. Investigating officer Detective Constable Bob Burls said Anderson’s initial spam emails typically told recipients they had a computer problem, and offered to fix it. When they clicked on the file, the hacker’s virus was let loose to hijack the computer, although it seemed to continue working normally. From his remote location he could record every word typed, or copy the computer screen at any time.

Anderson and his fellow gang members operated unhindered for years – with around one in 250 spam recipients being taken in.

During police monitoring, Anderson – who used online nicknames including warpig and, warpiglet – successfully enslaved 1,743 computers in just 90 minutes. His fellow gang members were known online as Kdoe, CraDle and Okasvi - with the last, real name Artturi Alm, being the only other hacker brought to justice when jailed in his native Finland two years ago.

Mr Burls said the hacker copied one victim’s will, website passwords, banking passwords.

original article here