President of India has recently revealed the “Priorities” of Indian Government in the next five years/100 days. However as per experts within a week of time span (100 days starting from 5th June, 2009 and ending on 12th September, 2009) some of the “Promises” of the Indian government seems to be just “political jargon” alone.
Now even a larger community has shown its concerns regarding the feasibility and possible failure of the 100 days plan of Indian government. Even oppositions are coming from the government’s partners and ruling States themselves. For instance, human resource development minister Kapil Sibal had to clarify his stand on his reformative ideas when many States showed their concerns about the proposed reforms.
With the end result of 100 days agenda very apparent, various ministries are now trying to fool Indians by prolonging the “starting point” of the 100 days plan. The government is in no serious mood to actually implement the promises made by it on 4th June 2009. The actual period of 100 days started from 5th June 2009 and the government is just fooling Indians by now claiming that its ministries would release its 100 days plan very soon.
The 100 days period must expire on 12th September 2009. However, the ministries of UPA government have still not wakened to this reality. Rather they are in a mood to give another carrot to Indian citizens to chew by claiming that 100 days plan would be revealed very soon.
With the Parliament session in the corner, the true faces of many ministries would be revealed. The embarrassing moments for the Congress led government are definitely going to haunt the government till the next session of the Parliament. Further if the government is still not serious and honest than perhaps for the rest of its 5 years tenure. As far as carrots are concerned, the government must stop giving them to Indian citizens lest they complaint of perpetual indigestion.
AUTHOR: GUNJAN SINGH
SOURCE: MYNEWS
Judges, prosecutors and police officials have to keep themselves constantly updated on developments in widening application of science and technology to check criminal minds using the ever expanding sphere of cyber space, Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan said. Inaugurating a southern regional workshop on `Cyber law: Issues and Challenges in Enforcement' here on Saturday, the Chief Minister said `intelligent criminals' would think and act ahead of others to stay in business. "The ever expanding sphere of cyber space has thrown up challenges and opportunities to the criminal minds. They outpace the barriers raised by technology and laws," he said. The Chief Minister thanked the Judges taking part in the workshop and hoped they would come up with suggestions for the government and the judiciary to put in place mechanisms to ensure that the justice delivery system could effectively cope with the new challenges before it. The workshop was organised by the State-run Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT).
SOURCE: HINDU
It is our pleasure to announce that we would be covering a “series of interviews” of Perry4Law, the Exclusive Techno-Legal ICT Firm of India. Praveen Dalal, Managing Partner of Perry4Law and the Leading Techno-Legal Expert of India has accepted our request in this regard after we successfully complied with the “requirements” of Perry4Law.
The interview series would cover crucial issues like cyber law, cyber security, cyber forensics, hacking, ethical hacking, information technology act, 2000 (IT Act, 2000), proposed information technology amendment act, 2008 (IT Act 2008), wireless hacking, wireless security, defence forces and cyber security, e-governance, e-commerce, e-courts, etc.
As one may deduce from the width of areas involved, this series may span over for many months. All interested persons must keep a close watch upon these “exclusive and informative interviews”.
SOURCE: ITVOIR
Europe is particularly exposed to cybercrime because of its very success in connecting its citizens to the internet. It is now a top EU priority to roll out high-speed broadband to all 500m citizens wherever they are. An equally compelling priority must be to hand pan-European agencies the powers and means to combat growing criminal abuse of networks.
SOURCE: FT
The accused mastermind of a scheme that pumped up the value of "pink sheet" Chinese penny stocks through tens of millions of unsolicited e-mails pleaded guilty today to federal fraud charges.
Alan M. Ralsky, 64, of West Bloomfield Township, known as the "Spam King" for his years as a prolific e-mailer for hire, entered pleas to fraud and money laundering charges late today before U.S. District Judge Marianne O. Battani.
Also pleading guilty were Ralsky's son-in-law, Scott K. Bradley, 38, also of West Bloomfield Township, and co-conspirators James E. Fite, 36, of Culver City, Calif., John S. Bown, 45, of Fresno, Calif., and William C. Neil, 46, of Fresno, Calif., according to federal authorities.
SOURCE: DETNEWS
Capital market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), will soon be able to attach the properties of fraudsters, file application for winding up of market intermediaries under the Companies Act to recover money that investors have lost and will get powers similar to that of a civil court.
With these significant powers, which Sebi's board approved by recommending amendments to the Sebi Act and the Securities and Contract Regulation Act (SCRA), the market regulator will become stronger and more autonomous. There is also talk of doubling the amount of maximum penalty which Sebi can levy on wrong doers from the current Rs 50 crore.
SOURCE: BUSINESS STANDARD
There is no question who the most famous hacker is. One of the first computer hackers prosecuted, Kevin Mitnick was labeled a "computer terrorist" after leading the FBI on a three-year manhunt for breaking into computer networks and stealing software at Sun, Novell, and Motorola.
Known more for social engineering his way into networks than actually hacking them, Mitnick frustrated law enforcement not only by staying one step ahead of them but also with pranks like leaving doughnuts for them to find when they raided his empty home.
Finally arrested in 1995, Mitnick pleaded guilty to wire and computer fraud charges and was released from prison in 2002. His notoriety has helped him get lucrative speaking engagements and launch a security consultancy, where he gets paid for doing some of the very actions that landed him in jail.
In the first in a three-part Q&A series with hackers, CNET News talked to Mitnick, now 45, about what got him interested in computers in the first place, the differences between hacking today and three decades ago, and whether it's wise to hire a former black hat hacker to do security work.
SOURCE: NEWS CNET
Cyber laws are meant to protect people from the ills of information technology. What will happen if these cyber laws are used by the “State” to harass the citizens through illegal e-surveillance and eavesdropping, website censorships and blocking, online privacy violations, etc? There is a disturbing trend all over the World where the governments are formulating “draconian laws” to oppress the citizens.
In the Indian context, the same has been done by introducing the Information Technology Amendment Act, 2008 (IT Act, 2008). Fortunately, the same has not been “notified” yet and has not becoming part of the law of India. The unamended Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act, 2000) still governs the position.
However, this reckless episode on the part of Indian government has clearly shown its intentions and plans for the future. There is an emergent need of protecting human rights in the cyberspace.
Praveen Dalal, the leading techno-legal expert of India and managing partner of Perry4Law, has come up with a very good initiative titled “Human Rights Protection In Cyberspace”.
It is providing valuable suggestions to both government and netizens for a repression free Internet environment. To government it suggests the limits of its e-surveillance and censorship powers whereas to the netizens it provides the techno-legal measures to avoid and counter illegal and unreasonable censorship, e-surveillance and eavesdropping.
The resource though in its infancy stage seems to be very promising and worth exploring in the future. Have a safe, secure and surveillance free surfing.
SOURCE: ITVOIR
As the disturbing events unfold in Iran, with reports of Internet censorship and government crackdowns on communications as the political unrest continues, a search engine developed in India is providing a ray of hope for those trying to tunnel under the radar. Indian developed Yauba.com is touted as the world's first privacy safe, real-time search engine, offering Iranian protesters anonymous access to information from outside the country which would otherwise have been blocked by Iranian censors.
SOURCE: TWEAKDOWN
The US' National Security Agency is facing scrutiny over the breadth of its domestic surveillance program. According to critics in Congress, its recent penetrations of private telephone calls and emails are broader than previously stated, The New York Times reports.
A new law, enacted by Congress in 2008, gave the NSA greater freedom to collect American's private messages as long as such collections were an incidental byproduct of investigating people "reasonably believed" to be overseas. But it is difficult to distinguish between email being sent by ordinary Americans and being sent from foreign countries — a gray area that's driven some lawmakers to question whether the privacy of Americans in general is being adequately protected.
SOURCE: MARKETINGVOX
According to Kenneth Geers of NATO's Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence, located in Tallinn, Estonia, the challenge for cybersecurity operations these days is keeping law up to date with the latest threats. "Government and militaries and intelligence organizations can't by law do anything that has not been approved and told they can do," he says. The center has been tasked with developing concepts and strategies for cyberdefense activities, as well as with clarifying the issue for government policymakers.
SOURCE: SMARTBRIEF
