The objective of the blog is to provide a fair analysis and awareness of legal issues in an easy way for the understanding of the people at large
Friday, August 28, 2009
Face book tighten up its privacy policies
Facebook,is one of the fastest growing social networking site in the owrld.It has 250 million users right now.The company was facing lot of pressure for increasing privacy standards.The company has upgraded its privacy level and accordingly users will now have more control over the personal information they share with third-party applications such as games and quizzes and will clarify what happens to data when a user deactivates an account.Generally people who wish to use such third-party software have to agree to share all their personal details with the application.Due to the recent changes, the application developer will have to specify which categories of data the software needs, for e.g. so now users can give explicit permission whether birthdays or geographic location,they have to specifically approve any access Facebook applications have to their friends' information. Such access would still be subject to the friend's privacy and application settings. Due to these changes the software dvelopers will need to update their software to comply with the new standardswho have built profitable businesses creating applications for Facebook users. Facebook said the changes would take up to a year to implement.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Three Indicted in Largest Hacking and Corporate Identity Theft Case in History
Albert Gonzalez, of Miami, along with two unnamed Russians, stands accused of hacking into Princeton-based Heartland Payment Systems; 7-Eleven Inc., a Texas-based convenience store chain and Hannaford Brothers Company, a Maine-based supermarket chain. The stolen data was sent to computer servers that Gonzalez and his co-conspirators operated in California, Illinois, Latvia, the Netherlands, and Ukraine.
The indictment also mentions two other unidentified corporate victims as being hacked by the co-conspirators.
According to the Justice Department,the "SQL injection attack," technique was used by the suspects this is a sophisticated hacking technique which "seeks to exploit computer networks by finding a way around the network's firewall to steal credit card and debit information."
Gonzalez and the others would seek out Fortune 500 companies and attempt to identify potential vulnerabilities in their computer systems.Asper the two-count indictment alleging conspiracy and conspiracy to engage in wire-fraud, beginning in October 2006,
After reconnaissance of the computer systems was completed, information would be uploaded to servers which served as hacking platforms. Once the information was discovered, it was stolen from the corporate servers and placed onto servers around the world controlled by the suspects.
Upon the alleged theft of the data, Gonzalez, known online as "soupnazi," and his co-conspirators would seek to sell the data to others who would then use it to make fraudulent purchases, unauthorized withdrawals from banks and other identity theft schemes.
As per the law if convicted, Gonzalez could face up to 20 years on a charge of wire-fraud conspiracy and an additional five on the conspiracy charge and fines of up to $250,000 for each charge.
He is currently in federal custody. The whereabouts of the two unidentified suspects, both from Russia, are unknown.
The latest charges are hardly Gonzalez's first brush with the law — in May
and August of 2008, he was indicted on additional charges for a number of hacks into eight major retailers including discount giant TJ Maxx that involved an estimated 40 million credit cards and cost TJ Maxx $200 million and in May 2008, the U.S. Attorney's Office of New York charged him for his alleged role in the hacking of a computer network run by a national restaurant chain.
Heartland Systems announced a suspected breach on January 20, 2009, noting the discovery of "evidence of an intrusion," but denying the compromise of any merchant data, social security numbers, PIN numbers or addresses.
Hacking is also crime in India.As per the Information Technology Act 2000, Sec 66 a fine upto 1 crore and 3 years jail may be awarded.
See, "Three Indicted in Major Hacking Case," Wall St. Journal, August 17, 2009, at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125053669921337753.html; "U.S. Indicts 3 in Theft of 130 Million Bank Cards," New York Times, August 17, 2009, at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/technology/18card.html.
The indictment also mentions two other unidentified corporate victims as being hacked by the co-conspirators.
According to the Justice Department,the "SQL injection attack," technique was used by the suspects this is a sophisticated hacking technique which "seeks to exploit computer networks by finding a way around the network's firewall to steal credit card and debit information."
Gonzalez and the others would seek out Fortune 500 companies and attempt to identify potential vulnerabilities in their computer systems.Asper the two-count indictment alleging conspiracy and conspiracy to engage in wire-fraud, beginning in October 2006,
After reconnaissance of the computer systems was completed, information would be uploaded to servers which served as hacking platforms. Once the information was discovered, it was stolen from the corporate servers and placed onto servers around the world controlled by the suspects.
Upon the alleged theft of the data, Gonzalez, known online as "soupnazi," and his co-conspirators would seek to sell the data to others who would then use it to make fraudulent purchases, unauthorized withdrawals from banks and other identity theft schemes.
As per the law if convicted, Gonzalez could face up to 20 years on a charge of wire-fraud conspiracy and an additional five on the conspiracy charge and fines of up to $250,000 for each charge.
He is currently in federal custody. The whereabouts of the two unidentified suspects, both from Russia, are unknown.
The latest charges are hardly Gonzalez's first brush with the law — in May
and August of 2008, he was indicted on additional charges for a number of hacks into eight major retailers including discount giant TJ Maxx that involved an estimated 40 million credit cards and cost TJ Maxx $200 million and in May 2008, the U.S. Attorney's Office of New York charged him for his alleged role in the hacking of a computer network run by a national restaurant chain.
Heartland Systems announced a suspected breach on January 20, 2009, noting the discovery of "evidence of an intrusion," but denying the compromise of any merchant data, social security numbers, PIN numbers or addresses.
Hacking is also crime in India.As per the Information Technology Act 2000, Sec 66 a fine upto 1 crore and 3 years jail may be awarded.
See, "Three Indicted in Major Hacking Case," Wall St. Journal, August 17, 2009, at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125053669921337753.html; "U.S. Indicts 3 in Theft of 130 Million Bank Cards," New York Times, August 17, 2009, at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/technology/18card.html.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Making a Hate Community on Orkut is Defamation
A Pune based girl on September 8, 2008 was started a community on Orkut against Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh. The cyber cell of Pune police has approached Google for the details of the girl who was started the community “I hate Satyapal Singh”.
Police is trying to find out the purpose behind the community.
Community have 13 members and in the meantime, two members of the community have commented against the Pune police commissioner. The comments have been posted on October 9 and November 9, 2008.
The issue came up in question after the information about the community was recently published on a local news portal.Police have initiated an inquiry and have contacted Google in the US and asked for the IP address and other information to reach to the details of the person.
Starting and publishing such a hate community cause cyber defamation and it is a crime under Section 499 of IPC.It will also attract liability under sec. 42 and 72 of the Information Technology Act 2000.
Police is trying to find out the purpose behind the community.
Community have 13 members and in the meantime, two members of the community have commented against the Pune police commissioner. The comments have been posted on October 9 and November 9, 2008.
The issue came up in question after the information about the community was recently published on a local news portal.Police have initiated an inquiry and have contacted Google in the US and asked for the IP address and other information to reach to the details of the person.
Starting and publishing such a hate community cause cyber defamation and it is a crime under Section 499 of IPC.It will also attract liability under sec. 42 and 72 of the Information Technology Act 2000.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
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