When cyber security experts declared that hacking was more lucrative than drug trafficking, DNA decided to explore. What we found was worse — any computer user could be the next cyber crime victim, and neither sleuths nor the law can protect you.
Do you book your movie tickets online? Or pay bills online? Ever been e-shopping? Or are you a plain social network user?A ‘yes’ to any of these questions means your safety may be compromised. You could well be the next cyber crime victim — a hapless butt to malicious schemes of some computer crook, operating from even far off Transylvania!
This might be a little hard to digest, but that is the ground reality of the cyber world, say cyber security experts.
Any hacker, sitting anywhere in the world, with enough talent and intent, can find information.Once in, from stealing money to launching attacks from compromised computers, the hacker can do almost anything.And worse still, there’s little the law of the land can do to protect you in case you turn out to be the hacker’s pick — Indian cyber acts are still in their infancy.
“One weak link spells welcome to the hacker — it could be an unhardened system or application left on a network at the workplace.Government organisations and educational institutions are the most vulnerable to an attack,” says Ram Swaroop, president, Cyber Security Works Inc. This internationally-reputed cyber security expert admits to paranoia when it comes to using his credit or debit cards online and is careful about the websites that he trusts.
Terrorist organisations have long since spotted the goldmine that the World Wide Web is, as was evident from the recent bombings in Indonesia. “Several terrorist groups are using credit card fraud to fund their activities now. The extent of this has left the police gasping,” says Pratap Reddy, director of Cyber Security, NASSCOM.
He heads the India Cyber Labs project that is helping government departments, including law enforcement and prosecution, in capacity building. Reddy says though the unbridled growth of the information technology and IT enabled services industry has done wonders for the economy, it has also “resulted in increasing technology-enabled crimes, most of which go unreported,” he says.
Leave alone cybersleuths nabbing cunning hackers; in most credit card frauds, the instances rarely get the notice of police. “Financial institutions are paranoid about legal trouble since, besides fear of liabilities, their reputation would be at stake too,” says Kishen, CEO, Mandamus Info Knowledge Consultants, working in the field of techno-legal information security.
In the West, financial institutions are responsible for breaches in their systems and network. They must report breaches to the affected individuals.
Take the scarier scenario of terror, where increasing awareness and vigilantism are all that can help. Power companies, bus, railway and airline-booking systems are vulnerable targets. “All that can be done”, Swaroop says, “is to make companies fortify their networks against attacks, provide continued education in security to employees, and conduct independent third-party cyber security assessments covering 100 per cent assets.
“Also, there is an urgent need for intensive capacity-building in cyber-crime investigating agencies and extensive appreciation of cybercrime issues in the criminal justice system,” says Reddy. Swaroop is involved with a cyber cadet corps society, aiming to spread cyber awareness in schools and colleges.
While we take tottering steps, hackers find ways to take on the networks, make money and get a kick out of it all. The cyber web is almost holding the world to ransom —nothing is sacrosanct, and nobody safe, anymore.
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