India sends a Trojan to cyberspace

A website from India is sending out the latest Trojans in cyberspace. The virus infects computers through mails claiming to be sent from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. The mails have subjects such as Governmental Registration Program on H1N1 Vaccination, or State Vaccination H1N1 Program or Your Personal Vaccination Profile.

Columbia, Brazil, Chile, Malaysia, and Argentina are the other countries, according to McAfee, from where websites are spreading this malware. “This is the first time that India has become a host country for such websites,” Vijay Mukhi, an expert in electronic security and the Internet, said. “This shows that cyber criminals have formed their bases in the country. These people know that the Indian market is lucrative because of the burgeoning number of Internet users.”

Since the internet usage has gone up only in the past few years, he said, not many people are aware of such viruses. “It is easy to trick them into opening such mails.”

After McAfee came out with a report last week giving details of the H1N1 Vaccination Profile Trojan, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (ICERT) sent out a security alert.

When someone opens one of these mails and downloads an attached file that has mostly instructions to create a personal vaccination profile, bot software gets installed in the computer without the user’s knowledge.

This software starts stealing confidential data, passwords, and eventually the computer is controlled by the machine that had sent the mail. Needless to say the cyber criminals can then use the computer for phishing or online cheating.

“These people are able to set up a base in the country because we do not implement our cyber laws stringently,” Mukhi said. “They set up multiple bases to ensure their work is never stopped. If one country blocks them, they can continue spreading malicious software from other countries.”

City gynaec’s email id hacked
Cyber criminals hacked into the email id of a gynaecologist from the city and sent several mails to his contacts, asking for money.

Dr Uddhav Raj was operating on a patient on December 7 when his mobile phone started ringing. A friend from the US had called to enquire if he was fine and how much money he needed. “I answered more than 200 calls throughout the day,” the doctor said. “Everyone wanted to know if I was fine; and if I needed money where they would send it.”

The doctor said he had to postpone all his surgeries for the next two days. “I kept explaining to people that someone had hacked into my email account and that no one had to send any money.” The mails sent from Raj's id said he was stranded in London because he had been robbed. He had no money to pay his hotel bills or get a flight ticket. The mail also specified he needed £1,000 and that no one should call him on his mobile phone as it had been stolen.

Raj filed a complaint with the cyber police at the Bandra-Kurla Complex. He informed Yahoo.com that someone had hacked into his id. Thrice he was issued a new password and every time the hacker/s got to know of it. The police then found out that the hacker/s had changed Raj’s alternative id given in the yahoo mail. “Many friends responded to the mail and the hacker even gave them a account number to deposit the money,” Raj said.