Newly-discovered infestation - 'Kneber botnet'

A new botnet infestation has been reported to have been identified and named Kneber Botnet. Computer Systems from nearly 2,500 organizations across the world have been compromised (including commercial and government entities worldwide). Hackers have been able to steal large amount of confidential data including approximately 68,000 corporate login credentials and online banking sites.

The case was discovered only in late January as per NetWitness - a US based Security Firm., stealing large amount of confidential data, says a report.

source - Economic Times

Urgent need to ban porn websites: Chief Justice of India

Another Article and another set of mixed responses on Banning or Blocking Pornography –“Urgent need to ban porn websites: Chief Justice of India”.

I sort of Agree with what CJI has opined for. If people say that there are ways to circumvent the ban, they are forgetting that there are ways to plug the loops that people might use to circumvent them. Technology today helps us banning and blocking anything that we want to ban and block. My question to those opposing it is - if you are accessing porn on a regular basis, aren't you habituated to it?? Porn is something that in a way might be related to this country and as I have already pointed out in another comment regarding the amendment to Indian IT Act, stiff resistance would be faced for banning and blocking these sites. There have been arguments that have poured in that the parents need to take ownership to ensure that their kids do not have access to porn sites. Well yes there are many tools for this matter including Net Nanny and other similar products that may be bought and subscribed for to be deployed on one's computer for blocking the porn / hate etc. But would someone come ahead and tell me on how many parents in India are technology and net savvy??? Bestowing only them with this responsibility (certainly they would be responsible for their kids any which ways)would mean regular counseling for them regarding this and to ensure that they are made acquainted to the issue of Pornography on the net. This will directly lead to more friction between the teenage kids and parents as kids would see it as another disciplinary control by parents. I would say the community needs to come out with a more comprehensive and better thought on this by way of evaluating the pros and cons of various steps / controls that can be put to effect.

Mayank Trivedi

E-mail - mayank.a.trivedi@gmail.com

Blog - http://www.myopinions.name

Tech Blog - http://matricsindia.net.in

Govt can't ban porn websites for obscenity

Just happened to read the Article “ - Govt can’t ban porn websites for obscenity

I was more shocked than surprised. Though this sort of inaction can very much be expected from the Govt, we certainly could not accept it. When the Indian IT Act amendments were being discussed and the amendment to the act were being looked at in 2008, it was a strong feeling and the Cyber Security Professionals were of the idea that the amendments would be making law bit more stringent in nature. Its exact reverse of what had been expected. I had numerous discussions with the various Cyber Security Professionals and Cyber Law experts and each one of them was expecting a drastic change in the way issue of Porn sites is dealt with. It was opined that the Govt would empower Cyber Tribunal or similar organization and convert it as a watch dog to govern the display, access and transmission of Porn material. Alas, it didn’t happen. Govt more so has cleared itself off from the responsibility on this front. Amendments to the section 69A are something that certainly have weakened the power as it was earlier identified for it. Moreover with assigning the power to block the Porn sites has been granted to the Courts and that too if a petition is filed in the Court for jurisdiction. Apparently, the govt has indirectly let Porn be prevalent in the Cyber Society, without giving a thought that this very porn is at times the cause to create nuisance in the society and leading to molestations, child abuses etc. Yeah it would be countered that how can we create the correlation between the two things. Incidentally some bright mind came up with a pretty Creative Thought – “May be Government Machinery and Think Tank would have thought as to when the Country has Given KAMASUTRA to the world, how can we stop Porn that is nothing but an extension to KAMASUTRA. They might have thought that if they block / ban porn in cyber world, the cyber community might come up with an argument that similar things are depicted as Artifacts and Artistic at various temples in Khajuraho.” Well may be, who knows.

But all said and done, don’t we think that too much of Porn is circulating around on the net and is unnecessarily leading to the situation of unrest and creating an atmosphere that would affect law and order negatively?

I am unable to understand as to Why govt can’t Enforce a Blanket Block at ISP Gateway levels? I guess rather than going with an approach of Law and Order, the Govt. can simply go ahead with issuing a notification to the ISPs to go ahead and Block all the Porn Sites right at the ISP Gateway Level itself. I don't understand what is stopping the Govt. from doing that? or do we take it this way that the Govt. machinery is pretty happy to let Pornography be prevalent till it affects the Public Order???

There are Countries where a Country level Proxy is set-up and that blocks all the Porn sites from being accessed. An argument may come up that the countries where this sort of set-up has been deployed are smaller countries with lesser Internet traffic, where in case of India the traffic is humungous to be managed by a central Proxy. So, let me clarify that I am not saying so. What my point is – If the Govt. wants to really act in this direction, it can instruct the ISPs to deploy measures at their levels to ensure that porn sites are completely Blocked out. Govt may also conduct periodic surprise audits of the ISPs to this effect and ensure that the directive as published is well followed by the ISPs.

Mayank Trivedi

Blog - http://www.myopinions.name

Tech Blog - http://matricsindia.net.in