Some 10 years ago, I found myself in a bus in Tunis, North Africa, seated next to free software guru and frequent visitor to India, Richard Stallman. We were returning to our respective hotels after the inauguration of the UN-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Unlike me, Stallman had wrapped his badge in an aluminum foil. He had discovered that every badge had a Radio Frequency Identification or RFID chip embedded in it — and this was his way for thwarting attempts if any to monitor his movements throughout the four-day event.
Today such threats to our privacy have ballooned. Soon, even passports will come embedded with a chip, carrying all our personal data. Web watchdogs like “The Intercept” have documented tools like XKeyscore used by official agencies to do “real-time” interception of any individual’s internet activity.
In a recent book co-authored by him, entitled the Global Cyber Vulnerability Report, (Springer, 2015) V.S. Subrahmanian, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Maryland, US analysed 20 billion pieces of data provided by Net Security provider Symantec to reach an alarming conclusion: India ranks along with China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and South Korea, among the world nations most vulnerable to cyber attacks.
The Threat Intelligence team of cyber security solutions company, Palo Alto Networks has reported in a recent blog that on Christmas eve last year the Indian embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, was the object of a targeted attack in the form of an e-mail addressed personally to the ambassador. The mail was in fact a spoof, cleverly crafted to look like a communication from Defence Minister, Manohar Parikkar. The mail had a 6 MB word attachment entitled “Appreciation_ letter.doc”. If the recipient opened this attachment, it would have breached the recipient computer’s security and installed a downloader software in it — what is called a “Trojan”. Vicky Ray, Senior Researcher and co-author of the blog, told me, the malware designed to bypass traditional net security systems, could capture key strokes, hard disk contents, video and audio files and send them to an unknown destination. It is understood, the attack failed — but the attempt shows how serious matters have become. And not just for governments, but for you and me.
An article last week, on security solutions provider ESET’s blog, points to a new scam. Facebook users are facing a wave of spam advertisements that are spread via hacked Facebook accounts. Without the owner’s consent, they post pictures promoting heavily discounted Ray-Ban sunglasses. When trying to buy them, the victim’s payment card details fall into the hands of the crooks .
The threat increases every day. Ironically mobile devices today are more in danger as they become “smarter”. And for the billion users worldwide, of WhatsApp, there was more good news. The company has just announced end-to-encryption throughout its network, for all types of messages including texts, videos, and phone calls shared within its app. Now, even the company itself cannot view the contents of your communications!
Targus Terminal T-II backpack:
Frequent travellers are always vulnerable — sensitive information on phones, tablets, laptops risk falling into the hands of cyber thieves. These days they don’t need to pinch such products the old fashioned way. Wireless hacking allows them to scoop out such information from a distance
Each bag comes with a special anti RFID compartment, whose wall prevents transfer of information from the contents by any wireless technology in the wide band from 10 MHz to 3 GHz. This covers almost every known technology for unwire snooping — and you can safely place phone, tablet etc in this special pocket — and rest easy. The T-II bags come in three sizes, Essential, Advanced and Premium at Rs 4999, Rs 5999 and Rs 6999
Be Cyber savvy!
Lay users: Worried about the degree of risk that you are exposed to when you are online? You can take a quiz to check your level of cyber savviness here: https://blog.kaspersky.com/cyber-savvy-quiz/.
Organisations: Tech consultants, KPMG in India have just launched Cyber KARE a mobile app that enables an enterprise to perform a self-assessment of its cyber security — risk and preparedness. Look for the app at GooglePlay
