Hackers of Indian sites traced to Pakistan

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

http://www.indiaexpress.com/news/technology/20010110-3.html

January 10, 2001

A number of cases of hacking of Indian internet sites have been traced
to Pakistan but it would be difficult to nail them, CBI Director, R K
Ragavan Wednesday said.

As the hackers who broke into computer systems in India were not
conniving with the Pakistani law enforcers, ''One wonders what kind of
cooperation we will get'' Mr. Ragavan said at a seminar on Internet
security.

Hackers using knowledge of software to break in and steal information
from computer systems broke into at least 635 Indian internet sites
last year. Mr. Raghavan said the rise of literacy in India could bring
down conventional crimes but the vulnerability of computers and the
Internet could make crimes over the medium more rampant.

''We at the CBI are convinced that cyber crime is the crime of the
future,'' he said. ''It is now much more easily committed and less
easily identified.''

President of India's National Association of Software and Service
Companies (NASSCOM), Dewang Mehta said the lack of uniform laws
against cyber crimes involving abuse of computer systems made
prosecution of cross-border hackers difficult. ''Hacking is not a
universal offence, and there is a problem,'' Mr. Mehta said.

Last year, India passed a landmark digital law that makes hacking,
spreading of viruses and illegal financial transactions over the
Internet punishable. It became the 12th member in a small club of
nations with digital laws.

''GForce,'' a group of anonymous hackers whose members write slogans
critical of India and its claim over Kashmir, have owned up to several
instances of hacking of Indian sites run by the Indian government,
private companies or scientific organizations.

The NAASCOM chief said Indian companies on an average spent only 0.8
percent of their technology budgets on security, against a global
average of 5.5 percent.

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