cyberlawtimes.com » Cyber Crime

WordPress Hijacking through Banner Scam

Cyber Lawyer — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 13:52:19 +0000

As you maybe aware that WordPress is a open source software for weblogs. The Hackers have come up with a new strategy to hijack your wordpress by offering you Banner Advertisement.

Recently, Archer Softech has received a similar email for one of it’s other legal site, as follows:

Hi,

We are looking for new advertisement platforms and we are interested
in your site consumerlaw.in.
Is it possible to place banner on your site on a fee basis?

Best regards,
Lilian Marchand

After sending the proposal, the following further replies were received:

Hello,
Thanks for reply to our proposal!

I represent Lemma Agency. At the moment we are preparing an advertising campaign for Lacoste Company (it is a French company producing clothes, footwear, perfumery etc.) We already have designed banners for the campaign, they are the following sizes: 160×600, 240×400, 300×250, 336×280, 468×60, 728×90.

What can be your price for one banner (banner should appear at ALL pages of your site) of abovementioned sizes (please specify the place for the banner – top, bottom, left, right)? Please mention a normal link for banner, without javascript code and set prices in US dollars per month.

Best regards,
Lilian Marchand.
site: www.lemmaagency.com
e-mail: lmarchand@lemmaagency.com
phone: + (0)9 78 62 24 83

Hi!
Thanks for reply to our proposal!

We like your price.
To pass to the banner control system follow the link http://webmaster.lemmaagency.com
To enter use the following data:

login: c*******law.in
password: KFEZ0966

You should install and activate the plugin in order to display advertisement. Before making payment, advertiser must approve location of the banner. The banner will be shown on your site when you add special code to your web- address (for example: http://c*******law.in/?adv_test=1). It means, that visitors will see the banner only if it is approved and payment made.

To get installation instruction for your site type pass to: http://docs.lemmaagency.com/wp_install
To activate your site you have to enter the code: GH2-NS5-4K6

What way of payment is suitable for you?

Best regards,
Lilian Marchand.
site: www.lemmaagency.com
e-mail: lmarchand@lemmaagency.com
phone: + (0)9 78 62 24 83

This is where the suspicion creeps in, because an advertiser will never offer you any code, but a simple graphical banner. Further, the hacker represents himself from Paris but his IP 69.172.131.212 points to city of Wilmington from Delaware (USA) using Pilosoft ISP, as follows:

Hacker Location

Further, in case we assume that hacker is using a proxy IP address, then the other information tracked, i.e. Language of recipient’s PC: ru-RU (Russian/Russia)… points to the fact that these hackers are Russians and even located in Russia too… from where numerous hacking attempts originate.

This another website provides more details as these kind of emails maybe generated in different names…. but their website looks the same. Some of the names used are: Jino Agency, Bevesto Agency, Marka Agency Kervel Agency, Kara Agency, Rita Aganecy, Lemma Agency and so on…

So next time you receive any such offer… just ignore such an offer, as in all the emails similar kind of language is use !

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange arrested in Britain

Cyber Lawyer — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 17:34:17 +0000

The 29 year old ‘Julian Assange’, founder of the controversial WikiLeaks was arrested by British Police, being wanted by Sweden Police for sexual offences… and is supposed to be sent to Sweden, as his bail was rejected by British Court. The arrest has received harsh criticism from all around the world, as violative of free speech.

WikiLeaks, which was founded in December 2006 with a prupose of publishing otherwise unavailable documents from anonymous news sources has been commended by various countries for its contribution as Whistle Blower until the United States diplomatic cables leak on 28 November 2010.

As a result, some group of hackers has declared cyber war (called “Operation Payback”) upon enemies of Wikilinks and hacked Mastercard, VISA, PayPal, the Swiss bank PostFinance, and Assange’s Swedish prosecutor’s website yesterday. And plan tpo target Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, etc. i.e. mostly US Websites. It all seems to be the first Cyber World War as reported by Times of India.

CBI Website hacked by Pakistan Hackers

Cyber Lawyer — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 14:15:16 +0000

Pakistan Hackers (called “Pakistani Cyber Army”) hacked CBI website on Friday night warning Indian counterparts “Indian Cyber Army”, not to attack their websites. The case under various provisions of Information Technology Act has been registered but the website that is available at: http://cbi.nic.in was a PHP website, which hasn’t been restored yet, even on the third day.

NIC websites have been under frequent attacks from around the world, specially from Pakistan and Chinese hackers. Read More @ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Pak-cyber-army-claims-credit-for-CBI-website-attack/articleshow/7044810.cms

Double Refund fraud at Jet Airways exposed by Police

Cyber Lawyer — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 17:32:17 +0000

It’s a difference of hardly 40 seconds but it cost Jet airways Rs 2.09 crore in a year, thanks to a cyber-smart fraudster, say police. Forty-year-old Mukesh Kishanpuria, a garments businessman with a knack for computers, was arrested on Wednesday when he was on his way to court to seek anticipatory bail.

Mukesh, say police, hit upon the idea of double cancellation of tickets to get two times the refund.

The fraud was detected during audit for the financial year 2008-2009. Jet officials found lakhs upon lakhs missing and an internal inquiry revealed that the airline had refunded double the amount for several cancelled tickets. Realising that a gang of cyber experts was at work, Jet lodged a complaint with Shakespeare Sarani police station and the case was handed to the cyber crime unit of Kolkata Police.

Read more: Police crack Rs 2 crore double-refund – The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Police-crack-Rs-2-crore-double-refund/articleshow/6904492.cms#ixzz16Jh128wk

Gmail Security Checklist

Cyber Lawyer — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 11:37:37 +0000

GMail recently introduced a Security Checklist, to make sure you never loose your GMail IDs to hackers. Though, GMail has always been first to introduce finest of measures like password retrieval through Mobile, so that you always get back access to your account but still…

“Whether you just regained access to Gmail, or you want to make sure your account is secure, take a minute to complete our Gmail security checklist to make sure your mail security measures are up to date.”

Part 1: Your computer

- Check for viruses and malware

- Make sure your operating system is up to date

- Make sure to perform regular software updates

Part 2: Your browser

- Make sure your browser is up to date

- Check your browser for plug-ins, extensions, and third-party programs/tools that require access to your Google Account credentials

Part 3: Your Google Account

- Change your password

- Check the list of websites that are authorized to access your Google Account data

- Update your account recovery options

Part 4: Your Gmail settings

- Use a secure connection to sign in.

- Check for any strange recent activity on your account.

- Confirm the accuracy of your mail settings to ensure that your mail stays and goes where you want it to.

Part 5: Final reminders

- Watch out for messages that ask for your username and/or password. Gmail will never ask for this information.

- Never give out your password after following a link sent to you in a message, even if it looks like Gmail’s sign-in page. Access Gmail directly by typing https://mail.google.com in your browser’s address bar.

- Don’t share your password with other websites – Google can’t guarantee the security of other websites and your Gmail password could be compromised.

- Keep secrets! Never tell anyone your password, or your secret question and answer; if you do tell someone, change it as soon as possible.

- Clear forms, passwords, cache and cookies in your browser on a regular basis – especially on a public computer.

- Only select ‘Stay signed in’ if you’re signing in from a personal computer.

- Always sign out when you’ve finished reading your mail.

source: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=checklist.cs&tab=29488

Mumbai Cyber Crime Cell reveals the Cyber Crime and FIR ratio

Cyber Lawyer — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 06:53:27 +0000

Only 3% of the total complaints received by the cyber cell of Mumbai crime branch are converted into FIRs, thanks to the complainant themselves, most of whom are women . The victims don’t want to go ahead in the case to avoid any social stigma to be attached either to themselves or in some cases to the offender, as in most of the cases the offenders are minors and known to the victims.

Complainants including professionals, teachers, airline industries, students and film personalities approach the police to ensure that the harassment is stopped and defamatory messages or morphed picare removed from the internet.

Once the police trace the culprit, in most the cases the complainant doesn’t want the accused to be booked considering it would also affect their social life, as in many cases the offenders are minor. Beside, they also want to avoid any controversies fearing it will reflect negatively on their image.

Mumbai CCIC arrests Army officer for Child Pornography

Cyber Lawyer — Sun, 09 May 2010 19:50:43 +0000

Investigations started in Germany in September 2009, when German Police tracked the IP address to India in respect of some Child Pornography matter. And the Police alerted the Interpol, which through CBI, forwarded the matter to Mumbai Police.

After completing the investigations, the Cyber Crime Investigation Cell raided the flat of the 42 year old lieutenant last week, who was caught red handed, while downloading porn clippings. The Mumbai Police has collected the hard disks, mobile phones, print outs, etc from the residence of the Army officer and booked him under section 67A of Information technology Act.

If convicted, he can be sentenced to a maximum seven years in jail and also fined Rs 10 lakh. The accused has been remanded to Police Custody till 12 May 2010.

Indian National Sentenced to 81 Months in US Prison for Role in International Online Brokerage Hacking Crime

Cyber Lawyer — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 18:20:27 +0000

An Indian national was sentenced today to 81 months in prison on conspiracy and aggravated identity theft charges arising from an international fraud scheme to “hack” into online brokerage accounts in the United States and use those accounts to manipulate stock prices, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Deborah Gilg of the District of Nebraska.

Jaisankar Marimuthu, 36, a native of Chennai, India, was also ordered to pay $2.4 million in restitution. Marimuthu pleaded guilty on Feb. 5, 2010, to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, securities fraud, computer fraud and aggravated identity theft, and to one count of aggravated identity theft before U.S. District Magistrate Judge F.A. Gossett III in Omaha, Neb. Marimuthu, who was extradited to the United States following his arrest in Hong Kong, was sentenced today before U.S. District Judge Laurie Smith Camp.

According to court documents, Marimuthu was part of a conspiracy that operated out of Thailand and India from February 2006 through December 2006 in which the prices of thinly-traded securities were fraudulently inflated by hacking into brokerage accounts in the United States and then illegally using the accounts to make large, unauthorized purchases of securities in the name of the unsuspecting customers. Marimuthu admitted that after the price of the securities had been artificially increased or “pumped up” through the bogus trading, the conspirators’ own holdings of the securities would be sold at a profit. More than 90 customers and seven brokerage firms in the United States have been identified as victims. Financial losses of close to $2.5 million were sustained by the victims in this case.

more @ http://cyberlaws.us/indian-national-sentenced-to-81-months-in-prison-for-role-in-international-online-brokerage-“hack-pump-and-dump”-scheme/

Symantec ranks India as 5th in cyber crime

Cyber Lawyer — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:34:15 +0000

Symantec in its “Internet Security Threat” 2009 report has ranked India 5th in malicious activity, i.e. a climb of six places. India is the highest spam originating country in the world, contributing 4 per cent to the worldwide spam volumes, while the country ranks first in the Asian region. On the basis of web-based attacks, India has gone up from the rank of 13 in 2008 to rank 3 in 2009, next to US and Brazil. Of the phishing URLs identified in India, 91 per cent targeted the financial services sector last year.

Download Report @ http://eval.symantec.com/mktginfo/enterprise/white_papers/b-whitepaper_exec_summary_internet_security_threat_report_xv_04-2010.en-us.pdf

Cyber Crime of Phishing

Cyber Lawyer — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 18:10:28 +0000

‘Phishing’ is a form of Cyber Crime wherein criminals attempt to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, credit card details, etc by pretending as a trustworthy entity like Banks, etc in an electronic communication, especially emails.

The trend of Phishing has increased over the years, though decisions has been very rare. But the recent decision as reported by naavi.org, pronounced by IT Adjudicator of Tamil Nadu is commendable, wherein an award of 12.85 lakhs have been pronounced in favor of the petitioner. The copy of the judgment is available here.

In another decision by a Mumbai Consumer court in a similar matter, the bank has been held guilty as as bank did not took precautions as per the RBI Net banking guidelines, while complainants account was hacked and 4.6 lakhs were transferred out by the cyber criminals.

Though in such matters, it is advisable that the victim should approach Adjudication Officers as appointed under the IT Act 2000 rather than consumer court, as former are technically qualified persons and specialized in the matters of cyber crime. Every Indian state has an adjudication officer, who are the IT secretaries of their respective states.