The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), released the 2009 Annual Report about fraudulent activity on the Internet on 12 March 2010. Online crime complaints increased substantially once again last year, according to the report. The IC3 received a total of 336,655 complaints, a 22.3 percent increase from 2008. The total loss linked to online fraud was $559.7 million; this is up from $265 million in 2008.
Although the complaints consisted of a variety of fraud types, advanced fee scams that fraudulently used the FBI’s name ranked number one (16.6 percent). Non-delivery of merchandise and/or payment was the second most reported offense (11.9 percent).
The 2009 Annual Report details information related to the volume and scope of complaints, complainant and perpetrator characteristics, geographical data, most frequently reported scams and results of IC3 referrals.
1. Ministry of Corporate Affairs introduces e-stamping
All stakeholders are hereby informed that the provisions regarding stamp duty payment on Form No. 1, Memorandum of Association, Articles of Association, Form No. 5 and Form No. 44 electronically, at the time of their e-filing through MCA portal (www.mca.gov.in) in respect of the States and Union Territories mentioned below, shall be mandatory with effect from 01st April 2010.
2. Cyber crime is a bigger cause of worry for Indian companies than terrorism
As suggested by a recent global study '2010 State of Enterprise Security Study' a conducted by Symantec Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd., Indian companies consider cyber security as a major concern, when it comes to threats be it natural or man-made.
3. Offensive msgs top cyber crime chart
Offensive messages, sent via SMS or emails, account for more than one-third of cyber crime cases reported in Chennai. The cyber crime investigation teams have divided such crimes into 12 broad categories and say that more serious cyber crimes like hacking and phishing account only for a minuscule percentage.
4. Chinese agents hack into Indian secret documents
Major Indian missile and armament systems may have been compromised as Chinese hackers have reportedly broken into top secret files of the Indian Defence Ministry and embassies around the world.
5. Ahmedabad Crime branch to teach constables detection
It is back to school for city policemen. The Ahmedabad city police authorities have decided to send all constables and head constables to the crime branch. The short periods of deputation, said crime branch officials, is to enable them to pick up vital details and nuances about crime detection.
1. TJX hacker Albert Gonzalez convicted, gets 20 years
Albert Gonzalez, also known as the TJX hacker has been convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison on Thursday. He and a gang of cyber thevies had made away with 90 million credit card and debit card numbers from TJX and other retailers.
2. Appeals Court Says Threats on Web Site are Not Protected Speech
A California appeals court has ruled that threats made about a teenager on a website are not considered protected speech; the ruling allows a suit against those who posted the comments charging them with defamation and hate crimes to proceed.
3. Judge Approves Facebook Beacon Settlement
A federal judge has approved a settlement of a class action lawsuit against Facebook regarding its now defunct behavioral tracking technology Beacon.
4. Senators roll out new cybersecurity bill
The bill would create a public-private partnership to deal with the threats of cyber crime and spying, as well as network attacks. Industry and government officials together would determine which private-sector networks are critical enough to warrant government involvement in a crisis.
5. FBI: Internet Fraud Cost $559 Million in 2009
A new report from the Internet Crime Complaint Center, a joint effort by the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center, found the amount of losses from cyber-crime doubled in 2009, and those between the ages of 30-49 were hardest hit.
1. Indexing company liable for users' infringement, says High Court
A company which indexes and sorts postings to Usenet groups is liable for the copyright infringement of its users when they download films, software and television programmes, the High Court has said.
2. Lords Approve Controversial Digital Economy Bill
The UK House of Lords has approved the Digital Economy Bill; the House of Commons is expected to approve the bill before the general election. The bill imposes penalties for illegal filesharing, including giving the government the power to block websites.
3. Frenchman Arrested for Hacking Twitter
French police have arrested a 25 year old unemployed man on suspicion of hacking into a number of administrator accounts belonging to the micro-blogging site, Twitter.
4. Google ruling set to govern online trade mark use in Europe
Europe's top court, the Court of Justice of the European Union, will next week rule on whether or not Google can use trade marks to trigger ads when brands battle to reach online consumers.
5. Privacy watchdog can issue £500,000 fines from 6 April
Privacy regulator the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) will have the power to fine organisations for serious data protection breaches from Tuesday, 6th April. Organisations could receive fines of up to £500,000 under the new powers.
1. Google Will Redirect Chinese Users to Uncensored Hong Kong Site
Google will stop censoring Internet search results for its Chinese users. Instead, users will be redirected to Google's Hong Kong-based search engine.
2. Russian Police Arrest Alleged Ringleader in RBS WorldPay ATM Fraud Case
Police in Russia have arrested Viktor Pleshchuk, who is believed to be the mastermind behind an ATM scheme that netted thieves US $9.5 million from RBS WorldPay accounts. Pleshchuk and three other men were indicted in the US last fall.
3. Japan's Cyber Crime stats set new records for 2009
Cyber crime has reached new levels in the Asian country which, according to the national police agency, set a record in 2009 with 6,690 incidents; an increase of nearly six percent over 2008. Worse yet, the number of reported cyber crimes in Japan has more than doubled since 2005.
4. Russia to Tighten .ru Domain Registration Requirements
As of April 1, 2010, Russia will require people registering an .ru domain to provide a copy of their passport. Businesses will be required to provide legal registration papers.
5. Go Daddy Stops Selling Chinese Domains Over Censorship Concerns
Go Daddy, the net’s largest domain-name registrar, announced Wednesday it would stop selling .cn domain names, saying it was unwilling to comply with new rules from the Chinese government that require new and existing .cn domain-name holders to provide photo ID.
1. Former Student Guilty of Hacking School Payroll
Christopher Berge, a 21 year old man, was sentenced to ten years in prison after pleading guilty to charges relating to a security breach of Vancouver Public Schools' payroll data.
2. Allaple Worm Author Sentenced
An Estonian man has been sentenced to 31 months in prison for creating the Allaple worm that infected computers and used them to launch distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
3. Twitter Launches URL Screening Service
Twitter has launched a new service to protect users from malicious links. All links submitted to Twitter will now be sent though a screening process that checks them against a blacklist of known malicious sites.
4. HSBC Apologizes to 24,000 Customers for Data Theft
HSBC has revised the number of customer records compromised by a former employee upward to 24,000. Initially, the bank said that fewer than 10 customers were affected by the data theft. Later, that number was revised to 15,000, and now it appears that an additional 9,000 accounts were compromised.
5. 25 Percent of UK Schoolchildren Admit to Accessing Others' Online Accounts
One quarter of school-aged children in the UK admitted to accessing other people's Facebook or web-based email accounts. Seventy-eight percent of the students said that breaking into others' accounts was wrong and 53 percent said they believed it was illegal.
