Recently, Pakistan Government ordered blocking of Facebook over controversial Prophet cartoons, which was followed by ban on Twitter and Youtube also. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said that YouTube and Facebook websites were blocked after the government failed to convince the said websites to remove "derogatory material".
Protests against the objectionable caricatures of Prophet on Facebook took place all over pakistan, which involved religious leaders to lawyers. But after few days of ban, the Lahore High Court finally lifted the ban and Facebook was unblocked, after the government said that the Facebook Management had promised to make material considered derogatory inaccessible to Pakistan users. But on the same day Facebook run into trouble in neighboring Bangladesh where the site was blocked, after the government objected to content offensive to the Prophet on Facebook.
Such controversies related to Social Community websites is not something new, even in India, websites like Orkut.com have faced the flack of the courts, when one of the anti-Shivaji community was discovered and orkut became inaccessible in some parts of Maharshtra, especially Pune.
1. India can thwart cyber attacks: DoT official
India has the capability to thwart cyber attacks and has formed response teams to tackle such threats, Mr R N Jha, Deputy Director-General (International Relations) of Department of Telecommunications in the Union Ministry of Communications and IT, has said.
2. Seven held for hacking online passport software
Seven people were arrested here for hacking the online passport application software of the Hyderabad regional passport office, police said Friday. Police Commissioner A K Khan told reporters that seven people, who included passport agents, were arrested and search was on for two others involved in the racket.
3. Bihar opens cyber crime investigation unit
Stepping up its fight against cyber crimes, Bihar has announced the launch of its first-ever Cyber Crime Investigation Unit (CCIU). The unit became operational on Saturday at Kotwali police station in Patna, says a news agency report.
4. Victim of a cyber crime? Report it
While most of the city’s Internet users are aware of the need to protect confidential data on their personal computers, 79 per cent still don’t know where to report a cyber crime. These are some of the findings of the KPMG report released on the security of home wireless networks in the city.
5. Need to be as savvy as cyber criminals: RR
Home Minister R R Patil today stressed the need for updated technology and a young, skilled police force to combat cyber crime. The Government will ensure that cyber connectivity reaches all corners of the state, but a system of lodging email complaints needs to be established as soon as possible, he said at the inauguration of the Mumbai Police Cyber Safety Week.
1. No Contempt, No Jail for Spamming a Judge
A federal appeals court has overturned a criminal contempt citation and 30-day sentence issued to a civil litigant who urged his followers to e-mail the judge presiding over the case.
2. Microsoft sues RedOrbit.com of new, sophisticated click fraud
A science news website is responsible for a new kind of click fraud that is harming advertisers and the networks that allow them to place their adverts according to Microsoft, which runs an ad network.
3. Man charged with violation of Digital Millenium Copyrights Act
RENO JEAN DARET, IV, age 28, of Thibodaux, Louisiana, was charged in a one count bill of information with violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, announced U. S. Attorney Jim Letten. According to the bill of information, between on or about October 26, 2009 and December 14, 2009, for purposes of commercial advantage and private financial gain, DARET knowingly circumvented technological measures that control access to copyrighted works.
4. LimeWire must share users' liabilities for copyright infringement, says US court
Peer to peer (P2P) software company LimeWire induced its users to infringe copyright by the unauthorised sharing of music and film files and shares responsibility for that infringement, a US court has ruled.
5. Las Vegas man pleads guilty to creating Cookie-Stuffing Program
Christopher Kennedy pleaded guilty yesterday to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello announced. In pleading guilty, Kennedy, 28, of Las Vegas, Nev., admitted to creating and selling through his Web site, www.saucekit.com, a cookie-stuffing program, known as “saucekit,” from January 2009 to November 2009.
1. Ukrainian TJX hacking suspect arrested in India
A Ukrainian national accused of helping to hack into nine US retailers and making off with data for millions of credit cards has been arrested in India, IDG News has reported. Sergey Valeryevich Storchark was arrested earlier this week in New Delhi as he deplaned from a flight from Goa, the news service said, citing a spokesman with India's Central Bureau of Investigation. He was in New Delhi on a layover before flying to Turkey.
2. Metro.co.uk: Twitter responds as ‘joke’ bomber prepares to stand trial
As Twitter user Paul Chambers prepares to stand trial over a ‘joke’ bomb threat on the micro-blogging site, others have been looking to raise awareness of the case using the #twitterjoketrial hashtag. “ 26-year-old Chambers will go on trial today after allegedly posting a Tweet that threatened to blow an airport ’sky high’.
3. Google Street View whacked by German prosecutors, Czech data watchdog
Google came under increased fire in Europe yesterday, after German prosecutors and the Czech data protection agency launched separate investigations into the company’s interception of private Wi-Fi data.
4. UK Communications Regulator Publishes Draft Anti-Piracy Code for ISPs
UK communications regulator Ofcom has published a 74-page draft code of practice that would require large ISPs in the UK to compile lists of customers who violate copyright laws. The ISPs would keep track of who has violated the laws and how many times they have violated the laws. Users suspected of illegal filesharing would receive three warnings before any action can be taken.
5. Software company's liability clause was not 'reasonable', says High Court
A software company's stipulation that customers could not take action against it for the poor performance of its software was unfair and could not be enforced, the High Court has said.
1. Most businesses are cybercrime victims
A majority of small and medium-sized businesses have been victims of cybercrime, a survey has shown. About 56 per cent of Australian small and medium businesses surveyed had been affected by cybercrime, up from 46 per cent in 2008, according to internet security firm Symantec.
2. Japanese Police Arrest Two for Alleged Cyber Fraud
Japanese police have arrested two men who are suspected of using malware named Kenzo to commit fraud. The pair allegedly hid malware in a computer game; users' computers became infected when they downloaded the game with filesharing software. The malware stole personal information and leaked it onto the Internet. The pair then allegedly offered to delete the leaked data for a payment of 5,800 yen (US $64). The malware is believed to have infected 5,000 computers.
3. Pakistan Unblocks Facebook, Bangladesh Imposes Ban
The Lahore High Court in Pakistan has finally lifted the ban on Facebook and it has been unblocked, after the government said that the Facebook Management had promised to make material considered derogatory inaccessible to Pakistan users.
Facebook has meanwhile run into trouble in neighboring Bangladesh where the site has been blocked since Sunday, after the government objected to content offensive to the Prophet on Facebook.
4. Malaysia calls for collaboration in fighting cyber crime
Malaysia proposes to establish collaboration with several countries to combat cyber crime, Malaysian Information Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim said here Tuesday.
5. PAK Girl falls victim to lapse of Cyber Crime Ord
The life of 16-year-old college girl became miserable when the Federal investigation Agency (FIA) failed to arrest the accused who uploaded her fake objectionable video to youtube.
1. FTC Asks Google Not to Destroy Collected Wi-Fi Data
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has asked Google not to destroy any of the documents about data it collected from unsecured Wi-Fi networks in 33 countries while trolling for images for its Street View feature. Google maintains the 600 gigabytes of "fragmentary data" were collected inadvertently.
2. Facebook Simplifies Privacy Controls
Facebook says it has simplified its privacy controls. The new controls will allow users to choose to share content with friends only, with friends and friends of friends only, or with everyone. Users who want to implement more granular control will still have the opportunity to do so, and all those controls will be on a single page. The Electronic Frontier Foundations (EFF) says that while the changes are a "great first step," there are still privacy issued that need to be addressed.
3. Hacker 'stole $7m game code at tech show
A BOSTON man appeared in court today charged with trying to download the code of a soon-to-be released video game at a tech convention. Justin May, 20, of Delaware, was attending the March PAX East 2010 in Boston where he allegedly used his laptop to hack into an Xbox 360 Test Kit that was demonstrating the game Breach, and downloaded the code, WBZ reported.
4. Student Convict with Using University Computer Network for DOS Attacks & Botnets
Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, announced today Mitchell L. Frost, age 23, of Bellevue, Ohio, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy A. Vecchiarelli and pleaded guilty to a two-count Information filed on May 14, 2010, which charged Frost with causing damage to a protected computer system and possessing 15 or more unauthorized access devices.
5. Second Man Sentenced for Scientology DDoS Attacks
Brian Thomas Mettenbrink has been sentenced to one year in jail and ordered to pay US $20,000 in compensation to the Church of Scientology for his role in a series of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against that organization's websites. Another man, Dmitriy Guzner, was sentenced to one year in jail for his role in the attacks late last year.
