Centre for Internet and Society

Activists cry foul against Aadhaar

praskrishna — 2012-01-31T04:24:39Z

Biometric experts, jurists and social activists today urged the state government to immediately snap ties with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and stop offering Aadhaar numbers to residents.

Arguing that the creation of Aadhaar numbers had no legislative base as the National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010, was pending with Parliament, civil society members said UIDAI’s project was unconstitutional.

They pointed out that the parliamentary standing committee had termed the biometric project “directionless”.

“The biometric database of citizens, management of which will remain in the hands of some private companies, severely infringes on the right of citizens to privacy. A rule relating to security of biometric data is yet to come up, but UIDAI is going on generating them,” said Usha Ramanathan, a jurist from Delhi at a meeting on the UID project here.

The meet on Aadhaar was convened in the state capital by the Indian Social Action Forum. The participants included social activist Dayamani Barla, director of Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society Sunil Abraham, biometric expert from Mumbai J.T. D’ Souza and member of Citizens’ Forum for Civil Liberties Gopal Krishna, among others.

The unique numbers are expected to be utilised extensively, from opening bank accounts to applying for LPG connections. UIDAI has already generated roughly 10 crore unique numbers.

Neither the Citizenship Act, 1955, nor Citizenship Rules of 2003 permit collection of biometrics, the experts added. “Both the UID and National Population Registrar projects adopt technology that risks national and individual security,” observed D’ Souza.

The news was published in the Telegraph on Thursday, 12 January 2012. Read the original story here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/activists-cry-foul-against-aadhaar

Active Editors

praskrishna — 2013-07-03T09:09:41Z

Active Editors in Wikipedia

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/home-images/ActiveEditors.png

Act now to protect yourself against future ransomware attacks

praskrishna — 2017-07-10T14:46:14Z

There was Wannacry, then Petya, and several other lesser-known ones: With ransomware attacks coming thick and fast, get proactive about protecting yourself.

The article by Sanjay Kumar Singh was published by Business Standard on July 5, 2017.

The Wannacry ransomware attack in May was followed by the Petya attack last week. This attack affected the Ukrainian government and large corporates like Maersk and Merck. In India it affected the operations of terminals at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), operated by Maersk. According to Kaspersky Lab, the rate of ransomware attacks on businesses grew from one every 120 seconds in January 2016 to one every 40 seconds by October that year. The rate of attack on individuals' computers rose from one every 20 seconds to one every 10 seconds over this period. Today, it has become imperative for everyone, including entrepreneurs and small business owners, to learn how to defend themselves against such attacks.

A trend witnessed in 2016 was the growth of ransomware-as-a-service business model. "Code creators offer their malicious product on demand, selling uniquely modified versions to criminals who then distribute it through spam and websites, paying a commission to the creator," says Altaf Halde, managing director, Kaspersky Lab (South Asia). He adds that the growth of cashless payments in India will undoubtedly attract the attention of cyber criminals and lead to more attacks in future.

Next, let us turn to how ransomware works. An operating system (OS) is a large and complicated piece of software with millions of lines of software code. A malware exploits vulnerabilities within the OS to infiltrate it. An infiltration can happen in multiple ways: if you download a malicious email attachment, visit a code-carrying web site, via an infected pen drive, and so on.

Ransomware is a form of malware that encrypts the files in a critical part of the computer, such as My Documents or Desktop, where people usually store their files. It could also encrypt specific file types, say, such .doc files. The user is then informed that his files have been encrypted along with the warning that unless he pays up within the next few hours his files will be deleted. Says Udbhav Tiwari, policy officer at the Centre for Internet and Society, Bengaluru: "You first have to first pay the attackers using anonymous money like bitcoins and then they give you the key for decrypting your files."

A ransomware attack can be dealt with in two ways: either pay the money and get the files unlocked, or find a way to circumvent the encryption. The latter option can, however, take a fair bit of time.

Safeguard measure you should adopt
Back up important files regularly. Check periodically that these files have not got damaged Enable ‘Show file extensions’ option in Windows settings. Stay away from extensions like “exe”, “vbs” and “scr”. Many familiar file types can be dangerous as scammers use multiple extensions (like hot-chics.avi.exe or doc.scr) If you discover an unknown process on your machine, cut off the Internet connection immediately If you have been infected, find the name of the ransomware. If it's an older version, your files can be restored. For restoration tools visit https://www.nomoreransom.org/

Among the safeguard measures you should adopt, first and foremost, never open a suspicious file. By being vigilant you can avoid a lot of ransomware attacks.

Most malware exploit vulnerabilities within the OS. "These vulnerabilities are frequently patched by the creators of the OS. But if people use pirated OS, or don't upgrade it regularly, they could land in trouble," says Tiwari. Soon after the Wannacry attack, Microsoft had issued a patch. People who updated their computers immediately didn't get affected by it. Also, use the latest version of an OS.

Use a quality antivirus (AV) solution, which is usually one you have to pay for. A high-quality AV can even protect you against vulnerabilities not patched by the OS manufacturer. AVs scan files. If they detect patterns indicating the presence of malware, they lock them apart from the rest of the computer, thereby preventing them from spreading.

One option is to use an OS that is less vulnerable, like Mac and Linux. Fewer malware are designed for these OS as fewer people use them.

Finally, if your files do get encrypted, don’t pay the ransom, unless instant access to those files is critical. "Each payment only fuels this unlawful business," says Halde.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/business-standard-july-5-2017-sanjay-kumar-singh-act-now-to-protect-yourself-against-future-ransomware-attacks

acorn

praskrishna — 2012-04-10T09:01:38Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/home-images/M3.jpg

Achievements

praskrishna — 2013-09-23T07:25:01Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/achievements.pdf

Accessing pirated content might lead to prison term & Rs 3-lakh fine

praskrishna — 2016-08-23T02:47:52Z

India puts onus of downloading and viewing pirated content on individuals.

The article by Alnoor Peermohammed was published in the Business Standard on August 22, 2016. Sunil Abraham was quoted.

The central government is putting the onus of downloading and viewing of copyrighted content from sites it has blocked (with the help of internet service providers) on users.

Visiting torrent (a particular type of files) websites while on Tata Communications’ network recently had users being shown a message that viewing or downloading content on those sites could land them in prison for up to three years and a fine of up to Rs 3 lakh.

“There is not enough room in our prisons to keep these infringers and enough time in our courts to try them. It might sound very exciting as a message to put out but, essentially, they’re trying to scare people into good behaviour,” said Sunil Abraham, executive director at research firm Centre for Internet and Society.

There has been no change to the Copyright Act of 1957 or the Information Technology Act of 2000 for the updated notice being shown to users upon visiting blocked sites. Under these provisions, visiting a site, which is blocked is not illegal, unless it is child pornography.

“Copyright infringement happens all the time and even in developed countries, the rates are very high. Crackdowns on individuals and consumers are never going to solve the problem,” added Abraham.

Experts say the most the government could do is prosecute a couple of people and make examples of them, to dissuade others. This practice is followed globally. There are no examples, though, in India of prosecution for copyright infringement of online content.

The recent alteration of the statement seen by users on Tata networks was done on the directives of the Bombay High Court, after the company appealed that showing individual messages for why each website was blocked was not feasible. The resulting message sparked media frenzy that visitors of blocked websites could now be imprisoned.

Other media reports revealed that the recent blocking of websites by internet service providers was prompted by court orders to prevent piracy of Dishoom, the Bollywood movie.

Globally, there’s been a move to clamp on torrent websites which host pirated content, aided by large information technology entities such as Apple or Facebook. Last month, the US authorities arrested Kickass Torrents’ founder, Arten Vaulin, and blocked all the domains of the website, only to have it resurface a day later.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/business-standard-august-22-2016-accessing-pirated-content-might-lead-to-prison-term-and-rs-3-lakh-fine

Accessible Phones Word

praskrishna — 2011-03-10T07:33:05Z

word doc

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/publications/accessible-phones-table.doc

Accessible Phones

praskrishna — 2011-03-10T07:26:29Z

word doc

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/publications/accessible-phones

Accessible Mobiles Table PDF

praskrishna — 2011-08-22T12:47:35Z

pdf

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/publications/accessible-handsets-table.pdf

Accessible Mobile Handsets Table

praskrishna — 2011-04-11T05:40:41Z

pdf

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/publications/accessible-mobile-handsets.pdf

Accessible Mobile Handsets in India: An Overview

praskrishna — 2012-12-14T10:29:30Z

Over a thousand mobile handsets are sold in India today and new models are launched almost every few weeks. However, the number of accessible handsets continues to be disproportionately low. The Centre for Internet and Society conducted a research on the mobile market to gauge how many handsets in India are accessible for persons with disabilities. Handsets were judged on the basis of a few common accessibility features and pricing.

The findings reveal that 108 handset models came with screen readers and 100 were magnifier compatible. Thirty one of them were touch phones and only 15 models had QWERTY keypads.

The study found that the price of 60 of the available options was either high or very high (Rs. 10,000 and above) and only 48 handsets are available at a reasonable or low price.

For available handset options for persons with disabilities, click below:

PDF [612 kb]
Open Office [24 kb]
Word [42kb]

Some of the major cross platform and proprietary mobile operating systems were also examined for their accessibility features. These included Windows Mobile, iPhone for Apple, Blackberry, Android, Symbian and Windows Phone 7. All the operating systems offer features such as font customization, menu style, menu icons and voice recognition. However, only two offer built-in screen readers and only one OS offers a built in screen magnifier. Three operating systems support third party screen readers and two also support third party screen magnifiers.

The table [click on the links below] (also compiled by Mukesh Sharma) provides more details on the features offered by various operating systems: