Sunday, May 30, 2010
NTC Plans to sell Poddar mill online
Little man's revenge
Pakistan unblocks YouTube, Facebook still banned
Come, join Twitter: Rehman Malik to PC
Facebook simplifies its privacy setting
Search giant balks at turning over wireless data to German regulators
Search for self: 71% youth track their reputation online
Cyber crime
Information theft? keep a watch on disgruntled, low-paid staffers
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Facebook to set up warning system after new sex scam
Singapore:
Many users of the social networking site hit by fake video attacks
A major computer security firm urged Facebook on Tuesday to set up an early warning system after hundreds of thousands of fake sex-video attacks.
British-based virus fighter Sophos warned users of the world's biggest social networking site to be on guard against posting entitled 'Distracting beach babes', which contains a movie thumbnail of a bikini-clad woman.
Sophas said the malicious posts appear as if they are coming from Facebook users' friends, but it urged recipients not to click on the thumbnail.
By clicking on it, users are taken to a rouge Facebook application information them that they do not have the right player software installed, Sophas said.
It tricks users into installing adware, a software package that automatically plays, displays or downloads advertisements to their computer, and the video link is spread across the network.
Sophas said " hundreds of thousands" of Facebook users were believed to have received the posts recently.
It followed a similar scam that spread on Facebook the week before involving a fake posting tagged as the "sexiest video ever".
"It's time for Facebook to set up an early warning system on their network, through which they can warn their almost 500 million users about breaking threats as they happen,"said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.
"A simple message appearing on all users' screens warning them of the outbreak would have helped in halting the attack," he said.
"Unless something is done it won't be surprising if there is another widespread attack this coming weekend, affecting thousands more users."
The social networking site is under fire for revealing users' information too freely on the Internet.
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Monday that the website "missed the mark" with its complex privacy controls and would reveal simpler features in the coming weeks.
*****
Drastically simpler interface for privacy controls from today
Facebook Inc said it will introduce a "drastically simplified interface" for privacy controls on Wednesday, aiming to assuage concerns about how the site handles user information.
"The last few weeks have been extremely humbling," Chris Cox, vice president of product at Facebook, said at a technology conference in New York on Tuesday.
Users have complained that the site made it too easy for outsiders to access some of their personal information.
People want easier, simpler ways to opt out of sharing data with applications and websites, said Facebook, whose site is the world's most popular for social networking.
Facebook introduced tools last month that let users recommend products and websites to their friends. More than a dozen privacy groups filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission earlier this month that urged the agency to conduct an investigation into Facebook's privacy practise.
********
Foxnews lists 5 annoyances
Excessive e-mail: When friends take actions that involve you, Facebook may send you an alerting you
Noisy news feed: A never ending update on your friends' recent activity
Junk from strangers: It's possible for people you don't know to send you messages
Junk from from friends: You may get a message from friends alerting you to something but it may be from a hacker
Sneaky ads: Facebook uses some of the data to display ads that target people like you
Facebook owns you
Facebook began in 2005 as a simple and effective collaborative tool. But today, as it gets set to register its 500 millionth user, the social networking site is cashing in on all the personal data that people are posting there, mostly without permission. R Krisha talks to experts and users to find out just how hard it has become to keep your data personal.
'Relax, 'said the night man,
'We are programmed to receive.
you can check out any time you like,
But you can never leave!'
These lines come at the end of the song Hotel California (The Eagles), describing an enchanted place of many irresistible charms, which comes with a catch - if anyone tries to do anything of their own free will, the place becomes a nightmare. You can have fun, but only as long as you play by the rules set by 'them'.
Many Facebook users have recently been feeling similarly trapped, prompting social media enthusiast Netra Parikh to tweet a helpful link last week-www.reclaimprivacy.org. The service analyses your Facebook account and points out how much of your personal data there is public without your knowing it, and suggests steps to plug the holes. Parikh got a flood of responses to her Twitter post, ranging from "very worried" to "Should I delete my Facebook account?"
Saurabh Kejriwal, an ad writer based in Delhi, is among those who're getting turned off. "The reason I got hooked to Facebook three years ago was because it was simple and safe as well as a great collaborative platform. But today there have been so many changes that I am no longer comfortable."
Kejriwal is referring to the myriad potential invasions of privacy on Facebook today. Earlier, he could simply share his photos with his friends. Today he has to handle whole gamut of optional settings if he doesn't want to end up sharing his life with the whole world. "It makes me nervous."
For example, your friends list - which in 2005 was visible to your friends or friends of your friends - is now public information, accessible to anyone on the internet by default.
But last month this dilution of privacy on Facebook went to a whole new level, with a set of changes which are ironically also a huge step forward in the way information is organised and personalised for the user.
New personalising tools
When mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, took the stage at F8, the company's conference for its developers, wearing his usual jeans, sneakers and black hoodie, his simple demeanour contrasted with the game-changer he was about to unveil.
The most important change is open Graph, a platform where Facebook shares your public information - such as your friends list, interests, status updates, etc-with its partners such as Yelp (a hang-outs review site), Pandora (a music streaming service), and CNN, among others, This allows the partner websites to dish out content most relevant to you.
Facebook also announced a new feature called Community Pages, where information on various topics such as cooking or hiking can be organised. The catch here is that Facebook doesn't really ask you whether you want to contribute to a community page. Your status update on hiking, for example, will be pulled into the community page without your permission.
Another important change announced by Zuckerberg related to third party application on Facebook, such as Farmville. Earlier, these app developers couldn't store your data for more than 24 hours, but under the new policy they have permanent access.
The app developers reportedly broke into applause at this announcement. But privacy advocates as well as social media enthusiasts felt exactly the opposite.
* Name changed on request
Cyber crime: Victims don't know whom to call
May 26, 2010
Divyesh Singh
.....................
A total of 20 questions were asked to computer users. The results also revealed that 96% of people did not know whether they have ever been victims of a cyber attack or online fraud
What do you do in case you come across a cyber crime? Well, 79% of the educated Mumbai residents do not have an answer, as was found out during a survey conducted by a team of experts from the KPMG Advisory Services. The survey was conducted by speaking to Mumbaikars and contacting them through email.
The results of the survey were released at a round table conference held on Tuesday at the Indian Merchants' Chamber. The conference was a part of Cyber Safety Week organised by Mumbai police. Former director general of police KK Kashyap, commissioner of police D Sivanandhan, IT expert Vijay Mukhi, KPMG executive director Nitin Khanapurkar, advertising guru Bharat Dabholkar, senior police officers and IT experts attended the conference.
A total of 20 questions were asked to computer users. The results also revealed that 96% of people did not know whether they have ever been victims of a cyber attack or online fraud.
"There is a huge amount of under reporting in cases of cyber crime; people who have been victim do not register complaints fearing that it would make them objects of ridicule or their reputation might get damaged," IPS officer Pratap Reddy from Karnataka said. "With the advent of social networking sites, people, including celebrities and VVIPs post scraps and messages about their activities. This can easily reveal their location and plans and they may become targets of criminals. people need to be educated about using the Internet and about how to be have online."
According to Sivanadhan, people can contact police stations or the cyber crime cell. "Also, complaints can be posted on our website www.copconnect.com.Other then cheating, frauds and data thefts, cyber terrorism too is a problem. The cyber machinery has been used in the past by terror groups and they could use it to plan their operations and get information about people," he said.
Another fact revealed in the survey is that 62% of Mumbaikars do not monitor their children's activities on the internet. and could become targets of cyber criminals easily.
If a time table to play and study timings can be set, it can also be done for surfing the internet for children. Parents should always keep a check on their children's activities on the internet or else they could suffer from things like cyber bullying. cyber harassment and they could also be lured to get involved in cyber crimes," said Mukhi.
Pak blocks Twitter, Blackberry after Facebook and YouTube
Islamabad
Pakistanis protest against Facebook, which encouraged users to post images of Prophet Mohammad, in Islamabad,on Friday
After blocking Facebook and YouTube, the Pakistani authorities on Friday widened the crackdown on websites with blasphemous contents by restricting access to the social networking website Twitter. They have also blocked Blackberry Mobile services, pushing Pakistan back to pre-historic times. No reason was given for banning Blackberry's service.
Pakistani users were unable to log into Twitter after internet service providers blocked access to the site. When users tried to log into the sites, there browsers displayed the message 'This site is restricted'. Over two days, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has blocked websites like Facebook and YouTube, citing "sacrilegious contents" as the reason tor the action.
The ban,which includes certain pages on Flickr and Wikipedia, came a day after access to Facebook was suspended on orders from a Pakistani court. Some Islamic lawyers won that injunction, arguing that a contest, started by users for drawings of the Prophet Mohammad and called 'Everybody Draw Mohammad day', was offensive.
The authorities have blocked over 450 URLs.
The government acted against Facebook and YouTube after it failed to persuade the websites to remove the "derogatory material," the PTA said.
Mean while, thousands of protesters took to the streets across Pakistan and called the contest to draw caricatures of the Prophet open "cyber terrorism".
In Islamabad, religious leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamaat-ul-Dawa issued a decree calling for the killing of those who were involved in initiating the competition as well as those taking part in it.
In Lahore, workers of the Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamaat-ul-Dawa staged protest rallies, burnt US and Swedish flags and demanded the youth boycott such sites.
According to Wahaj-us-Siraj, a spokesman for ISPs in Pakistan, Facebook and YouTube were among the three most-viewed websites in the country. "At least 3.5 million use these websites regularly," he said, adding the sacrilegious content was also against the policies of the websites, which boast of strict use-and-abuse rules.
"We are bound to check child pornography websites, because it is something wrong and has nothing to do with the freedom of speech. Similarly, these caricatures are another example of absurdity."
The two websites generate revenues by posting Pakistan-specific advertisements, Siraj said.
"However, it is very hard to say how much they actually earn from Pakistan, but many telecommunication companies were using these websites. The hit would be substantial," he said, adding, "We have already stopped all advertisements for our clients on these websites."
- 170mn population of Pakistan
- 60% people are under the age of 25
- 25mn Number of Internet users in Pakistan
- $1,00,000 Bounty offered by al-Qaeda to the person who kills Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks
Row over Prophet cartoon in S Africa: A South African weekly on Friday published a cartoon of Prophet Mohammad, raising fears of reprisal attacks during the football World Cup in June. The cartoon depicts the Prophet on a psychologist's couch saying that his followers do not have a sense of humour.
'I didn't start the Facebook page': Cartoonist Molly Norris has distanced herself from the row over 'Everybody Draw Mohammad Day!', saying, "I never created a Facebook page for EDMD. A stranger to me did so." She said, "I made a cartoon about the TV show South Park being censored,"
Ban not justified: Pakistani people have the right to know about the world. The extremists want to snatch this tight from the people which will help extremism.
The competition hurt Muslims. But only that link should have been blocked. It's just that one page.
Bans Elsewhere: China routinely controls users' access to many sites, and was locked for months in a battle with Google over censorship controls
In Turkey, authorities had imposed a sweeping ban for months on YouTube because of offensive material to the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Thailand also blocked YouTube in 2007 over content that officials said was disrespectful to the king.
Pak blocks 800 URLs over Prophet row
Islamabad:
Pakistan has blocked 800 URLs that had "blasphemous" content in the wake of the ban on Facebook and YouTube, which featured cartoons of Prophet Mohammed.
Acting on an order of the Lahore high court, Pakistan's telecommunications authority initially banned the social networking website Facebook over a page featuring a contest for "blashemous" cartoons of the prophet. The ban was then extended YouTube and other sites.
The move also affected access to Wikipedia and Twitter, internet users said.
"So far, two sites and about 800 URLs have been blocked to prevent access to blasphemous and sacrilegious content," Wahaj-us-Siraj, a spokesman for the Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan said.
A URL or uniform resource locator is the global address of documents and other resources on the world wide web.
Facebook blocked over Prophet cartoons
Lahore:
In Unison: students protest against caricatures of the prophet on Facebook in Lahore on Wednesday
A Pakistani court ordered the government on Wednesday to block Facebook after press reported a competition being held to draw the Prophet Mohammad. Pakistani media recently reported that a caricature competition is being held on May 20 about Mohammad on Facebook.
"The court has ordered the government to immediately block Facebook until May 31 because of this blasphemous competition," Azhar Siddique, a representative of the Islamic Lawyers Forum who filed a petition in the Lahore High Court, said.
"The court has also ordered the foreign ministry to investigate why such a competition is being held."
A spokesman for the official telecommunications watchdog, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, said the government on Tuesday ordered Internet service providers to block websites showing these caricatures, but that they had not received the court orders as yet.
Any representation of the Prophet Mohammad is deemed un-Islamic and blasphemous by Muslims. But some warned the court's response could backfire. "Blocking the entire website would anger users, especially young and adults, because the social networking website is so popular among them," said the CEO of Nayatel, Wahaj-us-Siraj. "Basically, our judges aren't technically sound. They have just ordered it, but it should have been done in a better way by just blocking a particular URL or link."
On the information page of Facebook, the organisers described it as a "snarky" response to Muslim bloggers who "warned" the creators of the comedy television show South Park over a recent depiction of the Prophet in a bear suit .
"we are not trying to slander the average Muslim," the Facebook page creators wrote. "We simply want to show the extremists that threaten to harm people because of their Mohammad depictions that we're not afraid of them.
'Free' games you download can lead to huge phone bills
MUMBAI:
Peril lurks
Kaspersky lab expert Denis Masllenikov has said in a report that the game file is actually a Trojan that calls premium rate numbers across the globe
The Trojan has been mode by Russian virus writers. Once installed, it launches itself
The smart phones infected with the Trojan will run up huge bills as the Trojan will be dialling up premium rate numbers
Downloading a free game can lead to huge mobile phone bills. With smartphones that run on the Windows (HTC,Blackberry) and symbian (Nokia E71, 72, 63) platforms getting cheaper, cyber criminals have now started targeting them.
According to a recent report by Kaspersky Lab, the 3D Anti-terrorist game popping up on many websites offers the free download of a file which is actually a trojan that calls premium rate numbers across the globe without your knowledge. Your infected phone's bill could be a huge amount. Beware smart phone users. You may not be doing a smart thing when you download a free software or a mobile game on your cellphone. For cyber criminals have now zeroed in on you.
Unknown to you, your mobile phone might start dialling premium rate numbers across the globe. Blame it on a selflaunching Trojan that has dropped into your cellphone when you were downloading a free software or a game. Cyber criminals, who are controlling such Trojans, will be dialling the numbers, but you will be the one footing the bill.
A recent research by Kaspersky Laboratories has found that a new game, called 3D Anti-Terrorist, is often popping up on many websites. windows mobile smartphone users can download it for free. It takes up just 1.5MB space, and comes with a file named reg.exe.
Kaspersky lab expert Denis Masllenikov has said in a report that the file is actually a Trojan that calls premium rate numbers across the globe. It gets installed the moment a user completes downloading the game on his smartphone.
Masllenikov's report says that the Trojan has been made by Russian virus writers. Once installed, it launches itself. It was detected last month, and ever since it has been found that calls from infected phones are being made to six premium rate numbers across the globe.
Last year too, the Kaspersky labs had detected a similar kind of Trojan. It came with a free software called iporn player, which promised smartphone users access to various porn sites. One the player was installed, the Trojan started calling premium rate numbers in places like Austria, Liechtenstein, Burkina Faso, Switzerland and Nauru.
The bills of the infected phones ran up to huge amounts, and the users came to know of it only after receiving the bills.
IT experts say that the only way to avoid smart phones being infected by such viruses and Trojans is not to download software or other files from unknown websites. The users should only download software from phone manufacturers' official websites.
Masllenikov said, "Cyber criminals can target any person's phone at any location. If smart phones are widely users in a particular country, users there are more likely to fall prey to this."
Technology evangelist Vijay Mukhi told DNA, "The premium rate calls are mostly made to pay-per-call international numbers and friendship lines. There could be a person somewhere in the world, who has actually subscribed to this service after being offered heavy discounts on the existing market rates. He will be making the call, but the charges for them will be paid by the user whose phone has been infected."
58 and still single, man drags portal to court
The matchmakers did not find him a match. He was promised around 12 proposals every month, but he ended up getting just one suitor. Throwing in the towel after the frustrating wait for a bride, Rajendra Muley, 58, decided to move consumer court against the portal.
No luck there either. The Bandra consumer court recently dismissed his plea saying the portal could not be blamed if no woman was responding to his proposal.
Muley, a Dadar resident, had registered with the portal - inmatri.com - in February 2007 after paying a fee of Rs2,960. The portal's managers had promised to send him 10-12 proposals every month. Since they had failed to find a suitable match, the portal was "guilty of deficiency of service", Muley said .
The officials of the website denied the allegation. They said once a candidate registers himself, his details are fed into the software and a database is created for him. The software searches out persons that match the given criteria and then automatically sends emails to "possible matches". The potential match could either ignore or respond to the email.
Despite initiating "umpteen alliances", all proposals, barring one, were turned down or ignored, the portal said. It submitted a chart of entries before the court, which shows that 100 alliances were generated by the system.
Muley tried to establish in court that he was not computer-friendly and therefore the proposals should have been sent to him by post.
However,the court observed that as per the contract, Muley had agreed that all the proposals be forwarded to him in his email account.
President JL Deshpande with members VG Joshi and DS Bidnurkar held that the portal had made an honest at tempt to send Muley proposals, but only one showed interest in him.
"Perhaps this created an impression in the mind of the complainant (Muley) that he was being overlooked by the opposite party (inmatri.com) and no proposals were sent to him, "the court said.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
SSC, HSC marksheets may soon go online
"We are planning to make the online marksheet available from this year. The board officials are working on the system. In several areas of the state, students do not get marksheets for 10 days even after the results are declared. The online system will primarily help these students," said Thorat.
According to sources, the downloaded marksheet will be relevant and acceptable as official document for admission process. TN Supe, the state board secretary, said: "We are having a meeting on May 20 to discuss the issue. As of now nothing is finalised."
Beware of your boyfriends, women's panel tells teens
Bhubaneswar
"Youths allegedly capture nude images of their girlfriends on CDS, after winning their trust."
- Jyoti Panigrahi, chairperson, Orissa women's Commission
State-wide campaign to caution young girls in Orissa
Cases of girls becoming victims of their boyfriends' malicious deeds are on the rise in Orissa. Youths first befriend girls, win their trust, get intimate with them and then secretly record their intimate moments on CDs. To earn quick buck, these youths then sell the CDs in the market.
The state women's commission has come to the rescue of these vulnerable victims. It has, through a statewide
campaign, asked all college students to be "very careful" about their "exploitative" boyfriends.
"This is a serious matter and a recent trend in Orissa. We will sensitise girls through a state-wide campaign during
which we will caution them not to cross their limits even though the boy may be sober and polite," Jyoti Panigrahi,
the chairperson of the state women's commission, told reporters.
This relatively recent trend came to light after a 22-year-old girl committed suicide last year in Cuttack when she
found her nude images in a CD allegedly made by her boyfriend. The youth was later arrested.
But this 22-year-old girl's case was not the only one. In Dhenkanal district, three more girls became victims of the
porn CD scam last month. "In these three cases, the youths allegedly captured nude images of their girlfriends' on
CDs secretly, after winning their trust," Panigrahi said.
A girl from Dhenkanal district recently attempted suicide after she found her nude images in a CD available in the
local market, Panigrahi added.
Similar cases have also been reported in Bolangir district, she said.
Panigrahi feels parents can play an important role in preventing their daughters from falling prey to youths. She has
advised them to be friendly with their daughters so that their daughters will share information and openly discuss
their relationships with acquaintances and friends. Parents of growing girls, particularly of those studying in college should be aware of what their daughters were doing and with whom they are making friends," she said.
The state women's commission has also sought help from the police to curb the menace.
Ukraine national held for largest credit card fraud
NEW DELHI:
A Ukraine national wanted by the US in the largest credit card fraud ever was arrested by CBI at the Indira Gandhi International airport on Saturday. Sergey Storchak hacked into accounts and sold information of over 40 million credit and debit card numbers.
Storchak and 10 other cyber criminals, belonging to various nationalities, have been accused of carrying out what the US department of justice calls the "single largest and most complex identity theft case ever". The international fraud involves 3 Americans, 2Ukrainians, 2 Chinese, 1 Estonian, 1 Belarusian and an unidentified suspect known only by his online nickname "Delpiero"
"Storchak, facing a Red Corner Notice, was taken into custody the moment he arrived from Goa on Saturday night," a CBI official said. Airport security personnel identified him and handed him over to the CBI Interpol team.
The information on storchak's movement was passed on to CBI by FBI in the US, the spokesperson said, adding, "storchak had planned to take a Sunday morning flight to Istanbul... He was produced before a magistrate and has been remanded to judicial custody till May22."
Modus operandi
- Storchak and 10 other hackers entered into the networks of major us retailers, including Barnes and Noble, OfficeMax, DSW and Sports Authority
- Once Inside their networks, they left "sniffer programmes" that copied credit and debit card numbers, passwords and account info. This data was stored in encrypted servers.
- The accused then sold this info to other criminals online or made duplicate debit cards after encoding info on them and withdrew millions of dollars from ATMs.
Child porn: Lt colonel gets bail
An Esplanade magistrate court on Wednesday granted bail to lieutenant colonel Jagmohan Balbir Singh, who was arrested on the charge of child pornography.
Singh's lawyer, Dilip Bagwe, argued that since Singh's computer hard disks were seized, there was no question of tampering with the evidence. He also claimed that Singh won't run away as then he would face court-martial. Bagwe assured the court that his client would cooperate with the court.
The court granted Singh bail on a personal bond of Rs25,000 and ordered him to present himself to the police every alternate day.
The police had sought extension of Singh's police custody stating that forensic reports of the hard disks were still awaited. They said they were also waiting for the details of his credit card transactions and mobile phone bill.However, the court granted him bail citing that probe in the case was over.
Officers of the cyber crime investigation cell had arrested Singh Mumbai on May 6. He was accused of downloading and uploading pornographic content from websites.
The police seized Singh's computer and two hard disks which contained pornographic videos of children between three to 10 years.
On Tuesday, the crime branch had clarified that Singh was not involved in filming child pornography.
Air Force looks to IITs to tackle Chinese hackers
New Delhi:
Emulates pentagon to plug loopholes in its computer systems
"We want to see how fragile we are and what we need to do in case someone breaks into our systems."
-a senior IAF official
Alarmed by reports from top foreign agencies about three computer systems of Indian Air force (IAF) installed at sensitive bases being compromised by Chinese hackers, the IAF has decided to call in two Indian Institutes of Technology (IITS) to hack into their systems and plug the loopholes within.
Of the three stations where IAF computer systems are installed, one is just across the prime minister's 7 Race Course residence. Two other systems are installed outside Delhi.
A senior IAF official on condition of anonymity told 'DNA':"We want to see how fragile we are and what we need to do in case someone breaks into our systems": "He, however, hastened to add that the IAF was not sure whether a Chinese hacker had stolen data from its computers as reported by the US agencies.
The issue was discussed at recently concluded IAF commanders' conference on cyber crime. IITs would also suggest options for safety to IAF for their computers. A senior officer said the Chinese hacking did not bother the IAF, but it was important for them to learn precautionary measures.
The officer said that though operational plans were not digitised in the services and with systems having atleast three firewalls and algorithms in place in IAF, breaking through may not be easy for hackers.
But IAF seems to have decided to take some tough steps. In 2006, IAF set up its largest online network with166 nodes, for logistic duties, all over the country, called Integrated Materials Management Online Services (IMMOLS). The system aims to improve the availability of items leading to an enhanced serviceability of weapon systems and to reduce inventory costs by minimising non moving inventory.
Following in the footsteps of the Pentagon, where professional hackers are called in to hack systems for a large sum, IAF has, as a precautionary step, approached the technical institutions so that steps can be taken to plug these loopholes.
A source said the Pentagon also dissuades professional hackers by paying them large amounts as part of an agreement that the hackers by paying them large amounts as part of an agreement that the hackers would not compromise the Pentagon computers. Multinational companies too protected their intellectual property through their own network systems guarded by firewalls. IAF has decided to go the same way, the source said, but refused to divulge details about paying the hackers to keep them from compromising its computers.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Lt Colonel caught uploading child porn on websites
Arrest in Mumbai following tip- off form German police; army to conduct own probe
The crime branch of the Mumbai police has arrested a serving lieutenant colonel of the Indian Army for uploading child pornography content on websites. The police are investigating whether the officer, Jagmohan balbir Singh, 42, was involved in producing these videos.
The arrest followed a tip-off from the German police to the Interpol a few months ago. It stated that dirty videos involving children were being uploaded on pornographic websites from a computer in Mumbai. The information was passed in to the Cyber crime Investigation Cell (CCIC) of the crime branch through diplomatic channels, according to the Mumbai police.
"We were able to trace the IP (internet protocol) address of the computer involved. The address belonged to the computer of some senior army officer. We decided to work more on the information since there were chances that someone else could be using his computer," said joint commissioner of police, crime, Himanshu Roy.
The police zeroed in on Singh, a resident of Namdar Manzil near Colaba market, after tracking the computer for three weeks and making sure that it was him who was involved in uploading and downloading pornographic videos.
He was arrested from his residence on Thursday.
"On questioning, Singh admitted that he has been uploading and downloading child pornographic videos and pictures on, and from, websites," said Roy. The police have booked him under section 67 (B) of the Information Technology Act. The punishment under this section is five years of imprisonment and fine of Rs 10 lakh.
"As of now, it appears that he was doing it out of perversity, with no commercial motive. He also admitted that he had been doing it for the past few years," said Roy. However, police well be probing whether he was into making these videos. They are also looking into the source of the videos.
Singh also visited paid websites and some of the content in these sites had pornographic acts involving children of three and four years, said senior inspector Mukund Pawar. "We will question other persons and scrutinise Singh's credit card and bank details to ascertain whether he had paid or received money while indulging in child pornography," Pawar said. Roy said the police will be blocking the websites on which the contents were uploaded.
"We are going to prepare a report and send it to the army," said Roy.
Lieutenant colonel was nailed after three weeks' watch
It took three weeks for the cyber crime investigation cell (CCIC) of the crime branch to nail lieutenant colonel Jagmohan Balbir Singh, who was held for uploading child pornography material on websites on Thursday.
The CCIC sleuths moved into action after being informed that pornographic material involving children was being uploaded on and downloaded from a computer in Mumbai. They soon traced the Internet protocol address of the computer involved - it was provided by the German - and its location.
But the difficult part had just begun. Since the person involved was a senior army officer, the crime branch officer, the crime branch officials needed to be doubly sure of his direct was being misused by someone else. The sleuths had to work that problem out with caution.
"We had to be 100% sure before laying our hands on Singh. We had kept out surveillance high near his residence to ascertain how many people visited his house at Colaba," said a CCIC official. It was clear soon that nobody visited Singh's residence and the computer in question was used by his family members only.
"At around 3.30pm on Thursday, we went to Singh's house in his absence. We disclosed our identity to the family members and started looking for his computer, downloading of pornographic videos was on," said the officer.
Singh arrived within minutes and he was left speechless at the discovery of the downloading of pornographic material on his computer. " He admitted to committing the crime," the officer said.
Over 150 videos and clips were already downloaded. "he had also downloaded two computer software's on which such pornographic videos were freely available. The server of these software's was found to be in the United States," he said.
The police have also seized Singh's personal computer and two hard disks of 80 GB memory. Singh was produced before a local court and has been remanded to police custody till May 12.
Originally from Mohali in Punjab, Singh worked as a lieutenant colonel in the supply and transport department of the army before going on a study leave in 2009. Singh has completed 22 years in service and was posted in Mumbai for past 2.5 years. Singh stays with his wife and two children in Namdar Manzil building at Colaba.
Another case in Chennai
- William heum, 56, a Dutch national claiming to be a social worker, was arrested in Tamil Nadu last year on charges of uploading child pornographic videos on the internet. In February, he was released on bail by a local court in Chennai
- Heum was arrested by the cyber crime cell of the Chennai police after a tip-off from the Interpol that he was uploading child pornographic material on the internet. Heum was also arrested in 2002 on charges of sexually abusing children at an orphanage run by him in Mahabalipuram