Hackers attempt to hack TIA website Published on: March 28, 2019

KATHMANDU: Unidentified hackers have made attempts to hack the official website of Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA). The hacker has said that the website “may be hacked”. The site, however, can be opened.

“We are not aware of this,” Suresh Sah, IT expert at TIA told Khabarhub.

Iranian hackers hit 200 companies Published on: March 7, 2019

WASHINGTON: Iranian hackers have hit more than 200 companies over the past two years, targeting thousands of people. Hackers have stolen corporate secrets and wiped data from computers.

According to Microsoft, hackers have affected oil-and-gas companies and makers of heavy machinery in several countries, including Saudi Arabia, Germany, the United Kingdom, India and the US, incurring a loss of millions of dollars.

Holmium, the Iranian hacker group, that usually attacks big companies, have been targeting more than 2,200 people with phishing emails that can install malicious codes.

ACSC to replace cyber threat sharing platform Published on: February 4, 2019

The federal government’s lead cyber security agency has set about finding a new platform to improve how it monitors global cyber threats and shares intelligence with partners. The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) last week put out the call for the cyber threat intelligence solution to replace its existing platform, which is currently used to exchange information with private and public sector partners automatically.

A spokesperson told iTnews the new platform was needed to “improve compatibility with industry standards and allow sharing with our partners in an automated and efficient way”. “A commercial solution will be easily accessible and in a format that can used by the widest number of systems and security teams,” the spokesperson said.

Tender documents indicate information, which will be provided in a variety of formats including advisories, would be “context-rich, actionable and timely”. ACSC expects this will allow partners to “prioritise and implement countermeasures in the face of a threat”, while freeing them to “focus on activities that cannot be automated”.

The preferably commercial-off-the-shelf solution will also allow the agency to “constantly monitor cyber security threats” by tapping insights from local and global sources that include governments and business computer emergency response teams (CERTs).

The solution will be integrated into the government’s cyber.gov.au portal, which the agency plans to further develop into “the authoritative source of cyber security advice and assistance for the Australian economy” during 2019. The portal has been up and running as a “static” alpha website since August last year.

The proposed one-stop shop or central hub of cyber security information will consolidate a number of existing cyber security websites, including for the ACSC, CERT Australia and ACORN, and offer a range of services in addition to threat intelligence sharing.

ACSC expects the incoming solution to “be capable of ingesting multiple threat intelligence feeds”, including attack patterns, malware, exploits and vulnerabilities. It will also enable advanced analysis and sharing of the threat intelligence, with context added to ensure that it is understandable.

ACSC said it had already identified six products from companies outside of Australia that “may potentially” satisfy its requirement, but that further market research was needed. The products are: Anomali (Threat Stream), Eclectic IQ, TC Complete (Threat Connect), NC4 (Soltra Edge), Threat Quotient (ThreatQ) and TruSTAR (Threat Intelligence), all of which have been invited to respond to the request for information.

(Agencies)

Youths more vulnerable to cyber crimes Published on: February 3, 2019

Kathmandu: The Metropolitan Crime Division of Nepal Police received 926 complaints relating to cyber crime to date in the current fiscal year. The cyber crimes are the criminal activities carried out with the use of computers and internet.

The record shows that the more number of youths than the people of other age groups are found involved in the cyber crime. Many of them belong to 15-25 age group. Division Chief and Senior Superintendent of Police Dheeraj Pratap Singh, use of Facebook accounts in other’s names, hacking twitter accounts, sending of unnecessary and suggestive texts, phishing, misuse of personal information are some forms of cyber crimes which take place through digital devices including computers, tablets and smart phones connected to the internet, the network of the networks.

With the increasing use of the internet technology and social networking sites such as Facebook, twitter, and Viber, the cases of the cyber crime are on the rise of late. According to the Division Spokesperson and Superintendent of Police Narendra Prasad Upreti, fraudsters are misusing the social networking sites as a means of making illegal money. They make a contact with their possible victims via internet with ‘false’ information that they (victims) won a lottery or are getting free gift hampers from abroad and for that they have to send a certain amount to complete a process.
It is found that people have been deceived of millions of rupees from such fraudsters.
The record shows that the more number of youths than the people of other age groups are found involved in the cyber crime. Many of them belong to 15-25 age group. Division Chief and Senior Superintendent of Police Dheeraj Pratap Singh, use of Facebook accounts in other’s names, hacking twitter accounts, sending of unnecessary and suggestive texts, phishing, misuse of personal information are some forms of cyber crimes which take place through digital devices including computers, tablets and smart phones connected to the internet, the network of the networks. Of the registered cases, prosecutions have begun in only 40 cases.
He insisted on the need of education from the school level on the safe use of internet to control cyber crimes. Some people are unknowingly involved in cyber crime as they get suggestions to visit the prescribed link or like the posted link or download such materials. The Nepal Police deals with the case relating to cyber crime under the Electronic Transactions Act 2008 which puts the time limitation to file the first information report regard with the violation of this Act with 35 days.
The ETA recommends a fine not exceeding 100 thousands or jail sentence up to five years or both as punishment to a guilty convicted in the cyber crime.
The study of the Division shows that homelessness, school/college dropout, and suicide have increased in the society due to consequences of cyber crime. Recently, the Nepal Police has established a cyber bureau to deal with the growing cases of cyber crime. RSS