Advocate (Dr.) Prashant Mali's Blog

The Telecommunications Act of 2023 has strengthened the dispute resolution framework by introducing an online grievance redressal system. The aim is to expedite the resolution of conflicts between telecommunications companies and consumers while ensuring transparency in the redressal process. Following an inquiry, a telecom company found violating license or service terms may incur severe penalties, spectrum holdings cancellation, service restrictions, or even be prohibited from providing telecom services, depending on the seriousness of the breach.  How does the online grievance redressal system operate, and who plays key roles?   An Adjudicating Officer (AO), appointed by the Centre and not below the rank of joint secretary, will conduct inquiries to resolve disputes between telecom service providers and consumers. Additionally, a separate Designated Appeals Committee (DAC) will be formed, consisting of officers at the rank of additional secretaries. Individuals dissatisfie...

What to do when FIR is not taken by the Police ? A First Information Report is the first legal document that initiates criminal proceedings. The first information received about the commission of a cognizable offense has to be noted down by a Police Officer. It is called as  First Information Report under Section 154 of CRPC. Cognizable and Non-Cognizable Offences: Cognizable offences  are offences where the police can arrest the accused without any warrant. In such offences, the police can Suo-moto take cognizance of the offence and it does not require any sanction from the court in order to begin the investigation. On the other hand,  Non-Cognizable  offences are those in which police cannot make an arrest without taking prior assent from the court. Schedule I of the Criminal Procedure Code clearly distinguishes which offenses are cognizable and which are not. According to section 154(1) of the Criminal Procedural Code,  an FIR can be filed only in cognizable ...

Police Closure Reports after investigation in cyber crime cases : 1. Art 21 of the Constitution guarantees fundamental right to life and personal liberty. This article of Constitution has been interpreted by the Judiciary with widest amplitude so as to include several other rights such as right to food and shelter, and other rights and most importantly the right to fair trial which includes the right to fair investigation. In Anbaizhagan’s case, the apex court observed that, ‘if the criminal trial is not free and fair and not free from bias the judicial fairness and the criminal justice system would be at stake, shaking the confidence of the public in the system and woe would be the rule of law’, 1 Trial should be fair to all concerned and ‘denial of fair trial is as much an injustice to the accused as is to the victim and the society. 2 2. The right to fair trial includes ‘Fair Investigation’, 3 Fair trial and fair investigation are pre-requisites to get justice which the parties de...

 Basic structure of legal argument (1) If conditions A, B and C are satisfied, then legal consequences X, Y and Z follow. (Major premise: legal rule) (2) Conditions A, B and C are satisfied (or not). (Minor Premise: the facts of the case) (3) Therefore, legal consequences X, Y and Z do (or do not) follow. (Conclusion: legal judgment in the case). As I mentioned in part one, the first premise of this argument structure tends to get most of the attention in law schools. The second premise — establishing the actual facts of the case — tends to get rather less attention. This is unfortunate for at least three reasons. First, in practice, establishing the facts of a case is often the most challenging aspect of a lawyer’s job. Lawyers have to interview clients to get their side of the story. They have to liaise with other potential witnesses to confirm (or disconfirm) this story. Sometimes they will need to elicit expert opinion, examine the locus in quo (scene of the crime/events) and a...

CyberSecurity search engines: 1. Dehashed—View leaked credentials. 2. SecurityTrails—Extensive DNS data. 3. DorkSearch—Really fast Google dorking. 4. ExploitDB—Archive of various exploits. 5. ZoomEye—Gather information about targets. 6. Pulsedive—Search for threat intelligence. 7. GrayHatWarefare—Search public S3 buckets. 8. PolySwarm—Scan files and URLs for threats. 9. Fofa—Search for various threat intelligence. 10. LeakIX—Search publicly indexed information. 11. DNSDumpster—Search for DNS records quickly. 12. ONYPHE—Collects cyber-threat intelligence data. 13. FullHunt—Search and discovery attack surfaces. 14. AlienVault—Extensive threat intelligence feed. 15. Grep App—Search across a half million git repos. 16. URL Scan—Free service to scan and analyse websites. 17. Vulners—Search vulnerabilities in a large database. 18. WayBackMachine—View content from deleted websites. 19. Wigle—Database of wireless networks, with statistics. 20. Netlas—Search and monitor internet connected asset...

Arrest by Police in cyber crime cases By Adv (Dr.) Prashant Mali Cyber crime is a reality but personal liberty is a fundamental human right and a cornerstone of the social structure.  Arrest brings humiliation, curtails freedom and cast scars forever. Its deprivation is a matter of grave concern.  The law of arrest is one of balancing individual rights, liberties and privileges,on the one hand, and individual duties, obligations and responsibilities on the other. The police officer can , without an order/warrant from a Magistrate, arrest a person in respect of a cognizable offence punishable with imprisonment exceeding 7 years without mentioning any ' special reasons '. The problem arises when it comes to arrest of a person who is accused of an offence which is punishable up to 7 years. The Hon’ble Apex Court in Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar, (2014) 8 SCC 273 held; Our endeavour in this judgment is to ensure that the police officers do not arrest the accused unnecessarily an...

The cybercriminal economy is a continuously evolving connected ecosystem of many players with different techniques, goals, and skillsets. Ransomware as a service (RaaS) is a subscription-based model that enables affiliates to use already-developed ransomware tools to execute ransomware attacks. Affiliates earn a percentage of each successful ransom payment. Ransomware as a Service (RaaS) is an adoption of the Software as a Service (SaaS) business model.  RaaS users don't need to be skilled or even experienced, to proficiently use the tool. RaaS solutions, therefore, empower even the most novel hackers to execute highly sophisticated  cyberattacks .  RaaS solutions pay their affiliates very high dividends. The  average ransom demand increased  by 33% since Q3 2019 to $111,605, with  some affiliates earning up to 80%  of each ransom payment. The low technical barrier of entry, and prodigious affiliate earning potential, makes RaaS solutions specifically ...