Advocate (Dr.) Prashant Mali's Blog

How A Student Hacked into Teachers WHATSAPP Account? A teacher from Kerala noticed that her WhatsApp account was logged out soon after an online class. Knowing this, she lodged a complaint with cyberpolice. Police cracked the case and found out that the culprit was her student, studying in high school, who logged into the teacher’s account. The technique used by the student was simple. The teacher was using a screen-share app in her phone during the class . So the students were able to see the screen and also the pop-up notification alerts coming into the phone. The ‘culprit’ student then tried to login WhatsApp with teacher’s number in his phone. And the OTP for verification came as pop-up alert in the teacher’s phone which was visible for all the students. Thus the student easily logged in to the account. The teacher did not have two-step verification on the phone and did not have a password. The account in teacher’s phone got logged out as WhatsApp does not allow simultaneous use on...

  Why Cybercrime is increased ? Due to Low Cost I feel You can buy ransomware for  as little as $66 , or hire a threat actor for $250. And if you look hard enough, you can even get a phishing kit for free on underground forums. Although these illicit methods may not be expensive, the damage they inflict can be substantial. Phishing has become more popular than ever. Bhagwat Karad, the minister of state for finance reported to Indian parliament, that more than 50,000 (50,242) cases of cyber frauds, banking frauds using internet banking, ATM-Debit and Credit Cards were registered in the first nine months of the current fiscal year, citing RBI data (April-December 2021 period). During the nine-month period, the victims of these frauds lost a total of nearly Rs 167 crore. According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, the number of  phishing complaints more than doubled in 2020  to 241,342 cases compared to the prior year. From there, attacks doubled again as ph...

The criminal use of cryptocurrencies Cryptocurrencies have been adopted as part of money laundering schemes and are particularly associated with several predicate offences including fraud and drug trafficking. They are also widely used as a means of payment for illegal goods and services offered online and offline. Money laundering is the main criminal activity associated with the illicit use of cryptocurrencies. The growing popularity and adoption of cryptocurrencies have led to their increasing use in money laundering schemes. Other criminal activities that show an intensive use of cryptocurrencies are related to the use of cryptocurrencies as a payment method for illicit goods and services, fraudulent cryptocurrency investments and cybercrime. In all instances, criminals want to obfuscate the source of the illicit assets with cryptocurrencies. A number of indicators show how criminals involved in frauds strongly rely on the use of cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies are also the mean...

Who is an Adjudication Officer under the IT Act,2000 [ cybercrime court for civil cybercrime matters ]  Adjudicating officer is generally an IAS officer in the rank of Principal Secratary -Information Technology or an IAS officer who should not be less than the rank of a Director to the Government of India or an equivalent officer of a state government as an adjudicating officer who shall adjudicate whether any person has committed a contravention of any of the provisions of this Act or of any rule, regulation, direction or order and shall hold an inquiry in the manner prescribed by the central government. Further, the adjudicating officer is vested with the power of a civil court to adjudicate any matter before it. Under Section 46 of the IT Act,2000 the power to adjudicate has been specifically enshrined for the purpose of adjudging under this Chapter. The central government has notified “Scope and Manner of Holding Inquiry” as per the gazette notification for Information techno...

  There are 22 sections and 31 instances (i.e section 66 actually is applicable for ten different crimes mentioned in section 43) of offences and cyber crimes provisioned in the IT Act,2000 . Some sections are Non- Bailable too and one section 66F is a grievous offence having provision of punishment of imprisonment for life. The table below shows the offence and penalties against all the mentioned sections of the IT Act,2000 Section Offence Punishment Bailable and Cognizable 65 Tampering with Computer Source Code Imprisonment up to 3 years or fine up to Rs 2 lakhs Offence is Bailable, Cognizable and triable by Court of JMFC. 66 Computer Related Offences i.e All 10 offences mentioned in Section 43 Imprisonment up to 3 years or fine up to Rs 5 lakhs Offences are Bailable, Cognizable and triable by Court of JMFC. 66-A Sending offensive messages through communication services, etc... Section is removed Imprisonment up to 3 years and fine in Shreya Singhals Case Offence is Bailable, Cog...

How cybercriminals use cryptocurrency? Cybercriminals all over the world have leveraged this technology’s increased anonymity to buy and sell illegal goods, services, stolen data, underground infrastructure and force victims to pay ransom. While blockchain analysis enables researchers and law enforcement to glean information from illicit transactions, criminals have countered by adopting the use of cryptomixers to obscure their transactions and further complicate investigations. It has been observed gangs in the cybercriminal underground are increasingly relying on cryptomixing services to obfuscate the origin of their criminal earnings. What are Cryptomixers ? Cryptomixers are often stand-alone services that are available to the general public via the open internet. They often use anonymous means of communication and do not keep logs of customer transactions, which given the push by law enforcement for crypto exchanges to incorporate financial compliance laws into their operation...