Website Hacking Shoots up to 2,770 Incidents and More

The period spanning from January to August 2007 saw 2,770 incidents of cyber breach, according to CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) in its recent report on Internet hacking.

Various international and national agencies reported 326 additional security incidents to CERT-In in the first 8-months of this year, CERT-In added. It said that security incidents related to unauthorized scanning, phishing and malicious worms and viruses were reported. The industry figures suggested that more than 119 cases of phishing attacks have brought into notice till now.

CERT report also said that out of all the sites that suffered hacking and resultant postings during the first eight months in 2007, a huge majority of 1,135 incidents occurred within the '.com' domain, while 899 phishing events occurred in '.in' domain.

The cyber crime incidents range from data tampering to hacking. With the rapid increase in Internet subscription, accompanied with the incidents of online crime, the police force is feeling the pressure. Over the past six months, the total number of Internet subscribers shot up to 2.04 Million from 1.023 Million, as per the Ministry of Information Technology.

CERT's research in the year 2006 estimated 5,200 Websites being hacked. Hackers or phishers use fraudulent methods to gather sensitive information like passwords, usernames and credit card numbers by faking to be trustworthy entities via an electronic communication. With respect to different sectors, the maximum number of phishing assaults in 2006 was reported from E-Commerce sector, with 76% of incidents. The other area targeted the most was Financial Services with 24 % of incidents.

The much-skewed graph of cyber crime in the Indian subcontinent seriously posed questions about the extent of freedom that can be permitted to Internet users considering how vulnerable the present generation is to online threats.

The Supreme Court lawyer and Cyber Law expert, Pavan Duggal, said in the second week of September 2007 that although it is not possible to eliminate phishing attacks completely, it is crucial that the victim organizations file FIRs and that it should be regarded as penal crimes. The Economic Times published Duggal's statement on September 16, 2007.

Related article: Websites – The Latest Weapon in The Hands of Phishers

» SPAMfighter News - 10/3/2007