Mumbai High Court has upheld the decisions of the Adjudicator of Maharashtra Mr Rajesh Agarwal in respect of two cases referred to it by ICICI Bank. The Bank had challenged the order of the Adjudicator and prayed for a stay which has been rejected by the Court.
Netizens in Karntaka hope Karnataka High Court and Adjudicator of Karnataka also become as much cyber law savvy as their counterparts in Mumbai.
Naavi
The proliferation of adult content on android apps has drawn the attention of the Government and serious thoughts are being given to the ways and means of controlling the menace.
One of the thoughts that is flying across is whether Android OS may be banned?. This of course ,may not happen since it would amount to closure of the mobile market itself. However Google may be required to enforce better control on the security aspects of the applications.
Naavi
Close on the heels of the announcement of the National Cyber Security Policy, the Government is likely to announce a “Telecom Security Policy”. The draft of the policy is said to have been submitted to the National Information Board and after a review, will be submitted to the Cabinet Committee for approval.
The policy is likely to address the issue of dependence of Indian telecom network on imported hardware and the consequent risk exposure. It may therefore suggest audit of hardware and software at periodical intervals besides testing and certification at the time of purchase.
In the Cyber security policy also the Government has indicated the requirement of ensuring mandatory legal audits, following of global best practices, development of security culture etc.
The twin policies if properly implemented will significantly improve the security in the Indian Cyber Space.
22 Banks have been fined by RBI for KYC failures. The fines range from Rs 0.50 lakhs in the case of Ratnakar Bank to rs 3.002 crores in the case of IOB. Most other Banks have been fined between 2.50 to 3.0 crores.
The complete list of Banks and the fines imposed is available here:
This is in addition to the three Banks who were fined last month. In this set of fines, RBI imposed a penalty of Rs. 5 crore imposed on Axis Bank, Rs. 4.5 crore on HDFC Bank and Rs. 1 crore on ICICI Bank.
Naavi
As discussed in this column earlier, one more fraud on an Exporter has been reported from Delhi involving diversion of export proceeds.
The loss reported in the Delhi fraud is US$31000 (Rs 18 lakhs). The two other frauds reported from Bangalore were of the order of Rs 50 to 80 lakhs. This indicates that the average losses in these frauds is very high.
Pune has also reported 6 such cases in the last 6 months. Report in TOI
These frauds are targeting both Importers and Exporters. As regards losses to exporters, the loss has to be borne by the ECGC.
In order to avoid the litigation, loss of business relationship and other adverse effects on the exporters and importers, urgent action is required from the end of RBI and ECGC.
Naavi
OPEN LETTER TO RBI AND ECGC
To
Reserve Bank of India
Exchange Control Department
Mumbai
and
ECGC of India
Mumbai
Sub: Increasing Hong Kong Risk for Importers and Exporters from India
Dear Sir
I have recently come across two instances of Cyber Frauds which have been targeted at the Importers and Exporters from India which involves Hong Kong as the center of money laundering where the money due to be paid to the Indian businessman was diverted into a false Bank account in Hong Kong. One of the cases involved an importer importing goods from China and another involved an Exporter exporting to Russia.
In both cases, the fraudsters sent e-mail communications to the paying party impersonating as the receiving party and asking the payment to be made to the credit of a Hing Kong Bank account instead of what was originally agreed to.
As a result of these two instances alone, a sum of around Rs 135 lakhs in foreign exchange has not been received by India. The Exporter would now face a loss which will be a liability on the ECGC. The importer has made a payment in foreign exchange without a corresponding import of the equipment leading to his facing liabilities under FEMA.
I consider that these are not isolated incidents and are also not the only two incidents that have occurred. I suspect that all over India by this time several such incidents must have taken place and this will result in huge losses to ECGC besides many of the genuine Importers and Exporters. This will also lead to a higher NPA incidence at Banks.
There is therefore an urgent need for both RBI and ECGC to take remedial action including a criminal action against the fraudulent parties in Hing Kong. Such action cannot be undertaken by the individual parties and has to be front ended by ECGC. The Government of India also need to take up the matter with the respective countries namely Hong Kong, China and Russia since there is a distinct possibility of involvement of local employees of different organizations in each of these countries.
I request RBI and ECGC to immediately caution all exporters as well as Banks about this new modus operandi of Cyber Criminals and advise remedial action.
If more information is required on the two cases referred to from here which are from Bangalore, the organizations may contact me.
Regards.
Naavi
