Delhi High Court Decision hurts Digital Media

Posted on March 16, 2013 by Vijayashankar Na

Delhi High Court has recently held that “Dissemination of ball by ball information of a cricket match” is not included in “Press Freedom”. In a strange decision the Court has held that Press should confine its activities to report only after 15 minutes.

Report

The order grants “A limited interim injunction restraining the defendants from disseminating contemporaneous match information in the form of ball-by-ball or minute-by-minute score updates/match alerts for a premium, without obtaining a license from the plaintiff”

However “There shall be no restriction upon the defendants to report noteworthy information or news from cricket matches as and when they arise, because stale news is no news.”

also, “There shall be no requirement for the license if the defendants do it gratuitously or after a time lag of 15 minutes”

The judgement also has many other debatable decisions such as distinguishing the rights of the “Free” vs “Premium” recipients of information.

According to observers, STAR has already issued notices to service providers as if they have “Absolute Rights” instead of the 15 minutes rights.

The decision is a set back for “Press Freedom” and in particular for digital media including SMS, Blogging etc and needs a serious review.

Copy of Judgement

Naavi

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Brazillian Doctors expose the vulnerability in Biometric systems

Posted on March 16, 2013 by Vijayashankar Na

According to a report from Brazil,  5 doctors in a hospital in Sao Paulo were discovered to have bogus silicone digits and recorded the presence of some of their friends. It is estimated that there were around 300 bogus doctors present in the hospital whose attendance was being marked through such bogus methods.

The system also reveals that ordinary finger print scanners which don’t detect the pulse or don’t scan “below the skin level” are vulnerable to this type of attacks.

It is stated that the biometric scanners used and approved by the UIDAI in India are “Touch Scanners” which are susceptible to this kind of attack.

It is also known that even those scanners which try to read the finger print along with additional features such as temperature etc to detect if the print is from a live person can be fooled. More details are available here

Naavi

Posted in Cyber Crime, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Payment authentication through missed calls?

Posted on March 16, 2013 by Vijayashankar Na

A new system of online payment authentication through “missed Calls” has been launched by a company in India and is being suggested as a system of Two Factor Authentication which is better than the OTP system now being used.

According to NetCore the company which is proposing this service, “Spoofing of number” in an SMS system is easy but not in the missed call system.

See details here

However security experts don’t agree with the view of the company that the system is anymore secure than the OTP system. They point out that with services such as Skype calls, it is easy to send a missed call without access to the Telco network. The claim of the company therefore appears to be incorrect.

It is also to be reiterated that there is no legal support for authentication of an electronic transaction in India except with some form of digital/electronic signature. Any other method is “Ultra-Vires” the law and requires a binding from the service provider that the loss arising out of the failure of the authentication has to be borne by the concerned service provider such as the Bank. Any marketing suppressing this fact in the disclosure would amount to a fraud.

Naavi

Posted in TELCO | 1 Comment

ICICI Bank, AXIS Bank and HDFC Bank involved in money laundering

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Vijayashankar Na

A sting operation by  an organization called Cobrapost has revealed that three Banks namely ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank are involved in systematic money laundering operations.

What is important now is not to just close this incident as an aberration. If it has been the policy of the bank to commit money laundering offences, the CEOs of these Banks must be made answerable.

Related Article

In a release sent to the media,  Cobrapost alleged that these money laundering practices are part of a standard set of procedures within these banks. 

* These money laundering services are being openly offered to even walk-in customers who wish to launder their illicit money;
* A variety of options for laundering ill-gotten cash are being offered brazenly;
* These money laundering services are being offered practically as a standard product across the country.”

More information at cobrapost.com

Naavi

Posted in Bank, Cyber Crime | Leave a comment

Mobile Payments-FTC workshop

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Vijayashankar Na

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of USA which oversees consumer protection requirements has come up with a document on mobile payments. The document discusses aspects such as concerns on third party billing in carrier bills, data security, dispute resolution and other issues which are extremely relevant even in the Indian Context.

A copy of the report is available here

In India TRAI is the only organization which occasionally speaks of consumer concerns. However, like in the Banking sector where commercial banks often ignore the RBI guidelines, mobile companies are too powerful to be bothered by the consumer friendly guidelines of TRAI since the enforcement is weak.

There is therefore a need for a Netizen body to track the anti consumer activities of mobile companies and spur corrective action.

Naavi.org has taken an initiative through “All India Forum of Netizens” to create a list of demands on behalf of the Netizens of India to be sent to various political parties to be incorporated in their manifestos.

A draft will soon be put up both at naavi.org and aifon.org.in for public comments.

Naavi

Posted in Bank, Cyber Crime, Cyber Law | Leave a comment

Advertising of Health Products-New FTC guidlines

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Vijayashankar Na

FTC (Federal Trade Commission) of USA has announced a new “Advertising Guidelines” applicable for endorsement of health products. Essentially this applies to advertisements which say in effect “I have used this product and found it useful”. It affects advertisements using celebrities to endorse products.

The guideline require that a disclosure to me made that the results claimed are “not to be considered as typical” and are relevant for compliance of HIPAA-HITECH by  media owners.

Additionally, a blog who writes positively about a product is also considered as an “Endorsement” if he receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product.

The guidelines are reasonable and are issued in consumer interest. Probably it will bring more responsibility on the advertisers.

The principle is normally adopted as “Journalistic Ethics” in the financial circles. Some times a regulatory organization such as SEBI may impose penalties on any “Pump and Dump” attempts where endorsements are made for monetary considerations are prima facie fraudulent.

Endorsements in health products is mostly prevalent even in India through TV channels and products are brazenly over hyped. Probably the FTC guidelines may trigger some thoughts in India too about “Appropriate Disclosures” (Not banning) for advertisement of health products.

Naavi

Posted in Cyber Crime, Cyber Law | Leave a comment