Report by V Rajendran, Secretary, CySI
Proceedings of the CySI Workshop on "Combating Cyber Crimes in financial transactions and the role of Standards" - on 23-10-09, at Hotel Savera .
Inauguration
The meeting started with a welcome address by Chairman Shri R. Ramamurthy. He gave an introduction of CySI’s activities and a brief account of CySI’s commitment in spreading awareness on Cyber Crimes and related areas. Talking from his past experience of participating in international conferences on Cyber Crimes, he narrated the various crime-prone areas and the tasks ahead for citizens, investigators, governments and finally the NGOs.
The Chief Guest of the workshop Shri T.S. Krishnamurthy was introduced by Shri K. Srinivsan, CEO Prime Point Foundation and a founder-life member of CySI. While introducing, he narrated the tremendous contribution of Shri TSK in his role as Chief Election Commissioner, when for the first time, the country went on a 100% EVM-based elections.
Mr T S Krishnamoorthy
Shri T. S. Krishnamurthy former Chief Election Commissioner, inaugurated the workshop. In his inaugural address, he briefly discussed the cyber crime scenario in the country. He narrated the various vulnerable areas in computers and stressed the need for increasing awareness on the use of computers, its fraud-prone areas. He wondered how even educated people fall an innocent prey to computer crimes falling victims to greed for money. He presented the modus operandi in Nigerian Crimes, credit card frauds etc. and finally lauded the efforts of CySI and assured to be closely associated with the activities of CySI in all its socio-academic activities in future.
Mr C L Ramakrishnan
Shri A Vijayakumar Life Member of CySI introduced Shri C.L. Ramakrishnan, former DGP adding that as a former DGP and a former DVAC, he has rendered memorable service in the police force, which is worthy of emulation for any police official. He added that Shri CLR enrolled for and completed his Ph.D. in Vedanta after his retirement.
Shri C.L. Ramakrishnan, delivering the key-note address stressed the relevance of I.T. Act, the circumstances under which the Act was passed and its use in investigation. Drawing from his experience as a top police official of the State, he said the basic urge to commit any fraud is greed and lust for some thing that do not belong to the individual. He said that only the modes of committing the crime vary in a cyber crime and it is basically an electronic variant of normal crime only. He jocularly added that in a cyber crime, it is sometimes easy to commit and difficult to detect, whereas a normal and physical crime is difficult to commit and easy to detect. He highlighted the efforts of the police in nabbing a cyber criminal and the special tasks that it normally involves.
Mr V Rajendran
After the tea break, Shri V Rajendran Secretary of Cyber Society of India and a practicing Cyber Law Advocate and Consultant presented the various cyber crimes reported and the role and relevance of I.T. Act 2000 and the amendment Act 2008. He presented some of the most important sections of the Act and compared it with the significant provisions of I.P.C. which bear relevance in the I,T. scenario. He presented how effective the Act has been, over the past years and the significance of the 2008 amendments.
Mr N R Krishnakumar
Shri N.R. Krishnamukar Regional Director of DNV, the main sponsors of the event gave a very rich presentation. He described the best practices in the industry to combat cyber crime and the usefulness of ISO 27001 standards and 27002 standards. He discussed the requirements of such standards and highlighted the importance of putting these into practice and going for the appropriate certification adding that expenditure on adherence to best practices and standards is like expenditure spent on a life-jacket or a fire-extinguisher and that the return on such expenditure should never be calculated in simple terms.
Dr B Muthukumaran
After the lunch break, Dr B. Muthukumaran Chief Security Consultant of Gemini Communications Ltd presented the security aspects in a typically networked environment stressing upon the need for having sound systems like anti-virus, fire-wall with intrusion prevention and intrusion detection. He gave a demo in the form of video clipping of a typical scenario describing the features of good security practices in a corporate organization. He urged upon the corporates and security heads present to understand the requirements of a sound security policy in the organisation.
Mr S N Ravichandran
Shri S.N. Ravichandran, from CySI Coimbatore gave a simple interesting and user-friendly talk on the various cyber crime cases being reported to the police every day. He explained the practical difficulties in investigating a cyber crime. He stressed the importance of parental care and monitoring when the children browse the net. He also explained how many vital cases go un-reported and how many ISPs and Banks handle such issues without proper care that they deserve, like opening an account without address verification in a Bank, giving a mobile with an id proof etc.
Mr M L Srinivasan
Shri M.L. Srinivasan started his rich presentation commenting about the meaning of the words, threats, vulnerabilities and risks. He described the practical implications of risks in an enterprise and described what is popularly called a bot and botnet. He gave pictorial representations of how a computer system gets affected by a bot and how it acts as a zombie invariably without the knowledge of the rightful owner of the PC. He gave useful tips on how to guard against such threats for a home user as well as for a corporate user.
Interaction session
Participants gave a wonderful feed-back introducing one after another. Participants from banks commented that more sessions could have been included on topics concerning cyber crime areas in financial transactions especially in banking. Almost everyone praised the way the workshop was conducted sticking to the time schedule and giving a good coverage of all the areas planned for.
There was a very good interactive session with participants posing questions on the various areas covered by the speakers right from mobile frauds, credit card frauds, phising, guarding against id theft etc
Sum-up
Shri U.P. Prakasham Treasurer of CySI summed up the entire proceedings of the day in a very brief and crisp manner narrating the highlights of every session. He proposed vote of thanks thanking everyone for the successful conduct of the programme and every participant for the valuable contribution in the interactive and other sessions.
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