Babies for Free Wi-fi! Anyone?

An experiment showcasing the dangers of free public Wi-Fi got a number of people to exchange their first-born child, just so that they could enjoy surfing the web. The experiment, a brainchild of a certain security firm, created a Wi-Fi hotspot in Central London and then waited for their first target. 

While connecting to the hotspot, the users had to agree to terms and conditions, especially one that was called the ‘Herod Clause’, which agreed to free Wi-Fi only if the users “agreed to assign their first-born child to us for the duration of eternity.” (An April fool prank carried out by Gamestation, 2010, inspired the clause wording).

Around half a dozen people agreed to these bizarre terms, which thankfully, the security firm had no plans to enforce. The main aim of the research was to illuminate security issues associated with public Wi-Fi use. 

Apart from showing the users how easy it was to con them (they didn’t read the terms and conditions), the researchers exposed another serious issue that allows the providers of the Wi-Fi hotspot to see and store everything that the users see and log into. 

According to Mirror.co.uk, the same firm tested this again by placing a Wi-Fi hotspot in Central London. Within 30 minutes, around 250 devices (laptops, mobiles and tablets) connected to the hot spot and more than 30 people were seen checking their emails and browsing the Internet. 

The security firm was easily able to capture all the data sent and received, including the usernames and passwords. They tried to educate the people by making them realize that any criminal could easily hack into and collect their personal data this way. 

Criminals don’t need to set up their own Wi-Fi; they can look into the service that is providing the Wi-Fi to get what they want. This is usually done by copying a particular hot spot name and then ‘catching’ people’s devices by having a stronger signal and passing on the traffic towards a legitimate source.

This means that the criminal here is the middleman; all the data would pass through his device first. 

The best way to avoid such a nightmare is to probably to avoid public Wi-Fi altogether or use a VPN (virtual private network) to save you from prying eyes. 

By Shaili Contractor

Blogger, Asian School of Cyber Laws

Oh Phish, after Apple it’s Google

After Apple’s high profile iCloud disaster, Google is the latest cyber crime victim. In Google’s case, Russian hackers posted usernames and passwords of 4.93 million Google accounts to a Russian bitcoin forum.

Now, there’s some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that somebody got their hands on nearly 5 million Google users along with passwords and made them public. The good news is that even if your Google address is on the list, the password maybe too old to merit much concern (i.e. the user might have changed his/her password at some point). 

The Russian technology blog, Habrahabr, has a theory that the leaked addresses and passwords were most likely compiled through phishing scams, people using weak passwords and other common mistakes new Internet users make; not as a result of a hacked Google server. Similar databases of email addresses and passwords from Yandex and Mail.ru, two popular Russian- language services, were also made public this week.

Many online news sites got in touch with Google regarding this debacle. In a statement sent to TIME Online, Google said it had “ no evidence that our systems have been compromised.”

 “The security of our users’ information is a top priority for us,” the statement reads. The company added that whenever it is alerted that an account may have been compromised, “then we take steps to help those users secure their accounts.” 

 If you want to check whether your account is included in the leak, you can head to “isleaked.com” and enter your email ID. We would ideally not recommend this as email addresses can be accumulated and used for spamming. The best solution would be to keep changing your passwords periodically, irrespective of whether your Google ID is or isn’t on the list.

By Shaili Contractor

Blogger, Asian School of Cyber Laws

World's Top 5 Cybercrime Hotspots

A Russian crime ring is suspected of obtaining access to a record 1.2 billion username and password combinations. 

Cyber security experts say this enormous data breach is just the latest evidence that cyber crime has become a global business—one that, including all types of cyber crime, costs the world economy an estimated $400 billion a year. Here’s a look at the global hotspots for these cyber criminals.

Watch the video.

Information courtesy: time.com