Lex Cyber - Cyber Law Blog

 This portable colour document scanner, which is not much bigger than a normal pen, will scan and store up to 200 pages at the rate of one page every 4 seconds.

This incredible unit is powered by internal Lithium batteries which are charged from your computer via the USB cable.

The internal memory will allow you to scan 200 black and white  documents and 2 high resolution colour documents. This can be increased to many thousands of mono documents and 500 high resolution colour documents by the addition of a 2Gb SanDisk micro SD card.

After transferring your scanned documents you can easily modify, print, fax & e-mail them as well as exporting them into different formats including BMP, JPG, PCX, DCX & TIFF.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

Size: 216 x 13mm.
Weight:  57gms
Resolution: 100-400dpi
Scan modes: 24 bit,12 bit colour and monochrome.
Twain Interface
USB 2.0
8MB Flash Memory
MicroSD removable card slot.
Lithium Ion Battery Rechargeable through USB.
Optical registration
Dual roller guiding system.
Full colour
  

This device is available at a cost of approximately 300 UK pounds from spycatcheonline.co.uk. There are various pros and cons to device.

Pros :

1. Very useful for students, lawyers and businessmen as it is portable and sleek. Can be used to carry the paperwork in digital format instead of carrying a load of papers with you.
2. Cost effective and environment Friendly as it cuts down on the cost for paper (hence saving trees) and printer ink.
3. Easily transeferrable from one person to other, hence making the communication faster and less costly. Otherwise, one has to print the document and send it by post ! (Advantages of using a scanner)

Cons :

1. Can be used to stealthily scan and store confidential data and hence compromising security.

Concern : Watch out for such devices when dealing with confidential information. Be aware that such devices exists and can be used in a wrong way . Do not leave your confidential data unattended, even if they are in paper format, with anyone.

If you can think of more pros, cons or tips; do post them in the comments and we will include it for our readers !

Free WiFi Internet connections are increasingly popular and can be found in hotels, cafes and airports around the world. But it’s not always as good as it seems . Some of today’s ‘free lunches’ come with a serious downside.

When searching for WiFi networks sitting in a cafe or library, you might get a list of available free WiFi networks. It is not necessary that the fake Wifi will always appear on your laptop. But if they do, one thing you will notice for sure is that they are AD-Hoc type networks. What this means is that they are not really WiFi access points but other computers which have been deliberately named ‘Free Public WiFi’ to tempt the users into connecting.

What harm can happen, if you do join such networks ?

There can be many harms. Some of which are:-

•  If the malicious user has internet access , he/she can allow you to get online and then sniff the traffic your computer is sending. This can be your confidential information like your mail account passwords or even sensitive information like your bank account details.
• If the malicious user does not have access to internet, he/she could try to hack your computer by using various network-level exploits.

How to identify such fake WiFi connections.

Look out for details such as :-

•  Enticing name like ‘Free Wifi’ or ‘Free Internet’ being used for the connection instead of the corporation name or identity
•  AD-Hoc type connection being used rather than an access point
• If in doubt, contact the authorities of the place, where you are trying to access internet

How to stay safe?

Some useful tips are :-

• Use a VPN link over any public WiFi internet access link to dial back home
• Try to use  TLS, SSL or encrypted IMAP e-mail connections to read your e-mails
• Beware of fake SSL certificates
• Use a firewall and a Internet Security manager while using internet

If you know of more tips or possible dangers involved in using public WiFi,  please do leave them in comments

When a new computer virus strikes, there will always be some assessment regarding the financial damages. Be it lost sales because of website downtime, damaged hardware, reinstallation of software or restoring databases, one computer virus can rack up a big bill. So, companies are always prepared for a possible virus attack. Prevention is always better than cure. Rolling Stone magazine proves this true. The following comment is from their recent contest for tickets to a White Stripes concert:

Sponsors further reserve the right to cancel, terminate or modify the Sweepstakes in the event the Sweepstakes is not capable of completion as planned, including infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, or technical failures of any kind.

Virus writers: four general types
Virus writers belong to one of four broad groups: cyber-vandals, who can be divided into two categories, and more serious programmers, who can again be split into two groups.

Cyber vandalism - stage 1
In the past, most malware was written by young programmers: kids who just had learned to program who wanted to test their skills. Fortunately most of these programs did not spread widely - the majority of such malware died when disks were reformatted or upgraded. Viruses like these were not written with a concrete aim or a definite target, but simply for the writers to assert themselves.

Cyber vandalism - stage 2
The second largest group of contributors to malware coding were young people, usually students. They were still learning programming, but had already made a conscious decision to devote their skills to virus writing. These were people who had chosen to disrupt the computing community by committing acts of cyber hooliganism and cyber vandalism. Viruses authored by members of this group were usually extremely primitive and the code contained a large number of errors.

However, the development of the Internet provided space and new opportunities for these would-be virus writers.Numerous sites, chat rooms and other resources sprang up where anyone could learn about virus writing: by talking to experienced authors and downloading everything from tools for constructing and concealing malware to malicious program source code.

Professional virus writers
And then these ’script kiddies’ grew up. Unfortunately, some of them did not grow out of virus writing. Instead, they looked for commercial applications for their dubious talents. This group remains the most secretive and dangerous section of the computer underground: they have created a network of professional and talented programmers who are very serious about writing and spreading viruses.

Professional virus writers often write innovative code designed to penetrate computers and networks; they research software and hardware vulnerabilities and use social engineering in original ways to ensure that their malicious creations will not only survive, but also spread widely.

Virus researchers: the ‘proof-of-concept’ malware authors
The fourth and smallest group of virus writers is rather unusual. These virus writers call themselves researchers, and they are often talented programmers who devote their skills to developing new methods for penetrating and infecting systems, fooling antivirus programs and so forth. They are usually among the first to penetrate new operating systems and hardware. Nevertheless, these virus writers are not writing viruses for money, but for research purposes. They usually do not spread the source code of their ‘proof of concept viruses’, but do actively discuss their innovations on Internet resources devoted to virus writing.

All of this may sound innocent or even beneficial. However, a virus remains a virus and research into new threats should be conducted by people devoted to curing the disease, not by amateurs who take no responsibility for the results of their research. Many proof of concept viruses can turn into serious threats once the professional virus writers gain access to them, since virus writing is a source of income for this group.

Why write viruses?
Fraud
The computer underground has realised that paid for Internet services, such as Internet access, email and web hosting, provides new opportunities for illegal activity with the additional satisfaction of getting something for nothing. Virus writers have authored a range of Trojans which steal login information and passwords to gain free access to other users’ Internet resources.

For the complete article refer to http://www.viruslist.com/en/viruses/encyclopedia?chapter=153280553

On CBSNews.com, Daniel Sieberg tells Katie Couric how to protect your kids from online sex offenders on social-networking sites such as MySpace. It is very easy to create a fake profile on social networking website like MySpace as there is no verification process in place. You can fake the photograph, the address, the name, the gender …anything you want !



So, to protect yourself or your childrens from online predators, make sure that your profile is not available for public view. Using a simple configuration setting in MySpace.com, you can have a control on “Who views your profile”!