Agape Blog

A new kind of threat called botnets also called as software robots, or networks of “slave” PCs whose owners do not know their machines have been infected, have become both more prevalent and sophisticated.

By planting a piece of software on an unguarded PC, criminals are able to assemble large networks of machines to carry out tasks for them, such as launching attacks on other internet users.
PCs that are part of botnets, some of which span 1million or more machines, have become harder to identify and root out.

Botnets have also become more dangerous as their controllers have learnt how to repurpose the slave networks to carry out different tasks. A second big new threat that has become notable this year has been the commandeering of legitimate websites and e-mail accounts to spread malicious software. Rogue software is used to scrutinise public websites and “inject” code into those that are found vulnerable, so that later visitors to the sites can be infected.

The use of the internet to exploit vulnerabilities in millions of PCs first emerged as a significant threat in 2001, after an outbreak of fast-spreading computer viruses and worms. Those threats were largely thwarted after a concerted effort by Microsoft and other software makers to plug flaws in their code and after anti-virus software became more widely used.

However, the prospect of making large amounts of money by stealing sensitive information from millions of users, such as their passwords or financial data, has led to a new and more insidious outbreak of mass internet attacks.

Adnan Patal
Executive: Fraud Management Services

Concern
Many a times we do such things which not knowingly affect us indirectly. One of them is spreading waste. Here, I’m not talking about normal waste; it’s about e-Waste. The booming usage of electronic and electrical equipments has created a new but very dangerous stream of waste, called “electronic waste” or simply known as e-waste. We have found a growing e-waste trade problem in India. India in 2007 generated 380,000 tonnes of e-waste from discarded computers, televisions and mobile phones. About 25,000 workers are employed at scrap yards in Delhi alone, where 10-20000 tonnes of e-waste is handled each year, 25 percent of this being computers.

Some of these electronic waste ranges from personal computers, optical disc players, mobile phones and other portable devices which contain toxic chemicals such as lead, cadmium, mercury and brominated flame retardants which are being dumped on us by the developed world. According to the estimates made by the Manufacturers Association of Information Technology (MAIT) the Indian PC industry is growing at a 25% compounded annual growth rate. The e-waste inventory based on this obsolescence rate and installed base in India for the year 2005 has been estimated to be 1,46,180 tonnes. This is expected to exceed 8,00,000 tonnes by 2012. If these are left untreated to lie around in landfills or dumps, they can cause irreparable loss to life of the soil, water and the atmosphere and its adverse impacts on human health and ecology.

E-waste recycling mainly involves parts of a computer and other IT assets. Computer recycling involves employing people to strip down the computers and extract parts that can be used again in machines. The rest is then burned or dumped, both of which are potentially highly hazardous to the environment. The authorized e-waste recycling facilities in India capture only 3% of total e-waste generated; the rest makes its way to informal recycling yards in major cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. This is because businesses sell their discarded IT and other equipment to informal recyclers for quick money without realizing the hazardous implications it causes to health and environment.

Our Process
The solution to the impending e-waste crisis lies in prevention rather than its management. Recycling of e-waste is beyond the means of a consumer or local government, given its toxic nature. Once an asset is deemed e-Scrap or non-saleable, it is transported to a shredder where the asset is completely crushed into its native elements. Plastics, metals, and leaded glass from the CRT’s are all separated and sent off to downstream handlers of each type of separated component element. Items such as batteries and LCD screens are sent to specialists in hazardous waste disposal. All of our downstream handlers maintain the proper permits and licenses required by both state, and local environmental authorities to process our downstream e-Waste.

Our process ensures that no components from the recycled e-Waste end up in landfills, providing a truly green solution for your company and our planet.

We at AGAPE are doing our part to help turn recycled electronics into re-usable products and keep them out of landfills.

Sherwin Azavedo
Manager: Cyber Crime Complaint

Carbon, like any other commodity, has begun to be traded on India’s Multi Commodity Exchange. MCX has become first exchange in Asia, and third in world to trade carbon credits. These carbon credits are with the large manufacturing companies who are adopting UNFCCC norms. Retail investors can come in the market and buy the contract if they think the market of carbon is going to firm up. Like any other asset they can buy these too. It is kept in the form of an electronic certificate.
Only those Indian companies that meet the UNFCCC norms and take up new technologies will be entitled to sell carbon credits. There are parameters set and detailed audit is done before you get the entitlement to sell the credit. In India, already 300 to 400 companies have carbon credits after meeting UNFCCC norms.

There are many benefits for a business to reduce their carbon footprint and become carbon neutral. Government regulation of carbon dioxide emissions and pollutants under The Clean Air Act will eventually mandate these actions. There are also obvious public relation and marketing benefits to becoming GREEN. The purchase of carbon credits and the use of carbon neutral products and services will provide a company a way to develop a competitive advantage by becoming environmentally GREEN.

When purchasing carbon credits
1. Check that the company is certified and reliable
Without certification, there is no guarantee that you will get what you paid for. The money that you thought was saving the world may just have been pocketed. Even if a company is certified, it must be remembered that not all certifications are equal. In particular, make sure that endorsement comes from a trusted third party source, such as carbon credits under the New South Wales Greenhouse
Abatement Certificates (NGAC).

2. Ensure there will be a transfer of legal ownership
Like any other product purchased, when you buy carbon credits, legal title of these should be passed to you. This transfer should not only be taken by agreement with the company but also confirmed by the formal transfer of NGACs within an online registry at www.ggas-registry.nsw.gov.au.

Adnan Patal
Executive: Fraud Management Services

A PC has turn out to be a necessity in everybody’s life through which millions of activities can be done every day, e.g. accessing your personal details, mailing, chatting, buying, etc. No matter what security is applied you will always be at risk when using an internet. Talking about security, on your personal PC, you have control over all security issues like who uses the computer, who watches others use it, who installs software on it, how often it is checked for malware and so forth…but what do you do when you use a computer at a friend’s house, public library, school, or Internet café, you lose this control, and that puts you at risk.

Please be wary whenever you’re using a PC at a public place. A device like this can be placed in between any keyboard and PC, and will record all keystrokes typed in by the user. It is small, easy to hide from view and almost impossible to notice/detect using any type of software scan. It fits at the end of the keyboard cable connecting to the PC.

Mostly could be used in net cafes, exhibitions, hotels and airports therefore be careful especially the people who use the internet in these places to enter their bank accounts online or any other important sites. After you enter the bank account details and leave the PC it will be easy to open your account again as all what you have typed has been saved in this device known as a hardware key logger. Therefore, you should check the PC you’re using for any suspicious piece behind it before using the net in public places for important sites.

Sherwin Azavedo
Manager: Cyber Crime Complaint

What are carbon credits?

In accordance with the Kyoto protocol, consumers of fossil fuels are assigned CO2 emission levels. In many cases, achieving these emission levels require massive up gradation or revamping of facilities; incurring costs too huge to justify the investment. Such parties are allowed to pay others to store carbon for them in exchange for the right to release carbon in excess of their limits into the atmosphere. This forms the basis of carbon credits. Each carbon credit purchased represents one tonne of carbon dioxide that is removed from the atmosphere or saved from being emitted. It takes over five trees being planted to create one carbon credit over a 100-year period.

Each of us unavoidably has a carbon footprint. we can no longer claim ignorance on the issue of global warming and immediate action is required to avoid some of the negative consequences of our actions. We all need to find ways to reduce our energy consumption in the long term. But, the situation also requires immediate attention and buying carbon credits is the easiest way to negate the effects of greenhouse gases.

Each member state gets an annual emissions allocation that it divvies up among its worst emission-producing firms. Each company in turn is then obliged to produce no more emissions than its allocation allows.

If it comes in under target, it can sell its excess allowance as ‘carbon credits’ to other firms that have overshot their targets. Credits are measured in units of emissions reductions, each one being the equivalent to the reduction of one tonne of carbon dioxide. But if it comes in over target, it has to pay a penalty and then go to the market to buy credits to make up the difference.

Carbon has the potential to become the world’s biggest market. As more and more governments start to regulate their country’s emissions, and as more companies start to voluntarily limit their emissions, the demand for available carbon credits will skyrocket. And so will their price!

Carbon trading is one of the “fastest-growing specialties in financial services.” And companies are scrambling to get “a slice of a market now worth about $30 billion and that could grow to $1 trillion within a decade.” Units of emissions are centrally priced and can only be traded through regulated accounts. India is considered to claim about 31% of the total world carbon trade, which can give $25bn by 2010. The carbon credit market is growing at tremendous space, and there is a demand to reduce 1 billion ton of carbon emissions in the world, so that threats like global warming could be dealt with.

Next: How to invest in carbon trading

Adnan Patal
Executive: Fraud Management Services

With the rise in mobile usage for real world applications, the menace of hackers is also set to increase during 2009. India added seven million GSM users in November 2008. The graph is set to grow in 2009, primarily because more people are turning towards smart phones that run on operating systems. “These phones have large amount of money and real world applications similar to a desktop or laptop. As mobile usage continues to grow, so will mobile virus attacks.

As these smart devices increasingly feature expanded bandwidth and functionality, they are being used more like a PC than a phone. Essentially, smart phones are now being used the same way as computers and are accessing the same information. While the aim of attacks targeting mobile devices are similar to those targeting PCs – to obtain confidential information for financial

Spam does not spare mobile phones too. For instance, in March 2008, a massive spam attack hit nearly 200 million Chinese mobile phone users – approximately half of China’s total mobile population received unwanted text messages from seven online advertising firms.

2009 would see more threats make money out of mobile technologies. As mobile phones and other handheld devices become more interconnected with their desktop counterparts, more threats to attempt to “cross over” multiple machines and devices via common application platforms (e.g., .NET, JAVA, etc.) are to be expected. Because the smart phones today run more like a regular PC, we need to treat them like regular PCs.

Adnan Patel
Executive: Fraud Management Services