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Beware of Hackers

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We are all familiar with the word hackers or hacking. Now a days, the word can be seen in the newspapers very frequently. Recently the Bangalore Cyber Crime Cell raided a BPO company Sector- Five on hacking charges. The reason is that an air ticket was booked from the Internet address of the company to travel from France to Spain. The credit card number used was the number of a Bangalore based businessman. Now the company is facing legal issues. But the fact is that some hacker had cracked in to the Wi-Fi network of the company and used that to carry out the crime. Even if it is a software company or individual whoever uses Wi-Fi should take adequate security measures. Consumers should be aware of the risk factors before they start using such technological innovations.

Another frontline IT company almost lost about $4 million. The hackers were able to get the bank password from the wireless network system. The term Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) technology is getting widely popular among IT and BPO companies. This is mainly because of its operational mobility and installation cost. As a result most of them are not taking adequate security measures associated with Wi-Fi dangers. The customer report says that only thirty percent of the company is taking adequate wireless network security. The companies use only three percent of their IT budget on network security. This is the report of a recent study conducted by Forrester on the Indian IT market.

Even there are many complaints from consumers to the Cyber Cell on hacking issues and many of those complaints are unresolved. However, consumers can proceed to approach the cyber cell on such hacking issues. It is found that a large number of IT and BPO companies are directly exposed to leakage of confidential data. Finally that will lead to financial losses. Moreover they should face legal hassles, with damage to the brand image, they may loose their clients also.

Most of the consumers use Wi-Fi network in their laptops and multimedia phones during their meetings or presentations.  If the security systems are not provided properly, the networks can be easily infiltrated by hackers from 150 km from the office premises. It takes less than five minutes for standard hacking software to crack in to a Wi- Fi network even if it has Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption.

The Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is considered as a security system earlier, but now it can phrased as Worst Ever Privacy. There are a lot of unsecured networks, this make them vulnerable to different sorts of cyber crimes and terrorist activities. Even the user may not be aware of the fact that his ID is used by some other hacker to perform different activities. Even it is found that the IT professionals themselves hack into the Wi-Fi network of HR departments, so that they can gain access to company policies and increment proposals.

Customers are attracted to the Wi-Fi network as the cost is forty to fifty percent lower compared to wired networks. According to Kalyan Kar, Managing Director of, Acclaris KPO says that latter can never be fully replaced. Wi-Fi provides only limited bandwidth. The bandwidth is approximately about 54mbps. Moreover this gets shared among multiple users. The technology provides flexibility in the usage, saves cost at the cost of reduced performance.

Consumers should take themselves safety measures themselves against cyber crimes and associated legal actions. For that they should be fully aware of the requisite security measures for using Wi-Fi. The companies that are maliciously utilized for cyber crime will be charged up to seven lakh penalty and there are even seven years of imprisonment for its management.  

The NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies) the Indian chamber of commerce serves as an interface to the Indian Software Industry and Indian BPO, they maintain a database of the IT software and services related activities. This is for both the software developers as well as companies which are overseas. They regularly circulate to the IT companies the Do’s and Don’ts of using wireless network. They plan to launch a Cyber Lab’ in association with the Kolkata Police to investigate cyber crimes. There are four facilitates now present in Mumbai, Pune, Thane and Bangalore.

Nasscom regularly circulates to IT companies the ‘Do’s and Don’ts’ of using wireless network and also plans to launch, this year, a ‘Cyber Lab’ in association with the Kolkata Police to investigate cyber crimes, he says. Four such facilities are now present in Mumbai, Pune, Thane and Bangalore.

Individual users use laptops or smart phones to get access to Wi-Fi networks in public places such as airports, hotels and shopping malls could also run into similar troubles. They also should update the network security systems.  Consumers should never use Wi-Fi in a public place if the system allows open access and if the connection never asks for a password. Wi-Fi is a great innovation as long as you take measures to deal with its cons.