Air India Employee arrested for Facebook Post

 Even as outrage over the arrest of two Maharashtra girls for their Facebook post on Bal Thackeray continues, another instance of harassment involving two Air India employees has come to light.

Air India cabin crew members Mayank Mohan Sharma and KVJ Rao were arrested by the cyber crime cell of the Mumbai police in May this year for material they put up on Facebook.

The two are alleged to have shared lewd jokes about politicians, made derogatory comments against the Prime Minister and insulted the national flag in their posts.

India Signs Agreement with UK On Co-Operation in Fighting Cybercrime

While hosting the 2010 Commonwealth Games, India watched as online tickets suddenly vanished. But no funds were received, the stadiums were empty and shut-out fans were furious.

The website's cyber security had been breached, leading to losses of around Rs. 1.5 billion ($27.3m). "Somebody played a dirty trick. It was a situation nobody had expertise in handling back then. It cost the organisers a huge loss," National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon told Khabar South Asia.

This month, India signed its first ever agreement with a foreign country – United Kingdom – on co-operation in fighting cybercrime. It was inked on November 9th by External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and his British counterpart, William Hague.

The accord, authorities hope, will not only help prevent hacker exploits of the sort that marred the 2010 Games, but will also guard against the dangers posed by internet-savvy terrorists.

"The cyber-security dialogue will seek to reduce the risk of threats from cyberspace to international security and strengthen the bilateral co-operation in tackling cybercrime," the ministers said in a joint statement issued at the end of the meeting.

At the same time, both sides affirmed their commitment to the "core principles of liberty, transparency, freedom of expression and the rule of law" in cyberspace.

According to Deputy National Security Advisor Vijay Latha Reddy, India sees the agreement as an initial step in a longer-term strategy.

Lucknow Lawyer and Social activist Lodged FIR against Facebook

A city lawyer and social activist on Sunday lodged a first information report (FIR) against popular social networking site Facebook, after his profile was blocked.

The report was filed at the 'cyber crime cell' of the Lucknow police by Prince Lenin, a resident of Hussainganj here.

In his complaint, Lenin alleged that although he had long been a user of Facebook, his profile was recently blocked by the site without so much as informing him or spelling out the reasons for such "one sided and unfair action."

Alleging that blocking his profile on the site was against the natural law of justice, the complainant claimed that even though he had brought the matter to the notice of Facebook, he was told that several complaints were pending against him from other users of the site.

The complainant said that his profile was blocked between Nov 11 and 13.

Women Arrested for Facebook post on total Shutdown on Mumbai

MUMBAI, Nov 19 – Indian police said on Monday they had arrested a woman for criticising on Facebook the total shutdown of Mumbai after the death of politician Bal Thackeray, as well as a friend who “liked” the comment.

The pair was due to appear in court later in the day charged under the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act, said Police Inspector Shrikant Pingle in the town of Palghar north of Mumbai.

“The two women will be produced in a local court later this afternoon. They are being charged for hurting religious sentiments,” he told AFP.

They were arrested on Sunday, when a huge funeral procession attended by hundreds of thousands of supporters was held in Mumbai for Thackeray, the divisive founder of the rightwing Shiv Sena party.

News of his death on Saturday afternoon brought the city to a virtual standstill for the weekend, with businesses shutting and taxis going off the roads, amid fears of violence by Thackeray’s supporters.

While his followers mourned, others were angered at the hold Shiv Sena exerted over India’s financial capital. The 21-year-old arrested for her Facebook post was among many who aired opinions on social networking sites.

Israeli Government Websites Under Hacking Attack

 More than 44 million hacking attempts have been made on Israeli government web sites since Wednesday when Israel began its Gaza air strikes, the government said on Sunday.

Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said just one hacking attempt was successful on a site he did not want to name, but it was up and running after 10 minutes of downtime.

Typically, there are a few hundred hacking attempts a day on Israeli sites, the ministry said.

Attempts on defence-related sites have been the highest, while 10 million attempts have been made on the site of Israel's president, 7 million on the Foreign Ministry and 3 million on the site of the prime minister.

A ministry spokesman said while the attacks have come from around the world, most have been from Israel and the Palestinian territories.