TACKLING THE INTERNET

With the advent of the digital age, it is imperative, now more than ever, for individuals of all ages to become digital-savvy in order to leverage the opportunities of tomorrow. Be it in school, your job or even to run a home business, tech capability is a vital node in one’s skillset. This learning curve now begins at tender ages, where children are taught digital skills in classrooms, making a computer or network-enabled device a part of their day-to-day life.

The Internet is a precarious playground. Today, with accessing online content is easier than ever before, parents have to be very careful when it comes to kids’ online activity due to increasing child predators, pornography, cyberbullying, online drug peddling, social media misuse and incidents of online grooming. According to a survey done by many international agencies, the teenage suicide rate is increasing due to cyberbullying; and many crimes related to child exploitation take place through the Internet. However, with ICT being taught in schools as a vital subject, not having access to the Internet at home is out of the question. So What is the solution?

Marketed and distributed by Exire Technologies, Fingbox is the most awaited solution for parents of growing children. Today, Internet access for children is a must as schools demand online research for assignments and projects. However, by giving full access to the Internet, parents will expose children to unknown dangers and unlimited cyber roaming. Fingbox allows parents to control their home Internet from anywhere in the world via their mobile: they can limit Internet access, block smart-phone, tabs, games consoles and unwanted websites, check who is using the Internet most, and see what other devices are trying to access the network through digital fencing.?

 

Fingbox can also give reports to parents on what websites their children are accessing and how often and how long they are on the Internet. Fingbox not only protects your home from online dangers but can also guard small businesses against intruders and unauthorized devices trying to access classified information or use your networks. The productivity of many small businesses is drastically diminishing due to unnecessary social media use and cyber threats. This technology can prevent such problems from occurring.

A noteworthy point of Fingbox operation is that everything can be controlled and monitored from a mobile phone. Fingbox is a plug-and-play system that can be installed by anyone. It’s just a matter of plugging the unit to your everyday router and using the features from the mobile application.

The effect of crime has multiplied with the access of internet, with children being mostly in danger. We must protect what matters most to us. Fingbox solution can help us save our children. As a company, Exire Technologies is committed to addressing the growing social need for protecting children online, which is often unnoticed by the telecommunication industry.

 

Indian Co-Operative Bank Loses $13.5m in Cyber Attack

MUMBAI (Reuters): Cybercriminals hacked the systems of India’s Cosmos Bank and siphoned off nearly 944 million rupees ($13.5 million) through simultaneous withdrawals across 28 countries over the weekend, the bank has told police.

SWIFT, whose messaging system is used to transfer trillions of dollars a day, said it did not comment on individual cases.

Cosmos Bank, based in the western city of Pune, said in a press statement that its main banking software receives debit card payment requests via a “switching system” but it was bypassed in the attack.

The co-operative bank said unidentified hackers stole customer information through a malware attack on its automated teller machine (ATM) server, withdrawing 805 million rupees in 14,849 transactions in just over two hours on Aug. 11, mainly overseas.

Apart from the ATM withdrawals, the hackers transferred 139 million rupees to a Hong Kong-based company’s account by issuing three unauthorized transactions over the SWIFT global payments network, the bank said in a police complaint, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.

 

“During the malware attack, a proxy switch was created and all the fraudulent payment approvals were passed by the proxy switching system,” the bank said.

The bank declined to reveal the countries, citing security risks.

Police said they were investigating the theft.

A police official, who declined to be named, said they had enlisted the help of experts to find out how authorized transactions were conducted simultaneously in various countries.

India’s City Union Bank Ltd reported in February that it had suffered three “fraudulent remittances” of nearly $2 million that had been pushed through the SWIFT financial platform.

In 2016, unknown hackers stole more than $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank’s account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Investigators have made little progress in the case.

“While there is growing awareness to regularly update an organization’s cyber preparedness and defense mechanisms, a large number of institutions wake up to this reality only post an incident which often leads to a loss of reputation and/or financial misappropriation,” said Nikhil Bedi, a partner with Deloitte India.

Daily FT