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Amuleek Bijral

With Lok Sabha elections just over a month away, a lot of institutional bodies have launched online campaigns to connect with the young, literate and Internet-savvy generation.

"We have 100 million first-time voters in the 18-24 age group, and they are all most likely to be connected via the Internet and mobile phones," says Diptarup Chakraborti, principal research analyst at Gartner Consultancy.

But online initiatives have their downsides too. As Amuleek Bijral, Country Manager - India and SAARC, RSA, the Security Division of EMC, explains, "Digitisation of elections in India is in its nascent stage right now. By the next elections online campaigning and voting will be at a far more advanced level. Creating awareness on security issues and setting in place security tools right from the very beginning will go a long way in ensuring that we will be ready to establish a secure online election campaign in the future. Going online means that users are more exposed and vulnerable to security threats."

In a chat with eWorld, Bijral throws more light on the issue.

On online campaigns that are on, especially in the Indian context.

Inspired by Barack Obama's success are campaigns launched by politicians and news sites in India.

The Press Information Bureau has launched a micro site for the benefit of journalists covering the general elections this year.

VoteIndia.in helps voters make an informed choice by e-mailing them information on various politicians' qualifications, work, track record and criminal background. The site owners have also uploaded videos on Youtube.

Jaago Re! features information on voting, issues, blogs, election news, videos and downloads. The site has launched a campaign in partnership with NGO Janaagraha to drive awareness on voting.

Election news will also come via microbloggers on Twitter.com. Twitter was used by thousands to track and report on Barack Obama's progress as a presidential candidate.

How can cyber criminals use these Web sites to cause security breaches?

When a user logs on to a Web site, he is prone to online fraud attacks such as:

Phishing: Here, criminals distribute false e-mails in the name of a legitimate company or institution to acquire sensitive personal information, such as usernames, passwords, and credit card numbers. Phishing is cost-effective for a fraudster to conduct with slim-to-none chances of being caught.

Pharming: This refers to a hacker's attempt to divert traffic from a legitimate Web site to a false site in order to steal user information For example, an online banking customer clicking on a link in a bogus e-mail which directs to a Web site set up to appear like the real bank's site.

Trojans: Trojans can be used to assume control over the infected PC and can cause damage in a number of ways; one of these would be for the Trojan to act as a Key Logging application. Key Logging refers to the process of capturing and recording user keyboard strokes to obtain passwords or other encryption keys. Given the sheer volume of users that go online, even if a small percentage of them fall victim to scams, it would make scamming worth it for the criminal.

How can people judge if the site is an authentic one?

Fraudulent or malicious Web sites will change or re-direct to another Web site. Often, users stumble upon malicious or duplicate fraudulent Web sites through something as basic as typos. There are Web sites that exploit users' misspellings to siphon off traffic from the official Web site for commercial or corrupt purposes.

Users should give as little information as possible. In case a Web site insists on information and can't justify its request, leave the site immediately. Choose strong passwords and update them regularly and clear the "cookies" from the hard disk for increased protection against potential hackers. Switch on the anti-phishing feature of your browser - this will help you avoid most of the known fraudulent Web sites.

Paromita.pain@gmail.com

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