smart watches ! cyber crime and complaint on a State by another

Modern day youngsters may not really understand many a things – one of that is the importance of watch ~ a wrist watch was a luxury till about 5 decades ago… only college-goers had the privilege of wearing  wrist watches ~ HMT (Hindusthan Machine Tools} ruled the roost… the most common Q that one to put to the other on the road was ‘may I know what the time is ?’ ~ now the Q is ‘where are you ?’ [everyone talking on mobile on street;  perhaps mostly asking the other person as to where he / she is ?]

Alphabet-owned Google is planning to take another step toward becoming a genuine hardware company later this year with the release of its own smartwatch. The search engine giant plans to take on Apple Watch directly, with not one, but two Android Wear smartwatches that will be deeply integrated with Google Assistant.  

It is not mere watches ~ but a technological marvel with ability to pay for our food and monitor our physical activities made  possible by the myriad sensors packed into their tiny metal bodies. These sophisticated sensors are often trotted out as evidence that they’re the next big thing in mobile technology, but one unintended side effect of their sensitive internals could be the gradual chipping away of your digital privacy.  Collecting data unawares and using it for gains, is fast becoming sophisticated crime.

Computer crime, or cybercrime, is crime that involves a computer in any form and a network. The computer may have been used in the commission of a crime, or it may be the target.  Such crimes may harm Nations financially as also its security.  There are also problems of privacy when confidential information is intercepted or disclosed, lawfully or otherwise. There are varied estimates on the value of loss caused by cyber crimes – with solutions few and far between.  Most measures show that the problem of cybercrime continues to worsen.  There is insurance too, protecting against monetary losses caused by cyber crimes.

According to The New York Post newspaper, Polyakov admitted that he had hacked into accounts belonging to the ticket-selling website StubHub and had used the information he derived to buy 3,500 tickets worth $1.6 million for different concerts and sporting events. He is looking at 4-12 years in prison. Polyakov has registered his preference to be deported once he has served his prison term. Polyakov was arrested in 2014 in Barcelona from where he was extradited to the United States. Nine other fraudsters were identified in the case, some of whom have so far managed to evade arrest.

In the modern World, complaints galore about cyber crimes ~ though never imagined that Sibling rivalry between the States would result in a cyber crime.  It is the newly formed State of Telengana, telling Centre that Andhra is resorting to unethical means to attract investments.

Times of India reports that  Telangana government on Tuesday levelled serious charges against the AP government accusing the latter of thievery in a bid to boost its prospects of climbing up in the Ease of Doing Business (EODB) ranking of the states. The industries department of Telangana also lodged a complaint with the cyber crime wing of the police accusing Andhra Pradesh government of stealing its online application format for filing of cases as part of the EODB protocol. In addition, state industries minister K T Rama Rao wrote a letter to Union minister of commerce and industries Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday listing out the violations and unethical practices of the AP government.

The two sibling states have been wooing investors from both within and out of India to set up industries and other employment and wealth creating ventures in the two states. The EODB ranking is considered vital as it is given by the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP), Government of India which can be marketed as an official seal of approval of the amount of care and assistance a state is willing to provide to an investor. The DIPP introduced rankings to various states for implementing EODB norms to attract investments and the states had till June 30 to submit replies to 340 questions on what the states are doing to improve their EODB on the DIPP website. The DIPP , however, extended the date till July 7 as there were some technical problems on the website on June 28 and 29 and some states could not upload their replies. It, however, said the reforms should have been implemented before June 30. Telangana submitted replies for all 340 questions by June 30.

The Telangana government alleged that the AP government stole its online application prepared by its officials and after the chief secretary Rajiv Sharma discussed this issue with the principal secretary of the industries department Arvind Kumar, the government decided to initiate legal action against those responsible for the theft. A high-level meeting was then held chaired by the Rama Rao with the industry department officials. “The AP government has been at the bottom of the rankings. The deadline for submission of EODB questionnaire was extended by the Centre with a good intention but the AP government misused it. As it is not possible to improve the EODB rankings in a short time, the AP government has resorted to unethical and illegal means. The blatant copying of the Telangana government's online application procedure is an example,“ Arvind Kumar said.

Giving examples of violation under Section 63 (B) of Copy Right Act, he said the government had prepared a Commercial-Courts application and e-payment format on June 28 and submitted it to DIPP . The AP government has not done the same till the last day, i.e., midnight of June 30. After the DIPP extended the deadline, the AP government copied the application form from the Telangana website and submitted it to DIPP .They even copied the spelling mistakes that were part of the Telangana government's submission, it is stated !!

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

7^th July 2016.