Towards Safer eBanking

Date: Thursday 24 th November 2005 Day 4

Venue: Police Gymkhana, Marine Lines

Banking in India has gone electronic over the last few years, in line with the global
trends. Today, banks are not only automating their core banking operations, but also
increasingly using Information Technology for front-end customer-intensive
operations. This trend is expected to be strengthened over the next few years and
spread from urban to rural areas and from foreign and Indian pr ivate banks to public
sector and co-operative banks. With the obvious advantages of enhanced productivity,
also come the risks associated with critical reliance on the IT infrastructure. While
technological and managerial solutions are available to contain this risk, the
importance of a culture of compliance among the banks’ employees and customers is
essential. The first line of attack is the social engineering attack where people are
coerced or deceived into parting with valuable or sensitive information. This is where
most vulnerabilities occur. To this end, the Mumbai Police organised a seminar
centred on the trends in use of IT in banks and the risks thrown up due to the
transition to electronic processes. The seminar also sought to highlight criminal
activities which have come to light so far, the strategies to counter cyber crime in
banking and the future roadmap. The seminar was well received by the banking
community with over 40 participants from the Senior Management as well as IT
departments of the banks.

Mr. A. K. Purwar, Chairman, State Bank of India was the chief guest at the event. Mr.
A. N. Roy started the proceedings and Mr. Vijay Mukhi gave an overview of the
Cyber Safety Week 2005

Mr. Nandkumar Saravade set the stage by educating the participants about cyber
attacks. To elucidate the simplicity with which one could compromise security, he
gave a case study based on a banking security incident. Moving on to the enforcement
and preventive side, he also introduced the audience to the Mumbai Cyber Lab and
highlighted the activities of the lab to keep the IT space secure.

Mr. Hanuman Tripathi, Managing Director, InfrasoftTech then took the audience for a
behind the scenes look at how e-transactions and e-banking works.

Mr. Uday Kotak, Exec utive Vice

Chairman and Managing Director,
The Kotak Mahindra Group gave
the perspective of the User
industry- In this case the Banking
and Financial Services
Community. He spoke about how
his company deals with IT
security and what are the
provisions and measures they have
taken to enhance IT security. He
added that as the industry
integrates and offers various
complex financial products and services to their customers, there is an increased need
to have more information about their requirements and consum ption patterns. With
such sensitive information being handled, the issue of the security of the data is also a
key concern.

Mr. Arup Patnaik, IPS, Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order), Mumbai
Police also provided the Law Enforcement perspective on the issue.

eGovernance and Data Security Issues

Venue: Police Gymkhana, Marine Lines

Today, governments are also fast

realizing the advantages of IT and
are computerising processes and
digitizing records at a fast pace. IT
implementation in the government,
which was earlier restricted to
Public Sector Undertakings are
increasingly finding their way into
government departments like
education, land records, revenue,
finance and so on. As in the case of
commercial enterprises, when
information in increas ingly gets digitized, challenges are being thrown up about the
sanctity and security of data. To tackle the challenges faced in eGovernance, Reliance
Infocomm organised a workshop. The meeting discussed the various issues in data
security facing the government, which could hinder the growth of eGovernance and
the forward path to be taken.

The meeting was inaugurated by Mr. Subhash Awate, The Joint Commissioner of
Police (Administration), Mumbai Police.

Mr. Vijay Mukhi commenced the discussion by giving an overview of IT security and
the relevance of the Mumbai Cyber Safety Week. Dr. Vinod Kumar Budhiraja from
Reliance Infocomm spoke about the company’s initiatives in eGovernance. He
emphasised that the foundation of data security should be laid at the st rategic planning
stage itself.

Moving on to the technical side, Mr. Sunil Gupta from Reliance Infocomm described
the ideal setup of a data centre. After giving the specifics, he also gave an insider’s
perspective into the structuring of the Data Centre at the Dhirubhai Ambani
Knowledge City.

Mr. Anil Mathur from Microsoft India also threw light on various aspects of IT
Security Outsourcing.

Dr Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Secretary of Information Technology, Government of

Maharashtra appreciated the efforts taken by the Reliance group. He also lauded the
Mumbai Police and NASSCOM for spreading the message of Cyber Safety.

e-Learning: How Hackers hack and how to keep them away

Venue: Online

How hackers hack and how to keep them away was a hands-on management
development seminar where actual computer vulnerabilities were demonstrated by
Cyber Security Experts. This was an interactive seminar. Participants visited Hughes
DirecWay classrooms in their towns and participated live in the seminar.

The Webinar was conducted by Mr. Peter Mukherjea, CEO, Star TV and Mr. Vijay
Mukhi. The level of interest and interactivity could be judged by the fact that by the
time the session closed, there were still 60 questions which could not be answered due
to lack of time.

Cyber Café Issues

Venue: C-DAC Mumbai, Gulmohar Cross Road No. 9, Juhu

The number of people logging onto the internet is increasing daily. Very soon, the
entire world would be connected to the internet. Computer literacy and usage gives
one an edge in almost every area of life. In the developing world, where computer
penetration is very low, cyber cafes are the sole source of connecting the teeming
masses. They are as popular as PCOs were before the telecom boom in India. The
large number of cyber cafes, most of which are run by small entrepreneurs are
essential for the growth and usage of internet based services. But, the unregulated
nature of the internet does pose a few problems. Concerns about hacking and privacy
have led to some discussion about a need for regulating cyber cafes. The All India
Association of Industries organised a discussion to see both sides of the issues- from
the regulatory and enforcement as well as the cyber café operators.

Mr. Nandkumar Saravade gave an overview of Internet usage in India and pointed out
that there is a shift in the profile of the users. More representatives from the general
public are logging on every day. He added that as more and more people log online,
there is an increased need for IT security on account of the amount of personal details
stored online. With increased incidences of ID theft and privacy concerns also
looming large, this is a key vulnerability. Cyber Café owners should also be aware of
the malicious programs and tools available like keyloggers and Trojans.

Prof. Jitendra Shah, Consultant IT,

Department of Information
Technology, Government of
Maharashtra spoke about the need
to have local language computing
capability to ensure that IT does
reach the masses.

Mr. Pravin Chinchalkar from the

Cyber Crime Investigation Cell,
Mumbai told the audience about
the importance of maintaining
logs in Cyber Cafes. He added
that the initiative should be extended and a permanent platform could be created
where the Law Enforcement agencies and the Cyber Café Operators can interact with
each other on cyber security issues.

Ms. Preeti Desai, President, Internet & Mobile Association of India focussed on the e-
Commerce part of online activity.

Mr. Ashish Saboo, President, Association of Public Internet Access Provider spoke on
behalf of the Cyber Café Owners. He echoed the police view that communication
channels between Cyber Café Operators and Law Enforcement agencies should be
build. Clarity should be brought into the issue of the Cyber Café user identification.
The Cyber Cafes can be used as nodes to disseminate information about Cyber
Security. From a business perspective, Cyber Café’s should evolve into a secure
medium for eTransactions.

Mrs. Rupa Naik, Executive Director, All India Association of Industries, Dr Alka
Irani, Chief Investigator, Janabhaaratii, C-DAC, Mumbai and Mr N Bhaskar,
Chairman, e-convergence Technologies Ltd. also spoke at the seminar.