Cybercrooks on the prowl this World Cup

Cricket fever has hit not only the crazy fans world over but also the cybercrooks, who will try to swell their own bank accounts by tricking innocent internet users to fall prey to cyber attacks, say experts.

Cricket World Cup is one of the most viewed sports after FIFA World Cup and Olympics and cyberscammers will try to dupe online users through offers like free match tickets, free online live coverage and holiday packages, they say.

"Global sporting events generate eagerness and enthusiasm not only among sports fans but also the bad boys of cyberspace. With the cricket World cup round the corner, scammers will try to trick as many online users as possible," says Vinoo Thomas , Technical Product Manager, McAfee Labs .

"India is a cricket crazy nation. People who can not see the full match due to work, often try to check score online. Since number of online users goes up during World Cup, it also increases chances of cyber attacks like spam and phishing. Cybercrooks play on human curiosity," he adds.

Reports say there is a spam email campaign already doing the rounds, which is preying to exploit gullible Internet users by offering an exclusive World Cup hospitability package that also includes tickets for the final to be held in Mumbai.

International Cricket Council has already taken a note of such fraudulent emails and winning notifications that ask personal details from online users.

Fake Twitter A/Cs of Sonia, PM flood cyber space

"JPC might include ISRO and Adarsh scams. Congress has nothing to hide because what's hidden will never be found."

This is what a tweet by "Sonia Gandhi" says. But hold your breath, this is fake.

There are several such postings one can find from sham accounts of politicians and top celebrities on popular social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

And it seems these sites have emerged as a nuisance for some top leaders, especially the Congress president and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

There are a number of accounts in both Twitter and Facebook in the name of Sonia and the prime minister whose tweets -- from their fake accounts -- are based on alleged corruptions in 2G Spectrum allocation, S-band deal, Commonwealth Games and Adarsh Society.

A posting on one of Sonia's fake Twitter accounts says, "After careful evaluation of outcome, Congress high council has agreed for JPC. We have nothing to hide."

"JPC might include ISRO and Adarsh scams. Congress has nothing to hide because what's hidden will never be found," says another tweet.

Another tweet from her says, "Most countries make people poor through taxes. We make people like (Suresh) Kalmadi rich. That's what makes us so wonderful."

After Egypt, Myanmar's Suu Kyi wants Twitter

Inspired by people-power revolts in Tunisia and Egypt, Myanmar's long-suffering opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said she wants to join other pro-democracy activists by using Twitter and Facebook.

For most of the past 20 years until her release from house arrest in November, virtually all communication with the outside world had been denied the Nobel peace laureate by the military regime that rules the country.

Now she wants to catch up by joining the global online community, she said in a telephone interview with Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper published Saturday.

The pro-democracy icon said she finally has her first Internet connection at her Yangon home, and while she has paid more than $1,000 to a junta-controlled company for the privilege, the connection is too slow to access social networks.

"I think we need to -- what do you call it -- raise the megabyte?" she told the Mail.

"So we've applied for a stronger link-up," she added. "As soon as the conditions are right, I want to have both Facebook and Twitter."

The two popular US-based social networking sites were used by anti-government demonstrators to thwart censorship during demonstrations in Tunisia that led to the ouster of longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, and in Egypt where strongman president Hosni Mubarak was driven from power.

Facebook and Twitter also continue to be used to get out the latest information in other Middle Eastern and North African countries where anti-government demonstrations have been met with deadly violence.

Aung San Suu Kyi, 65, hailed the role that the Egyptian army played during that country's 18-day revolution.

"What everybody noticed is the Egyptian army did not fire on the people, which is the greatest difference and the most critical difference" between conditions in Egypt and those in Myanmar, she said.

The events in Cairo stand in stark contrast to what happened in her own country in 1988, when protests erupted against the military and were brutally crushed. Some 3,000 people were killed.

"Because the Burmese army does shoot down the people, it's not very likely that people will want to go onto the streets" now to press for the junta's ouster, she said.

"But on the other hand, one cannot say that the Burmese army is always going to shoot at the people."

Suu Kyi took a lead role in the pro-democracy movement and swept her National League for Democracy to a landslide election win in 1990, but the NLD was never allowed to take power.

Her party boycotted the country's first election in 20 years, held last November 7, saying the rules were unfair.

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Facebook stalking on the rise

Australian youngsters, who claim they are victims of intimidation, are taking out restraining orders against Facebook stalkers.

According to lawyers, there has been a rise in apprehended violence orders (AVOs) taken out for cyber bullying in the past two years, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Australian Criminal Law Specialists' principal solicitor Nick Boyden said this sort of behaviour could happen through a combination of mediums such as Facebook or Twitter and phone texting.

William Vahl of North Shore Criminal Law said he had seen an increase in clients asking for AVOs against cyber bullies.

“It's opened up a whole new area and manner in which people are stalked and harassed,” said Vahl.

Victims were often intimidated through threats written on their sites or by text while others had their sites hacked and information stolen, which was then used against them.

One lawyer, who declined to be named to protect his client's identity, said he represented a man who hacked into a woman's page and accessed her personal information.