Awareness Program on Cyber Crimes @ Mapusa Free Legal Aid Cell

Cyber Crimes and Safe Use of Internet is one topic on which students are to be made aware of, right from their high school days. Keeping in mind the importance of the topic, the Mapusa Free Legal Aid Cell in association with the Caculo College Legal Aid Cell, organized a legal literacy program on 27 February 2017, at the Sridora Caculo College of Commerce and Management Studies, Khorlim, Mapusa Goa.

Mapusa Free Legal Aid Cell members with Adv. Eshan  Usapkar and Dr. Mrunmayi Vaidya

Ms. Vaibhavi Amonker, the student deputy in-charge, introduced and welcomed the guest speaker Advocate Eeshan Usapkar as well as the Faculty in-charge of the cell, Dr.Mrunmayi Vaidya.

Adv.Eeshan Usapkar made the session a highly interactive one, and received overwhelming response from the audience. He spoke in detail about the various types of cybercrimes, with ample illustrations and case studies. 

The talk focused on measures to safeguard oneself from such crimes, both as victims and as offenders. 

He gave examples wherein a lot of children were actually victims of Cyber Crimes and enumerated the various kinds of offences that the children regularly commit while handling Social Networking Sites. He also gave some demonstrations as to the practical hacking of Mobile phones. Information on the Cyber Cell of the Police Department was also conveyed.

The students of Saraswat Vidyalaya High School, Dnyanprasarak Vidyalaya High School, Purushottom Walawalkar Higher Secondary School, and Sridora Caculo College of Commerce and Management Studies  attended the program.

The Program concluded with the vote of thanks by Student in-charge Mr. Balkrishna Thali. Miss. Ruta Prabhudessai compered the Program.

Sanquelim Legal Aid Cell Holds Awareness Program on Cyber Security and Cyber Crime

The members of Sanquelim Free Legal Aid Cell, Prof. Gomati Desai and Adv. Eeshan Usapkar

It is always a matter of joy and pride, when legal aid at V.M.Salgaocar College of Law turns out to be a platform for our alumni to joins hands with the students. Sanquelim Free Legal Aid Cell embarked on its legal literacy campaign on Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes, and our alumnus Adv. Eeshan Usapkar joined as the resource person. The faculty in charge Prof.Gomati Desai attended the program.

The event was held on 5th January 2017, in the School Hall of Government Higher Secondary School Hall and the students of 9^th standard from St. John of the Cross High School and Progress High School; and 11^th standard  from the Arts and Commerce wing of Government Higher Secondary school attended the same. A total of 160 students were present for the program.

Mr. Gauresh Malik, Cell Member compered the program. The guests were welcomed by Pratiksha and Priya. Prof.Gomati Desai spoke about Sanquelim Free Legal Aid cell and its functioning, purpose and objectives.

As Adv Eeshan Usapkar took over the session, a wave of interest and excitement was seen among the students. The talk focused on Cyber securities, Cyber Crimes, Prevention and Precaution measures.  Live examples were illustrated to students. It was made clear that students, many a time they end up in being offenders themselves without even knowing about it. The various offences, penalties, enforcement authorities, complaint mechanism etc. were explained in detail.

The session was followed by an open forum wherein students could ask questions or seek clarifications. Students enthusiastically participated in this session. The program ended with the vote of thanks by Cell Member, Mr. Tejas Chodankar.

Cyber Laws & Cyber Crimes - Awareness Drive by Mala Free Legal Aid Cell

With the sole objective of creating vigilance and awareness on cyber crimes, The Mala Legal Aid Cell of V. M. Salgaocar College of Law under the guidance of Prof. Shruti Kamat Dalal took an initiative of organizing a Programme on 19th March on topic ‘Cyber Laws and Cyber Crimes for students from various colleges across the state of Goa.  The Key note speaker of the session was Adv. Yulette Coutinho.

The Speaker notified the fact of rise in cyber crimes at an alarming rate not only in India but also across the globe. She gave various instances wherein the common man have been virtually assaulted by cyber criminals or most commonly known as the hackers. Various methods of hacking and cheating in the virtual world were explained; instances such as the recent ATM fraud which occurred at multiple ATM’s in Goa were discussed.

She spoke about the possible threats one may encounter over the internet and also how to tackle them. She also described various steps to be taken while surfing on the net. specific precautionary measures netizen is required to follow such as, how to secure oneself on the world wide web i.e. not disclosing personal information online, being vigilant and cautious while talking to new people/ strangers, securing ATM pins and other passwords, how to differentiate between the genuine and a fraudulent web page etc.

Information like procedure of filing a complaint and the location of the Cyber Crime Cell was communicated to the students. The session was informative and interactive.

The compere for the programme was Mr.Siddharth Sardesai. Mr.Rohit Shirodkar welcomed the guest with a floral bouquet. Ms Ketaki Deshpande introduced the guest and gave a brief report on the working of legal aid cells.

Mr. Sufiyan Sayed then presented the guest with a memento and Mr. Aniroodh Sardesai proposed Vote of Thanks.

We all live in the world of technology where any person can be targeted in a blink of an eye. The members of Mala Legal Aid Cell thought it proper to caution the most susceptible section of society i.e. student community who are more vulnerable to such crimes.

Awareness on Cyber Crimes @Old Goa Free Legal Aid Cell

Old Free Legal Aid Cell conducted an awareness program on Cyber Crimes in Old Goa Panchayat Hall on  28th February 2016. Police Sub Inspector, Cyber Crime Banch, Panaji, Mr Kabir Shirgaonkar of the Goa Police Cyber Crime Cell was the guest speaker for the occasion. 

PSI Kabir Shirgaonkar started his talk by explaining the difference between cyber crime cell and cyber crime branch. He spoke on various types of cyber crimes like Hacking, Phishing, Morphing of Photographs, Pornography, Social Networking offences, etc. He warned the crowd against responding to messages which claim that you have won a lottery or award. He also stressed upon banning porn sites and why it is difficult to completely ban porn in India. He said that day by day cyber crimes are rising and also suggested certain precaution to ensure that we are not victims of those cyber crimes.  

Mr. Sanat Kamat welcomed and introduced the guest speaker. Prof. Sonal Sardesai, Faculty in charge of Old Goa Free Legal Aid cell attended the program. Student in-charge Prasad Kholkar gave vote of thanks.

Awareness on Cyber Laws and Cyber Crimes @ Porvorim VPP Free Legal Aid Cell

Understanding the importance of the incidence of cyber crimes among the youth, Porvorim VPP Free Legal Aid Cell designed a legal literacy program on the topic and executed it on 9th February 2016 at Vidhya Prabhodini School Hall, Porvorim, Goa. Mr. Joelson Fernandes was the  resource person.

Mr. Joelson Fernandes has extensive experience in imparting education in the field of digital forensics and cyber-crimes investigation and has addressed various schools and colleges across Goa in tune with the company CSR program to educate Goa about various cyber-crimes and preventive measures for the same.

Prof. Sonal Sardessai was present for the function and the VPP legal aid cell student in charge Miss Mehandi Naik Desai was also present on the desk. Miss Malvika Maulingkar was the comperer for the function.

Topics discussed:

The speaker initially raised a few questions like:

• What do they understand by the word cyber?
• How many of them have access to the internet in their day to day life?
• How many of them have an e-mail id?
• How many of them have a bank account?
• How many have and use a smart phone?

The speaker then went on to discuss about the “Types of Cyber crimes”

1. Hacking: he explained that it means an unauthorized control/access over a computer system. An act of hacking can completely destroy the entire data as well as other computer programs. Hackers usually hack telecommunication and mobile networks
2. Harassment via e-mail: while explaining this he told about the various instances of social media abuse through social networking sites like facebook, twitter, etc. he said the reason behind this is that through our profiles on these sites we inform the whole world about our whereabouts.

He gave us illustrations through some recent cases he handled:

1. In one of the case a girl was given an assignment to make random friends on ‘Orkut’. She did so. On her birthday one of her friends sent her an e-mail wish. The moment she opened the mail the virus attacked her system. Unaware about this she continued with her daily activities. Due to that virus her webcam would began recording and the friend later on went to post these same video’s on the networking site.
2. The second instance was one of a navy officer who would post his pictures on a networking site and due to this thee terrorist became aware of his location.

3. Cracking: it’s a situation where strangers break into your computer system without your knowledge and consent and tampers with your precious confidential matters.

He told a case where an employee on being fired by the boss created a virus which he e-mailed to his boss who on opening it   lost all the precious data.

4. Cyber stalking: this means an expressed or implied threat that creates fear through the use of computer technologies like internet, e-mail, texts, webcam, videos, etc.

He told of a case where a person when he returned from his travel found his house robbed as he had mentioned about his vacations in his account.

5. E-mail spoofing: A spoofed email can be said to be one which represents its origin. It shows the origin different form which it actually originates.

Information about certain viruses and preventive measures were given. Mr. Fernandes also informed about websites from where songs or video’s should not be downloaded sites which offer free games are also not safe to be opned.

Miss Yuga Adarkar proposed the vote of thanks

Awareness on Safe Use of Internet - A Guirim Free Legal Aid Cell Venture

The Guirim Cell conducted yet another legal literacy program this academic year. The Program was held  on 4th December 2015, and the Faculty in charge Prof.. Pearl Monteiro attended the program. The members present were  Afrah Shaikh, Shantanu Karnik, Dorika Dias, Karishma D’mello, Sailee Kenny, Shannon de Almeida, Siya Parob, Sridhesh Naik and Abhishek Petkar.

The programme was organized for the students of Std. IX, the parents and the PTA members of St Anthony’s High School, Monte de Guirim, and the Principal of the School Rev. Fr. Romeo Fernandes was very courteous to give us permission to conduct a major programme in the school hall and give a talk on the topic – Safe use of Internet, however insisted on a speaker who is an expert in the field. The guest speaker for the day was the Police Sub-Inspector Kabir Shirgaonkar of the Cyber Crimes Cell, Ribander, Goa. Around 90 students were present, however unfortunately only 3-4 parents were present for the programme but the students started the programme as scheduled at 8:15 am.

The student member (Shannon de Almeida) was the Comparer for the programme and warmly welcomed all the people present and also acknowledged the support shown by the Principal of the School Fr. Rev. Fr. Romeo Fernandes. Before the Guest Speaker could arrive Shannon gave an insight to the students on L.L.B as a carrier option.

The speaker had arrived and was welcomed to commence with the talk. PSI Kabir Shirgaonkar started by explaining how internet and cybercrimes are related. He said

• Cybercrimes is a vast topic and includes crimes committed by use of a computer or other electronic devices such as a phone, and the use of a network which may be internet or even a mobile network.
• In cybercrime not only when a computer is used to commit a crime but also when it is a target of such crime, it is known as cybercrime.
• Internet is a network used by almost all the people. However many different kinds of crimes have taken birth by use of this medium, but it is our responsibility to be alert and use the available technology smartly and not be a target of the crimes.
• Giving an introduction of the Information Technology Act, 2000  he said
• The law applies to whole of India and is the primary law dealing with cybercrime and electronic commerce.
• Persons of other nationalities can also be indicted under the law, if the crime involves a computer or network located in India.
• This Act provides legal recognition for transactions carried out by means of electronic data interchange and other means of electronic communication, commonly referred to as “electronic commerce”, which involve the use of information, to facilitate electronic filing of documents with the government agencies and further to amend other Acts for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
• Some of the most common offences are social networking offences, online and ATM frauds, ATM cloning and Skimming, Vishing and phishing.
• Social networking offences relate to all crimes and cheating done on social networking sites may be through fake profiles etc. however if one is a victim one should seek help or take a screen shot of the same and make a complaint. This will help trace the offender.
• Online and ATM frauds are committed by sending fake emails and SMSes on mobile phones. They are very fascinating and tempting ones where it says you have won one crore etc. but never reply to such messages.
• ATM cloning & Skimming is very dangerous since a device is attached to may be ATM machines or ATM card reader( which are used in restaurants etc.) and it is so slim that it’s difficult to detected by a normal person. These attached devices read all the ATM card data when swiped and store it. Then this data is transferred to another card and the cloned card is ready with the exact same information as the original one. There is no difference. Then this cloned card is used to withdraw money from any ATM machine. There is no way one can find out if your ATM card has been skimmed and cloned. The only way is being alert through SMS from your bank. If one case of siphoning money is noticed, the police should be immediately alerted, because the offender will surely come to withdraw the 2nd time.
• Vishing means fraud phone calls where any personal information is asked. All people should be alert and inform the police or cybercrimes cell, as it may help them trace a long in search offender of similar crime.
• Phishing means a fake website which looks exactly like the original and money is siphoned using fake mails. To check if the mail is sent from an original site or fake one should be alert by opening the view details tab and tracing the name and email id of the sender. If the name is incorrect then it’s a fake mail sent by a fake website. Never reply to such mails, since they can copy all the data on your device within seconds. Also do not forget to alert the police. It will be a great help.
• Various provisions of the IT Act was discussed and the offences and penalties were explained.

Shantanu Karnik (Student Dy. Cell Incharge) then  proposed the Vote of Thanks and a potted plant was presented to the Guest Speaker- PSI Kabir Shirgaonkar by Afrah Shaikh (Student Cell Incharge) as a token of our Gratitude towards him for all his time and the knowledge he imparted. The speaker was delighted. Afrah Shaikh presented a potted plant to the principal as a token. Afrah Shaikh thanked the Principal for his permission to conduct the programme.