Is PORT SCANNING legal in INDIA?

1.   The IT security guys have so much to experiment and learn vide unending open source information and tools available on the net.Be it BACKTRACK or Wireshark or Nmap or nessus or Canvas(not opensource) or a web scanner like Acunetix or Arachini and the list is unending....there is lots to do...but do we actually know that simply running a port scan on the internet is a crime in other parts of the world?

2.   In countries like Australia,UK , port scanning is recognized as a "potential attempt" to infringe on a system and that's a simple truth....no body would run such tools openly available without intent. Yess!!!...the intent can be educating self but the other side can be bad intent and no one can prove whats the intent inside the person's mind.It may change the moment he realizes he/she is caught.In the United States there is no need to prove intent and port scanning is considered illegal.So even installation of such tools is a crime.So if a naive script kiddie from India goes with his laptop to US with a virtual box machine holding a OS with a port scanner...he is a cyber criminal the moment he lands in the US.

3.   Today we in India do not have straight and clear laws defining whether running such tools or installation is a crime or not coz the whole thing is COMPLEX.The compliance laws across countries vary and that too drastically...it may be acceptable in a country like India and it may be serious offence in US.So seeing from the current state of affairs in India,it does not look like if a day will be near when such stringent guidelines exist in India to restrict all these uses and installations...or let it be restricted to professionals only.....but then who will define a Cyber Security Professional....CDAC or CEH or some other such agency....these institutes can be a critical node in identifying and certifying cyber security professionals to measure and endorse the intent...but at the end of the day we all are humans...and we know that "too err is human"....so a agency certified person finally has himself to decide whether he uses a black hat or a white hat!!!! :-)

4.   Meanwhile students and IT security enthusiasts should take care of running such tools on the internet coz these are serious tools who can break into some one's privacy...and if the victim gets serious after you...things will be bad enough to land you behind bars...so the best place to experiment with such tools is a virtual environment that can be available vide Virtual box or vmware etc....Security guys and enthus should be familiar with the excellent Open Source Security Testing Methodology Manual (OSSTMM), which provides best practices for these situations.

PLEASE TAKE CARE TO RUN THE CYBER SECURITY TOOLS BEFORE THE LAW STARTS RUNNING AFTER YOU

Download/Upload torrents - Legality Issues in India

1.  Read the following daily life talks in the air now a days :

"Hey did u download Agneepath & TIN TIN....the torrent is available now?"...

"No...its the cam print"..."waiting for the better print...yeah but I have downloaded MI4....the new torrent is crystal clear"

"MS Office 2010 has come and I m already using it on my netbook...& its for free from torrentz..."

...etc...etc...

.......these are few exchange of talks that invariably happens more among the young metro crowd and also getting popular in the Viltro's (Village+Metro)........but did they ever realise the legal aspect of all these talks and downloads? Its time to check all this......RETHINK!!!

2.   Now any one of you reading this and finding himself at some point of time shooting these dialogues at home/office/college should be in  for a shock...because as per the IT act he is a criminal involved in piracy of softwares and movies.

EXTRACT FROM INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACT 2000

"Cyber crime is criminal activity done using computers and the Internet. This includes anything from downloading illegal music/movies/softwares files to stealing millions of dollars from online bank accounts. Cybercrime also includes non-monetary offenses, such as creating and distributing viruses on other computers or posting confidential business information on the Internet"

3.  So now that you have read this....the meat is here as follows given in point form for ease of understanding :

- When you download a movie/music/software from a torrent site,you are not only a leecher but at the same time you seed also.A Seed is used to refer to a peer who has 100% of the data.

-  When a leech obtains 100% of the data, that peer automatically becomes a Seed.Seeding refers to leaving a peer's connection available for other peers, i.e. leeches to download from.

- Normally, a peer should seed more data than leech. But, whether to seed or not, or how much to seed, is dependent on the availability of leeches and the choice of the peer at the seeding end.

- Did u understand this much...if not simply put it means that when u download....you upload also at the same time...so u are a illegal downloader and also a uploader of the pirated illegel content.So suppose you have downloaded MI4 or some porn...you are a pretty much proven criminal.If someone gets after you,you are in for real damage.

4. In context of India,though the relevant cyber laws and framework  are ready and already implemented but it will take time to be actually possible for the law to follow each one of them them up individually....thats the only positive side of all illegela downloaders...but there is catch to this...

5. What happens if some other country watches you?....you must be thinking y would some other country watch you downloading agneepath/TIN TIN!!!this is because your uploading may be happening in their country...so all they need is your IP.Thats the end of it.Few major casualties include the famous Lt Col Jagmohan Balbir Singh, who was arrested on May 6 on the charges of circulating child pornography on the internet.The Mumbai Cyber Crime Cell arrested this Lieutenant Colonel from his south Mumbai house for allegedly uploading obscene photographs and video clips involving children on the internet.The German police came across the obscene contents being uploaded on a child pornography site from Mumbai in 2009.So this is where the string of the torrent catches you till end.The german police gave the IP to interpol and he was caught...unawares of what did he actually do?...now it is just unawareness on such issues that such things happen..

6. This time it was a Lt col...next can be any one....u and me....it depends won who is the (un)lucky one...so guys if u r an ardent torrent downloader...think before you do some thing next.....the days are not far when all this will land you up in jail....it is just a matter of time in INDIA..!!