CHANDIGARH, March 2:
Cyber Crime Wing of the Punjab Police on Wednesday arrested an accused involved in circulating the sexually explicit morphed images of the faculty members of a reputed Private University in Punjab by using hi-Tech hacking Tools.
The arrested identified as Navjosh Singh Atwal, a resident of ivory Tower, Sector-70, SAS Nagar was the student of the same University.
Divulging details, ADGP Cyber Crime said that on February 26, 2022, a complaint was received from the Private University authorities alleging that someone is hacking their Email IDs, online teaching sessions utilizing Zoom/Blackboard App and is also circulating sexually explicit morphed images of the faculty members through various WhatsApp Account numbers. Following a complaint, an FIR under sections 354-D, 509, 120-B IPC, 66-C and 67-A of the IT Act-2000 was registered at Police Station State Cyber Crime.
AIG State Cyber Crime Nilambari Jagdale said that State Cyber Crime Cell coordinated with WhatsApp, Zoom and Google agencies regarding the suspicious activities.
During questioning, the accused revealed that he used to download the porn material from various porn websites and then used to morph the downloaded video content with pictures of faculty members of his educational institute to further circulate the morphed sexually explicit media by creating fake WhatsApp accounts using VPN and hacking tools. The accused also used to post alleged sexual content during online educational sessions on Blackboard software and webinars conducted through Zoom applications.
During the course of investigation, mobile phones, laptop and other electronic gadgets having installed VPN and hacking software/tool have been confiscated from the accused. Further course of action may be done after forensic examination of these electronic gadgets. The accused has been remanded in police custody for two days.
Meanwhile, any victim/complainant can register the complaint related to cyber crime on website www.cybercrime.gov.in or on Email ID aigcc@punjabpolice.gov.in. The complaint can also be lodged on toll free helpline no: 155260.
Advisory for prevention of Cyber crimes:-
- Password Security
- Do not use the same password for multiple accounts.
- Change passwords on a regular basis.
- Passwords should be at least eight –characters long and include numbers, upper case, lower case and special characters.
- Personal details such as name, date of birth etc. should not be used.
- Never reveal a password in email, chat, or other communications.
- Always decline use of the remember password feature of applications.
- Use of Social Media platforms
- Do not disclose the password of social networking websites to anyone.
- Do not share your personal information and sensitive personal photographs and videos on social networking websites.
- Always use privacy control settings of social networking websites.
- Do not use public computer/cyber cafe to access social networking websites.
- Do not download unverified third party applications.
- Do not share or forward unverified posts/news on social media forums.
- Safeguards for Virtual Meetings.
- Use applications which use end to end encryption and multi-factor authentication.
- Use applications which do not use in-app surveillance measure or share data with third parties.
- Set up alerts when meeting invites are forwarded by emails to others.
- Lock meetings once all the participants have joined and use waiting room feature to join new participants.
- Block any attendees except for the host from recording the meeting.
