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The Minister said that the time taken to detect the fraud was less than normal
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In a 57-page order, CCI had said the approval for the Amazon-Future Coupons deal ‘shall remain in abeyance’
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Moradabad witnessed the highest percentage of voter turnout of 25.84 per cent followed by Saharanpur (25.16 per cent)
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Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee thanked people for her party’s ‘thumping win’ in the civic polls
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Sawant said the PM’s call further boosted the morale of the BJP workers to work for the party’s victory
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The 54 Chinese apps include Beauty Camera, Isoland 2: Ashes of Time Lite, Tencent Xriver among others
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Daily COVID-19 cases have remained below 1 lakh for eight consecutive days now
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After the second phase on Monday, almost one-fourth of seats in the state — 113 out of 403 — will have voted
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. (“National Flag of India” by Sanyam Bahga is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0) Two years ago it was reported that an Indian “hack-for-hire group” had targeted journalists and human rights defenders [see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2020/06/10/after-nso-now-indian-based-hacking-group-targets-ngos/], but on 11 February 2022 Steve Zurier in SC Magazine reported that researchers discovered an advanced persistent threat group that targeted Indian dissidents and remained undetected for a decade or more, starting with simple phishing lures some 10 years ago and then graduating to providing links to files hosted externally in the cloud for manual download and execution by the victims.
In a blog post, SentinelLabs researchers reported on ModifiedElephant, which has been operating since at least 2012. The researchers said the threat group operates through the use of commercially available remote access trojans and has ties to the commercial surveillance industry.
The threat actor uses spearphishing with malicious documents to deliver malware such as NetWire, DarkComet, and simple keyloggers with infrastructure overlaps that helped the researchers connect the dots to previously unattributed malicious activity.
ModifiedElephant’s activities have been traced to long-standing political tensions in India, which exploded on Jan. 1, 2018, when critics of the government clashed with pro-government supporters near Bhima Koregaon. Later in 2018, raids conducted by police led to several arrests and the seizure of computer systems, which revealed incriminating files that pointed to an alleged plot against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Thanks to the public release of digital forensic investigation results by Arsenal Consulting and those detailed in SentinelLabs blog, the researchers allege that ModifiedElephant compromised the computers that were later seized, planting files that were used as evidence to justify the imprisonment of the defendants. Over a decade or more, the group targeted human rights activists, human rights defenders, academics, and lawyers across India with the objective of planting incriminating digital evidence — and they are still operating today.
The case has become part of a larger trend of private and commercial company’s copying government and nation-state methodologies, persistently looking to penetrate into politically involved individuals, said Gadi Naveh, cyber data scientist at Canonic. Naveh said although most of the tools described aren’t top grade, continuous fueling of the attack eventually gets the target and larger funding gets even better tools, as was implied by Amnesty International.
“We assume these tools and methods that move from nation-states to commercial organizations will keep answering the demand and available funds for getting data,” Naveh said. “The move of data to the cloud makes the top-tier actor act there, but as with RATs and keyloggers, we are seeing the same military-grade tools moving after the new data sources in the cloud.”
Daniel Almendros, cyber threat intelligence analyst at Digital Shadows, added that he and his team view ModifiedElephant as a fascinating, albeit dangerous actor. Almendros said ModifiedElephant has a wide range of tools in its arsenal that it uses to target a large number of victims. They use a blend of off-the- shelf tools (NetWire and DarkComet RATs), paired with spearphishing emails related to the sensitive 2018 Bhima Koregaon affair.
“The phishing lures have improved in subtlety as well as boldness, they have shifted from fake double extension file names to commonly used Office filenames,” Almendros said. “In one instance, an assassination attempt story was added to provoke the user to click on the phishing lure. These emails were distributed to many different users. The group likely has a connection with Indian state espionage. Because most APT attention stems from China and Russia-based threats, ModifiedElephant was initially overlooked for years. In addition, the group’s specific targeting and use of commodity malware helped the group evade detection for a prolonged period.”
This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.
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Regional parties are also trying to make inroads in these states that have traditionally been ruled by the two parties
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This will be the first launch for ISRO in 2022 and the first launch after senior scientist Dr S Somanath took charge of ISRO as its chairman
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India logged 44,877 infections, while the death toll climbed to 5,08,665 with 684 fresh fatalities
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She constituted a TMC national working committee of 20 members which is led by her and would run the party from now
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The new orders came shortly after the campaigning for the 70 assembly seats of Uttarakhand going to polls on February 14 came to an end
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The announcement by Pushkar Singh Dhami attracted severe criticism of the BJP, especially the timing of it, by Opposition parties
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By Lice Movono, RNZ Pacific correspondent in Suva
The United States insists it is a Pacific nation and has unveiled a raft of new strategies to better engage with other nations in the Region.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is the first Secretary of State to visit Fiji in nearly 37 years.
During his historic visit, Blinken announced that the US was pursuing deeper engagement plans with Pacific nations.
A key element and motivation for those plans is the strengthening of the US presence to match the growing influence of China in the Pacific.
In its engagement strategy, he said that China had combined its economic, diplomatic, military, and technological might to pursue “a sphere of influence in the Indo-Pacific and seeks to become the world’s most influential power”.
During an eight-hour visit to Fiji, while returning from a Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) meeting in Australia, Blinken announced climate change financing, military and other exchange initiatives and plans for a new embassy in the Solomon Islands among other foreign diplomacy engagements.
Blinken has been on a world tour for the past several months to discuss two main issues: covid-19 and China, with his counterparts including Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne, Indian Minister of External Affairs Dr S. Jaishankar and Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs Hayashi Yoshimasa.
New Indo-Pacific engagement strategy
While in Fiji, Blinken met with acting Prime Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and 18 Pacific Island leaders virtually, during which he announced the US government’s brand new Indo-Pacific engagement strategy, calling the region “vital to our own prosperity, our own progress”.Blinken said that the new strategy was the result of a year of extensive engagement in the Asia Pacific region and would reflect US determination to strengthen its long-term position in the region.
“We will focus on every corner of the region, from Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia, to South Asia and Oceania, including the Pacific Islands,” he said.
“We do so at a time when many of our allies and partners, including in Europe, are increasingly turning their own attention to the region; and when there is broad, bipartisan agreement in the U.S. Congress that the United States must, too.”
This American refocus is a direct response to the increasing influence of China in the Pacific.
Since 2006, Chinese trade and foreign aid to the Pacific has significantly increased. Beijing is now the third largest donor to the region.
Although Chinese aid still represents only 8 percent of all foreign aid between 2011 and 2017 (according to The Lowy Institute), many Pacific island governments have favoured concessional loans from China, to finance large infrastructure developments.
Chinese ‘coercion and aggression’
In Solomon Islands, where Blinken announced the latest US Embassy would be opened, almost half of all two-way trade is with China.In describing China’s actions toward expanding its influence, Blinken stated:
“The PRC’s coercion and aggression spans the globe, but it is most acute in the Indo-Pacific. From the economic coercion of Australia to the conflict along the Line of Actual Control with India to the growing pressure on Taiwan and bullying of neighbours in the East and South China Seas, our allies and partners in the region bear much of the cost of the PRC’s harmful behaviour.
“In the process, the PRC is also undermining human rights and international law, including freedom of navigation, as well as other principles that have brought stability and prosperity to the Indo-Pacific.”
When questioned by reporters about US intentions for “authentic engagement that speaks to the real needs of the islanders”, Blinken replied that the US sees the Pacific as the region for the future, and that their intentions were beyond mere security concerns.
“It’s much more fundamental than that. When we are looking at this region that we share, we see it as the region for the future, vital to our own prosperity, our own progress.
“Sixty per cent of global GDP is here, 50 percent of the world’s population is here. For all the challenges that we have, at the moment we’re working on together, it’s also a source of tremendous opportunity.”
Democracy and transparency
Blinken insisted that Washington’s new strategy was about using democracy and transparency to build a free and open Indo-Pacific which was committed to a “rules based order”.Moving onto economics, the Secretary of State stated that the US intends to forge partnerships and alliances within the region, which will include more work with ASEAN, APEC and the Pacific Islands Forum.
Despite being headquartered in Fiji, the Forum was not invited to be part of Blinken’s visit.
At the Pacific Leaders meeting, Blinken announced a commitment to deeper economic integration including measures to open market access for agricultural commodities from the islands.
“It’s about connecting our countries together, deepening and stitching together different partnerships and alliances. It’s about building shared prosperity, with new approaches to economic integration, some of which we talked about today with high standards.”
Washington’s new Indo Pacific engagement strategy also includes commitments to develop new approaches to trade, which meet high labour and environmental standards as well as to create more resilient and secure supply chains which are “diverse, open, and predictable.”
Climate change strategy
Regarding climate change, Blinken announced plans to divert substantial portions of the US$150 billion announced at COP26 last year to the Pacific and also plans to make shared investments in decarbonisation and clean energy.The Indo Pacific strategy announced commitments to “working with allies and partners to develop 2030 and 2050 targets, strategies, plans, and policies consistent with limiting global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius”.
Blinken stated that the US was committed to reducing regional vulnerability to the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation.
On security matters, Blinken said the Pacific could expect power derived from US alliances in other parts of the world to come to the islands.
“The United States is increasingly speaking with one voice with our NATO allies and our G7 partners, when it comes to Indo Pacific matters, you can see the strength of that commitment to the Indo Pacific throughout the past year.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
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The company allegedly cheated a consortium of banks led by State Bank of India of over Rs 22,842 crore
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PSLV will carry an Earth Observation Satellite (EOS-04) and two small satellites as co-passengers
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Fifty years after the UK forcibly deported them, five Chagossians have visited the disputed archipelago with Mauritius’s help
Returning to their birthplace after decades of enforced exile, five Chagossians leapt from a motor launch on to the palm-shaded beach of Peros Banhos atoll on Saturday afternoon, kissed the sand and stood – hands joined together – in prayer.
For Olivier Bancoult, Lisbey Elyse, Marie Suzelle Baptiste, Rosemonde Bertin and Marcel Humbert, it was the moment they had long anticipated – the first time they could step ashore without close close monitoring by British officials. It is 50 years since they were forcibly deported to Mauritius by the UK, which cleared the archipelago of its entire population to make way for a US military base on the island of Diego Garcia.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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‘When a large country disregards written commitments, I think it’s an issue of legitimate concern for the entire international community’
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External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that those who know India well would have a proper appreciation of the realities
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During the hearing, the bench observed that the UP government has acted like a ‘complainant, adjudicator and prosecutor’ by itself
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The daily COVID-19 cases are being recorded at less than one lakh for the last six consecutive days
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An appeal had been filed in the apex court challenging the direction of the Karnataka High Court
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BRIMS students, however, were reportedly allowed to take the examination after the intervention of student groups
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The first report of the Zika virus spread in Kerala was released by ICMR NIV Pune
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The death toll has climbed to 5,07,177 with 657 daily fatalities
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A total of 50,035 cases in 2020 were registered under cyber crimes, an increase than in 2019 (44,735 cases)
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On October 3, eight people died after being mowed down by an SUV allegedly belonging to Ashish Mishra
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The guidelines do not mandate 72-hour report of RT-PCR anymore, travellers can show their full Vaccination Certificate
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