TRAI issues guidelines to Access Service Providers to prevent misuse of messaging services

Introduction

Data protection has been a critical aspect of advocacy and governance all across the world. Data fuels our cyber-ecosystem and strengthens the era of emerging technologies. All industries and sectors are now dependent upon the data of the user. The governments across the world have been deliberating internally to address the issue and legality of Data protection and privacy. The Indian government has witnessed various draft bills and policies focusing on Data protection over the years, and the contemporary bill is the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023, which was tabled at the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament) on 03 August for discussions and parliamentary assent.

What is DPDP, 2023?

The goal of the complete and comprehensive Digital Personal Data Protection Bill of 2023 is to establish a framework for the protection of personal data in India. The measure acknowledges the significance of protecting personal data and seeks to strike a balance between the necessity to process personal data for legitimate purposes and the right of individuals to do so. The bill establishes a number of crucial expressions and ideas associated with the protection of personal data, including “data fiduciary,” “data principal,” and “sensitive personal data.” It also emphasises the duties of data fiduciaries, including the need to establish suitable security measures to preserve personal data and the need to secure data principals’ consent before processing their personal information. The measure also creates the Data Protection Board of India, which would implement its requirements and guarantee data fiduciaries’ compliance. The board will have the authority to look into grievances, give directives, and impose sanctions for non-compliance.

Key Features of the Bill

The bill tabled at the parliament has the following key features:

• The 2023 bill imposes reasonable obligations on data fiduciaries and data processors to safeguard digital personal data.
• Under the 2023 bill, a new Data Protection Board is established, which will ensure compliance, remedies and penalties.
• Under the new bill, the Board has been entrusted with the power equivalent to a civil court, such as the power to take cognisance in response to personal data breaches, investigate complaints, imposing penalties. Additionally, the Board can issue directions to ensure compliance with the act.
• The 2023 bill also secures more rights of Individuals and establishes a balance between user protection and growing innovations.
• The bill creates a transparent and accountable data governance framework by giving more rights to individuals.
• There is an Incorporation of Business-friendly provisions by removing criminal penalties for non-compliance and facilitating international data transfers.
• The new 2023 bill balances out fundamental privacy rights and puts reasonable limitations on those rights.
• The new data protection board will carefully examine the instance of non-compliance by imposing penalties on non-compiler.
• The bill does not provide any express clarity in regards to compensation to be granted to the Data Principal in case of a Data Breach.
• Under 2023 Deemed consent is there in its new form as ‘Legitimate Users’ pertaining to the conditions in regard to Sovernity and Intergrity of India.
• There is an introduction of the negative list, which restricts cross-data transfer.

Additionally, the measure makes special provisions for the processing of children’s personal data and acknowledges the significance of protecting children’s privacy. Additionally, it highlights the rights of the data subjects, including their right to access their personal information, their right to have wrong information corrected, and their right to be forgotten.

Drive4CyberPeace

A campaign was undertaken by CyberPeace to gain a critical understanding of what people understand about Data privacy and protection in India. The 4-month long campaign led to a pan-India interaction with netizens from different areas and backgrounds. The thoughts and opinions of the netizens were understood and collated in the form of a whitepaper which was, in turn, presented to Parliamentarians and government officials. The whitepaper laid the foundation of the recommendations submitted to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology as part of the stakeholder consultation.

Conclusion

Overall, the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill of 2023 is an important step towards safeguarding Indian citizens’ privacy and personal data. It creates a regulatory agency to guarantee compliance and enforcement and offers a thorough framework for data protection. The law includes special measures for the protection of sensitive personal data and the personal data of children and acknowledges the significance of striking a balance between the right to privacy and the necessity of data processing.

Introduction

Robotic or Robo dogs are created to resemble dogs in conduct and appearance, usually comprising canine features including barking and wagging tails. Some examples include Rhex (hexapod robot), Littledog and BigDog (created by Boston Dynamics robot). Robodogs, on the whole, can even respond to commands and look at a person with large LED-lit puppy eyes. 

A four-legged robotic solution was recently concluded through its foremost successful radiation protection test inside the most extensive experimental area at the European Organization for Nuclear Research known as CERN. Each robot created at CERN is carefully crafted to fulfil exceptional challenges and complement each other. Unlike the previous wheeled, tracked or monorail robots, the robodogs will be capable of penetrating unexplored dimensions of the caverns, expanding the spectrum of surroundings that CERN robots can act as a guide. Also, Incorporating the robodog with the existing monorail robots in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) tunnel will expand the range of places available for monitoring and supervision, improving the security and efficiency of the operation of CERN. Lenovo too has designed a six-legged robot called the "Daystar Bot GS" to be launched this year, which promises "comprehensive data collection." 

Use of Robodogs in diverse domains

Due to the enhancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI), robodogs can be a boon for those with exceptional requirements.  The advantage of AI is the dependability of its features, which can be programmed to answer certain commands detailed to the user. 

In the context of health and well-being, they can be useful if they are programmed to take care of a person with distinct or special requirements (elderly person or visually impaired person). For this reason, they are considered more advantageous than the real dogs. Recently, New Stanford has designed robodogs that can perform several physical activities, including dancing and may also one day assist in putting pediatric patients in comfort during their hospital stays.  Similarly, the robodog, "Pupper", is a revamped version of another robotic dog designed at Stanford called "Doggo", an open-source bot with 3D printed elements that one could create on a fairly small budget. They were also created to interact with humans. Furthermore, Robots as friends are a more comfortable hop for the Japanese. The oldest and most successful social robot in Japan is called "Paro", resembling an ordinary plush toy that can help in treating depression, stress, anxiety and also mood swings in a person. Following 1998, several Paro robots were exported overseas and put into service globally, reducing stress among children in ICUs, treating American veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and assisting dementia patients. 

Post-pandemic, the Japanese experiencing loneliness and isolation have been clinging to social robots for mind healing and comfort.  Likewise, at a cafe in Japan, proud owners of the AI-driven robot dog "Aibo" have pawed its course into the minds and hearts of the people. Presently, robots are replacing the conventional class guinea pig or bunny at Moriyama Kindergarten in the central Japanese city of Nagoya. According to the teachers here, the bots apparently reduce stress and teach kids to be more humane. 

In the security and defence domain, the unique skills of robodogs allow them to be used in hazardous and challenging circumstances. They can even navigate through rugged topography with reassurance to save stranded individuals from natural catastrophes. They could correspondingly help with search and rescue procedures, surveillance, and other circumstances that could be dangerous for humans. Researchers or experts are still fine-tuning the algorithm to develop them by devising the technology and employing affordable off-shelf robots that are already functional. Robodogs are further used for providing surveillance in hostage crises, defusing bombs, besides killing people to stop them from attacking other individuals. Similarly, a breakthrough in AI is being tested by the Australian military that reportedly allows soldiers to control robodogs solely with their minds. Cities like Florida and St. Petersburg also seem bound to keep police robodogs. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is further seeking plans to deploy robot dogs at the borderlands. Also, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) intends to once again deploy four-legged 'Robodogs' to deal with high-risk circumstances like hostage negotiations. The NYPD has previously employed alike robodogs for high-octane duties in examining unsafe environments where human officers should not be exposed. The U.S. Marine Corps is additionally experimenting with a new breed of robotic canine that can be helpful in the battleground, enhance the safety and mobility of soldiers, and aid in other tasks. The Unitree Go1 robot dog (Nicknamed GOAT-Grounded Open-Air Transport) by the Marines is a four-legged machine that has a built-in AI system, which can be equipped to carry an infantry anti-armour rocket launcher on its back. The GOAT robot dog is designed to help the Marines move hefty loads, analyse topography, and deliver fire support in distant and dangerous places.

However, on the contrary, robodogs may pose ethical and moral predicaments regarding who is accountable for their actions and how to ensure their adherence to the laws of warfare. This may further increase security and privacy situations on how to safeguard the data of the robotic dogs and contain hacking or sabotage.

Conclusion

Teaching robots to traverse the world conventionally has been an extravagant challenge. Though the world has been seeing an increase in their manufacturing, it is simply a machine and can never replace the feeling of owning a real dog.  Designers state that intelligent social robots will never replace humans, though robots provide the assurance of social harmony without social contact. Also, they may not be capable of managing complicated or unforeseen circumstances that need instinct or human decision-making. Nevertheless, owning robodogs in the coming decades is expected to become even more common and cost-effective as they evolve or advance with new algorithms being tested and implemented. 

References:

• https://home.cern/news/news/engineering/introducing-cerns-robodog
• https://news.stanford.edu/2023/10/04/ai-approach-yields-athletically-intelligent-robotic-dog/
• https://nypost.com/2023/02/17/combat-ai-robodogs-follow-telepathic-commands-from-soldiers/
• https://www.popsci.com/technology/parkour-algorithm-robodog/
• https://ggba.swiss/en/cern-unveils-its-innovative-robodog-for-radiation-detection/
• https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/12/10/san-francisco-killer-robots-policing-debate
• https://www.cbsnews.com/news/robo-dogs-therapy-bots-artificial-intelligence/
• https://news.stanford.edu/report/2023/08/01/robo-dogs-unleash-fun-joy-stanford-hospital/
• https://www.pcmag.com/news/lenovo-creates-six-legged-daystar-gs-robot
• https://www.foxnews.com/tech/new-breed-military-ai-robo-dogs-could-marines-secret-weapon
• https://www.wptv.com/news/national/new-york-police-will-use-four-legged-robodogs-again
• https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/us-news/creepy-robodogs-controlled-soldiers-minds-29638615
• https://www.newarab.com/news/robodogs-part-israels-army-robots-gaza-war
• https://us.aibo.com/

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March 3rd 2023, New Delhi: If you have received any message that contains a link asking users to download an application to avail Income Tax Refund or KYC benefits with the name of Income Tax Department or reputed Banks, Beware!

CyberPeace Foundation and Autobot Infosec Private Limited along with the academic partners under CyberPeace Center of Excellence (CCoE) recently conducted five different studies on phishing campaigns that have been circulating on the internet by using misleading tactics to convince users to install malicious applications on their devices. The first campaign impersonates the Income Tax Department, while the rest of the campaigns impersonate ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, IDFC Bank and Axis bank respectively. The phishing campaigns aim to trick users into divulging their personal and financial information.

After a detailed study, the research team found that:

• All campaigns appear to be an offer from reputed entities, however hosted on third-party domains instead of the official website of the Income Tax Department or the respective Banks, raising suspicion.
• The applications ask several access permissions of the device. Moreover some of them seek users to provide full control of the device. Allowing such access permission could result in a complete compromise of the system, including access to sensitive information such as microphone recordings, camera footage, text messages, contacts, pictures, videos, and even banking applications.
• Cybercriminals created malicious applications using icons that closely resemble those of legitimate entities with the intention of enticing users into downloading the malicious applications.
• The applications collect user’s personal and banking information. Getting into this type of trap could lead users to face significant financial losses.
• While investigating the impersonated Income Tax Department’s application, the Research team identified the application sends http traffic to a remote server which acts as a Command and Control (CnC/C2) for the application.
• Customers who desire to avail benefits or refunds from respective banks, download relevant apps, believing that the chosen app will assist them. However, they are not always aware that the app may be fraudulent.

“The Research highlights the importance of being vigilant while browsing the internet and not falling prey to such phishing attacks. It is crucial to be cautious when clicking on links or downloading attachments from unknown sources, as they may contain malware that can harm the device or compromise the data.” spokesperson, CyberPeace added.

In addition to this in an earlier report released in last month, the same research team had drawn attention to the WhatsApp messages masquerading as an offer from Tanishq Jewellers with links luring unsuspecting users with the promise of free valentine’s day  presents making the rounds on the app.

CyberPeace Advisory:

• The Research team recommends that people should avoid opening such messages sent via social platforms. One must always think before clicking on such links, or downloading any attachments from unauthorised sources.
• Downloading any application from any third party sources instead of the official app store should be avoided. This will greatly reduce the risk of downloading a malicious app, as official app stores have strict guidelines for app developers and review each app before it gets published on the store.
• Even if you download the application from an authorised source, check the app’s permissions before you install it. Some malicious apps may request access to sensitive information or resources on your device. If an app is asking for too many permissions, it’s best to avoid it.
• Keep your device and the app-store app up to date. This will ensure that you have the latest security updates and bug fixes.
• Falling into such a trap could result in a complete compromise of the system, including access to sensitive information such as microphone recordings, camera footage, text messages, contacts, pictures, videos, and even banking applications and could lead users to financial loss.
• Do not share confidential details like credentials, banking information with such types of Phishing scams.
• Never share or forward fake messages containing links on any social platform without proper verification.

Source : https://www.aninews.in/news/business/business/alert-cybercriminals-target-taxpayers-and-banking-customers-with-phishing-campaign-and-malicious-application20230303182938/