About GST Information in Marathi

About GST Information in Marathi

gst information in marathi

Formjacking - How to trap a cyber criminal in his own web of deceit

Formjacking is a new type of threat that’s being compared to ATM skimmers, and the only way to protect your website is by putting the best security measures in place

Chances are that you have never heard of formjacking at all. Or you may have heard that it’s the internet version of an ATM skimmer.

For those who’ve never heard of it, formjacking has just been highlighted in the newest Symantec Internet Security Threat Report. The report lists this cybercrime as one of the most serious and lucrative attacks in the history of cyber-badness. Symantec says that it’s so successful that about 4,800 websites are infected with formjacking software every month.


Stealing credit card info

What happens is that a bad actor places a small piece of code on to an e-commerce website and then waits. In a typical event, the code reads credit card information as the victim enters it, and then sends that information to the bad guy. Meanwhile, the actual e-commerce transaction goes through as if nothing has happened. The victim never knows that the credit card information has been stolen — until it shows up on a malicious site or charges start showing up on card statements.

Malicious code in disguise

“From a consumer standpoint, there’s nothing to see,” says Kevin Haley, director of product management for security response at Symantec. “It’s the equivalent of a skimmer at an ATM unless you can go through the code on a website.” But chances are, you won’t find it even if you look. Malware developers are good at disguising malicious code as harmless or routine.

“It’s up to the website owners to protect against this threat,” Haley says. He noted that some major e-commerce sites have been caught with formjacking software on their websites, “but small and medium businesses are more likely to be affected”. The reason smaller businesses can be a target is because they are less likely to have the sophisticated protection that larger sites have.

How to protect websites

“Some of these attacks are going through third-party applications such as chats and surveys,” Haley explains, saying that it’s important to have a strong relationship with the supplier of such software. “You should test updates before using them,” Haley says. Then, “scan your websites looking for unexpected code”.

It’s important that you find tools that will let you lock down your websites and alert you if there are any changes. This includes following security best practices regarding managing and protecting your websites.



Cybercriminals have now shifted their target from consumers to enterprises

Crooks fake e-commerce site, dupe user of ₹52k

New Delhi:

Be cautious while searching for customer care numbers of e-commerce websites on the internet as fraudsters have flooded search engines with fake sites and numbers to cheat people by making them reveal their account details.


Renu Gupta learned about this the hard way when her daughter ended up on a similar fake website of a popular ecommerce portal. A man posing as a customer care representative not only emptied the woman’s bank account but even sent her messages showing the transactions he was making and mocked her saying, “ Ab paisa gaya” (now your money is gone).

Gupta, who runs a boutique in Rohini Sector-24 in New Delhi, said that they had ordered a handbag from a popular e-commerce website but were not satisfied with the quality of the product and so decided to return it. On March 1, her daughter got the number of the customer service representative of the portal after googling it.

“The man posed as a representative and while talking to my daughter he managed to make her share the account details on the pretext of transferring the refund amount. I soon started receiving messages of withdrawals being made from my account and before I could get the card blocked, the man had already taken Rs 15,000,” Gupta said.

The woman shared the incident with her bank officials and asked them if it was safe to keep the remainder amount in the account as she had to pay the EMI of her house. She was assured that no harm would be done since the ATM card had been blocked.

“The hacker used UPI to hack into my account and to mock me, he even sent me messages on WhatsApp showing the transfers being made. My husband called him up and requested him to give back the money, but he snapped back,” the woman said, adding that in total she lost approximately Rs 52,000 in the fraud. Despite more than a week after the incident, the cops are yet to register a case.

Cops said fraudsters have flooded the search engines with fake customer care numbers that are being used to dupe scores of people. The customers who are seeking a refund are trapped into sharing confidential details by the accused who then quickly empty the accounts.

New useful android app

Pass it On


This website is part of the US-based Foundation for a Better Life, a non-profit that shares inspirational messages to promote good values and higher thinking. It does this by commissioning billboards with positive messages and producing inspirational TV commercials and radio spots in countries all around the world.

On this website, you will find all these TV videos, billboard messages, downloadable audio files, and even thought-provoking quotes that are illustrated with the help of beautiful images. All these digital assets can be shared with friends and family for free via social networks and instant messaging. Pass it On also has a section where readers can share their inspiring anecdotes and messages, as well as stories of their personal heroes. www.passiton.com

Science 101

Here you will find the latest science stories, written in a way that is easy to understand and interesting to read. The features on Science 101 are categorised into sections such as space, biology, culture, health, mind and technology.

For instance, you can read about the five coolest innovations of 2018, how the shape of your skull could reveal your genetic ancestry, 30 practical uses for Coca-Cola, what made the extinct Megalodon one of the most dangerous predators ever, what happens in your brain when you’re sad, five ways to slow down Alzheimer’s, things you didn’t know about planets, strange creatures living on your body right now, and more. The site is updated every day so there’s always something new to read and interesting to learn on this website. www.science101.com

Typatone

This website converts any text you input into music. When you first start to type a message, you will hear the melody at the speed you type, but when you play it back, Typatone adds rhythm to make it sound like a song. To do this, the web app developers researched the occurrence of letters in the English language: The most frequently occurring letters were assigned melodic notes, while the lesser-occurring alphabets are programmed to give the musical phrases more variety and spice. The web app also includes six filters so you can choose your favourite sound; plus, the tempo is set to vary depending on the time; this means your music always sounds different. So, if you need ambient music for when you’re working, or even if you want to share a musical note with friends, try Typatone; words never sounded sweeter.typatone.com

downloads

Aloha Browser

Aloha is a smartphone browser that is built to protect your privacy. It comes with a VPN to mask your location and secure your web browsing when logged on to public Wi-Fi hotspots. Simply tap the VPN badge to enable the mode and the browser chooses a random global server to route your web requests. You also get an ad-blocker to blank out invasive promotional content, and a private mode—which can be configured to open with a fingerprint or passcode only—to disable browsing history and tracking cookies. You also get a native video player, with support for VR content playback, and a download manager that lets you save web content to a password-protected private folder. Aloha includes a newsfeed, which you can customise by country and interest; a QR code reader; a night mode to cut screen glare, and the option to choose from multiple search engines including Bing, Google and DuckDuckGo.

Android, iOS Free

Manoké

Manoké is a music app that gives you access to song sheets of popular Bollywood and regional movie songs.

It is ideal for music teachers, as well as those who are learning to play the guitar, keyboard or piano on their own. When you create an account, you get access to over 100 songs in Hindi, Tamil, Kannada and Bengali. Each composition comes with sheet music for multiple instruments, including tablature for acoustic and bass guitar, notes for the keyboard, pads, drums and more. Students of Indian classical music can also change the notation style to show swaras instead of chords. The app lets you mute individual instruments so you can focus on a specific track only. Manoké even has a lyrics mode for karaoke where words scroll by in sync with the tempo, along with chord changes. It even provides options to change the song’s tempo, key, enables a metronome, and record yourself playing along.

Android, iOS Free

Typoman Mobile

In this mashup between a word puzzle and a side-scroller, you have to guide Typoman, who is made of alphabets, across a dark world crawling with monsters and traps. Instead of fighting the creatures, you have to solve word jumbles to progress. Game controls include a D-pad to move Typoman, a jump button, and grab-and-lift controls to grasp and carry a letter. This action is required when you want to use an alphabet as a step or to push it toward a jumble to form a word. The answers are always related to the action you may have to follow. For instance, forming the word “open” may unlock a door, “turn” will make wheels move, or straightening the letter “L” to form the word “lever” will disarm a trap. You also have to be quick to avoid being captured by the creatures. Typoman Mobile really makes you think and the inky graphics only add to the game's appeal.

Android, iOS Free

IT co customers seek ‘flexi over fixed’

Bengaluru:

Many customers of Indian IT firms are placing demands that go beyond the commercial construct of a fixed price project, a form of services contract where the company takes the responsibility for delivering a solution for a certain price and within a mutually agreed time-frame.


The arrangement is meant to give vendors flexibility in the staffing and execution of the project. But IT firms are battling what is called a “pseudo FP (fixed price)”, an industry parlance for customers controlling staffing requirements, including selecting campus recruits, keeping tabs on the operations and controlling the entire experience.

Though Indian IT companies don’t record a metric like “pseudo FP”, a large part of the FP contracts are said to be pseudo FP. Before FP contracts became popular, the standard contract was what is called a time and materials contract, where customers paid for the time spent by the IT vendor’s employees and the materials used by the vendor. In that model, customers exercised control over the employees they got.

On “pseudo FP” contracts, Capgemini COO Thierry Delaporte said: “There is a lot of different models that exist across the organisation, spanning industries and from one market to another. In America it is probably a little more towards time and material. In Europe probably towards more fixed price. Sometimes the client likes to control things. Sometimes he likes to limit his risk or push his risk to someone else. You cannot have both. You cannot have at the same time full control on everything and push responsibility to someone else.”

Akhilesh Tuteja, global cyber security practice co-leader and heads of the IT advisory practice for KPMG in India, said, “A lot of contracts are outcome based and many clients expect a high degree of visibility into their delivery structure, skills and scale of people. It creates a risk management lever too,” he said.

Hansa Iyengar, analyst in London-based Ovum Research, said: “Customers do have a say in who the vendor hires and this is specifically prominent in roles such as architects, team leads, project managers, agile coaches, etc, as these roles have a direct impact on the delivery quality.”

RIL to buy 83% stake in Grab for ₹146 crore

Bengaluru:

Reliance Industries has said that it will buy a 83% stake in Mumbai-based hyper-local logistics startup Grab a Grub Services for Rs 146 crore through a mix of fresh investment and buying shares from existing investors, according to a filing made to the stock exchanges.


“The investment will augment the group’s digital commerce initiatives and strengthen its logistics services, catering to both B2B and B2C segments,” said the company. The acquisition is being made through RIL’s subsidiary Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings. TOI was the first to report about the deal in its February 28 edition.

Besides Grab, Reliance said it is also acquiring a 82% stake in Bengaluru-based C-Square Info Solutions, which provides software solutions with focus on the pharma sector, for Rs 82 crore. Some of the clients of the company include Apollo Pharmacy and Adcock Ingram.

Both these acquisitions will help Reliance with new commerce push which is expected to be launched by telecom arm Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail. RIL chief Mukesh Ambani had last year outlined the company’s online-to-offline (O2O) approach.

Alibaba penalises sellers evading taxes in India

New Delhi:

Days after the government’s crackdown on goods being sent to India in the guise of gifts by Chinese e-tailers, e-commerce giant Alibaba said it has taken action against thousands of sellers on its platform who have been caught in the act.


Officials in the Indian customs department last week said large shipments from Chinese e-commerce platforms have been landing on Indian shores, marked as ‘gifts’. Shipping goods as gifts allows an entity to avoid paying duties and taxes, as the government exempts gifts of up to Rs 5,000 under existing laws to allow NRIs to send them back home to relatives.

“AliExpress, as a marketplace, respects local regulations and laws and forbids any illegal activities by sellers on its platform,” an Alibaba spokesperson told TOI. “AliExpress has strict measures in place to take action against items that contain descriptions that encourage tax avoidance. Any infringing sellers found on the platform face penalties including store closure.”

The move comes against the backdrop of the government taking note of the fact that the national exchequer has been missing out on significant revenues in the form of duties and taxes that could have been collected from Chinese businesses selling goods over the internet. Domestic etailers, too, have had to face unfair competition from their counterparts from the neighbouring country.

“Not paying duties and taxes brings down the prices of goods significantly,” said a senior executive at a Bengaluru-based e-tailer. “The goods, including fashionwear, on Chinese platforms are at least 40-50% cheaper than what is available on Indian e-commmerce marketplaces.”

A senior Alibaba executive told TOI that the crackdown by the Chinese e-commerce giant on errant sellers on its platform has been gathering steam since the ‘Singles Day’ sale in November that helped it clock over $30 billion in 24 hours. “We have made our position very clear to our sellers through agreements on our platform,” he said.

Slowdown of online sales in China has prompted a host of Chinese e-tailers, including Shein, Club Factory and Alibaba’s e-tailing arm AliExpress, to look towards a nascent but booming Indian e-commerce market. Several of them have become as popular as Amazon or Flipkart on Google Playstore, according to app ranking platform App Annie. The Mumbai customs department last week said courier companies, too, have been informed about the issue of ‘gifts’ and their registrations will be cancelled if they are found flouting regulations.

You still bear e-pay surcharge on govt & utilities websites

RBI Directive Bars This Fee Being Passed On To Customers

Several government agencies and public utilities are disincentivising epayments by refusing to bear transaction costs charged by banks even as the Modi administration promotes digital India. Banks are passing on the cost of online payment to customers in several e-portals. In some cases, not only are charges being illegally passed on, the amount is also higher than what banks are allowed to charge merchants as fees.


Electricity consumers in Delhi have to pay 1% extra on their bill amount when they make payments through UPI. Consumers of Tata Power end up paying a surcharge when their bills are over Rs 2,000 in Mumbai and Rs 5,000 in Delhi. For train tickets booked on IRCTC, the most widely used e-commerce portal, customers are charged Rs 10 plus GST for UPI transactions over Rs 2,000. These are only illustrative examples and there are many other instances of agencies where the surcharge is passed on to customers.

A study on surcharges in digital payments by Ashish Das, department of mathematics, IIT-Bombay, has shown that despite a well-meaning policy and directives against passing on the surcharge to customers by the RBI, banks continue to facilitate surcharging. “Unauthorised surcharging has also burdened payment system users with huge additional costs. Just for online payments, it has led to extortions by the acquirer banks and their payment facilitators/aggregators to Rs 200 crore in 2018 alone,” said Das in the report.

The surcharge that is passed on to the customer is illegal. The RBI, in a notification on December 27, 2017, had asked banks to ensure that merchants do not pass on MDR (merchant discount rate) charges to customers while accepting payments through debit cards. The government extended this norm to payments under UPI as well.

According to Das, the surcharge is different from a ‘service charge’ or a ‘convenience fee’ that merchants are allowed to charge. Unlike a convenience fee, which is flat across all modes of payment, the surcharge varies depending on the mode of payment with credit cards attracting the highest surcharge. Also, in most of these cases the utility or government agency displays the actual billed amount while the bank deducts the billed amount plus surcharge. The report recommends that the government and the RBI take steps to ensure that consumers do not end up bearing the surcharge in electronic payment transactions. It also recommends that in credit cards, the cost of credit should be borne by the customer and not the bank.

Payment companies like Visa, Mastercard and RuPay impose caps on the card issuing bank on the maximum they will get in certain payments like government departments and MFs.