The deluge of spam from India has not only increased worries for national cyber crime, but has also sent the city cyber crime department in a tizzy to  identify which ports are used to spread the spam across the world.

As per the April 2012 report, “The percentage of spam in email traffic was up by 2.2 points from March and averaged by 77.2 per cent globally. In April, malicious files were found in 2.8 per cent of all emails. Over 20 per cent of phishing  attacks targeted Facebook  users.”

Further, new tricks were spotted in these spams.

“Spammers who spread malicious code and phishing emails are still looking for best alternates to reach computer users. Malicious spam is developing quickly, and such users are systematically adding to their arsenal of tricks, with technical innovations and new methods of social  engineering,” the report  highlighted.

The report further stated, “In April, we detected a spam that looked like a typical malicious mass mail designed to look like a Facebook notification. The email, allegedly from the social network, announced a new friend  request. If the users clicked on any of the links, they would be taken to a website infected with malicious code. However, the links in  the emails did not take users to hacked domains or to sites registered in the .in or co.cc domains, but to pages on Wikipedia and Amazon.”

“Internet censorship is needed because of the increase in cyber crime in the country,” said a senior official from the National CyberSecurity Team.

These English language tutorials are based on an audio-visual format, animated characters and quizzes for easy comprehension. Priced at Rs. 30/month (inclusive of  taxes)  Airtel digital TV subscribers can now avail the benefits of this offering by simply pressing the iTV button on their remote control.

Commenting on the launch, Mr. Shashi Arora, CEO- DTH/ Media, Bharti Airtel, said “Today, interactive services on  digital TV platforms are not merely value added services but ‘infotainment plus’. Our new interactive service, iEnglish will enable customers become skilled at day-to-day spoken English by enhancing their learning through entertaining, yet educational activities. We believe it will truly enrich the lives of the customer who are unable to leave their homes due to lack of time or confidence”.

Powered by Hungama and Aptech, iEnglish will help consumers understand specific scenarios and commonly used English expressions for daily communication. Apart from teaching correct pronunciations of words, it would also help customers learn new words and phrases, proper grammar usage and an opportunity to gauge their competencies.

Speaking on their first launch of the mEducation offering, Mr. Ninad Karpe, MD & CEO, Aptech Ltd said, “With India poised to emerge as one of the successful player in the field of mEducation, we are excited to launch our first mEducation offerings on Airtel digital TV”.

Neeraj Roy, MD & CEO, Hungama added “The DTH platform is emerging as a new tool for more interactive forms of entertainment and learning. We will continue to innovate and create products with ease of access for our consumers.”

Besides iEnglish, Airtel digital TV currently offers several interactive services such as iExam, iKidsworld, iDarshan, iRadio and iFasal. iEnglish is available for all Airtel digital TV customers @ INR 30/ month inclusive of taxes. To activate an iTV service of choice, customers need to call 12150.

State Election Commissioner H C Sirohi has told reporters that in order to make e-voting functional, the mobile phones of the voters will be registered in the voters list.

The voters will be informed about their number in the voters list and their polling centres so that they exercise their franchise using their mobile phones, he said.

Sirohi also emphasised on preservation of the voters list in a scientific manner in the backdrop of the apex court direction recently and also to issue identity cards to all eligible voters.

A website will be developed to preserve the voter lists and information related to the voters so as to encourage them to exercise their franchise, the SEC said.

The number to be cut includes 10,000 to 15,000 from Hewlett-Packard’s enterprise services group, which sells a range of information-technology services and has been beset by declining profitability, said the sources.

Meg Whitman, chief executive officer, is seeking to reverse the growth slump that led to the ouster of her predecessor, Leo Apotheker. The company’s PC sales are dropping as consumers favour tablets, such as Apple’s iPad, and it has been slow to adapt to the shift toward cloud computing, away from the IT services Hewlett-Packard provides.

Analysts have been expecting job cuts in the wake of Whitman’s plan to merge the company’s personal computer and printer divisions. HP’s total global workforce stands at 324,000, almost 10 percent of the workers could be asked to go.

The manual condenses a wide range of laws, rules and regulations related to Revenue Department into 500 pages in a simple language and self-explanatory notes.

It contains the entire gamut of documents, ranging from land records and settlements to various taxes, working of civil supplies, mines and industry, environment and election, disaster management to various taxes handled by the Collector, continued from Mumbai Police Acts and newly incorporated Acts. The Collector Manual will help newly appointed IAS officers of Gujarat and even other States.

The Chief Minister congratulated the Revenue Department officials for taking up this painstaking job. He said this manual should be of immense help to particularly newly appointed IAS officers, and also as a Reference Book for district administration in other states as well.

Revenue Minister Anandiben Patel said that the Collector Manual was first published in Gujarati and English languages incorporating relevant details up to 2008. The latest manual in English includes amendments, additions and alterations in laws related to the revenue department after 2008.

“The Authority recommends that the Application Service Providers (ASP) should be covered under Licensing through Authorisation (LTA),” Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

It, however, said LTA holders shall neither be required to pay licence fee nor Performance Bank Guarantee.

The service provider who wants to offer services covered in category of LTA will get license merely by informing the licensor and submitting a statement on compliance with certain terms and conditions regarding security, etc which will be issued by Department of Telecom.

“These BC outlets may be in the form of low-cost simple brick and mortar structures,” the RBI said in a notification.

“…It has been decided that BCs can operate from such Ultra Small Branches as their association with the branch will increase their legitimacy and credibility in the area and give people increased confidence to use their services,” the RBI notification added.

Every BC is under the oversight of a base branch. The base branch will have to provide oversight to the BC outlets which will include periodic visits by officers of the base branch to these outlets and to other places of functioning of BCs.

BCs are permitted to carry out transactions on behalf of the bank as agents, and they can refer clients, pursue the clients’ proposal and facilitate the bank to carry out its transactions.

The RBI said these ultra small branches may be set up between the base branch and BC locations to provide support to about 8-10 BC units at a distance of 3-4 km.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his Budget Speech 2012-13, too, had said that banks should establish outlets in rural centres from which BCs can deal with cash transactions.

In its Consumers’ Handbook on Telecommunications released on Thursday, the regulator said, “A tariff plan once offered by an access provider shall be available to a subscriber for a minimum period of six months from the date of enrolment of the subscriber to that tariff plan.” However, for any tariff plan, the operator is free to reduce tariffs at any time but “no tariff item in a tariff plan can be increased by the service provider,” it added.

Once a tariff plan is offered by a telecom player, it would be available to the subscriber for a minimum period of six months from the date of enrolment to that plan.

The move could be customer friendly as it gives users the freedom to change plans during the six month period and the operator is mandated to accept the request and implement it.

A visit to any of these websites redirects visitors to a landing page that says, “Access to this site has been blocked as per Court Orders”.

Some news websites are also facing problem and lead users to the same landing page that says that the blocking has been done due to court orders.

As of now there is no clarity about the real reason behind the blocking.

Bharti and its rivals in the country started 3G services last year after spending a total more than $12 billion to buy airwaves in an auction.

But take-off of the services, which allow faster Internet on phones and video calls, has been slower than expected, partly due to high prices. Now that Airtel has reduced 3G prices, other operators are expected to make similar moves.