‘Will burst crackers after 10 pm’: BJP MP vows to violate SC order

New Delhi, Apr 23: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday accused the BJP of spreading the virus of communal prejudice and hatred in the country, asserting that "grave damage" is being done to social harmony

Addressing a meeting of the Congress Working Committee, Gandhi said it should worry every Indian and her party will have to work hard to repair this damage.

"Let me also share with you something that should worry each and every one of us as Indians. When we should be tackling the coronavirus unitedly, the BJP continues to spread the virus of communal prejudice and hatred," she said.

"Grave damage is being done to our social harmony. Our party, we will have to work hard to repair that damage," the Congress president added

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and top Congress leaders attended the meeting through video conference

This is the second time the CWC, the Congress' top decision-making body, is meeting through video-conferencing in the past three weeks ever since the lockdown was enforced to contain the coronavirus threat.

The Congress president said the coronavirus pandemic has increased disturbingly in the past three weeks and called upon the government to increase testing for it

Gandhi said she has written several times to the prime minister since the lockdown was enforced and suggested several measures and constructive cooperation

"Unfortunately, they have been acted upon only partially and in a miserly way. The compassion, large-heartedness and alacrity that should be forthcoming from the central government is conspicuous by its absence," she said

The Congress chief said the focus of the party must continue to be on successfully engaging with health, food security and livelihood issues.

She claimed that around 12 crore people have lost jobs in the first phase of the lockdown and urged the government to provide a relief package for the MSME sector, which accounts for one-third of the GDP

Gandhi called upon the government to provide food and financial security to migrants and jobless stranded at various places and were desperate to reach back home

"We have repeatedly urged PM there is no alternative to testing, tracing and quarantine. Unfortunately, testing still remains low, testing kits still in short supply," she noted

Gandhi said trade, commerce and industry have come to a virtual halt and crores of livelihoods have been destroyed.

"The central government does not appear to have a clear idea on how the situation will be managed after May 3rd. A lockdown of the present nature after that date would be even more devastating," she said

Former prime minister Manmohan said the success of the lockdown will be judged finally on India's ability to tackle COVID-19

He also said the cooperation between the Centre and states was key to success of the country's fight against coronavirus

Singh said it is necessary to focus on a number of issues in the fight against coronavirus

The fight against COVID-19 would very much depend upon the availability of resources, he noted

Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot said unless the central government comes forward to financially help states, the fight against COVID-19 will get weakened

"Unless there is a big financial package for states, how will normalcy return to states post lockdown," he asked

Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel said unless the Centre rises to the occasion and provides financial assistance to states, how will the fight against COVID-19 be won

Puducherry chief minister V Narayanasamy said the Union government has not given any assistance to the states

"How will states survive in times of crisis. We are not enemies but have to act and work together," Narayanasamy said at the CWC meet.

New Delhi, Jun 3: Over 1 lakh scanned copies of Indians' national IDs, including Aadhaar, PAN card and passport, have been put on dark web for sale, cyber intelligence firm Cyble said on Wednesday.

The leaked data seems to have originated from a third party and not from the government system, according to a report by Cyble.

"We came across a non-reputed actor who is currently selling over 1 lakh Indian National IDs on the dark net. With such a low reputation, ideally, we would have skipped this; however, the samples shared by the actor intrigued our interest -- and also the volume. The actor is alleged to have access to over 1 lakh IDs from different places in India," Cyble said.

The personal data leaked by cyber criminals leads to various nefarious activities such as identity thefts, scams, and corporate espionage. Many criminals use the personal details in the IDs to win trust of the people over a phone call for fraudulent activities.

Cyber criminals leak personal data of 2.9 cr job-seeking Indians on dark web for free

The Cyble researchers acquired around 1,000 IDs from the seller and confirmed that the scanned IDs belong to Indians.

"Preliminary analysis suggests that the data originated from a third party, and no indication or artefact is indicating that it came from a government system. At this point, Cyble researchers are still investigating this further -- we are hoping to share an update soon," Cyble said.

The scanned ID documents indicate that the data may have been leaked from a company's data base in the segment where they have to comply with 'Know Your Customer' (KYC) norms.

"Cyble researchers have also learned about a surge in KYC and banking scams -- leaks such as this are often used by scammers to target individuals, especially elderlies," Cyble said.

The cyber intelligence firm has recommended people to refrain from sharing personal information especially financial information over phone, e-mail or SMS.

"Regularly monitor your financial transaction, if you notice any suspicious transaction, contact your bank immediately," the company said.

In May, Cyble showed two instances where personal data of 7.65 crore Indians have been put on sale in the dark web. In one instance, the seller claimed to have sourced data of 4.75 crore Indians from online directory Truecaller and in other, the seller claimed to have sourced from job websites.

Truecaller, however, had denied the claim of breach in its database.

New Delhi, May 30: An Air India flight from Delhi to Moscow on Saturday had to return midway after the airline's ground team found out that one of the pilots had tested positive for novel coronavirus, officials said.

"When the A320 plane, which did not have any passengers as it was heading to Moscow to bring back stranded Indians under Vande Bharat Mission, had reached Uzbekistan's airspace, our team on ground realised that one of the pilots had tested COVID-positive," senior Air India officials said.

"The flight was immediately asked to return. It came back to Delhi at around 12.30 pm on Saturday," the officials said. The crew has been quarantined. Another plane would be sent to Moscow to bring back the stranded Indians, according to the officials.