Phil Schiller in India to Mark Official Opening of Apple's App Accelerator in Bengaluru

London, Feb 21: Scientists have discovered a new species of land snail, and have named it Craspedotropis Greta Thunberg in honour of the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg for her efforts to raise awareness about climate change.

According to the study, published in the Biodiversity Data Journal, the newly discovered species belongs to the so-called caenogastropods -- a group of land snails known to be sensitive to drought, temperature extremes, and forest degradation.

The scientists, including evolutionary ecologist Menno Schilthuizen from Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands, said the snails were found very close to the research field station at Kuala Belalong Field Studies Centre in Brunei.

They added that the snails were discovered at the foot of a steep hill-slope, next to a river bank, foraging at night on the green leaves of understorey plants.

The effort aided by amateur scientist J.P. Lim, who found the first individual of the snail said, "Naming this snail after Greta Thunberg is our way of acknowledging that her generation will be responsible for fixing problems that they did not create."

"And it's a promise that people from all generations will join her to help," Lim said.

The researchers said they approached Thunberg who said that she would be "delighted" to have this species named after her.

The study work including, fieldwork, morphological study, and classification of identified specimen was carried out in a field centre with basic equipment and no internet access, the scientists said.

According to the study, the work was done by untrained ‘citizen scientists’ guided by experts, on a 10-day taxon expedition.

"While we are aware that this way of working has its limitations in terms of the quality of the output (for example, we were unable to perform dissections or to do extensive literature searches), the benefits include rapid species discovery and on-site processing of materials," the researchers wrote in the study.

Kochi, May 22: During the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, Kerala recorded the highest number of cyber attacks followed by Punjab and Tamil Nadu, a study by anti-virus software firm K7 Computing said on Thursday.

In a statement issued in Chennai, the company said its K7 Computing's Cyber Threat Report, a comprehensive analysis of cyber attacks during the lockdown has found that Kerala recorded the highest number of cyber attacks during this period. The report analyses various cyber attacks within India during the pandemic and reveals that threat actors targeted the state with COVID-themed attacks aimed at exploiting user trust.

In Kerala, regions like Kottayam, Kannur, Kollam, and Kochi saw the highest hits with 462, 374, 236, and 147 attacks respectively, while the state as a whole saw around 2,000 attacks during the period - the highest thus far in the country.

This was followed by Punjab with 207 attacks and Tamil Nadu with 184 attacks, the company said.

The sudden surge in the frequency of attacks witnessed from February 2020 to mid-April 2020 indicates that scamsters across the world were exploiting the widespread panic around coronavirus at both the individual and corporate level.

These attacks aimed to compromise computers and mobile devices to gain access to users' confidential data, banking details, and cryptocurrency accounts.

The key threats seen during this period ranged from phishing attacks to rogue apps disguised as COVID-19 information apps that targeted users' sensitive data. Phishing attacks were noticed more in Tier-II and Tier-III cities while the metros fared better. Smaller cities saw over 250 attacks being blocked per 10,000 users.

Users from Ghaziabad and Lucknow seem to have faced almost 6 and 4 times the number of attacks as Bengaluru users.

According to the statement, a majority of the recorded attacks were phishing attacks with sophisticated campaigns that could easily snare even the most educated users. These attacks were aimed at heightening users' fears and creating a sense of urgency to take action.

K7 Labs noticed phishing attacks where scamsters posed as representatives of the United States Department of Treasury, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the company said.

Users were encouraged to visit links that would automatically download malware on the host computer such as the Agent Tesla keylogger or Lokibot information-stealing malware, infamous banking Trojans such as Trickbot or Zeus Sphinx, and even disastrous ransomware.

Other attacks included infected COVID-19 Android apps like CoronaSafetyMask that scam users with promises of masks for an upfront payment; the spyware app Project Spy; and seemingly genuine apps that are infected with dangerous malware like banking Trojans such as Ginp, Anubis and Cerberus.

"Covid-19 has created an ideal situation for various threat actors to target individuals and enterprises alike. The panic caused by the stringent lockdown measures and rapid spread of this virus has left many people looking for more information on the situation," J. Kesavardhanan, Founder and CEO of K7 Computing was quoted as saying in the statement.

"Threat actors exploit this fear to their advantage and scam users into downloading malicious software and divulging sensitive information like banking codes. The need to be cyber cautious has never been greater. This is more so in the case of corporates who have adopted a work from home policy hurriedly without adequate cyber hygiene. We have seen an increase in attacks on enterprises and SME employees as well," he added.

Such attacks are expected to continue till normalcy returns. Social engineering attacks targeted at winning users' trust will gain momentum.

Healthcare institutions, well-known government offices, and international organisations will continue to be a prime target throughout the pandemic, the statement said.

In a first, the Supreme Court on Friday allowed the service of summons and notices, a necessity in almost all legal proceedings, through instant messenger like WhatsApp as well as by e-mail and fax.

A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde observed that it has been brought to the notice of the court that it is not feasible to visit post offices for service of notices, summons, and pleadings. The bench also comprising Justices AS Bopanna and R Subhash Reddy observed that notice and summons should be sent through e-mail on the same day along with instant message through WhatsApp and other phone messenger services.

The bench clarified that all methods should be deployed for a valid service on the party. "Two blue ticks would convey that the receiver has seen the notice," noted the bench.

The bench declined the request of the Attorney General for specifically naming WhatsApp as a mode of effectuating service. The top court noted that it would not be practical to specify only WhatsApp. The apex court also permitted RBI to extend the validity of cheques in the backdrop of lockdown to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

Senior advocate V Giri representing RBI informed the bench that he had circulated the note regarding validity of a cheque as directions issued on the previous hearing.

The bench noted that it will be in discretion of the RBI to issue orders which are suitable to alter the validity of the period of a cheque.

During an earlier hearing on the matter on July 7, the Attorney General contended before the top court that the Centre had some reservations in connection with the utilization of mobile applications like WhatsApp and other apps for service of summons. The Centre's top law officer informed the apex court that these apps claimed to be encrypted, and they were not trustworthy.

The RBI counsel had contended before the top court that it was considering clarifying the validity of a cheque which has been reduced to 3 months from 6 months.