Disgruntled staff take it out on net in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Hyderabad is a hotspot for cyber wars between disgruntled employees and their firms. Stealing source codes, leaking confidential information, hacking important data bases, and even launching denial-of-service attacks on company websites, were reported to cyber crime police. There were 111 such case registered in Hyderabad and Cyberabad last year, according to NCRB.

Fifteen days ago, Cyberabad Cyber Crime police arrested an IT professional, Mubashir Pasha, with the help of Mumbai airport officials in connection with a cyber crime case.

Mubashir, who worked with an IT firm allegedly stole data and left the country. “He went to Dubai though we served a notice on him. When he came back and landed at Mumbai, we arrested him,” said Cyber Crime ACP S. Jayaram. Usually, programme developers and their employees sign non-disclosure agreements when they start developing an application.

“It’s easy for a trusted developer to steal the source code and other information of an application, which is still being developed. Most accused people stole the data and quit their jobs before selling the data,” said cyber crime inspector Md. Riyazuddin.

Police said a majority of the cases come from start-ups and small firms which do not have an effective security system. The cyber crime police is still investigating a case of denial of service attack, in which a company’s website was made to crash by a group of hackers in Madhapur.  

As compared to other metros, Hyderabad and Cyberabad reported the highest number of such cases. However, since most cases are highly technical, police have to depend on forensic lab, which delays the case investigation.