When I saw a new report India Risk Survey 2012 I was really happy because it carried the names of FICCI and Pinkerton - both are respected and one can expect solid work from them.
Unfortunately I am terribly disappointed with the report, in the area where it relates to Information Security.. and as I write this, I hope these organizations rewrite the report or withdraw parts of it, as their gesture of apology.
While reading the report the first 'jhatka' came to me when I read they quoted a Norton report stating cyber crime losses at 34,110 cr (where on earth does one conjure up such a number) - such numbers only fools will suffer !
The second one was a big shocker - they have the gall to quote a Univ of Brighton report which is so full of crap that even a kid can see through that sham of a white paper ! This is personal for me since I wrote about the sad guys who wrote that paper (check Univ of Brighton - bunch of liars) The paper writers did not have the guts to write back to me.
This same university has been trashed by one of the leading national authorities in Information Security - Dr Kamlesh Bajaj wrote about this outfit way back in 2009
Now this report started bothering me and I feel sure they have lifted some of the text - lo and behold - do a check for plagiarism and I find text lifted from "The Hindu". There is a statement wrongly attributed to the CID Review. Refer to the article on Cyber Crime in this CID Review newsletter on the subject of cybercrime from Jan 2008 http://tnpolice.gov.in/pdfs/ReviewcyberJan08.pdf - come on - who writes spam as SPAM in a regular sentence :) only a SPAM eater !
Over the past few years, we have seen many 'branded' reports and surveys published under BIG banners - they carry outlandish statistics and statements about cyber crime, information security etc in the country. While almost all such statements need to be taken with a large pinch of salt it is more necessary to trash stuff like what is written by these Brighton chaps.
It is time to call them back to the table, if they have the guts to come and substantiate their bullS^1t.
