Clone Master Arrested After Hacking Reliance's Proprietary Software

[Arun 795]

Jaipur

25 Aug 2008, 0332 hrs IST

Times News Network

An IT wizard, who had hacked into the high-tech security of Reliance Infocomm, however could not escape from the trap laid by police.

Even the city police had no idea how the case might turn out to be when officials of Reliance Infocomm filed a complaint earlier this month saying their mobile numbers were being cloned in the city. Investigations have revealed that master hacker Akil alias Akeel Ahmed had hacked into the main software of Reliance Infocomm called 'Clearify’ and had been cloning platinum numbers (numbers that end with a series of particular digits) issued by the company for the past two years. Police officials are also probing possibilities of his having any nexus with the terror network. According to the police, Akil had hacked the company’s software to such an extent that he was literally able to run a parallel company.

According to the police, 28-year-old Akil, a resident of a village near Nuh town in Haryana, had completed B-Tech from an institute in Faridabad. His father works as a cashier with a sugar mill in Palwal. He has a big political clout in Haryana as many of his relatives have held key ministerial posts with the state government. Police said that one of his relatives is a deputy speaker of Haryana Assembly and another is a chairman of state handloom corporation.

According to the police, the software 'Clearify' is accessible only to authorized internet café administrators and top officials of the company. He being an internet café administrator, three years ago, had the knowledge of the software and had created three fake identities to access the software. With help of these fake identities, he was able to hack the company's database and clone the platinum numbers that come at a price ranging between Rs.l lakh and Rs.3 lakh.

The police said, "Not only did he have access to the software but he was also able to get himself supreme rights that enabled him complete control over the system. He was able to allot new numbers, cancel existing ones, change user profiles and even write bills of any amount. He believed in upgrading his skills and every time the company introduced a new feature he added it to his access panel."

"Posing as a company representative, he used to approach the internet cafés administrators and gain control over their servers. From the server he would download all the required information and softwares provided by the company. He later sold them to mobile users. He also sold large number of cloned chips in the market whose numbers and details are expected to be revealed in further investigations. Though the exact size of the damage caused to the company by him is not clear but it is expected to run into millions of rupees," added the police.

According to police, he had been duping the company for the last two years operating from various locations in Haryana and Delhi before shifting to Jaipur nearly a month ago. He hacked many softwares at a web world in Vaishali Nagar area here from July 29 to August 6 following which an FIR was lodged with the Vaishali Nagar police station by the company on August 8.

[rajat8676 0]

Wow Brilliant brains going criminal way. Only had he been working for the Ambanis, he could still have made the same millions of bucks, but in a legitimate way

Edited August 25, 2008 by rajat8676

[raccoon 53]

Legitimate way??? Sez who???

Edited August 25, 2008 by raccoon