Maoists have cops in a web

Hyderabad, Dec. 30: The cyber duel between the police and the Maoists has turned into a cat and mouse game. Every time the police gets a website or a blog closed, Maoist sympathisers set up another one and continue as before. The cyber catch-me-if-you-can hotted up last week after the police got Peoples March, the most popular pro-Maoist site, blocked through Central agencies. Its editor Govindan Kutty was arrested in Kerala.

The website used to carry interviews with top Maoist leaders including Ganapati and spokesperson Azad. It was blocked an year ago but emerged again and was blocked last week. The Special Intelligence Branch says Peoples March and other websites act as communication link between the underground cadres and sympathisers.

The service provider has left a message stating that the action was taken for violation of programme policies. Following this, however, Maoist sympathisers set up maoistmovementinindia.com. The new site carried a warning to the police to release Kutty or he would go on a hunger strike. A senior police official said, "Maoists are using the internet to propagate their ideology. The network is big." The Maoists are under pressure in the AP with the police evicting them from most of their bases. The internet offers a safe way to get the Maoist message across.

"Several Maoist sympathisers from AP are writing columns using pennames," the official said. State police suspects that Maoist leaders who are in hiding in Andhra Pradesh are frequently visiting Kerala, where most of the pro-Maoist bloggers are based. Sources pointed out that Maoist leader Raji Reddy was picked up in Kerala earlier this month. Following this, the Revolutionary People's Front complained to the Kerala government which resulted in the police announcing Raji Reddy's arrest.

Pointing out to the close links, police noted that the AP Revolutionary Writers Association had condemned the arrest of Kutty of Peoples March. Sources in the police said that the bloggers have close links with Maoist sympathisers and this has been detected by sniffer software. Resistance India.blogsot.com, a Mao-ist blog, was hacked in August, and the role of the law enforcing agencies is suspected. Following this, the Maoist sympathisers created maoistresitance.blogspot.com. Police has also blocked Naxal revolution.blogspot but expect another blog to replace it. From the police side, www.naxalwatch.blogspot.com, an anti-Maoist website supported by AP-based police, is a popular anti-Naxal blogspot

Deccan Chronicle

Red bloggers game for cyber cops

There are many discrepancies in this article , however there was one matter that I wished to clarify.I don't know about the other blogs mentioned but this blog is not an anonymous blog.

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Red bloggers game for cyber cops

Hyderabad, August 17: Within a few days after "someone" had hacked the blog of "Resistance India", the Maoist-friendly blogger has resurfaced under a new name, "Maoist Resistance," throwing the gauntlet at the security agencies who, in turn, are expected to intensify this "cyber war".

Resistanceindia.blogspot.com had been hosting information of Naxal groups, mainly the CPI (Maoist). The blog had even published press releases, party documents and served as a platform for revolutionary propaganda.

The blog was hacked on August 4. But, the people behind it got round the problem by simply changing the address to maoistresistance.blogspot.com. The blog explained the changed address by stating that "Resistance India" had been hacked by "someone" and hence, the new address.

Besides Resistance India, there are about 10 pro-Maoist websites and blogs, which propagate the ideology of the Maoists. They include Revolutionary Path, Indian Maoists, People's March, Naxal Revolution, Bastar, Lal Jhanda, the Naxalite Challenge and Paribar (a pro-Maoist student group).

These websites and blogs are updated regularly -- be they reports of attacks carried out by Maoists in different parts of the country or the the usual propaganda material.

The websites also host information about party ideology, inspiring speeches by leaders and issue press releases. They even have videos of conventions, meetings and conferences organised by the CPI (Maoist) and other ML parties.

The security agencies had blocked the People's March website last year. It is not only pro-Maoist groups that are running websites and blogs. Naxal Watch, an anti-Naxal website, has been vigorously condemning the actions of the Maoists and other groups.

It describes Naxalism as "pure and simple terrorism which disguises itself under terms like class struggle and social justice".

Understandably, the pro and anti Naxal blogs are attracting comments from various quarters day in and day out. More or less, they have become ready reckoners for those who wish to know the latest information as well the history of the ultra Left wing movement in the country.

http://www.siasat.com

Police hacked a Maoists website ?

HYDERABA : The State intelligence agencies working on anti-Naxal front have allegedly hacked a Maoist web site, which is publishing press releases and Maoist literature on-line। The blogger, on condition of anonymity, claimed that unidentified persons had stolen their password and said that they had lost the ownership of the blog.

The blogger has asked the ‘secret’ writers to send mails to an alternative ID, hushmail, to prevent spying on the net। Intelligence agencies see this as a threat as Maoists and their sympathisers and revolutionary writers are communicating through hushmail.com. "The sniffer software helps track the mails. It is difficult to decode the encrypted mails. Hushmail is a big security threat," said a senior police official, working on anti naxal front.

The website also published interviews of Maoist leaders and developments on Maoist front in Andhra Pradesh। Earlier the police officially stopped the extremists’ web site, but it resurfaced again on google pages.

The blogger said, "We lost the ownership of the blog as somebody hacked our blogger password। We have decided to move to another blog." He asked the writers not to respond to the gmail account and to contact only through hushmail.

Hushmail is a web based e-mail service offering PGP-encrypted e-mail and instant hush messaging. "It has many added security features like hidden IP addresses in e mail headers," said a cyber forensic expert. However, state police intelligence agencies said that the blogspot was not hacked by them.