📰 What is bluebugging, and how is it used to hack Bluetooth-enabled devices?
Several smartphones have their Bluetooth settings on discovery mode, as it is a default setting, making it easy for hackers to access the phones when they are within 10 metres from the device
•Cybersecurity experts note that apps that let users connect smartphones or laptops to wireless earplugs can record conversations, and are vulnerable to hacks. Even the most secure smartphones like iPhones are vulnerable to such attacks. Any app with access to Bluetooth can record users’ conversations with Siri and audio from the iOS keyboard dictation feature when using AirPods or Beats headsets, some app developers say. Through a process called bluebugging, a hacker can gain unauthorised access to these apps and devices and control them as per their wish.
What is bluebugging?
•It is a form of hacking that lets attackers access a device through its discoverable Bluetooth connection. Once a device or phone is bluebugged, a hacker can listen to the calls, read and send messages and steal and modify contacts. It started out as a threat for laptops with Bluetooth capability. Later hackers used the technique to target mobile phones and other devices.
•Independent security researcher Martin Herfurt blogged about the threat of bluebugging as early as 2004. He noted that the bug exploited a loophole in Bluetooth protocol, enabling it to download phone books and call lists from the attacked user’s phone.
How does bluebugging hack devices?
•Bluebugging attacks work by exploiting Bluetooth-enabled devices. The device’s Bluetooth must be in discoverable mode, which is the default setting on most devices. The hacker then tries to pair with the device via Bluetooth. Once a connection is established, hackers can use brute force attacks to bypass authentication. They can install malware in the compromised device to gain unauthorised access to it. Bluebugging can happen whenever a Bluetooth enabled device is within a 10-metre radius of the hacker. However, according to a blog by VPN service provider NordVPN, hackers can use booster antennas to widen the attack range.
How can one prevent bluebugging ?
•Turning off Bluetooth and disconnecting paired Bluetooth devices when not in use, updating the device’s system software to the latest version, limited use of public Wi-Fi and using VPN as an additional security measure are some of the ways to prevent bluebugging, Shubho Pramanik, senior vice president, Applied Cloud Computing, a Thane based cloud service provider, said to The Hindu.
•Most devices make Bluetooth discoverable by default, leaving your devices susceptible to unsolicited connections. So, the first step would be to make your Bluetooth devices undiscoverable from Bluetooth settings. This will keep them invisible to hackers, thereby not letting them pair with the device, NordVPN said in the blog.
•Users must also watch out for suspicious activities on their devices, NordVPN suggested. “If your phone is suddenly disconnecting and reconnecting calls, or if you notice messages that haven’t been sent by you, it could indicate that someone is controlling your device. Reset the device to its factory settings or uninstall any apps you don’t recognise.” One should also monitor sudden spikes in data usage. If the amount of data used suddenly spikes beyond reason, someone could be controlling the device as part of a botnet that eats up data, NordVPN said.
•Modern anti-virus softwares can also help thwart such attacks. The new-age antivirus softwares are helping users to detect strange and spam-like content by filtering, blocking and consistently reminding people to be alert, Manoj Kumar Shastrula, CEO and Founder, SOCLY.io, a cybersecurity company told The Hindu.
Which devices are most susceptible to such attacks?
•Any Bluetooth-enabled device can be bluebugged. Wireless earbuds are susceptible to such hacks. Apps that enable users to connect to their TWS (True Wireless Stereo) devices or earbuds can record conversations. The apps of these TWS devices can record conversations. Once hacked, the attacker can make and listen to calls, read and send messages, and modify or steal your contacts, Mr. Pramanik said.
•Apple also acknowledged earlier that wireless earbuds can record conversations. “An app may be able to record audio using a pair of connected AirPods,” Apple said on its support page while releasing the fixes to the issue. However, smartphones are more vulnerable to this type of hacking as most of the users leave their Bluetooth on in public places, where hackers may be lurking.
•Today, several smartphones have their Bluetooth settings on discovery mode, making it easy for hackers to access the phones when they are within 10 metres from the device. Some earlier models of Bluetooth phones were vulnerable to bluebugging, but have since been corrected, Arindam Mitra, Co-founder, CTO and President of Services, ProcessIT Global, told The Hindu. However, devices with short PINs for a password can be easily cracked with brute-force computing and can also be vulnerable to these attacks, Mr. Mitra added.
📰 Toward legalising same-sex marriage
How do the fresh pleas in the Supreme Court seek to recognise same-sex marriage? What are the existing rights of LGBTQIA+ people in India? Which are the judgments being cited by the petitioners? Where do other countries stand on same-sex marriage?
•A Supreme Court Bench led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud on November 25, issued notices to the Centre and the Attorney General of India, seeking their response to two petitions filed by gay couples to allow solemnisation of same-sex marriage under the Special Marriage Act, (SMA) 1954.
What do the petitions say?
•The SMA provides a civil form of marriage for couples who cannot marry under their personal law, and both the recent pleas seek to recognise same-sex marriage in relation to this Act and not personal laws.
•The first petition was filed by two men, Supriyo Chakraborty and Abhay Dang, who have been a couple for 10 years. Their petition argued that the SMA was “ultra vires” the Constitution “to the extent it discriminates between same-sex couples and opposite-sex couples”. It stated that the Act denied same-sex couples both “legal rights as well as the social recognition and status” that came from marriage. Senior Advocates Niraj Kishan Kaul and Menaka Guruswamy for the petitioners said that about 15 legislations which guaranteed the rights of wages, gratuity, adoption, surrogacy and so on were not available to LGBTQ+ citizens. The petitioners emphasised that the SMA “ought to apply to a marriage between any two persons, regardless of their gender identity and sexual orientation”.
•The other petition was filed by a same-sex couple of 17 years — Parth Phiroze Mehrotra and Uday Raj Anand. Their counsel, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, argued that the recognition of same-sex marriage was only a “sequel” or a continuation of the Navtej Singh Johar judgment of 2018 (decriminalising homosexuality) and the Puttaswamy judgment of 2017 (affirming the Right to Privacy as a fundamental right). Mr. Rohatgi said the petition did not touch on personal laws but only sought to make the 1954 Act “gender-neutral”. Their plea pointed out that while Section 4 of the SMA permitted the solemnisation of marriage between any two persons, a subsequent section placed restrictions. It said: “The use, in Section 4(c) of the words ‘male’ and ‘female’, as well as the use of gendered language such as the terms ‘husband/wife’ and ‘bride/bridegroom’ in other sections of the Act, limit the access to marriage to a couple comprising one ‘male’ and one ‘female’.”
Have similar petitions been filed?
•There are currently a total of nine petitions pending before the High Court of Delhi and Kerala, seeking to recognise same-sex marriages under Acts such as the SMA, the Foreign Marriage Act and codified personal laws. On Friday, the Supreme Court Bench of CJI Chandrachud and Justice Hima Koli transferred the various pending issues before High Courts to itself.
•One of the new petitions also placed emphasis on another important judgement of the apex court. In the NALSA vs Union of India judgment (2014), the Court had said that non-binary individuals were protected under the Constitution and fundamental rights such as equality, non-discrimination, life, freedom and so on could not be restricted to those who were biologically male or female.
What is the government’s stand?
•Late last year, while responding to the pleas seeking recognition of same-sex marriages in the Delhi High Court, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta for the Centre had said that as per the law, marriage was permissible between a “biological man” and “biological woman”. In its affidavit opposing the pleas, the Centre had said: “The acceptance of the institution of marriage between two individuals of the same gender is neither recognised nor accepted in any uncodified personal laws or any codified statutory laws". It also argued against the urgency of the pleas by saying nobody was “dying” in the absence of a marriage certificate.
What about other countries?
•A total of 32 countries around the world have legalised same-sex marriages, some through legislation while others through judicial pronouncements. Many countries first recognised same-sex civil unions as the escalatory step to recognise homosexual marriage. Civil unions or partnerships are similar arrangements as marriages which provide legal recognition of unmarried couples of the same or opposite sex in order to grant them some of the rights that come with marriage — such as inheritance, medical benefits, employee benefits to spouses, managing joint taxes and finances, and in some cases even adoption. The Netherlands was the first country in 2001 to legalise same-sex marriage by amending one line in its civil marriage law. In some countries, the decriminalisation of homosexuality was not followed for years by the recognition of same-sex marriage, for instance, in the U.S. the former happened in 2003 while the latter in 2015.
System of shuffling High Court judges without consent needs reconsideration
•The common criticism that the functioning of the Collegium system of judicial appointments is opaque, and sometimes arbitrary, seems to hold greater validity in the matter of transfers of judges from one High Court to another. A recent round of transfers — among the dozens that have been effected in the last few years — has brought the controversial issue to the fore again. The list included three judges from the Telangana High Court, and two each from the Madras and Andhra Pradesh High Courts. Conspicuously absent was the name of Justice Nikhil S. Kariel, a Gujarat High Court judge whose proposed transfer was strongly opposed by the bar in that State. Lawyers took up the issue in support of Justice Kariel, as well as Justice A. Abhishek Reddy of the Telangana High Court, and the Chief Justice of India met with representatives of the Bar from both States. Yet, the transfer of Justice Kariel alone did not materialise, while the transfers of other judges were notified. If reports that the Gujarat High Court Chief Justice was unaware of the impending transfer of Justice Kariel are correct, it bodes ill for the legitimacy of transfer proposals. No good message is being sent if it is perceived that the Collegium heeds the demand made by one set of lawyers, but ignores that of another group.
•Transfer of judges may be needed for exchange of talent across the country and to prevent the emergence of local cliques in the judiciary. However, the power of transfer has always been seen as a possible threat to judicial independence. Even under the Collegium system, it seems it is difficult to dispel the impression that the threat of transfer hangs over every judge’s head. The Memorandum of Procedure is clear that a judge’s consent is not necessary to effect a transfer. The current norm is that all transfers ought to be in public interest, that is, for better administration of justice throughout the country. It also says the personal factors of the judge, including his preference of places, should invariably be taken into account. No one knows if these requirements are fulfilled in each case. Why a puisne judge should be shifted to another State without being made a Chief Justice is seldom explained. Usually, it sets off speculation that the reasons are either allegations against the judge or the discomfiture that his judicial orders are causing to the government. Disclosure of the actual reason may not always be possible. However, it hardly needs to be stressed that transfer cannot be used as a punitive step. The time may have come for a complete review of the provisions for transfer of High Court judges.
📰 It’s time to discuss depopulation
•Two weeks ago, when the world population touched eight billion, several headlines focused on how India was the largest contributor to the last billion and is set to surpass China as the world’s most populous nation by 2023. China’s population has begun to decline, while India’s population is expected to grow for another 40 years, they said. But missing in this conversation is the real threat of depopulation that parts of India too face, and the country’s complete lack of preparedness to deal with it.
•By current United Nations estimates, India’s population will begin to decline only in 2063, by which time it will be just shy of 1.7 billion. The world’s population is expected to grow until 2086. Given that China’s population has begun to decline, these estimates about India have led to alarmist calls for restrictions on family sizes. Such remarks have increasingly assumed an anti-Muslim tone.
•On the other hand, demographers, policy experts and politicians in countries such as Japan, South Korea and Europe, which are experiencing falling fertility and nearing the inflection point of population declines, are beginning to talk about what the future holds and whether reversal is possible. However, the global conversation around depopulation is missing some key elements. Without talking about equitable sharing of housework; access to subsidised childcare that allows women to have families as well as a career; and lowered barriers to immigration to enable entry to working-age people from countries which aren’t yet in population decline, the narrative can sometimes be tinged with anti-feminism and ethnic superiority. And that is precisely why India needs to step into and have this conversation.
Fertility in India
•It is now well-established that fertility in India is falling along expected lines as a direct result of rising incomes and greater female access to health and education. India’s total fertility rate is now below the replacement rate of fertility. However, what needs more urgent policy intervention is the fact that parts of India have not only achieved replacement fertility, but have been below the replacement rate for so long that they are at the cusp of real declines in population. Kerala, which achieved replacement fertility in 1998, and Tamil Nadu, which achieved this in 2000, are examples. Moreover, even in States with relatively high fertility, many cities have been at the replacement rate or below the replacement rate for over a decade, if not more; the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) estimated India’s urban fertility rate in 2019-21 to be 1.6, which places it next to the U.K.
•Yet, India, especially States and cities with below-replacement fertility, is not having the urgent conversation that the U.K. is having about what a future with an ageing population and a declining workforce is going to look like. In the next four years, both Tamil Nadu and Kerala will see the first absolute declines in their working-age populations in their histories. With falling mortality (barring the pandemic), the total population of these States will continue to grow for the next few decades, which means that fewer working-age people must support more elderly people than ever before. Among the female elderly in particular, economic dependence is a serious concern.
•Against this backdrop, both States will also need to re-examine the continued sustainability of low in-migration. In 2011, the median Tamilian was 10 years older than the median Bihari. By 2036, they will be separated by over 12 years and the median Tamilian will be over 40 years old; the working-age population of the future will skew northwards. Yet, even though political and popular rhetoric in Tamil Nadu and Kerala often makes it appear as if these States are facing a surge of migrants from the poorer, more populous northern States, the fact is that both States had negative net migration rates, which means they sent out more migrants than they received, as of 2011, the most recent year for which this data are available. This will make access to working-age persons notably different from the situation in other States with low fertility. These include Delhi and Karnataka which are both net recipients of migrants, and will not confront population decline in the near future (though the future is uncertain given strident nativist political rhetoric across India).
Three challenges
•A depopulating future poses at least three unique challenges to India. First, a skewed sex ratio remains a danger. As the latest round of the NFHS showed, families with at least one son are less likely to want more children than families with just one daughter. Second, the stark differences between northern and southern States in terms of basic literacy as well as enrolment in higher education, including in technical fields, will mean that workers from the southern States are not automatically replaceable. Third, the sharp anti-Muslim tone in the conversation has remained even though fertility between Hindus and Muslims is converging.
•Conversations around fertility reductions in the southern States are often framed around the price that these States are having to pay in relation to others in terms of the share of federal tax receipts or political representation. But there is also the question of the price their own citizens will have to bear in terms of economic productivity and welfare sustainability. With decades of focus on lowering fertility, the conversation in India is stuck in a rut. It is for the southern States to break away from this outmoded, data-free rhetoric and join the global conversation on depopulation.
