Eideard

An internet firm linked to many of the internet’s criminal gangs has been shut down.

The US Federal Trade Commission said Belize-based 3FN aided gangs that ran botnets, carried out phishing attacks and traded in images of child abuse.

The servers and net hardware of 3FN have been seized and are due to be sold off as the firm is dismantled.

The operators of 3FN must also pay back $1.08 million they are reputed to have made by hosting criminal sites…

It was involved in distributing spyware, viruses and trojans, had a hand in many phishing schemes and helped gangs sell illegal images. It also acted as a discussion forum for many spammers.

In particular, said the FTC, the net firm worked with fraudsters who run botnets and helped them steal data by seeding hijacked computers with keyloggers. It maintained a library of more than 4500 malicious programs that could pilfer data from hijacked PCs.

In June last year, the FTC used an injunction to cut 3FN off from other hosting providers and sever its connections to the net.

Now the FTC has gone a step further and won a court order that will see the company stop trading and its hardware confiscated. The FBI has been ordered to carry out the shut down and seizure operation.

Overdue.

Organic teagarden in Sikkim
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

The northwest state of Punjab is popularly known as the breadbasket of India.

But many local farmers say that decades of using chemicals and pesticides, encouraged by the government, has caused health problems including cancer.

It’s a point of view borne out by research.

A 2008 study by the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that the incidence of cancer in the area was nearly double that of a similar sized town 200 kilometers away, citing “involvement in cultivation, pesticide use, alcohol consumption and smoking…”

India is one of the largest producers of pesticides in the world, much of it for local consumption. But now there’s a new awareness. There’s a big change sweeping across the fields of rural India. Tens of thousands of farmers are giving up on chemical farming and going back to a traditional ancient way of farming which is organic.

Environmentalists estimate that India has around 300,000 organic farms. Farmers are learning different skills and adjusting their mindset, says Upendra Dutt, who organizes training sessions in organic agriculture.

With the growing demand both in India and abroad for organic products, it makes business sense as well.

Anuj Katyal’s company exports organic basmati rice to 15 countries where customers don’t mind paying a premium for the organic label. India’s organic farming sector accounts for only a sliver of the global $50 billion market for organic products but the potential is huge. “We tell people eating an organic apple is not only good for you, it’s good for the environment and will help the farmer grow another organic one,” Katyal said.

Agreed. We’re fortunate enough in our neck of the prairie also to be getting organic tomatoes, right now, from Mexico for the same price or less than the old-fashioned chain stores. Other goodies from Guatemala and Belize.