Even as we hunker down in our technology trenches, attackers are finding increasingly sophisticated ways of breaking into our privacy and breaching our security. Hacking is a euphemism for what is in fact an act of electronic war with devastating consequences. The question is are we reay to defend our domain?

When Bangalore based programmer Vijay Kumar's virus temporarily paralysed the systems of his U.S.-based company, Phoenix global, the country's IT capital woke up to the menace of cyber crime. His arrest made headlines. But, the bad news really is that by the standards of hard-core cyber crimes, what Vijay Kumar did amounted to nothing more than a petty prank.

What you are about to read is not pretty; it is a scary peek into the very real world of techno-terror.

• Cyber murders: A hacker breaks into hospital medical records and maliciously alters prescriptions. Say, if a patient is allergic to penicillin, the hacker adds 500 mg of penicillin to his usual dose of medication. The nurse administers the drug causing immediate death.

• Cyber terrorism: Using a technology called steganography, terrorists like Osama bin Laden routinely communicate with their global cronies by encrypting messages into image files, inaccessible to all except those with the password. Therefore, that 36-24-36 bimbo you last saw on a site or that picture of Aishwarya Rai you downloaded from the Net, might actually have contained a devastating message in codes.

• Explosive info: There are some 50 sites, which give you the recipe for making RDX bombs.

• Drug dealing: Narcotic drugs are sold on auction sites under innocuous-sounding names. It can be 50 grams of honey for 50 grams of cocaine.

• Money laundering" E-gold site where hawala transactions are done in broad daylight you are given tips of how to trade in gold and make illegal pots of money.

• Forgery: Sites that teach students how to use high-end drum scanners for creating look-alike certificates using Microsoft word!

Makes you think that what Vijay Kumar at Phoenix did was child's play, right? Says, IGP B.N. Nagaraj, who heads the first cyber police station in the country. "There are 20 types of listed cyber crimes. Fortunately, not all of them are prevalent here. However, we do get reports of threatening e-mails and of women receiving obnoxious calls from strangers responding to their pictures and phone numbers on call girl sites.

So, how do the cops smoke out cyber criminals?

Every e-mail leaves behind a trace leading back to its point of origin in the form of an e-mail header. To view the header all you need do is press 'options' button and then go to 'preferences'. This will throw up two boxes where you can view your e-mail in full, complete with the IP addresses. The IP address, usually a number like 120.12.111, can be traced to VSNL. But only the police have the authority to trace back the route of the message beyond this point right up to the doorstep of the offending subscriber. Talk to lawyers Rohas Nagpal and Debasish Nayak, the authors of the recently released manual on cyber crime, and they tell you how the cops they are training can uncover the seemingly complicated trail of an e-mail. If the police track down an offender they must first restrain the criminal. A street smart cyber criminal can thwart anything that comes in his way, says Mr. Nagpal.

There was this case in the U.S. where the police had closed in on a cyber criminal they arrested, confiscated his computer system and taken both to the police station. When they set up the system in the station to check out the files, it was all-blank. What they did not realise was he had set up magnetic coils in his doorway and once the computer was taken through this strong magnetic field, it had erased all the files in his system. There was no proof of what he had committed and he went scot-free, says Mr. Nagpal.

Interestingly, if you want to wipe an incriminating floppy clean, all you need do is place it close to a cellular phone or even a hot cup of coffee. Chances are that the strong magnetic fields they create will interfere with the floppy and corrupt it. A CD, of course, is more robust customer.