Geojit accuses Kotak of stealing information

Kochi: The Kochi-based premier stock broking company Geojit Securities Ltd has accused another stock broking firm of hacking into its account to steal critical business information and blocking information access.

Geojit, the first company to launch Internet-based securities transaction, has now filed a complaint with the Kottayam East police station, requesting to register a case under the IT Act 2000 against this "unethical act."

According to the complaint, the Internet account of the Kottayam regional office of Geojit Securities was allegedly hacked by another firm, the Kottayam-based Kotak Street, a division of Kotak Securities.

Geojit Securities says the hacking came into notice after a 200-hour Satyam Internet account expired on 24 June 2002 rather too fast. Geojit sought details from Satyam Infoway Ltd, who in turn said the account was in regular use even as the staff in the company's Kottayam office could seldom access the account.

The customer care department of Satyam Infoway then handed over to Geojit details about the access log of the previous few days. "From the access log, we realised that the telephone numbers from which the access has been made did not belong to us," says Geojit chief technology officer A Balakrishnan.

On enquiry it was understood that the numbers were used by Kotak Street, Kottayam, says Balakrishnan. "The company's operations are carried out through a computerised digital network and we use different media such as VSAT, leased circuit and ISDN. Our website and database are fully safe as we have implemented world-class security systems."