Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Lack of security of our Govt servers


NEW DELHI: Investigators have unearthed a new and deadly pattern of cyber attacks in which Indian government servers have been used by foreign entities to target the computer networks of third countries.

The finding comes at a time when a dispute rages within the government over who should be responsible for protecting India's critical IT infrastructure. According to sources, foreign entities have penetrated the servers of the National Informatics Centre in recent months and used them to launch attacks on countries, including China. Among other things, the NIC hosts the official websites and emails of the Indian government.

"These attacks are mostly targeted against government networks of various countries," a source said, adding that the attacks were planned in such a way that investigators from the victim countries would believe that they were launched from Indian government servers. Investigators suspect foreign government entities, including intelligence agencies, have a hand in exploiting NIC servers. They say since the attacks were targeted against Chinese government servers too, there is no scope to blame China.

China had in August said that it had suffered about 250,000 cyber attacks from foreign entities, 8% of which had come from India. Sources now believe these attacks could be the result of the NIC servers being exploited by foreign entities.

Even as this new angle to India's IT infrastructure security emerges, a turf battle is raging within the government about who should be protecting it. Sources said both the department of IT and the National Technical Research Organisation-the technical intelligence agency created after the Kargil conflict-had laid claims to being responsible for safeguarding India's IT infrastructure.

The department of IT believes the job should vest with the Computer Emergency Response Team while the NTRO says it must have the responsibility for both defensive as well as offensive cyber security.

Meanwhile, conventional cyber attacks from foreign entities to extract confidential data from Indian government systems are on. Recently, the computer systems of the ITBP came under attack. There have also been attacks on the systems of the MEA, National Security Council secretariat and other departments.

Facebook security threat


The recent Facebook hack has reportedly claimed over 2 lakh victims in Bangalore. According to a news report in Mid Day, some two lakh Facebook users in Bangalore had their accounts hacked and weblinks to their morphed pornographic pictures sent as feeds to friends and family.

Quoting social networking analysts, the report says that more than 2 lakh Bangalore Facebook accounts were hacked. The cybercrime department too is reported to have received calls and complaints regarding the mass hacking.

According to the report, there are around 50 posts on Facebook stating that the users are quitting the social networking site forever after being embarrassed before friends and family.

Incidentally, according to a Bloomberg report, Facebook claimed that it has identified those responsible for the deluge of hardcore porn and violent images in some users' newsfeeds, and said it is working with its legal team "to ensure appropriate consequences follow."

The social networking company made the statement after porn, pictures of extreme violence and faked photos of celebrities such as Justin Bieber in sexual situations had overrun the profiles of some Facebook users.

Facebook said that it has "drastically limited the damage caused" by a spam attack that took advantage of a browser vulnerability. "Protecting the people who use Facebook from spam and malicious content is a top priority for us," Palo Alto, California-based Facebook said in a statement.

Users were tricked into pasting malware into their browsers, which in turn resulted in the sharing of offensive content, Facebook said.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Transition from SLB to SSN

School days are the golden days of anyone's life. It's the same in my case too. That too if u come from a Govt school like the one which i came from(exclusive boys school) then those days are the most memorable days one can ever get in their life.  The P.E.T(Physical Education and Training)periods during which we used to play high catch,7-stones,basketball and the fights that happen during the basket ball matches which disappears as soon as the period gets over,the first basket which i scored for my class team,my silly fights with my close friends are all really unforgettable.

Even though i had all these memorable moments i still feel that i missed many things in my school days like going out with friends,hanging out with them and many other things. Most of my leisure time is spent infront of my PC in playing games.From 10th to 12th most of the time i used to spend in tuitions which made my schedule hectic. But still i had time to spend with PC playing all the new graphics games which was released at that time :P One thing i have to say that i haven't know anything about girls and don't had friends from opposite sex :P

August 11,2008 the day when i entered the next heaven(SSN),i felt bad after my parents left me in hostel . In noon during the Cognizant program i saw a girl who came forward when the compere called some volunteers ,that moment i felt like bulbs glowing :P. She's the first girl whom I liked. This is my first change in my college. Then as days went by came to know many friends,started adjusting to hostel environment. One person(girl) from my hometown got introduced to me by the girl whom i told above.As days went by she became my best friend.This is my next change.. In first year i haven't got that much friends in college. My friends circle is small as like my school days.I still remember the first exam which i bunked(EG unit test).

After entering the 2nd year i got an excellent gang of friends. The first outing with friends is when i went to SRM college for PARADIGM(our dept symposium) publicity.This is my next change.First time symposium works,friend betraying me,proposing a girl,and many many changes happened.First time outing with girls (to mahabalipuram)  then MUNNAR tour are awesome.The first real sad thing happened in the gang is when two friends stopped talking to eachother b'coz of a girl.

In 3rd year going out with friends became a regular thing.Started bunking many classes and hanged out with friends,which is the next change.The trip to GOA is the ultimate enjoyment which i had with guys.
With many and bitter moments third year went by.Now entered final year of college life. I regret of missing PARADIGM this year. Had tough times still had a lot joyful time with my gang.

From school life to now the only thing without any change is my interest towards PC games especially FIFA.Now gonna enter the final semester of college life so feeling bad of missing all my dear friend and my wonderful gang. :(