Posted by: Muhammad Ali Raza on October 23, 2008 at 2:50 AM
Few days ago, a friend of mine was looking around for someone’s mobile info; like he was interested in knowing his address details and some other basic information. Previously we had a combined friend in a Telecom company, so such little things were not big issues. However, now he is in Canada for a better job. Hence my friend asked me to figure out some way but I was left with no option. We kept on wondering about how to tackle this do or die situation.
After doing some research, I just found a very good way to find someone’s info. (I am sharing this to let you guys know how badly configured our online systems are, and how insecure our information is)
You can get someone’s name and city right? Its very easy, simply call helpline and plead a little, and they give away this info and its not hard part (I did this personally). Also name and city can be acquired by your cousin or cousin’s friend who is working in cellular company franchise. (Franchises can access to name and city of any number)
So now we have victim’s name and city and last name (last name is must here, as it is used to find address).
See, we can acquire complete details from this basic information, in fact you would be surprised that many online phone directories offer this very personal information like a duh!
I wonder, how this very private data of PTCL was stolen away, and above this, how daringly these websites are offering free online directories of this sensitive and private data. I am not promoting these website, but just wanted to share how insecure we are.
http://17.ptcl.net.pk/
check it out, PTCL’s online directory - taking advantage of such thing is not bad! Is it?
Here is magic string use it well boys
“http://17.ptcl.net.pk/subcsribeinfoResult.asp?txtname=NAME&txtadd=CITY&submit1=Search”.
Change NAME with the last name of victim - that we got from call center or franchise; while change NAME with city name.
Here you go, match your number with name and enjoy! There are good chances if name is rare one, as you will get less results for uncommon names. And in case of multiple results, and if you are not sure about your match, simply call the number from any PCO and act like TCS or DHL guy, and tell them “Sir we have a letter for you from XYZ bank, can you please confirm your address” you guys can give him same name address from that’s city he will confirm you this address, even if it was incorrect huh how much hard this was?
Lessons for us!
Please Immediately block all these services, as they are of no good. They are just used for ill means. Even, if there are some genuine inquires, they must be routed to PTCL’s helpline 1217, which should verify its legitimacy prior to revealing any details.
16 Comments
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on October 22, 2008 at 2:08 PM
Mobilink Infinity has commercially launched its WiMAX operations today (October 22, 2008), starting with Karachi. Its website is LIVE and says that they are offering services in Karachi only. covering only one city is not what Orascom is famous for. I am personally not convinced with their launch in only Karachi.
Tariff:
Mobilink revised their tariff from what they offered initially at soft launch. Major difference is that now download is capped at 5 GB a month or 15 GB a month (Previously it was unlimited). Also rates are taken little higher than of previous ones.
Soft Launch special rates were
256 kbps Unlimited: Rs. 799
512 kbps Unlimited: Rs. 999
1024 kbps Unlimited: Rs. 1199
(Thanks to Saad Ibrahim and Mudassar Ijaz for pointing out these rates)
Monthly rates seems good, but there is somethng very annoying at the bottom, the upfront payment of Rs. 10,000 which is too much i guess for home users (Security deposit of Rs. 2,000 is refundable though). From market feedback Mobilink Infinity has decided to cut short the upfront payment. Now its only Rs. 6.000.
When compared with Wateen, Monthly rental are good but Voice and Data packages are mandatory as of Wateen - Meaning that you must subscribe to voice as well as data package with Mobilink Infinity. It is like thrusting voice package, as not many will be interested in Voice (as per estimations).
Apart from pricing, services, response time, customer support, reliability and network uptime are other features that would come under consideration in the long run.
Want to Subscribe to Mobilink Infinity?
Updates to come in coming days regaring service feedback
For Service review during Soft Launch: Click Here
For Mobilink Infinity Network history: Click here
25 Comments
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on October 19, 2008 at 11:48 AM
Pakistan’s fastest friend, China has announced to launch a telecommunication satellite, named PakSat-1R, for Pakistan in year 2011. The satellite’s chief contractor China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC) has lately reported that a Long March 3B rocket will be used to put the satellite into orbit. It will launch from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in the south western Sichuan province.
According to Business Recorder the satellite company will manage ground control facilities for the satellite to be delivered to the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission after it enters orbit. CGWIC and its sub-contractors are responsible for the design, manufacturing, final assembly, testing and launch of the satellite.
Paksat-1R will have a life span of 15 years. Pakistan will use it for domestic telecommunication and broadcast services. Contracts for the satellite deal were inked during President Asif Ali Zardari’s recent visit to China.
3 Comments
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on October 16, 2008 at 11:19 AM
There is this rumor that Telenor Pakistan is going to launch its WiMAX operations in Pakistan, or they are at least, very keenly studying the WiMAX market.
Thetechturtle has come up with this news citing an insider that Telenor’s WiMAX launch is expected first quarter next year.
I know one thing for sure that Telenor has spent a huge amount of time working on the R&D for this project. The first I came to know about Telenor coming up with WiMAX was in December 2006, when Wateen was preparing to give out user trials in Lahore. The word at the time was that there were 5 people working on the project and it was so hush that the employees who were working on the project research had to sign an oath declaring that if they spoke a word of it to anyone, they will be promptly fired.
However, Telenor Pakistan’s spokesman firmly denied any such launch, and said “Telenor Pakistan currently has no plans to launch WiMAX Operations in Pakistan.”
I am not sure if WiMAX business is Pakistan’s next catch, instead of faster mobile internet. But keeping in view, many unsatisfied customers from Wateen and Mobilink yet to make an impression… investment Giant like Telenor can play some good game.
1 Comment
Posted by: Muhammad Ali Raza on October 16, 2008 at 9:07 AM
New attack method has been designed by hackers to get your system infected. We, very frequently, use Wi-Fi (wireless) access points in our offices, home, universities and public places such as restaurants and airports. Microsoft Windows actually tends to remember our previous Wi-Fi sessions, so that it can communicate with known Wi-Fi networks to connect your PC or laptop by sending synchronization packages, and all this happens without your approval.
Hacker used this function as a attacking method, as they send you requests to accept their networks as your Wi-Fi connections. These requests can be like “Hey it’s me your office access point connect here” or “This is your home network connect this”.
Normal users, like many of us, will connect these networks, but doing so will you get to bunch or attacks on your machine, as your operating system or application gives hackers unauthorized access to your system.
You cant skip these hacking requests, as they are carried away automatically. So you cant stop this but there are some ways to do some tweaking to keep such attacks busy for sometime and to put more effect to get them access to your system.
- Keep your wireless card (Wi-Fi) devices turned off when not in use
- Make sure what network you are connecting to
- Keep you WiFi cache data clean
- Use WPA2 with AES encryption method for your home or office networks.
1 Comment
Posted by: Muhammad Ali Raza on October 16, 2008 at 6:39 AM
Alaska Governor and republican Vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s quasi-personal Yahoo Mail (~censerd~@yahoo.com) account was hacked by the infamous group called “Anonymous”. The hackers’ crew post her personal info on net to let every one see what her personal life is. This is very worst case - like most of the time hackers usually don’t post evidence of there attacks. She is denying the facts but we if assume that this is real then this can be archived by lots of method.
- Password guessing / brute force attacks
- Password recovery system flaw or website vulnerability
- Network sniffers
- Phishing scams
- Insider (rouge customer service representation or software backdoor)
- Operating System Malware/Spyware
- Stolen hardware
- Lost backup tape (hah, as if free WebMail providers have backups!)
- Use of a public computer or many other ways we can’t even think about
There is no solid, or say a perfect way to secure you critical information, yes, sadly its true - but what you can do is to follow few things very strictly while surfing on internet.
If a hacker wants to break in to your security, he/she will do this by any means - but its in your hand to give hacker a tough time.
Some steps you can follow are to Not to Post your personal info on Blogs - Don’t use weak passwords, here strong password doesn’t mean any special characters or 23 digits password, but don’t use your phone number, family name, school related information or id card number.
I have seen people using there mobile number as a password, or their name then mobile number.
I must tell you here that there are some software available that generates password list if you put info of target person, such as their name, phone numbers, their city name, family name etc.
Other very crucial thing is to not to put your resume on internet social networking websites.
Update your OS (Operating System) and applications to patch latest security threats. Do use anti-viruses and firewalls to keep your self away from this crap. You can’t stop hacker to break in but you can make them slow to break in change your password monthly or weekly.
4 Comments
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on October 12, 2008 at 4:18 PM
PTCL says that they will cross any limit to facilitate their customers, this time its Free Internet Dial-up Service, starting from October 18, 2008.
All PTCL landline subscribers can now get benefited of Free and unlimited dial-up internet from 10:00 pm to 07:00 am. Not only this, you can avail 100 hours of free dial-up internet at day time during 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM in a month.
From October 18, PTCL customers availing unlimited dial up internet package of Rs. 199/month will not be charged anymore, however, customer exceeding 100 hr of free internet during day time will be charged as per existing tariff of PTCL dial up internet at Rs. 6/h
How to Use
- Simply dial 131-77777
- User name: “ptcl”
- Password: “ptcl”
- And press connect, here you go
Terms
- Dial-up Internet is Free and Unlimited from 10:00 PM to 7:00 AM
- You can use 100 free internet hours at day during 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM
- If you exceed 100 free internet hours limit at day time, you will be charged Rs. 6 Per hour
- Offer starts from October 18th, 2008
- This is a promotional and limited time offer
A good offer for consumers, but anyone thinking of ISPs in the country? who are already struggling… it is like killing them and kicking them out of business
5 Comments
Posted by: Muhammad Ali Raza on October 12, 2008 at 12:47 AM
I don’t want to write too much about this topic, but yes I surly want, in fact I demand my readers and authorities concerned to please do some thing about this or we will get destroyed…
I just saw a 10 years old kid coming out of a net café after watching porn (even and that net café doesn’t have internet connectivity).
My question is what this kid will have in hands after few years? What is going to be our future?
My Request to Net Café owners: Please look for other businesses, Allah has promised the livelihood and you gonna get it. Please don’t use ill means
My Request to Parents: You love your children more than anyone, keep an eye on them
My Request to FIA/ PTA/ Police: Don’t play with future of Pakistan, Please save us.
My Request to fellow bloggers and readers: Please spread the word, it counts
7 Comments
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