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
Posted by: Muhammad Ali Raza on October 11, 2008 at 12:08 AM
Internet has become a play ground for hackers & crackers. These days they keep on flying around as they have gathered themselves into organized groups who work like a team.
These hackers remain busy in inventing new methods to damage/hack corporate entities and internet users. They are getting smarter with each passing day and I am afraid to narrate this that they are doing very smart things now.
Every day anti virus vendors face around 30,000 new Viruses, Worms, Trojans, etc and all their employees remain busy in identifying and creating anti-virus signatures into their database to get ready with updates. You may have seen your Anti-Virus application updating it every other day, if not daily. This means, there is no permanent solution to these viruses, Trojans, and other hacking codes that gets installed on your PC automatically.
Just think that about an email that you received from your Company or your bank and it says “Sir we have been reported hack attempt please update your personal information” or “We are upgrading our server or Database please click this link and move forward”. Many of innocent internet users like you click that link and here you go. You have been selected as bot (this is what they call hacked system) and you will be following unauthorized instructions on command of a hacker.
Most important thing to tell you guys is that by simply opening an HTML page, or at time just clicking a link, or opening a mail can risk you hacked attacks - this can be achieved with two approaches
- phpbot (same as ircd bot but this is work with HTTP so no more firewall blocking)
- exploit (Peace of code which is used to get advantage of poorly written program)
- Pack (more then one exploit for more effective result).
These phpbots, exploits, and Packs are sent via Emails, like when you get email and opens, it may contain piece of code to take advantage of your system. Additionally this email can have virus to take full authorized access your computer to collect Credit Card information, bank login, every user password you enter from that PC, and this virus can be capable of sending all this information back to hacker, using your PC.
They have more bad options to harm internet users, such as spreaders – these are viruses that spread it self not only by emails, but with USBs, MSN messenger, YAHOO messenger, P2P NETWORKs, Outlook email list etc.
This was just an introductory post to overview possible dangers that we face every day. I have tried to not to go into technical details, however, in future, I will discuss each of them with further details and way to protect yourself from such issues.
2 Comments
Posted by: Muhammad Ali Raza on October 7, 2008 at 11:01 PM
Let’s welcome Mohammad Ali Raza, who has joined ProPakistani as a writer. Ali is a security expert, and keenly eyes and manages security for countless web applications for Europian and US companies.
These days, I am facing tons of troubles, like many of you, while using internet. This is due to the reason that my broadband service provider, including other very well reputed ISPs (Internet Service Provider) are not doing there jobs like they are supposed to offer quality and in-expensive service and freedom.
By freedom I mean these ISPs block various ports, hence people like me who frequently use port forwarding face issues.
When your internet goes down, you normally call them – and they come up with same story “Sir we are working on the issue or we are upgrading our system” etc, I suppose they lie on this!
Problem with these type service providers is that they don’t have good man power - they don’t pay good salaries to their employees and eventually their customers suffer.
Some months back my broadband service provider was down when I had suggested them cleanup their virus, on which they replied “Sir we have experts, who are working on this” – and you will be amazed to know that they we saw internet blackout for 2 week before their debugged the issue. This service provider was Fariya, well known service provider in Gulshan area Karachi. This issue was caused by a worm that attacked Domain Name System (DNS) configuration. I have seen other service providers like CITY, WCN, Multi-Net etc, facing same worm attack, and they too remained down for good amount of time.
Small service provider are good and in-expensive then bigger ones out there, they ask you less but give you freedom to do what ever you want like they don’t block torrents p2p other applications and some sites, I didn’t mean about porn here like big companies have porn filter but my 14 years brother can bypass those poor filter which cost broadband people a lot of $$$.
3 Comments
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on October 7, 2008 at 2:29 PM
We had reported back in May 2008 that Wi-Tribe is planning to enter into WiMAX market in Pakistan, after Wateen and Mobilink. Now after Motorola has signed a multi-year WiMAX contract with wi-tribe Pakistan limited, Wi-Tribe seems set ready for a the all-new wireless broadband Internet provider to enter the Pakistan.
Motorola says that it will supply infrastructure and a comprehensive services package that will enable wireless broadband services for wi-tribe’s customers.
It merits mentioning here that wi-tribe Pakistan Limited is a joint venture between Qatar Telecom (Qtel) and Saudi Arabia’s A.A. Turki Group of Companies (ATCO). wi-tribe is also aiming to deliver instant wireless broadband connectivity from North Africa across the Middle East and up to Asia (AMESA region).
In a wi-tribe statement issued from Islamabad, Mohammad Sadiq, CEO of wi-tribe Pakistan limited said that WiMAX is changing the way people are connecting and is opening doors to a new world of opportunities, “We will be offering high-speed Internet that is simple, affordable, and a portable alternative to fixed broadband”, added Mr. Sadiq.
While on other hands, Mr. Ali Amer, Vice President Sales, Middle East, Africa and Pakistan, Motorola Home & Networks Mobility, at the signing ceremony said “WiMAX will become a driving force in Pakistan. This is why Motorola stands at the forefront of such an important industry standard that enables progressive service providers such as wi-tribe to launch high-speed, rich, yet affordable communications services.”
It is learned that Motorola will straight away begin deploying wi-tribe’s WiMAX network from October 2008 in the 3.5GHz spectrum. Commercial launch is expected during 2009.
Motorola will supply award-winning equipment from its WiMAX portfolio including the WAP 400 WiMAX access point, which features diversity MIMO antenna capabilities to enable strong indoor penetration.
4 Comments
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 27, 2008 at 8:21 PM
Submarine Cable connecting dozens of countries, SMW4 has been cut down near Egypt in its Segment-3 between Suez - Alexendria.
Due to this cut, Internet Service Providers in Pakistan are experiencing packet loss and delay problems in their uplink service providers; hence internet users in Pakistan may face latency, or delays while surfing the internet, especially while downloading files.
National internet traffic will see a shift towards SMW3 - so no major blackout expected.
Updates are awaited regarding the rectification.
10 Comments
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 26, 2008 at 8:15 PM
A general feedback would be that not many of would be expecting a single Paper Eid card this Eid…! By the way I am one of them; thanks to Electronic Cards and SMS luxury that we are having in our lives.
Estimates say that 75 percent people now opt for e-cards instead of Paper cards. E-Cards or SMS messages are pure example of innovative services replacing the conventional ones, due to various reason that include
- Fast delivery – just in seconds compared to days or weeks
- Economical –You don’t need to spend anything on e-cards given that internet is available, and SMS are considered almost free (Thanks to SMS Packages)
- Plenty of variety available
- You don’t need to rush to markets and spend your head in traffic jams and crowd
I would like to know if you guys still send/receive paper cards? If yes then why?
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