Is police acting deliberately?

Investigating agencies in any serial blasts by terrorists usually have two big-time `friends' - the ubiquitous cell phones and emails. The perpetrators behind most attacks were traced by combing through a series of cell phone calls or by sifting through millions of emails, including some in coded language. In 13th July Blast Mumbai police suspect two residents of Juhu and Grant Road, Subhan alias Tauqir and Aslam. Police need their email ID; can any Indian hacker reach to them? Can any cyber security cell do the miracle? However, how are these mails going to help police? Nowadays, almost every kid knows the trick to use temporally email IDs and everyone know the funda to maintain anonymity on internet. Not only Abdul Subhan alias Tauqir is a computer engineer but also an expert in making bombs. And, this is known to the mastermind and chief of Indian Mujahideen also known as Bin Laden of India. Thus, it’s not easy to get the personal email ID of Tauqir.

Another thing is that when police is aware about whom they are where they stay and their other details then can’t they raid their place and nab them? Or it’s again a stunt to mislead media and common man? The men behind the attacks kept far way from cell phones and emails. The only time they used the cell phone was to trigger the bomb I guess. Moreover, the terrorists are well versed with the city; rains have helped them erasing many traces. Whoever is behind this attack, one thing can be said that they have used every resource accurately. They knew the exact time and places where there would be gullible crowds and used the rainy climate for two purposes. It was raining heavily and most people in the area were either using umbrellas or were in raincoats that masked their face. Hence, the series of snooping CCTV cameras could hardly `capture' the men who may have planted the explosive material. Fuel oil is an essential component and as it acts as a force to ammonium nitrate, it helps increasing strength of the explosion. This proves that whoever is behind the attack has to be local Mumbaikar. And if suppose this is done by some outsider then, to study that location and doing recce, he should have definitely visited the location in the past. Instead of looking at current CCTV footages police should look at previous footages and try to find out the new visitors. Moreover studying CCTV footages of airport or railways stations or bus stand is again a time waste, because there are many ways to escape from Mumbai.

One option is taking a ferry through see from Gateway to Panvel, and Panvel to highways towards Pune. Second option, there are several private bus services from one locations to another; third option, Mumbai is blessed with hideouts and shelters for criminals, may be someone sheltered them and helped to escape. Beating around the bush is not the solution at this moment. Investigators are now banking on huge amounts of forensic verification sifted from the area and the reams of CCTV images from the blast sites.

Look at the irony, our Central Government doesn't have any road-map or guideline to foil or prevent such attacks. It is certainly least concerned about well being of its citizens. This is the seriousness of the government that the most important portfolio RAILWAY which has largest employees, remains without union railway ministers for months only because coalition partner is indecisive to choose one. Keeping in mind the innocent lives at stake Indian government needs to act swiftly. We are not at all 'resilience' just the fact is that we have no choice. The people of India who are responsible for the safety and security of the country are thoroughly corrupt, in-efficient, inept and unbecoming of the high and administrative offices they are holding. Our border security is next to non-existent and our borders with Bangladesh, Myanmar and Pakistan are porous. Traffickers pay huge bribes to the officers and men of BSF and freely and fearlessly cross the borders from both the sides. The govt. of India is not blind to all these, but directly and indirectly encouraging such corrupt people to man the borders for their narrow political gains as the immigrant population, belonging to a particular community and religion always and invariably, votes for one particular political party. Our security and intelligence officers do not bother to do their duty for the nation but are involved in turf wars and ego clashes. India needs a revolution to throw out all the corrupt and criminal forces. Investigations in the blast case are on the line of as usual process, no extra efforts made for reaching criminals, helpless police and administrations just passing the bucks and moving with thick skin.

Look at Ajmal Aamir Kasab, he is eating nicely cooked biryani and enjoying his time after killing so many people, police any how managed to catch him and finish trials. But can anyone really damage or deter him? He has put on 11 KG weight since his arrest, looks cool and relaxed because he is aware of his good fate. Look at Abu Salem, he comes to court for trials like a Bollywood hero laughing at Law. Goes back to jail gracefully, doing gym, maintain his skin and watching TV, reading news. Moreover, he even contested elections from Ajamgad sitting in our own Indian Jail. If this is what terrorists are going to receive in our country, then they are not even bothered to be caught. They are running and still you reach them, once you nab them they will hit headlines, they will be talked and shown round the clock, they will discussed and finally land in jail to have their relaxing time. They will remain as under trials, government will take care of them spending crores of rupees and energy. Police personals will be busy narrating all glossy stories about terrorists, their defense lawyers will narrate every glossy story to make it more attentive and interesting. We the public will forget who he was and what they have done to us, because we have very short memory.

Larger the banner, greater the hypocrisy

Until today, the news headlines say Rupert Murdoch should fire Rebekah Brooks from News of the World for failing to respect the law formulated for reporters. True, very true! Even so, is it possible?
In India sting operation is in fashion, today Tehelka is popular just because of its sting operation. Tarun Tejpal is the owner and Editor in Chief of the publication that’s the reason no one could question him or blame him for anything. However, if he would have been an employee or paid as editor of the publication then he would be out of the market. Few years ago, some news channel did sting operation on Shakti kapoor and we as viewers enjoyed it rather objecting upon such trends.

Aaj Tak did sting operation on Pramod Muthalik and Aasaram Bapu and many such people, by violating all ethics and rules of journalism, but no one goes against them. News channel needs TRP and viewership, which is only possible through controversy and scandals. If the editor bans such practices, then he would be accused for his inefficiency. However, if he does the sting operation at all and someone takes objections on it then the banner and owner both put the blame on the editor and washes their hands off.

I understand the pain of Rebekah Brooks, actually it’s not her fault it’s the fault of her thankless job and position, she was holding in the newspaper. I am sure; every newspaper and news channel definitely possesses taped conversations of thousands of celebrities, politicians, sports stars and common people. For the simple reason, if the desk question reporter about the conversation proof then they have to produce the records by default. Moreover, many times a source denies his statements, so one need to keep the proof. Rebekah Brooks is not the acceptation. I can understand why she had to fall on her own sword which she has sharpened for the interest of newspaper and its readers.

There is one story to dictate here for you. My editorial team was irritated over discussions and was cracking their brains for a topic to make the lead story on. I too was in thoughts as what to pen down for the front page story. The deadline was coming to an end. Then, I remembered Kumar Ketkar's speech in a Rotary Club function at Dombivli where he had recalled a situation from the time when he was the Editor of Maharashtra Times. Kumar was revealing the other side of Journalism which said Bad news is a Good news; a compulsory virtue of journalism all over the world. And just then, Poonam Chambers collapsed. It was a huge sigh of relief as finally there was something worth a lead. War journalists, crime journalists and others; they all strive for off-routine pictures and reports. Every journo aims for a Watergate; a life-turning event/scam. The class of journalists is reflected in the investigative journalism in any bear. There is equal scope for an investigative talent in all the beats of journalism.
Press Freedom, liberty to write, investigative journalism, journalism of courage are terms that have been imposed upon us since ages.

The most Hippocratic profession is journalism. One may recall Arun Shourie's rise and fall in Indian Express group. A layman remembers Mr. Shourie as a courageous journalist who exposed the cement scam of then Maharashtra CM Barrister A.R. Antulay. He then had to quit 'Express' as a prize for his courage. The reality is entirely different. But this scam and consequences after that was the end of Shourie as an Editor. The policy of publishing is guided by the affiliations and interests of the managements. A journalist or an Editor is merely a salesman. He can shoot only at the sweet will of the paymaster. Media; news media is a business venture as clear as a profit-making organization which has to pay salaries in time. Mid-day publications, take, for example, in reputed for paying-fat salaries and that too in time. It does not cover news much. It is the still most prosperous newspaper. Jyotirmoy Dey went out of routine and paid for his bravery by getting shot by the hands of underworld goons.

Still it is journalism of courage, as professed by it. It is a harsh reality that journalism as a profession is a paid job. What so chaotic about paid-journalism is when journalists at any level are doing a paid job? I feel we must end the hypocrisy in the fourth-estate and come out with real ourselves telling the world that we are not Superman, but we are sales executives working on salaries and hidden perk.

The Times of India consistently maintains its reputation as a balanced newspaper and does not run after exposures and scams/scandals. Very rarely it does operate as an exposing medium against corruption, but then it never hits below the belt. The RK’s cartoons have placed Times group in an exclusive place in the world of print media. The Times editorial are a stuff for aspirants of competitive examinations as also for administrators, political executives and corporate. Girilal Jain occupied the office of the Times group as an Editor for a pretty long time and added academic depth to the editorial column. Kumar Ketkar, initially wrote for Economic Times before taking over the charge as an Editor of Maharashtra Times, the Marathi language edition of the Times group. Kumar happens to be the first journalist to have switched over from Economic news to political news coverage. Kumar

Ketkar's editorials left a mark on the readers' minds. Very unfortunately, he made an unsung exit immediately after winning Padma Shri in year 2000-01. Ritu Sarin, of Indian Express earned a place in the category of celebrated journalists when she exposed the Tata tapes involving Field Marshal Sam Manickshaw with Mr. Ratan Tata, a business-tycoon. Ms. Sarin's exposures have a class of her own and she too, like her counterparts in Times does not hit below the belt, nor does she profess scams-exposure as a career. Neither Mr. Girilal Jain nor Ms Sarin has won a Padma for their contribution to media.

Sucheta Dalal, a phenomenon that came to be from the Big Bull exposure of the Stock Market kite-flying scam, left the Times Group to join its arch-rival Indian Express. It was a very unprecedented move, and she continued there for long before launching her own publications. Ms. Dalal won Padma Shri quite late in life, almost a decade after the exposure. Friend or foe, it has to be a subject and not a person, is the way she professed journalism. Her article appealing mercy for Harshad Mehta, not from the criminal prosecution but from the hectic investigation and judicial journey was on humanitarian grounds. She had written that Harshad Mehta might die in prison if subjected to a suffocating system. And that is what happened years later as Mehta died of cardiac arrest in Thane jail.

A name that flew a lot like a stormy wave amidst the Bofors controversy was of Ms. Chitra Subramaniam of 'The Hindu' newspaper, a south-India based English daily. Ms. Subrmaniam with her editor Mr. N. Ram earned an international repute for cornering the then Congress government over the kick-back allegations in a purchase deal of Howitzer Long-range guns, known as Bofors.

The Swedish company had allegedly paid kick-backs to an official broker of Indian origin Mr. Win Chhada for executing the contract. Then Congress MP and matinee-idol Amitabh Bachchan made a history as he put his papers as an MP. It happened for the first time in the history of 'Independent India' that a Member of Parliament resigned over a controversy. The electronic media brought a type of journalism without much depth. The weight and depth of print-media journalism are totally absent in this form of news media.

In the times of “Sabse Tez” viewers are taken for granted. We see Arnab Goswami on TIMES NOW screaming “Enough is Enough". Who are you trying to fool?” Then we have a beard-sporting chap on a multi-national banner threatening us all the time like a gangster. His tone, ups and downs in his voice have no consonance at all with the topic or the incident he is narrating. What we hear all the time is “Better watch my programme or you had it”. The space titled Breaking News is compulsorily flashing round the clock. It is now understood by the viewers that like an ad or a banner occupying the cable movie channel all the time.

Editorial Ownership and foreign ownership are two concepts in media that make a lot of difference for such banners that are under such management. As for foreign ownership there was a hue and cry from the locals some years ago and government was forced slap some restrictions. I do not recollect the details or modalities of these norms, but then the class that foreign media possess and function with, we lack; especially in electronic media.

The application of mind and appetite for news and news and news; in-depth news, is tremendous in foreign journalists. I remember recently having read of a boy in a very poor African territory who produced electricity with windmill that he made of scrap items collected from his village. His village had never seen electricity before.

The CNN correspondent reached him, took him to international conference and exposed his talents to the world, I do not recollect any such news item in the related to Indian media for years together. There is no dearth of brave journalists, who if given an opportunity shall strive for excellence. Problem is that the managements in the age of competition cannot afford to concentrate on journalism as such. It is a harsh reality that journalism as a profession is a paid job.
The introduction of electronic channels has faded off the charm of breaking-news and scam-exposures.

There is compulsorily the tag of Breaking News 24/7 on every channel. What is flashed under that tag is a scrap by compulsion. I also remember a very leading channel breaking news when Amitabh Bachchan on his way from hospital to home; decided to take a left turn for his mother's house. The news channel reader was excited so much that his belly fell off breaking the news.

Less written, less agony, here I stop out of irritation….

Because it reminds me of my days at Afternoon Despatch and Courier and staffs’ dirty politics, this is probably the fate of every editor in our country…

Indian Government web-sites need attention

The Hacker collective Anonymous joined the fight against Indian corruption by hacking the site of the Indian government IT website NIC, the National Informatics Center. Ostensibly the hack was a retaliation for the government’s violence against Indian activist Baba Ramdev, who had been staging a hunger strike to protest government corruption, which the government recently disbanded with violent force. The hack, which the group claims took just three minutes, displayed the above message on the site. NIC quickly moved to take the page offline, but a cached Google page confirmed the direct hit by Anonymous. The hack comes just days after Anonymous hacked the government database of Iran, exposing private emails from that country. While no data was stolen or exposed from this latest hack in India, Anonymous’ message was clear: the corruption of institutional forces runs against individual freedom.

A statement by Anonymous said, “Over fifty years ago, Indian Freedom Fighters laid down their lives for our freedom. In the end, what was it all for? Today our politicians ride slip-shod over our laws, corruption is rampant. If the brutal way Baba Ramdev’s hunger strike was crushed is anything to go by, it would seem that India is now on its way to becoming an undemocratic ‘democracy’.”
This is something really worth giving a thought, why all of sudden ANONYMUS has to voice for Indian issues, give a thought, you hackers may realize the fact and reason behind it.

In the past, we have witnessed many of our websites being hacked including India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), colleges, NGOs, Indian companies and religious organisations among others by Pakistani Hackers. And, in the recent past, ONGC website too was hacked by them. And now, there are many chances that they would target SAIL (Steel Authority of India) website as it has many vulnerabilities and can be easily hacked.

The unfortunate part is that in spite of being warned by Kaizen India Info – Sec Solutions Pvt. Ltd (A cyber security firm that is working towards making our country free from cyber threats) about the loopholes to SAIL authorities, no necessary actions have been taken so far. Similarly, Kaizen had also informed higher authorities of ONGC about the vulnerabilities in their website but they too did not pay heed to the warning and ultimately landed up getting hacked by Pakistani hackers. Sadly, whenever a website gets hacked, fingers are always pointed towards the hackers but the fact is that the website owners themselves are responsible for not taking proper care and leaving their websites open with all the loopholes inviting hackers to attack.

A tit-for-tat campaign has been in practice by groups on both Indian and Pakistani sides dating back to the late 1990s when tensions over the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir brought the nuclear-armed neighbours to the brink of war.

In 2009, India’s one of the biggest banks Bank of Baroda, a global bank with a network of branches in India, and an international presence in 21 countries was hacked by Pakistani hacker group called Pakbugs.

“Indians place little or no value on the kind of data individuals and organisations in many countries prefer to keep confidential, like passport and bank account details or work contracts,” Cyber Expert Vijay Mukhi said.
"Privacy is a concept not rooted in India culture. I don't think we can change that and I don't think it's going to change in my lifetime," he added.
"The government doesn't care" about protecting information online. Corporates for some reason just don't want to spend the money. They don't think it happens often. Web security is a low priority," he said.

Very recently, the website of Sony BMG has been hacked and an anonymous poster has uploaded a user database to pastebin.com, including the usernames, real names and email addresses of users registered on SonyMusic.gr. This kind of company websites getting hacked not only affects the company itself but also the customers. Interestingly, many of the companies are insured and thus they get their losses recovered leaving the customers to suffer.

The question that arises is who will take action against these attacks? Government has been maintaining silence even though one after the other their websites are been attacked and details are been leaked or deleted. Is our government so weak? Now, after CBI, ONGC, Bank of Baroda and many other official websites, SAIL can be the next target. Hope that the SAIL authorities are listening and would take necessary steps towards protecting their website

NBC-Hacker5, Kaizen and Hackers

This post is dedicated to Indian l33t lamers & legends like them, who love to do moral policing, blot on my nation .....

Face book has one of the biggest community of hacker across the country, In India the term hacking and intentions are yet not very much clear and specific. Indian hackers lack unity and integrity. Hackers are divided in teams and small groups. 40 percent hackers are in the industry of producing hacker, I mean they are having their own seminars, classes, and certified courses. There are many hackers lured in unethical activities.

Certified Ethical Hacker’s certificates are bought and purchased. There is no control over these examinations and their authenticity is at stake. Many of them are working with IT sectors, and some of them totally dedicated to research, yet keeping there one foot in underground activities. Indian hackers are blessed with potentials, skills and self learning abilities. Only India has an average of skilled hackers between the age group of 14 to 17. At the age of 16 some of them even write their exploits, codes and scripts. These particular groups of hackers are form middle class or upper middle class families, they lack papers. They don’t have certificates to show but their skill can slam the claims of so called demigods of hacking community.

China, Korean and Us government already announced about their own cyber army, they train number of hackers at government expenses. Israeli and Africans hackers are known for their dedication and eccentric approach towards the cause. Each country globally has one or other national issue and the hackers of that particular country and dedicated to that cause and nation. They don’t harm their own country; they won’t become watch dogs for their own country. They are the loyal patriots and guards of their cyber space. Indian hackers lack patriotism, there are some small time group of hacker claims to be patriotic hacking community, but their patriotism is limited to the defacement of Pakistanis websites. They just deface randomly and leave their message for Pakistan and its hackers. Most of the time these messages are nasty and not worth reading. If this young generation of hackers given an opportunity and freedom I am sure the cyber space may come under secure zone.

Chennai, Bangalore ,Bombay ,Pune and Delhi are the den of hackers. Either they are working with private firms, or seeking education. Day time they are committed to their routine but at night they become cyber terrorists. The ethics are vanished, the focus is lost, and some of the groups even became scavengers and attacking Indian sites to set personal scores. They are attacking private firms and individuals for revenge, fame and publicity. Neither they are loyal to security industry not to hacking passion. This is the biggest dilemma of Indian hackers.

In the recent past few groups are stuck in identity crises, few old times group got in rivalry and others lost in the glory of other side. Youth of this country learning hacking through open source and Google, they use available exploits to hack their own country’s resources and properties; there are hundreds of forums and news bulletins and blogs, providing open tools, scripts and exploits. All this material is most of the time used on Indian servers. It’s high time we need to declare theses forums and communities as anti-national, they are traitors and threat to our cyber space. Laws are stringent but hardly applied; there is no watch over such practices. Cyber cell across the country lacks latest updates. The staff is old and every day updates are beyond their reach. Other than the power of law and order they possess no such extra ordinary skills to nail down such open sources.

There are number of good hackers working in call centers, some in cyber cafés and some in low profile organization, and many land up becoming instructor in Hacking classes. If we go by statistics India produces on an average thousands of hackers in the period of three months. If you go by annual production then I can say it will reach in hundred thousand. Appin, Inobuzz, tech defense, whagela’s and fadia’s are lured in this industry of producing hackers, the irony is that these hackers have no jobs, opportunities and end of the day India still has challenge over cyber security issues.

Instead of crying over issues we thought of resolving problems in our capacity by providing jobs to, skillful hackers lacking papers, gave them a publication Hacker5 as mouth piece, unfortunately our concern was misunderstood and we became victim of illicit hackers and their traits. At the end I am proud to say this magazine is reaching in remote areas, where two hours electricity is a biggest challenge. These students have no open source to acquire knowledge. There are n numbers of young students, got platform to reach readers. Complimentary copies of Hacker5 reach 17 such villages where education and resource is biggest challenge. All over Mumbai library its reaches free. There are so many students request us for free copy, because they can’t afford it. I think minimum 200 hackers in this community will agree to what I said.

We have number of TV channels, news available on websites, but still crave for print (news paper). Just because open source of learning is available for those who can avail these services we cannot neglect 40% that Indian population still underprivileged for electricity, education, and finance. If you have hundred rupees to waste then you are not my buyer. If you invest hundred rupees to make this cause reach in remote places they you are my buyer.

Let them be privileged with your support

the only profit is smile on their face and support to live with dignity..

I never wanted to disclose this, because charity is never disclosed, we have our NGO “Aadhar”, I don’t believe in taking funds and donations from other to do my part of duty. I am born as human on this mother earth, and giving back to our society in own capacity is my own moral duty. We donate 30 % of our business profits to Aadhar. So that the needy and help less can live with dignity and care.

Oh! One more thing, if at all you all would want to visit our new family of physically disabled 500 members at, Jai Mumbai viklang santha, Dr babasaheb ambedkar nagar, Meeraa road east..You are welcome. These families are supported by NBC my organization. The young kids getting education, youth employed at our company in their own capacity. Distress woman and old people are provided with possible best facilities. I don’t know whether you are aware or not our NBC family members are between the age group of 19 to 30. We all need to go long way, we just started our journey.

I don’t know about other hackers, but I am proud to say r45c4l,ch0ta, Kai Farmer, Doper, Sid Shenvi are definitely the reason for making above person’s life worth living, and he is none other than OUR family member, Imran Mullah.

business or profits is not my motto, it’s one of the aspect. There are many people even supported by this blog income. Please visit us..They just need you time, your love and your attention, because YOU can and THEY cannot …..reach you.. 

we will, we can

my special invite to l33t hackers (anti-Indian hackers of india) come and see how beautifull is life when you share and care for fellow Indians.