Category: news

Inside the WhatsApp encryption system !

Yaay ! Cheers to Facebook for bringing out encryption in WhatsApp messages. It was like in my 2nd year of undergrad where me and my friend Vaibhav researched on how to hack into whatsapp and read other peoples messages. Since at that time, WhatsApp didn’t have any encryption. All your messages till yesterday were sent in open text format. Yes, the text format of notepad.

Governments and other spying agencies used to enjoy our chats without much effort. Infact anyone could read your message if you are connected with a Wi -Fi network from his mobile phone. Yes, it’s possible but we not be going over there :p

No worries now, since we have got encryption. Woo Hoo !!

Now what happens to our messages. As WhatsApp have already told you that it’s an end to end encryption which means that no one can intercept your messages at any cost.

Well, the whole encryption saga for WhatsApp started around mid 2014. Open Whisper systems developed this encryption for WhatsApp (No, not Facebook devs). Open Whisper systems uses it’s open source software called TextSecure. It’s owned by Twitter by the way. Anyone can use this software if the developer is willing to put some security in his chatting application.

TextSecure uses a number of algorithms, obviously. The primitive or the base algorithms that are used are CURVE25519, AES256, HMAC-SHA256.  Am sure all the engineering Computer Science undergrads have heard the terms AES and HMAC-SHA.

Well from these primitives, the double ratchet algorithm comes into place along with a 3DH Handshake. Normally, the AES is said to be one of the most toughest encryptions. So you can imagine the level of security given to your lovely messages now. But one aspect still makes we wonder. TextSecure has been designed not even to expose chats in screenshots. But if your chats are being captured, am sure it must have been tailored.

All we can say is that, go ahead and text worry free. But the threat still loombs. If you have ever read the terms and conditions of WhatsApp, then they indirectly say that they can access all of your texts. Well, that will apply even if you are under encryption. And also, if the government of a particular country wants to keep an eye of their citizens, they might just give the access to it. But consider yourself safe other than these cases :p

Cheers !!

All you need to know about the Panama Papers Leak !

A day ago, many big shots from across the globe were exposed regarding the topic of tax evasion. Around 2.6 terabytes of documents were leaked by a world renowned firm to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists by Mossack Fonseca.

It’s  not rocket science to understand the situation over here. In simple words, governments of different countries have a rule of how much money they can take to foreign lands per year. And they also have a policy regarding setting up or incorporating companies over there. It will be a pretty long day explaining about each country’s policy. Since am a resident of India, i shall have my take over here.

Until 2004 Reserve Bank of India had a policy that they should not allow the rupee to take anywhere outside the Indian teritorry. After much discussions with the rich lads and considering the globalization into the frame, RBI decided to allow 25000$ per year per Indian resident. You can do literally whatever you want with that money. Even go and dump it in the grand canyon. But Indians were denied of incorporating companies with that money. The limit went on increasing year by year and the current limit became 250000$ per year per Indian resident.

The problem comes here. Mossack Fonseca is a Law firm based from Panama. What it does is pretty straight forward. They create enormous amounts of compaines in no time. And people from all over the world “Take over it” and hence they are not incorporating them.

Now, Indian residents started to buy these companies just like shares. They have quite successfully found a way to evade a good amount of tax. RBI became concerned about this issue and started investigations on this.

Reserve Bank of India then stated in a written document that Indian residents are not allowed to either buy or incorporate companies abroad. But it was too late. many Indians successfully invested their money to evade enormous amount of tax. Upon further investigation, it was found that there were certain amount of companies that even invested before 2004 which was a clear violation of the RBI’s policy. All these people who have done so were exposed yesterday in this list.

It is indeed an alarming situation. Of course we know that we Indians are tolerant and will let go of this topic as quick as possible. In other parts of the world especially in Iceland, it may lead to a huge political crisis. The Pakistan’s prime minister family hold millions of worth real estate in off shore accounts.

A study by a professor at UC Berkely shows that the total evaded amount in Tax haven, Panama would sum up to 7.6 trillion dollars atleast. That’s a lot of money.

Some names to take out – Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya rai, Leo Messi (Yes !) , Jackie Chan, Nico Rosberg. Many other government officials come under the list.

And this is just one list. There are many more suck firms like Mossak who are into this business. Imaging the money ivaded if we had a clear amount.

Anyways, let’s get back to our normal lives and act as if nothing has happened.

And it was the Macintosh’s 30th anniversary !!

The Apple’s Macintosh … the most influential computers of all time celebrated it’s 30th anniversary last week.

It’s just a great pleasure to witness the change in technology as we go through from the first model of the Apple computer way back in the 1976 which was built by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak and seeing the Mac 2013, sheer innovation !

#RememberingSteveJobs

Here’s the link of The Telegraph,UK.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/10592073/In-pictures-The-30th-Anniversary-of-Apple-Macintosh-computers.html?frame=2799990

A-Z about India’s most dominant biscuit !

parle-g

It has saved many hungry souls, old and young, at noon or midnight, Parle-G bisciut is the best ever known snack for the masses over many decades. Started its production in 1929, to all the young souls, even you grandfathers had this biscuit, yes am talking about Parle-G. With its dominant market share of 70%, no one can beat this little packet of glucose biscuit. Lets look at its brand developing  journey.

1929 – The first biscuit of Parle’s Gluco biscuits was baked in India.

1947 – When British quit India, Parle announced independence from British biscuits with an ad campaign.

1980 – The biscuit was then rechristened as Parle-G , ‘G’ meant glucose.

1982 – The first commercial of Parle-G was on air.

1998 – The ad campaign was continued  tele world by India’s favourite superhero , Shaktimaan.

2001 – At the start of the new millennium, the brand’s packaging wen from wax paper to plastic.

2004 – ‘G’ meant Genius now

2013 – The latest ad as we see now as ‘Kal ke Genius’ was composed by Gulzar.

Now lets talk some facts about it…..

The NUmBers

— 192 number of times you can cover the earth’s circumference if you line up all the Parle-G biscuits consumed anually end to end.

— 5010 crore rupees worth biscuit sales registered by Parle-G as of 2012.

— 400 millon – The number of Parle-G packs that are produced daily.

— 6 million retail outlet stores that Parle-G is sold.

Other cool facts

— Parle-G is sold in different pack sizes in amazon

— Its the reason behind success in IT and outsourcing revolution.

— IIT-JEE aspirants eat each packet of Parle-G a day to qualify for it.

No wonder it has become a staple for many people out there, but this biscuit is sure one of the wonders.

Read About the World’s Largest Family !!!

Some where in a village in Mizoram, India there is a village called Tlangnuam Baktawng  which houses about 300 families and 2000 followers of the Christian denomination known as the ‘Lalramkawngpuizawhtu’.

The head of this Christian sect is, a 69 year old practicing polygamist, surrounded by a gaggle of women round the clock. According to sources and family members, Ziona has 39 wives, 86 children, 14 daughters in-law and 34 grand-children all living under one roof in a huge mansion which they lovingly call ‘Chhuanthar Run’ meaning ‘House of the new generation’. All together, the 174 members of the Ziona family live in Chhuanthar Run or in short (C.T.R), a rather military-like fashion.

Ziona, the head of the family, owns Tlangnuam Baktawng village, Chhuanthar Stadium, Chhuanthar primary school, Chhuanthar High school, poultry farms, piggeries and vegetable gardens but the bulk of his income comes from his profitable furniture business, for at the end of the day, Ziona is a carpenter.

Ziona’s family eats the vegetables that they grow. The plantations include spinach, cabbage, mustard, chilly and broccoli using natural and pig-based manure. The family normally consumes 50 kilograms of rice for lunch and 40 kilograms for dinner, altogether using 90 kilograms per day.

Its really a great fact to know that the largest family in the world comes from India, Mizoram.

I sincerely respect this your sir, for maintaing such a great family and i wish you all the best in your future. Hats off !!!

Source : Wildfilmsindia

A tribute to Nirbhaya !!

Its been one year since the tragic event of the girl who was allegedly assaulted in a moving bus and was succumbed to death.  Such an accident in the national capital of INDIA shook the whole nation and since then women had to secure themselves from the world outside. Through out the year we have seen no change towards the security of women.

Some people say we need to have stringent laws against sexual harassment.

Some people say its all about self defense. Women should not stand weak in society. They should be strong enough to handle situations.

The point is, no one wants to talk about such aspects in society. We must always remember that awareness is the first step. People should start TALKING about sexual harassment so that, the problems will be projected and solutions start rolling out.

I presented this poem in my Facebook profile an year ago and now i would like to post it here on my blog remembering  that innocent girl, Nirbhaya, who left this world after struggling with the trauma of sexual harassment.

Naari

naari hai yeh duniya saari

parvah kar ise apni jaan se pyaari

 

na kar koi kaam

jisse ho sharmindagi puri duniya ko

kar naari ka aadar

jisse tuhje ho garv khud par

 

na ban mat tu ek kaayar

naari pe apna haath utha ke

kar koi kaam mard ka

raksha kar uski zimmedari le kar

 

khud padh likh kar tu kya kiya

jab na kiya ye naari ka izzat

are kam se kam ek bacchi ko padha

layegi yeh tere desh ko rang

 

mauj kar tu masti kar tu

par jeene de naari ko apne saath

de zara ek maa ko mauka

goodh me lene de usse

ek pyaari si bachhi ko zara

 

byaah na kar jaldi ek naari ki

ehsaas kara usko javaani ki

haq banta hai uska bhi

tarike se saje zindagi uski

 

kare yeh naari ek kaam

hai yeh mard se namunkin

janm deti hai yeh hum jaise mardon ko

maanta hoon mai ise bhagwan ke samaan

 

bhai jaan samajh ye baat

 

naari hai ye duniya saari

parvah kar ise apne jaan se pyaari