Monday 21 June 2010

Another email for hacking your account

Today I got an email from ICICI Bank Ltd ( I am sure the from address is forged. The content of the mail is as follows

Dear ICICI Bank Member,

In view of the recent cyber attacks towards our customers, We at ICICI have introduced
a new security system against Malicious Online Identity Theft.

Kindly submit the form attached to this email in order to enroll your ICICI Bank account
in the new online protection System.

If you are using Internet Explorer please allow ActiveX for scripts to perform all data
transfers securely.

Thank you for using ICICI Bank !

Please do not reply to this email.
This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 2010 ICICI Bank. All rights reserved.


ICICI Bank Account Enrollment form.pdf.html
1K Open as a Google document View Download


I tried opening the attachment both in chrome and IE with ActiveX enabled in IE.

With IE 8, I get the following information


This website has been reported as unsafe
188.72.243.72

We recommend that you do not continue to this website.
Go to my home page instead

This website has been reported to Microsoft for containing threats to your computer that might reveal personal or financial information.


This is the screenshot I was getting while using Chrome.




When I clicked on personal, I got an warning message,

Warning: Suspected phishing site!
The website at 188.72.243.72 has been reported as a “phishing” site. Phishing sites trick users into disclosing personal or financial information, often by pretending to represent trusted institutions, such as banks.
Learn more about phishing scams.

I have clicked proceed anyway to see what the phisher is doing, I got the following page. On the page, all the links goes to ICICI but when I put all the details (of course none are right, I got the following page,






After filling random details and clicking on update I got the following page




When I provided the grid details it took me to the following page.


Browsers are smart enough and stops one from going to the phishing site. Microsoft takes it one step further by not allowing the user to view the pages, however sometimes it is too late. One need not give her details to the phisher.

Be careful of the auto numbers

I have been frequently travelling by Auto at Bangalore. Some of them are nice guyz where are most of them are cheats. There is no point in complaining to police.

I thought one can safely travel with electronic meter auto, but that is of no use. Some of the autos with electronic meter are tampered where as some of the autos with mechanical meter are running as required. So I have decided to have a database of regular and tampered meter auto. This by myself is a herculean task, I am maintaining the database, anybody can send his details to me, I will add to my database and I will make the database publicly accessible and may hand it over to auto union or police.

This is what happened to me today

Auto Number:KA03-A5482
Starting Point: Ganesh Temple Marathally
End Point: Binnamangala Bus Stop
Route: Via Domlur flyover
regular price: Rs 60
Price in the auto: Rs 84

Anybody wishes to add any details can mail me at parsuraram.panigrahi@gmail.com

Wednesday 16 June 2010

Indian citizen Vs American citizen

Indians have a cheaper life than that of the Americans. And we Indians have set the trend. It is not the american, but Indian people who does not value themselves.

Look at the BP oil spill and compare it with the Bhopal gas tragedy. The American president himself ensures that BP gets punished for oil spill. Where as Prime minister of India either let the CEO of union carbide go or did not bother to address the issue. He was talking to the chief minister regularly but not about the union carbide issue.

Congress party blames its chief minister, where as politicians blame judiciary and judiciary blames politicians. We are only good at blame game, but not in action.

In 2000 world cup foot ball, South Korea denied entries to a group of Indians who won the ticket to South Korea from Britania. more than 80 people were standing in Paris airport when there was a change in schedule in Air France. The list continues. Where as other countries respect American citizens.

When Indians are not concerned about their live, how do we expect others to be worried about us?

Sunday 13 June 2010

simple math

I was taught from class 6 that 25 * 25 = (2*3) hundred + 25 and so on

when calculating square of n5 (which is 10n+5) it is (n(n+1))*100+25

I never bothered to know why, but tested it with couple of numbers and said it is working fine.

I was explaining how to calculate squares orally to my wife without using pen and paper. To calculate square of 79, one can calculate it by (80-1)^2


Then i thought I can calculate that of 25 in similar manner.

(10n+5)^2 = (10n)^2+2.10n.5+5^2
=100n^2+100n+25
=100(n^2+n)+25
=n(n+1)100+25

Red Card to child labor?

Lots of NGOs are making hue and cry against child labor. Government has officially banned child labor. Since it has not been eradicated. I have seen child labor in firms during my childhood, and now seeing child labors in metro construction of Bangalore. It is more common to find children in restaurants. On my trip to Mysore, a child was literally begging me to buy 10 photos for Rs 10. Not sure if he is doing business or working as a labor for some store owner.

I feel pity for the children who are working in stead of studying and enjoying. But is it right for others to stop them working? If they are not working, what other alternatives do we provide? If a child won't work as labor means she will go to school or play with his friends, we should encourage it. What if the stop of child labor means she won't get proper 2 square meals which may force him/her to do illegal activities? Bubhikshit kim na karoti papah... How can anybody stop child labor without guarantees their situation? Government has no plan for employment guarantee. Or continuous income for non organized workers. They do not have any social security or insurance. On top of that how will the child survive when he/she become more than 18? If he has to work as a labor better start sooner. Do they have any other hope?

If we are looking to stop child labor, we need to work on employment generation and
showing the hope to the children who are working and providing minimum required condition to the people who are working. Banning child labor without working on the root causes may worsen the situation but won't solve it.