“You are driving in a very populated area where every minute some one is either trying to get under your car/bike or over your car/bike and all of a sudden your mobile phone beep starts. You think this must be the address you have been trying to reach from past one hour sent by your friend. You just push the break, escape a narrow accident and eagerly unlock your cell phone and read the message. To your utter surprise it is your carrier telling you that now you can download some new ringtones from their site.”

If that’s not enough, here is another scenario,

“you were up all night finishing off the project/paper/assignment with remote class/team mates and were dead tired after submitting that and nothing seemed better than a good 3 hour morning sleep at 6:00 am and you were just so close when all of a sudden the beep buzz in to scare the hell out of you thinking may be there were some problem with your submission, with trembling hands you try to unlock your cellphone, but put the wrong code, you try again and this time you are in, you press the read message and spontaneously thank Allah that it was not your greatest fear come true but a message again from your carrier about their new way to exhaust your mobile balance.

So how do you feel about it when you get a wrong message at a very wrong time? Do you get pissed off like me or start saying your prayers that you finally have been able to receive a new message?

BTW, if you are not the one likes to get spam messages either  from carriers themselves or from any advertisers then here are some interesting findings. Most of you guys are probably aware of this shoe company  Timberland but not many of you probably be aware of the class action law suite settlement against them. check this link.The crime was actually being committed in 2003, the company was sued in 2005 by Jeff Weinstein of Chicago and just had the settlement a few months ago.  A huge whooping $7 Million Dollars Fund for everyone who has received a message from them in all these years (2003-2008). That makes at-least $150 for each recipient.  Here are some more details. Pretty interesting?

Now you must be thinking that hey receiving unsolicited/forced sms is not as bad as it may look provided we too have a Jeff Weinstein in Pakistan.

ok, stories apart, tell me do you really like to get such sms. Don’t you think at times they can be pretty annoying and in certain cases can lead to swear accidents. (although you are not supposed to check your sms on the road while driving but well we do that all the time as if this is an adventure as well.)

So what is the role of government in such a case. They did what they are good at. i.e., passed another bill. Here is the cutting regarding the new cyber laws coming directly from the presidency.
You can also check a very hot discussion here on our all time favorite blog of dear Dr. Awab..

Well it is still unknown on how they are actually going to implement it as it has not been put forward in the assembly as of yet and besides I do get local spam  emails every now and then. So there is a lot to be done.

Coming back to the topic, may be that is the reason why the un-wanted SMS, even when the new law clearly points out that you do not send any sms  as well,  are on the rise. people are not afraid of the laws. companies are not afraid of the laws. I remember some time back there was a post on developing a DNC (Do Not Call) list and giving that to the carriers so that people like me could opt-out  from getting any such call but I guess PTA is least botherd about any development in this regard. So I am not sure if there would be much interest in developing and maintaining a DNSMS (Do not SMS) list but at-least what these carriers could do is provide an opt-out way in their messages to give me my freedom back of not receiving any offer from them. The point they are missing is that they are inflicting more damage to their brand then making people use their new services. I for one, would hate and never use such a service and I am sure there must be many more who take their freedom as seriously as they could. SPAM is SPAM in any form. Either it is an email, a phone call or SMS, as long as they do not have explicit conscent by me to receive such messages and as long as they do not provide a clear way to opt-out, this should be considered as a pounishable crime.

And btw, just to mention, if I have to call on their paid number to stop receiving their messages, that’s even bigger nonsense, why on the earth I would like to get charged for a service which i never wanted to have at the first place. These companies have huge budgets at least they can afford to integrate an opt-in and opt-out system with their sms messages so they could at-least give us a feel that they really care about us and not there to bug us with their wrong messages with extremely efficient odd timing.

PS: Did anyone actually ever take a look at any form you fill up while you get a new sim? I mean, back then, I did not but I am not sure if they have any thing related to receiving of messages in that form or in their terms and conditions.

PS2: I intentionally have not added spam messages sent by individual advertisers. Sure they also bug but their frequency is very limited and in most of the case they offer some thing better than a new ring tone.

http://pakalert.wordpress.com/2008/11/15/a-second-911/

Well,  I know another 9/11 has been speculated to great extent but I was thinking that although America want’s to disarm the only (declared) Muslim nuclear power from its nuclear assets in any case but can they really afford to have such kind of massacre on their own land, especially with the new party and supposedly liberal President in the white house?

No!

They can’t afford to have it especially at such a time when their economy is almost broke already and a large number of Americans are suspicious about the first attack as well. But they really need to get their objectives, i.e.,creating a reason to disarm Pakistan from Nuclear weapons. So what could look like a possible solution in this situation is use someone else’s land and what better option could have been than India?

So I see a relation here. A second 9/11 may not took place far far away from us if it really has to happen. It may very well be planned in our neighbourhood as well. And the recent Mumbai attacks can be part of a greater conspiracy for a collective attack on Pakistan.

Please share your views.

On the contrary side, I do not see any professionalism (at least by looking at their website) at all. They look like typical Govt. employees who are least bothered on how their site looks and do not understand the vital role it can play to help spread their very cause. I have taken a few more screen shots (well, you can say I’m getting habitual on making screen shots.) to show the layout and information problems with their site.

Another thing I have noticed is that they do not have any information of this event on their site. Come on, don’t you think that the people most related to such events check website of the host?Should I come all the way from Lahore to attend this event as much as I want to when I do not see any info on your site about it? Is it intentional? Thanks God, that I have received the info from a reliable source so I may go and check it out but heck, for the sake of all other related parties please do provide some details on your site as well. For those who want to attend the events can download the pdf invite and call following person for more details.

Invitation to InfoSec 2008 – 4th International Conference on Information Security, Islamabad. (Please right click to save as)

KHAWAJA Mohammad Ali, CISA
Regional Coordinator

National Response Centre for Cyber Crimes (NR3C)
Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)
Government of Pakistan
Karachi Regional Office
Direct: +92.21. 9266 007
PBX: +92.21. 926 NR3C
Fax: +92.21. 9266 733
Emai: khawaja.ali@nr3c.gov.pk

This also reminds me of a projector presentation for Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX), Dubai along with a few awareness screen savers and posters on Information Security I did few years back for a big Saudi Giant Al Faisaliah Group and Al-Elm Information Security.

Posters:

Screen Savers:

Projecter Animation:

You can see it at the very top. Full width can be viewed here.

I still have some more unfinished story boards which I can “donate” for the cause of Information Security Awareness. NR3C, let me know if you want to take a look at it or anyone else.

I would report back if I could attend that event and provided, FIA did not arrest me to confessing the crime of illegally entering to PKNIC domain panel. But in any case, please leave some comments if you like to.

Here is a better course of action for you.

Come into Politics, please!

In the current scanario,  Mr. Asifali Zardari, would never get you back on your seat and may use all of his might to keep you ou of judiciary. On the other hand, Mr. Nawaz Sharif would never rest un-till you are back on your seat and cancel the NRO. So it would be much better of a choice to not being played by both parties and come into the Politics. Join a party which you think is better than all or else form your own Political Party. Come into the competition, Really, we are all tired of seeing old faces with new tricks. They does not seem to amuse us any more. We need a real man to see where these leaders could not. We want you to lead us toward a better Pakistan and a prosperious Pakistan.

Please Help us save the remains and build a stronger nation.

LONG LIVE PAKISTAN. Insha Allah!

Well, it was a regime spanned on almost a decade. Now as he has left now, the most important thing is how we are going to deal with the impeachment process. Is their a deal been already made for a safe passage or he is going to face the court?

Considering our past record, no armed official has ever been put to Jail or faced trial in the 61 years of history. So I am pretty confidant to say that he will get a safe passage. Chapter closed.

Question is, who is going to be the next president of Pakistan? The real battle begins. Now we will start seeing all the tu-tu, mein-mein, chik-chik between the coalition parties every where. I am not a pro-Musharaf but the leadership we have is not any better than him. Infact, everything seemed alright before the incident of Lal Masjid and Chief Justice. The things I am going to be worried from now on are.

- Would there still be selections based on merit as I have seen that happening in the past in many departments.

- Would the new leadership will accept the media in the current form? Can they let them enjoy so much liberty-to-air almost anything?

- Would they actually start doing something to make the life easier for a poor man now they have solved one major issue according to them?

Well, I am sure many more questions will come up in every ones mind soon. Let’s see how many answers we get from them.

Happy Independence day to the few ruling (ruining) families of Pakistan, for the rest Happy In-Dependence day!

PS: I had this crazy idea of asking Amams from every sect to do an Ijtamaye prayer of Hajit on 14th August to get rid from all the leeches of Pakistan. I am sure that even the people who have not casted their votes, people who have not participated in any long/short march and even people who have not seen mosques in ages would come to join the prayer and bow their heads on such a call.

Please check the original post to see their reply and my subsequent comments on their supposedly “minor bug”.

Touseef

zong.com.pk connect.net.pk telenor.com.pk google.com.pk onlinenews.com.pk dailytimes.com.pk express.com.pk fbise.edu.pk app.com.pk newsline.com.pk jang.com.pk kse.com.pk frontierpost.com.pk nation.com.pk

(I have more screen shots and evidences of this software bug of PKNIC. These email owners must also have received an email of changed authorization codes to their site last night.)

I could have changed anything from registrar/billing/technical information to DNS entries.

Should I have just changed their DNS to point them all to my site?

Well, even a small change in the DNS could have rendered any top Pakistani site, out of sight (and out of business) for at least 72 hours (due to double propagation delay involved) and sure, it could have become a real nightmare for PKNIC but I think I am a nice guy to deal with (Please pay me thanks by may be having my full size picture (with a caption of “ba’a-baa’ay Internet Pakistan ) on the first page of your site for at least a few days or I wont mind an exclusive interview for your site as well.)

A few more screen shots of zong.com.pk site edit page and google.com.pk whois results. (Telenor and Zong should have given me life time of free air time. heheh)

These screen shots itself speak volumes about the responsibility PKNIC assumes in handling this domain business. Looked like, some nice coder out there at PKNIC had been messing with the live site and had the debug code (may be) on. So when I hit the submit button to get my new authorization code I was surprised to see it on the very top of the site. I immidiately checked my email and there was it. The same code. With fingers crossed I tried to import my domain name and yep. It was imported. I tried to generate a new code and I was given the information that it has already been imported and you should contact the person who has imported it. Imagine if you have to contact Mr. X or PKNIC to get your domain back?!?

They have now taken care of the bug by removing the SQL “SET” query display which contained the authorization code when you tried to generate a new one. They also have moved back all the domains to their previous owners/agents so I don’t see none of these domains anymore in my account.

You can imagine the possibilities (or may not like to imagine them at all) of your domain control being transfered to some crack head to play some domain peek-a-boo with your visitors. But the point is should we let them easily get away with this nonsense? When, if we all try, this event can really become an eye opener for them (Pee-Kay-NIC) and we may very well start seeing some professionalism from our “beloved” Pee-Kay-NIC.

Please feel free to leave some comments on how can we use these evidences for better domain registration/maintenance services in Pakistan.

As usual they are trying to get away by saying that it was a “minor bug” and I had not have the access to modify anything.Well, I guess, I owe a reply to this answer to let you guys know what exactly has happened that night in a bit more detail.The first time I checked the edit registrar details for jang.com.pk, I could go into the next page where you modify the details and change the email address along with all other info. For a few minutes, I did think of changing the email address just to prove that I could do this change but I realized that it may not be appropriate to do so I passed on this.

Then I went to the DNS area, and I had the access to assign new DNS to these domains.

Then I had to attend the great “Wapda Show” for full one hour. When that ended, I checked again, I still had all those domains in my panel but the bug was fixed by then. I noticed another change in the “edit” link to change registrar info that an AJAX powered pop-up now appears and ask for a written authorization to change these details. Till that time, I still could change the DNS settings. I was very confused on what to do now and then gathered some courage and made up my mind to make it public. I made the screen shots, wrote the last blog post, sent it to a few friends and went to sleep as it was late at night. On morning, when I woke up, all of the domains were moved back to their last state.

I seriously wish, I could have video taped all these acts.

A few questions to PKNIC are,

- What if those domains were not belonged to some giant companies, would they have taken the same speedy action they took in this case?

- YOU are PKNIC, come on! a lot of people in Pakistan has put their future in your hands. They have invested huge sums in a domain name managed by you. Even if that was a “minor” bug to you, why, WHY it did happen in the first place? If you can slip this one away, it is quite possible that we may see even worst leakage in future as long as you are not taking full responsibility of this business.

I would really like to help make the system as secure as possible and would be delighted to have your comments/replies over here so we may sort things out for the greater interest of domain owners and Internet users of Pakistan.