Random Thoughts..
Saturday, February 28, 2004
Two examples of a recent spate of spams that have hit the mailbox. Was away at LinuxAsia 2004 and came to find over 1200 mails tagged as 'SPAM'. Now that was some bandwidth being wasted.
Example 1:
From: "selina"
To: [Address not published here]
Subject: Ethical Hacking - a security health-check for your website
Date: Saturday, February 28, 2004 7:10 sandhya
Dear Sir/Madam,
We often get personal health-checks done, but tend to ignore testing the
security health of our critical web sites. The number and sophistication of
Internet attacks has increased so tremendously that no one is safe today.
Hackers from all over the world are simply scanning a wide range of IP
addresses looking for common vulnerabilities. Your website's IP address
could be the next one.
Also, a firewall or an IDS will fail to protect you from the high-end web
application attacks. For your website to run effectively, you must keep TCP
ports 80 and 443 open. Hackers will use advanced techniques such as SQL
Injection, Cross-site Scripting, Information Disclosure, Directory
Traversal, Web Server Vulnerabilites, CGI Vulnerabilities and others to
compromise your server through these very ports.
Ethical Hacking provides you with the hacker's perspective of your website's
security. At the same time, this service does not entail any damage,
disruption or loss of information of your website.
Coming to NII provides you with the highly technical skills that have been
used by the following clients to get their sites ethically hacked by our
team:
1. State Bank of India
2. Reserve Bank of India
3. India's largest matrimonial portal
4. India's leading gift portal
5. City of West Covina, California
6. Playwin Lottery Systems
7. Uniotel, South America's largest telecom company
Our team has also trained people from the following organizations on the
Tools and Techniques for Ethical Hacking:
1. Kotak Securities
2. IDEA Cellular
3. Patni Computer Systems
4. Valiant Technologies
5. Global E-secure
6. HSBC
7. E-serve International (A Citigroup company)
8. Mindcraft Software
Take a look at our company profile and our Ethical Hacking service in the
attached documents. You may also request for a Sample Penetration Testing
report. Also visit our website www.nii.co.in for more information on our
products and services.
Best regards,
Selina
Business Developement Manager
Network Intelligence India Pvt Ltd
91-22-38649851 / 22006019
Email: selina@nii.co.in
Website: nii.co.in
This email is sent to you because your email address exists in our mailing
list. If you wish to not receive any more emails from us, kindly email us
back at selina@nii.co.in?Subject=RemoveFromList. Thank you.
Example 2:
From: "SUDHIR D SAWANT"
To: [Address not published here]
Cc:
Subject: CORPORATE INFORMATION SERVICES
Date: Saturday, February 28, 2004 3:15 sandhya
CORPORATE INFORMATION SERVICES
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
DNS CORPORATE INFORMATION SERVICES
1st Floor,Ghanshyamkrupa Bldg, R B Kadam Marg,
Bhatwadi, Ghatkopar (West), Mumbai 400084
Tele 25159494, Fax 25091713
Email :- dns@bom5.vsnl.net.in
Ours is a service of sourcing and disseminating corporate data economica=
lly, quickly and efficiently in the form of company annual reports, curre=
ntly we have got associated with SANSCO SERVICES for providing annual rep=
orts library on Cd-Rom containing PDF images of annual reports of compani=
es particularly listed on BSE & NSE, our focus is on providing central li=
brary services to various corporate, research services, investment consul=
tants, foreign institutions, shareholders, management institutes, banks &=
to built up a common platform for sharing the corporate information
On the occasion of our tie-up with SANSCO SERVICES we are glad to launch
** ANNUAL REPORTS LIBRARY - 2003 **
* A collection of 3250 companies annual reports particularly listed on BS=
E & NSE scanned at 300 Dpi from the annual report published by the compan=
y in PDF format on a set of 14 Cd-ROMs data of around 9.5 Gb.
* Index file for the name of the companies & year ending will be availabl=
e on each Cd which will enable to have an easy access to the particular c=
ompany report on particular Cd.
* The PDF images of the company annual reports are named, as the same of =
the company name to enable easy access and the same are readable using Ac=
robat Reader, which is freely downloadable software from the internet.
** PROMOTIONAL OFFER **
* Available to you for a special price of Rs 5,000/- (Five Thousand Rupee=
s) which will also include the updates for Annual Reports Library - 2003 =
( around more than 500 companies annual reports still expected having the=
financial year ending June-2003, September-2003 & December-2003 )
* The updates will be provided in March-2004 & May-2004 respectively Free=
Of Cost
* This Promotional Offer is valid till March 31st, 2004
* The regular charges for the same service provided by sansco services be=
ing Rs 7500/- & this promotional offer is not a part of regular library s=
ervices which SANSCO SERVICES offer, more details of SANSCO SERVICES are=
on the web page :-
http://business.vsnl.com/annualreportslibrary/sansco.html
You can avail this Annual Reports Library - 2003 promotional offer by wri=
ting to us with your office address & the concern person to whom the Cd's=
are to be delivered, enclosed along with a Demand Draft/Cheque drawn in =
favour of M/S. DNS CORPORATE INFORMATION SERVICES for Rs 5,000/-payable a=
t Mumbai. The package will be delivered within 48 hours of receiving the=
order
Detailed lists of companies covered in library & sample PDF can be mailed=
to you on request, in anticipation of long and enduring relationship, we=
look forward to receiving your valuable order. If you require any furthe=
r information / clarification, please feel free to contact us
=20
For DNS CORPORATE INFORMATION SERVICES
Sudhir Sawant
Mobile:- 33926452
Note :- annual reports provided to subscribers are solely for the interna=
l use of Subscribers Company. The reports shall not be sold in same forma=
t to third party. While all efforts have been made to check the accuracy =
of the images we waive off any responsibility for any losses, which may d=
irectly or indirectly occur through the perusal of the company's images.
- posted by sankarshan @ 2/28/2004 10:51:00 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, February 25, 2004
Mocking the digital divide
From: "Miraj Khaled"
To: "ByTes4alL@yahOO"
Subject: Mocking the digital divide
Date: Tuesday, February 24, 2004 11:39 sandhya
Mocking the digital divide
by Teresa Joseph
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) held in Geneva from 10 to
12 December 2003 was the first international summit to focus on the global
information and communication system. Ironically, the presence of 54 heads
of government at the summit, including contingents from all the countries of
Southasia, failed to attract much attention in the region�s mass media. With
a total of 10,808 participants at the summit and 176 countries signing the
official declaration, the organisers hailed it as a historic step to bridge
the digital divide. The reality, however, is more complex.
The WSIS traces its roots to 1998 when the International Telecommunications
Union (ITU) resolved to take steps to place the prospect of holding such a
summit on the agenda of the United Nations Administrative Committee on
Coordination. In 2001, the UN General Assembly asked the ITU to assume
leadership for the preparation of the WSIS. According to the terms of the UN
General Assembly resolution, the aim of the WSIS was to bring together
governments, non-governmental organisations, civil society entities,
industry leaders and media representatives to shape the future of the global
information society. The WSIS was officially aimed at harnessing the
potential of information and communication technology (ICT) to promote the
development goals of the UN General Assembly. It was to frame policies as
well as practical measures to bridge the digital divide between rich and
poor countries. A pre-summit press release stated that the WSIS would focus
on how to close the �digital divide� in key areas of connectivity and
computerisation.
The summit in Geneva was the culmination of the first leg of a two-phase
process which began over two years ago, involving international conferences
at the regional level as well as preparatory committee meetings at the
global level. The two years of preparatory meetings concluded in November
2003, with the advanced capitalist countries and third world countries
holding conflicting views on how to bridge the �digital divide� (The second
phase of WSIS is scheduled to be held in Tunis from 16 to 18 November 2005).
Political wrangling threatened the success of the summit to the extent that,
as a last ditch effort, an extra preparatory session was called immediately
preceding the summit to salvage the situation. The major points of discord
included issues of funding, internet governance, the role of communication
media in society, the limits to intellectual property rights and issues
relating to copyright and free software.
Prescription for the developing world.
The question of funding was a major cause for controversy. Senegal, leading
an African delegation, had suggested that the United Nations develop a
�digital solidarity fund� to finance IT projects in third world countries.
Other suggestions included a token contribution of one dollar from every
purchase of a computer software package or network equipment to the fund,
taxing international telephone calls and the commercial use of the radio
frequency spectrum. The United States and other Western countries, however,
opposed any suggestion of UN involvement, preferring to channel aid for such
projects through existing development schemes, or by establishing an
environment in which the private sector could develop the needed
infrastructure�for instance through deregulation. The European Union also
proposed a �digital solidarity agenda� which, however, did not include any
commitment to funding.
Another contentious topic that came up for discussion was inter-net
governance. Governance of the internet includes issues like spam
(unsolicited advertisements and unwanted messages), cybernetic crimes,
security, taxes, privacy issues, etc. However, the issue became reduced to
the question of Domain Name Systems (DNS) and Internet Protocol Space
allocation. The internet is currently managed by the Internet Corporation
for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which is formally a private
non-profit California based corporation, created in response to a call by US
government officials. In June 1998, the US Department of Commerce and an
inter-agency task force responded to concerns about DNS with the �Statement
of Policy on the Privatisation of Internet Domain Naming System�. This
called for the creation of a private non-profit corporation to take over the
DNS. Soon an international group, meeting in secret, formed ICANN as a
non-profit corporation with an international board of directors.
It is ICANN that manages the Internet Protocol Space allocation, domain
names and root server system functions, without which the internet cannot
function. It does not, however, have control over content or security. ICANN
is popular with the US and the EU owing to its free market orientation and
commitment to the values of commerce and free speech, and more importantly,
the fact that the US itself maintains a direct influence over ICANN�s
activities.
The very fact that the US is basically in control of the internet emerged to
be a matter of concern with the international community, particularly in
view of the lack of accountability and transparency of ICANN. There is also
a perception among various countries that effective control by the US of the
country code system and the generic top level domain names restricts each
country�s sovereign right over its own space on the internet. Consequently,
there emerged a strong movement, particularly among third world countries
for international control over the internet, with calls for a recognised
international body to take over its management. Supporters of global
governance contended that the internet should be administered by a
governmental body with uniform standards for security and better access for
poorer countries. Such efforts were led by China and Brazil, which called
for the UN to regulate the internet, and were endorsed by Syria, Egypt,
Vietnam, South Africa, Russia, India and Saudi Arabia.
Kofi Annan and Yoshio Utsumi at WSIS.
Western countries, however, opposed any such move on the grounds that this
would give more power to governments and would politicise technical
decisions, which could affect the free flow of information. Defending the
status quo, ICANN�s president, Paul Twomey, argued that the net represented
a partnership between various stakeholders, of which world governments were
only a single component, others being the business, engineering and
technical communities.
A major obstruction to the spread of information technology and particularly
computers to the third world is the high cost of basic software like the
Microsoft Windows package. However, a switchover to free and open source
software like Linux, which can be updated or modified by anyone, helped by a
global community of programmers, would ease the financial burden in this
regard. Here again, differences of opinion reflected a North-South divide,
with allegations that the delegates from the United States and the European
Union were spokesmen for proprietary software. However, the draft for the
WSIS declaration itself saw a shift, in principle, from an outright
�support� for open-source software for third world countries to merely
�promoting awareness� about �different software models, and the means of
their creation, including proprietary, open-source and free software�.
The other controversies in the two years of con-ferencing prior to the
summit were also resolved in last minute efforts before the WSIS. An
understanding was reached on putting off decisions on issues regarding
funding and internet governance. The final declaration of principles titled
�Building an Information Society: A Global Challenge in the New Millennium�,
signed at Geneva stressed the importance of the private sector in the
development of the internet and called on the UN Secretary General to set up
a working group on internet governance, incorporating governments, the
private sector and civil society to frame proposals for the governance of
the internet by 2005.
As regards funding, the plan of action advocated that developing countries
increase their efforts to attract private investments for ICT through the
creation of conducive investment environments. A review of the adequacy of
existing financial mechanisms by a task force, under the auspices of the UN
Secretary General, should be complete by December 2004, and submitted to the
second phase of WSIS in 2005, where the feasibility of creating a voluntary
Digital Solidarity Fund is to be considered.
The official declaration is in fact seen to strongly support neo-liberal
policies and with the global media system being intertwined with the
neo-liberal global capitalist eco-nomy, there are allegations that talk of
digital divide and knowledge dissemination is used to justify the continued
use of information to protect and advance the interests of global capital.
Eduardo Doryan, the Special Representative of the World Bank to the UN,
addressing the WSIS delegates, stated that experiences over the past 10
years have shown that national policies fostering effective competition for
inclusive access are the most powerful instruments to reduce the digital
divide. He emphasised the World Bank�s commitment to supporting such efforts
so as to deepen and broaden reform and development pertaining to this
sector. A memorandum of understanding was also signed between the World Bank
and ITU. The ITU Secretary-General, Yoshio Utsumi, observed that, �These
partnerships are important first steps toward achieving the goals of the
summit, which aim to ensure that the benefits of ICTs are available to all,
not just a privileged few�.
David Gross, the US State Department�s Coordinator for International
Communications and Information Policy and leader of the US delegation to the
summit, pointed out that the US believed that developing countries needed to
focus first on improving the rule of law and their commitment to free-market
economics before launching into internet projects.
As critics point out, the WSIS was clearly not just about making IT
available to poorer countries, but also about selling them equipment and
software, privat-isation of national communication industries, invest-ment
and infrastructure, and maintaining power over the internet. Allegations of
the summit helping to serve the interests of the telecommunication industry
appear to be supported by the introductory paragraph of the Plan of Action,
which calls for advancing the achieve-ment of internationally agreed
development goals by promoting the use of ICT based products, networks,
services and applications. WSIS appears to have been an opportunity for
massive corporate sales promotion to the third world. The acronym ICT4D has
conventionally been used to refer to the use of information and
communication technology for development, through better governance
(e-governance), more transparency and easier access to information on
government policies, programmes and performance, and for ensuring better
social services. The ICT4D hall at the summit, however, resembled a trade
show, featuring stands from various corporates demonstrating their latest
technology.
The so called �digital divide� is actually several divides, a technological
divide in infrastructure, a language divide, a gender divide, and a
commercial divide
Hopes that WSIS would address a wide range of information and communication
issues received a major setback. The digital divide is merely a symptom of
the inequality that already exists between the advanced capitalist countries
and those of the third world. Building a people-centred, inclusive and
development oriented information society cannot be achieved by focusing
merely on providing the countries of the third world with the technical
means of participating in the digital revolution. Of more significance in
this limited context is the need to create the necessary conditions to
facilitate the effective use of ICT. Prospects for the development of the
marginalised and poorer sections of society through access to new
information technologies appear remote, given the basic obstacles like
access to education, electricity supply, and cost of equipment. UN Secretary
General, Kofi Annan, in his opening address stressed that the so called
�digital divide� is actually several divides, a technological divide in
infrastructure, a language divide with most content being in English, a
gender divide for women in many countries, and a commercial divide where
e-commerce reaches only some. In countries like India, it is not only
technical rigidities, but also socio-economic distinctions of class, caste,
gender, education, rural-urban differences etc, which limit communication.
As the information society relies on skill and knowledge networks, with the
existing inequalities there is every possibility of entrenching the gap
between the different sections of society.
The Geneva phase of WSIS had in reality witnessed bland statements by
political leaders on the potential of the internet and the need to expand
its benefits to all. The ambitious calls to expand the benefits of IT to the
poorer countries of the world did not include any specific detail as to the
measures to be taken towards this end. The separate declaration issued by
civil society participants reflected their disillusionment with the WSIS.
Civil society participants who had been invited to work alongside
governments and the private sector maintained that they had been
marginalised and excluded from meetings. The last round of preparatory talks
was totally closed to civil society. Ultimately civil society delegates were
only able to prevent a backsliding on such issues as human rights and
freedom of expression. Inclusion of references to the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights in the final documents of the WSIS had been strongly opposed
by some govern-ments. Freedom of expression, particularly, turned out to be
a contentious issue with countries like China, Egypt and Vietnam being
reluctant to see the right to freedom of expression enshrined in the WSIS
declaration. On the other hand the United States and the European Union
perceive free speech to be a fundamental principle of the information
society. The final declaration, however, affirmed Article 19 of the UN
Declaration on Human Rights. The disillusionment of civil society groups
with the process found expression in the declaration �Shaping Information
Societies for Human Needs�, which focuses on the themes of social justice
and people-centred sustainable development, and was in effect a critique of
the techno-centric vision of the official declaration.
WSIS could have been an opportunity to raise critical issues regarding the
larger questions of information and communication, and the underlying causes
for the digital divide, as well as issues regarding media ownership,
structure, content and access. Weaker sections of society are becoming more
and more marginalised, with fewer programmes covering their concerns and
lesser opportunities to make their voices heard. However, official
preparatory processes, as well as civil society consultations focused
largely on computers and the internet, ignoring the enormous implications of
mass media for society. In fact, there had even been divisions on whether or
not the media itself is a stakeholder in the information society. It is also
interesting to note that there were no references to the earlier struggles
for a New International Information Order (NIIO) by third world countries.
This had-once upon a time been a part of the broader struggle to address the
global economic inequality, which was seen to have been a legacy of
colonialism. This campaign, particularly within UNESCO, gradually faded out
in the midst of political conflicts and controversies, and the onslaught of
globalisation. As far as the third world is concerned, WSIS - Geneva seems
to have been a re-enactment of those summits and conferences of the 1970s
and 80s which focused on NIIO.
Ironically, the mass media in Southasia for its part, seemed oblivious to
the WSIS itself, let alone the wider questions involved.
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- posted by sankarshan @ 2/25/2004 05:42:00 AM 0 comments
