Somalia piracy: India ship hijacked in new attack

It was accepted to have been going amongst Dubai and Bosasso, in Puntland, when it was seized.

It is the second such assault as of late. A month ago, privateers grabbed a tanker headed for Mogadishu however discharged it clearly without conditions.

A group part had clearly called the proprietor to disclose to him the vessel was captured adrift last Friday. Five shooters were said to be ready, yet nobody had been harmed.

Senior Indian delivery official Nalini Shankar said the vessel was "not a major ship, but rather a dhow", the Press Truss of India detailed.

The Somali site Daynile said the assault happened nearly 50km (30 miles) south of the port town of Hobyo.

Billion dollar industry Bulk whatsapp sms service provider

Theft off the Somali drift - for the most part for payment - has dropped essentially as of late, to some extent due to broad universal military watches and also bolster for nearby angling groups.

At the tallness of the emergency in 2011, there were 237 assaults and the yearly cost of theft was assessed to be up to $8bn (£7bn).

Source:- BBCNEWS

Pakistan covets territory of others, uses terror as state policy towards that misguided end: India at UN

Syed Akbaruddin, India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, on Wednesday strongly hit back at Pakistan for raising the issues of alleged human rights violations in Kashmir and killing of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani during a debate on human rights.

Responding strongly to the remarks made by Pakistan's envoy Maleeha Lodhi during a high-level thematic debate titled 'UN@70 Human Rights at the center of the global agenda', Akbaruddin accused Islamabad of attempting to misuse the UN platform.

“The attempt came from Pakistan; a country that covets the territory of others; a country that uses terrorism as state policy towards that misguided end; a country that extols the virtues of terrorists and that provides sanctuary to UN-designated terrorists; and a country that masquerades its efforts as support for human rights and self determination,” the Indian envoy to the UN said in a hard-hitting statement.

He was responding to Lodhi who apart from raising the Kashmir issue had also mentioned the "extra-judicial" killing of Wani, whom she described as a "Kashmiri leader", by Indian forces.

Akbaruddin said it was Pakistan which had failed to convince the international community on its human rights track record.

“Pakistan is the same country whose track record has failed to convince the international community to gain membership of the Human Rights Council in this very Session of the UNGA,” he told the 193-member United Nations General Assembly.

“The international community has long seen through such designs. Cynical attempts, like the one this morning therefore, find no resonance in this forum or elsewhere in the United Nations,” he added.

Reiterating India's commitment to upholding the rule of law and protecting human rights, the Indian envoy said, “As a diverse, pluralistic and tolerant society, India’s commitment to the rule of law, democracy and human rights is enshrined in its founding principles.”

“We remain strongly committed to the promotion and protection of all human rights for all through pursuit of dialogue and cooperation,” he added.

Source: http://zeenews.india.com

Spread of Locky Virus in Mantralaya PCs Contained, Data Safe: Official

The state's Information Technology department has managed to contain the spread of Locky virus, a file-encrypting ransomware, in computer systems at Mantralaya and all the data are safe, a senior official claimed.

The virus had affected about 150 computers, mostly in Revenue, Public Works Department and some isolated computers in other departments of Mantralaya and these computers have now been isolated and being sent for forensic tests, Principal Secretary, IT department, V K Gautam, said.

All the data on the Maharashtra Local Area Network (Maha LAN) are safe, he said.

"The virus first showed its presence around Friday last week, which probably sneaked into the Maha LAN through a spam mail," Gautam said.

After gaining entry into the system, the virus begins encrypting the DOC, PPT or other files into Locky files, the official said.

"When one tries to access these encrypted files, the system asks the user for lock key and then asks to pay for it in Bitcoins for granting access to the files," he said.

He added that the virus is actually very dangerous for the world of finance and corporates, wherein data related to financial accounts and other sensitive information gets locked and the user is asked to pay for the access to own data.

"The virus begins to send spam mails using the official e-mail ID deceiving the user in opening it or its mail attachments allowing the virus to enter the system," he said.

Users need to guard against accessing spam mails of such nature by clicking on to the senders' e-mail address to know the real sender and better still use only the official government e-mail Intra-net rather than private e-mails like Gmail, Yahoo and others, Gautam added.

"There are around 53,000 computers in various government departments in Mantralaya that are on the Maha LAN," he said, adding that following the incident, the IT department has fortified its server and data center and that no damage has been caused to the government files.

Both the Centre and the state government have a policy that mandates all its employees to use the official government intra-net rather than private e-mail, he said.

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Source: http://gadgets.ndtv.com

As India Considers Action For Wrong Maps, Pak Objects - And Is Told Off

With India considering a proposal that would punish publishers or creators of maps that distort Kashmir with a stiff fine and time in prison, Pakistan has complained to the United Nations -triggering a brusque response from Delhi.

"Pakistan or any other party has no locus standi in our internal legislative matter," said a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

Earlier, Nafees Zakaria, a spokesperson for Pakistan's Foreign Office said India was trying to propagate an "incorrect and legally untenable" map, in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

A letter sent to the UN by Pakistan urged India "to stop acts that are in violation of international law".

As reported first by NDTV a few weeks ago, the Home Ministry has sought feedback on a plan that makes it essential for anyone offering maps online to get a license from the government. Services like Google Maps gather information from satellites and crowd-sourced data. These could become illegal without sanction.   

The proposal also offers a prison term of up to seven years and a fine of Rs. 100 crore for anyone who publishes an incorrect map of  India's borders, including in Kashmir. India has in the past acted against media companies who showed inaccurate maps, but if it becomes law, the bill would impose specific penalties for the first time.

Last year, the government took the Al Jazeera news channel off air for nearly a week, saying it had repeatedly shown incorrect maps of Kashmir.

In 2011, The Economist placed white stickers over a diagram of borders in 28,000 copies on sale in India.

The government's new proposal could be submitted for review to parliament when it meets next in July.

Source: NDTV.com

Google Maps May Need a License, IRCTC Data Leak, and More News This Week

It's been an interesting week in tech news, with both scientific development and consumer tech ticking along nicely.

There have been some major developments from India, but one of the most important bits of news that we came across was that the government might be working on a law that could would make it mandatory for Google Maps to get a license in India. According to a draft bill, the Ministry of Home Affairs is planning a law where you need a government license to acquire and to disseminate map data; and there are huge fines if this is not the case. There are also huge fines for "incorrect" depictions of India's borders. While the idea of a law around geospatial information makes sense, the specifics of the draft could be worrying.

The next piece of news from India is also really big - the Mumbai police warned that data had been hacked from the rail ticket booking site IRCTC, which is the biggest e-commerce destination in the country. It later turned out that this was not the case, but there was still serious cause for concern as officials admitted customer data might have been sold, and an enquiry is being conducted. IRCTC has three crore active and registered users, so the information of these users and their cards could be at risk, though officials assured all sensitive information is encrypted before it's stored.

Another huge piece of news for Indian tech enthusiasts was the announcement of carrier billing for Google Play, launched on Idea. This allows people to pay for apps without a credit or debit card - instead, the money is deducted from your prepaid balance, or added to your postpaid bill. Gadgets 360 first reported this on Tuesday, but one development we learned on Thursday was that Idea is charging a convenience fee for all transactions. This could be a spanner in the works - if it's cheaper to use a debit card, and people are anyway not used to paying for apps, then this mode of payment might not catch on. Idea did not respond to a request for comment on the issue.

Continuing the theme of big stories, Reliance Jio has started to roll out its 4G services to the public. It's not the open market yet, but the company has launched an employee referral program through which Jio employees can invite up to 10 people to join the network. These users will get 10GB free voice and data for three months, and also get access to "premium applications" for live TV, video on demand, news, and cloud storage.

Possibly the most exciting tech news right now is that SpaceX successfully landed its Falcon 9 rocket on a floating platform early on Friday. The rocket went into space, came down from a height of around 25,000 miles, and then landed on a floating platform. It's an incredible achievement with far reaching possibilities, though of course, that's all going to be off in the future.

In Brazil, there were some developments around the use of WhatsApp. On Tuesday, a judge ordered carriers to block WhatsApp for 72 hours, a move that affected 100 million users. This was struck down the next day by another judge, but it shows how vulnerable the services that we all rely on actually are.

Meanwhile, one of the more humorous developments took place recently, when the Los Angeles Police Department revealed that it cracked an iPhone 5s, at the same time the FBI was struggling with an iPhone 5c. Apple can't be happy about this news, but it's probably even more upset by the fact that a Chinese court rejected its trademark over the iPhone name. The court declared that a leathermaker can use the iPhone name for its handbags and phone cases. Meanwhile, long-time HTC fans might be saddened (if unsurprised) as the company continues to struggle. The company has seen dismal sales of its new flagship in China, and it's very promising VR division just become a new company.

Source: http://gadgets.ndtv.com/