Sunday, September 14, 2008

BAD, Very BAD...

      A standard procedure when the comment to a post grows longer than the post and is mostly disconnected to it, is to write a new one. Hence drawing from this, I continue.

      The Monty analogy fits the situation perfectly. Resilience at its stupid best.
      And now there is this new thread that Narendra Modi had pre-warned the PM, and M.K.Narayanan - the N.S.A , regarding a clear threat to Delhi. Several people might wonder why Modi didn't bring this out to the public.

      The idea of any intelligence/security related pre-warnings is that the government/authority is to be made aware of it before a public disclosure. Standard protocol.

       As an analogy it is something followed even by white-hat hackers/ exploit researchers as well. The 30-90 day disclosure rule. So that the vendor [ in this case , the Government of India ] can act on it much in advance, without tipping off the adversaries.

       So, this brings an interesting situation. Why, even in the face of an imminent threat, was there no clear cut action taken? Why are bombs defused only after some go off?.. and so on.
I would completely understand if this is just the Home ministry going lax, on what is just a tiny issue of National Security. But if this is childish cross-party obstinate behaviour, something that we are all to used to by now, it raises some serious concerns.
    
        Especially since the PM wants to create a Federal Agency to tackle terror. A federal agency is built on the premise of state-centre co-operation pertaining to every aspect regarding the security of the nation. Now, if this isn’t a major example of a BAD game of Chinese Whispers, I’m not sure what else to call it.
      
        Now, to the newly cropped up development of hacking Wi-Fi Networks, and then using that to send terror emails to media organizations.

        Wi-Fi networks are not safe. Lets face it. For chrissakes, there have even been comic strips about it.
For a government that is so obsessed with getting a backdoor entry into the 256-AES encryption algorithms used by RIM-Blackberry , isn’t this a bigger and more feasible a threat to ignore?

         I mean, an absconding tech-trained terrorist would find it a piece-of-nilgiri-cake work to hack into some fat-american’s un-protected wifi network, than strut around with a neat Blackberry sending Indian Mujahiddeen mails on the fly.

          Then, there is the issue of security pepped up all around the major cities as soon as an attack is done. Previously, there used to be a large time-frame between two attacks. So, it was almost passable that the security didn’t know it was coming.

           Now, that attacks are happening just weeks apart, one wonders, what exactly this pepping up is all about.
           For an honourable minister of India ( Kapil Sibal @ War of Words to Arun Jaitley ) to tell that these attacks are a result of the BJP’s antics in Gujarat 2002, is nothing short of a lame excuse. These do nothing other than incite a political flame-war, doing more harm than good. What any party at the centre needs to realize is that the situation has changed drastically since 2002.

           For the major worry, in the recent set of attacks, is the choice of soft-targets. Be it local trains, or busy markets; hospitals, or bus stops. As one Mr.Das of the TOI puts it, prior to POTA being removed, most attacks were by so-called Pakistani para-troopers, militants born, brought-up, and trained in Pakistan. Post-POTA has seen an influx of home-grown terrorism.

           I’m not stupid to believe that Correlation implies Causation . That is the job for conspiracy theorists. All I say, is that current mechanisms are not adequate. If the POTA was a draconian law, improve upon it. We don’t need something as uncivilised as the U.S. Patriot act, but we sure need something effective and soon.

          India has seen different methods of attack over its resplendent history. It has survived through each of them, and in most cases, has emerged out stronger.Unfortunately, that opinion is being shattered in the wake of these recent developments.

          In dark and troubled times such as these, the country should stay united and focussed, sense should prevail, and actions be taken at the earliest, lest these insane acts crumble the beautiful ethos of the nation, that is India.
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As of writing this post, there have been two major updates:- (September 22, 2008)
Update 1: Indian Government successfully installs Deep Packet Inspection. This means better sniffing of all your emails in realtime. Yay. Read here.

Update 2: IB has successfully cracked the BlackBerry Code. Without help from RIM of course. Yay Yay.
Read here.

Both of these developments happened after yours truly wrote this post.
But as I said before, I am not implying  that "correlation implies causation". :) :)

11 comments:

  1. Why are all Logikku's posts inspired by only blog posts?

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  2. Point taken.
    The reason is that I'm incredibly lazy, and read a lot more than I write. Occasionally I stumble across something interesting, and in the tiny chance that I feel that I have something independently to contribute to it, it results in posts.
    I'm as original as Anu Malik's evil-twin from the parallel Universe.

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  3. I see numerous shortcomings in your arguments.

    "The idea of any intelligence/security related pre-warnings is that the government/authority is to be made aware of it before a public disclosure. Standard protocol."
    So you think that the intelligence DID find out and still not bother to tell? WoW! Its just a gross failure of the intelligence for chrissake! Even the video cams installed following the Diwali blasts of '05 were dysfunctional and totally worthless. They were clearly outsmarted.I don't see how else you can out this


    "Why, even in the face of an imminent threat, was there no clear cut action taken? Why are bombs defused only after some go off?.. and so on."
    what should they do if they find out only when a few of the bombs wake them from their slumber!? Go out and start defusing bombs, and then issue politically right statements right? Well.. that's exactly what the govt did.

    "But if this is childish cross-party obstinate behaviour, something that we are all to used to by now, it raises some serious concerns."
    I don't see that happening. The intelligence that the home affairs at the centre can gather, I feel, has to be any day more than what any individual state can gather. In fact the info has to trickle down from the center. Home affairs falls under the central list of the Constitution. All that Modi can claim is negligence, as you have pointed out.

    "Wi-Fi networks are not safe. Lets face it. For chrissakes, there have even been comic strips about it."
    Hilarious! All they did was log into unsecured networks. Far far from hacking. And just because a lame doodle publishing website has come up with a strip doesnt so much as support that technically challenged statement!

    "..to tell that these attacks are a result of the BJP’s antics in Gujarat 2002, is nothing short of a ..."
    I totally agree. What Sibbal said makes their image go from bad to worse. Not only are they failing miserable, they are finding the pettiest of excuses to get the blame off their shoulders

    "...All I say, is that current mechanisms are not adequate. If the POTA was a draconian law, improve upon it...."
    There are two things that are need actually. One, is a efficient intelligence network in place to thwart the increasing advances of these deranged minds. With SIMI changing gears now, its time for our spies to tighten their belts now and step up their technology and efforts. Two, the judiciary needs to send out a strong message to those who have been prosecuted. This is secondary, but on the long run this is what is important. Even if the authorities to manage to foil future attempts, if not convicted, all efforts will go in vain. What we don't want is a repetition of a Syed Geelani acquittal (of the Dec 13 parliament attack). This is where improving POTA can be of help.


    " India has seen different methods of attack over its resplendent history. It has survived through each of them, and in most cases, has emerged out stronger"
    Sounds good. But we emerged out stronger!? Er...Um...Well.. Unless we have a nuke attack akin to Hiroshima-Nagasaki we will 'definitely survive the different methods of attack on our resplendent history'

    PS: What an irony, this comment downplays the very point you made in your post. You'd rather reply in a separate post (or not reply at all) :-P

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  4. @vk - reply to last statement - Your comment , though definitely longer than my post, is listwise connected. Which was the 2nd clause of my new-post conjecture. Observe.

    Pointwise rebuttals, or acceptances of my mistakes, if any.
    1.
    I said, that Modi found out, told the government, and they chose not to take it seriously. Intelligence shouldn't tell, they should act upon their evidence. The pre-warning was from a security researcher (Modi, from the ahmedabad interrogations reports ), to the vendor (indian govt). Please read before u comment.
    2. This line is connected to the previous argument. If they knew, why wasn't security stepped up and bombs searched for. As a separate statement, it makes no sense. Read in order.

    3. Here is where you get it completely wrong, and so do the poilticans. Intelligence, at the centre can only be from a top-level perspective. Recent stats [ i'm not making this up ], have shown that state-wise intelligence vacancy posts are nearly 70%. And that the centre has only some 4000 IB personnel. To assume that in a nation of 1+billion, these 4000 odd network can effectively percolate( if u get the analogy), to fish out relevant classified data, is not appropriate.

    Intelligence is a concurrent issue, in that state-centre participation is mandatory.
    Home affairs, is a concurrent aspect . Which is why we have home ministers for each state, and a secretary of state at the centre for each state, who interacts with the central home minister.


    4. The appearance of a security flaw on a popular culture, mainstream comic shows that there are serious issues with your current model. [ citation , Bruce Schneier Voting machine comic. You know your industry has problems when mainstream comic strips make fun of you.
    http://www.mycomicspage.com/features/68/feature_items/379490?msg_id=88619,379490 or http://tinyurl.com/4alujd ] . It just shows the prevalence of the attack schemes, and that they are so popular that tdh comics make fun of you, and yet such an important security risk is ignored, and you look into complex schemes such as Blackberry.
    Occam's razor suggests that "entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity" , or " the simplest solution is the one most probablistically taken". This is the point that I was trying to convey.

    And xkcd may be a doodle, but it is not lame.

    5. Glad we agree on this.

    6. POTA had a provision that allowed confessions from the accused, to be used in the court of law as incriminatory evidence. Unfortunately, this was used by many personnel of the police force in a wrong way. As an old soviet joke goes, the KGB could make a man confess to almost anything.
    This is the only point the likes of Sibal use against POTA, that it can be misused. And though coming from such arbit source, it is a legitimate concern.

    7. That's me sounding optimistic, and melodramatic. The point though, is that never before has the nation gone paranoid, over attacks, never have we lost our moral spirit. This is in danger now. [ as a personal opinion, I was scared to go to forum on the day after the bangalore blasts], and some bugger found a bomb. Not very comforting, eh.

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  5. Well,

    According to

    UPA / JD(S) / CPI(M) -
    1. Minorities==Muslims, What about Christians, Buddhists, Jains, Jews?
    2. "If you arrest a terrorist, you will be arresting an innocent muslim"
    3. If some Muslims die in some accident, Sonia Gandhi(Gandy?) will be the first to give a condolation statement.

    BJP-

    1. The chief profession of Christians is religious conversion.
    2. The second most popular profession of Christians is again religious conversion.
    3. They lick their lips if some bomb blast happens 'cos they can whip anti-muslim sentiment(which again shows that most Hindus have this "All Muslims are terrorists". I agree with the opposite though, Most terrorists are muslims. )

    Me:
    I don't give a damn!!!!!!
    As long as no one bombs and kills me.

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  6. @Takal -
    about Intensely-Secular parties
    1. "Tiny drops of water maketh a mighty ocean".
    Pool in the minorities, and you have sufficient to decide the outcome in an election. Any votes from the majority is an added bonus.
    2."Let a thousand criminals go free, but an innocent man shall not be put into prison." A noble thought.
    The problem is that detained/ questioned/ taken into custody are all some forms of arrest, and in these cases many a innocent people might/could/should be involved.
    eg.The Kamath family that held the 2nd wi-fi network, Mr. Haywood etc.
    If this act itself tantamounts to stereotyping muslims as terrorists, then its going to be a glitch for the investigations.
    All I would say to the poor chap is, "Sorry bro, the stats are against you".
    3. Irrelevant views as usual. [ by her :)]. Don't bother.

    About the Kesariya Party of Lotus-land
    1.& 2. Hey, I noticed that both of them were similar. Was it an intended joke?
    The issue in mangalore, was mostly about defamation of Hindu deities in some religious propaganda. Conversion was secondary. Anyways, both parties have hot-headed idiots. Hopefully things return to normalcy soon.

    3. Look up the term warmonger. Everyone's resorting to just that.

    @ You -
    Spoken like a true patriot of Davangere. fu

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  7. @Takaal:

    "I don't give a damn!!!!!!
    As long as no one bombs and kills me."

    Takaal, man.. u rock! :)

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  8. what happened to my comment asshole ?

    ReplyDelete
  9. @ Ashish - You commented on my wordpress blog, and its published there. I admire your keen attention to detail.

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  10. @Logik: Man, I struggled a lot to post that comment man. Why not retain the old interface? And can u recommend me some websites for the widgets that you have got for 'I Frequent' and 'I also read' columns in your blog?

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  11. I believe in my readers man. I can't put captchas and all that nonsense. Just sign into Google accounts, or any openid scheme ( wordpress etc). Or even anonymous is supported.
    Anyways, people hardly comment :). So this is more comfortable. Type ur comment. Press post. Done. As simple as that.

    Anyway, for the widget goodies. go to www.draft.blogger.com.set that as ur default dashboard. Then in your blog layout, you'll get all these extra stuff. Play around.

    ReplyDelete