TriNetre - Archive for February 11, 2003
(no longer updated)
February 11, 2003
Interesting/bizzare case in perception management
[Society]
@ 02:19 PM
This is one of the most interesting cases of deception that I have come across in the cyber world. I cannot say who is at fault and who is the innocent passerby, but it surely reminded me (yet again) to take everything on the web with a ping of salt.
The whole story started off when a journalist Brian McWilliams registered the domain name harkatulmujahideen.org (HuM) after its registration lapsed without the original owner renewing the domain. This domain used to be that of one of the Islamic organization based in Pakistan, which is reportedly involved in terrorist activities. He then put a mirror of the original content on to the website. Dan Verton, a reporter for the Computer World , contacted HuM (using the info@ email) address for an interview with the group, to which Brian replied in cryptic messages, without elaborating much on any points.
When the Slammer worm hit the world, Brian sent an email as "Abu Mujahid" stating that HuM was responsible for the worm attack. This report was carried by Dan Verton in Computer World. Later, Brain "defaced" the website and this was picked up as a anti-Islamic defacement by various security companies and newspapers (including Computer World). The email exchange with Dan Verton helped "validate" the originality of the defacement. Thus, a a hoax website was defaced by its own owner and it was attributed to some groups who had no hand in the play.
After all this, Brain decided that things have gone far too much and pulled the plug on the hoax, leaving Dan Verton "scratching fleas as the price you sometimes pay for sleeping with dogs".
Related links:
- harkatulmujahideen.org
- Brian McWilliams
- Copy of "Slammer" worm story at Computer World
- Copy of "defacement" story at Computer World
- Dan Verton's take on the whole issue
- Coverage by Miami Herald
- Coverage by The Inquirer
Perl/PHP alternative to Plone?
[Software]
@ 10:30 AM
I have been planning to build a content management/Project management systems for our lab (intranet) use. One of my friends suggested Plone, a Zope based CMS. Plone is, to be frank, the kind of system I am looking for. But, there are several "drawbacks" because of which I don't want to use it. First is that it uses Python, a language I am not familiar with. So, customization will be a big issue. Another problem is that my idea of a system is one which utilizes Apache as web server and not run as a standalone web server.
Hence, here I am, looking for Perl/PHP based alternatives for Plone. Any suggestions, anyone?
Strange Rediff Shopping
[Musings]
@ 09:54 AM
Rediff.com Shopping is very strange. The first time I tried to get something bought from the site and delivered to my parents back in India was last year. Things went horribly bad then. I chose an item, paid for it and a day later an email tells me that the item is not available and that the money will be returned. Fine, no harm done.
This year beginning I get an email from Rediff again asking why is it that I have stopped dropping by, even confessing that it might be because of some poor service. They stated that things have improved. So today, I headed down to buy the CD Surabhi. Surprise, surprise - "The item you have selected is currently out of stock". This was exactly the same CD I was trying to get an year ago! Either, the whole of Indian population is buying the CD or I am plain out of luck. Or, maybe, just maybe, Rediff has not replenished their stocks.
How is it that such a big Indian e-commerce giant cannot get hold of items that are out of stock? If they can't get it, why can't they just yank off the item from their catalog? Lazy? Incompetence?
