First weapons fired at Malaysia by Bangladeshi hackers

Anyone can start a war, as long as they have weapons. Apparently, Bangladeshi hackers have fired their first salvo, poisoning the DNS of some select sites.

It's not a difficult thing, but it's effective. This proves that anyone can start a war with major effect, not only governments. You don't need to start a major cyberwar if a small hack can give you maximum effect.

Even the dell.com.my DNS entry has been poisoned, and this is a sales site--imagine how much revenue has been lost. And it has been hours since it's been poisoned, and yet it still remains crippled.

The Dell site itself has not been hacked, it's the addressing system which the Internet uses. It may be possible to prevent this in the future, but that takes substantial changes which need to be implemented.

According to Lowyat, MyNIC, the Malaysian registry of .my domains, has been compromised, and DNS servers based off of that official source are therefore all affected. Earlier on, Google DNS servers were also poisoned, but in my last test, Google DNS seems to have been refreshed so it's no longer poisoned. Click here to find out how to switch to Google Public DNS if you have been affected. For now, we're witnessing an attack done the simple way, but with maximum effect


Sites affected so far are Dell Malaysia (.com.my), all Microsoft sites on the .my suffix notable MSN Malaysia (.com.my), Skype Malaysia (.com.my), Bing Malaysia (.com.my) as well as antivirus site Kaspersky (.com.my). Google Malaysia (.com.my), Youtube Malaysia (.com.my) and a few other notable .MY domain sites are also inaccessible at the moment.

At time of writing, none of the online banking sites have been poisoned, but it is a very real possibility that they could be until this issue is resolved. If you have to conduct any online transactions, please ensure that the security certificate for the online banking site you are visiting is valid before keying in your personal details (if you choose to stick to Google DNS servers that is).

OpenDNS Home:  

208.67.222.222

 208.67.220.220

Level3 :  

209.244.0.3

 209.244.0.4

TMnet/Unifi: 

202.188.0.133

202.188.1.5

Datuk Punch Gunalan dies at 68

Badminton legend Datuk Punch Gunalan passed away peacefully at 6am Wednesday. He was 68.

Gunalan had been battling with liver cancer for some time.

He had put Malaysia on the world's map in the 1970s with his immaculate performances in the singles and doubles events - representing the country in the Thomas Cup, All-England and Asian Games.

He had also served with the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) and Badminton World Federation (BWF), earning the respect of the world for his excellent administrative and communication skills and also for his warmth, kindness and passion for the sport.

Born in 1944 in Sepang, Selangor, Gunalan was inducted into the Olympic Council of Malaysia Hall of Fame in 2004.

While Malaysians were overwhelmed in 1970 for losing the Thomas Cup, Gunalan defeated Indonesian legends Injartno and Mirjati in his doubles title game with partner Ng Boon Bee to regain Malaysia back in the world of badminton. Despite losing 2-7 to Indonesia at the championship, Gunalan's victory is something that we can still be proud of.

Gunalan had made a successful career in his life. A talented right-hander, he was indeed among the finest combination doubles Malaysia has ever produced. In 1971, Gunalan and Boon Bee again became the top men's doubles team in the world, winning the prestigious All England title, as well as the Canadian, Danish and U.S Open titles. His gifted right-hand amazed people with his exiting smash.

After his retirement, Gunalan continued his career by coaching the Malaysian team (Badminton Association of Malaysia) and later being appointed as the Deputy President of the International Badminton Federation. Under his reign, he vowed to make badminton as the best racquet sport in the world.

His continuous contributions and tremendous achievements in the badminton arena shall always be an inspiration for our young shuttlers.

Achievements
1969 - Champion, U.S. Open for Men's Double title
1970 - His first contribution in Thomas Cup
1970 - 1972 - Champion, Danish Open for Men's Double title
1971 - Champion, U.S. Open for Men's Double title
1971 - Champion, All England for Men's Double title
1971 - Champion, Canadian Open for Men's double title
2005 - Became Deputy President of the International Badminton Federation

Security Breach at Blizzard

To all Battle.net account holders, now might be a good time to change your account password. In a post from the Blizzard website, Blizzard President Mike Morhaine said that a network breach was detected this week. 

However, Blizzard found no evidence to suggest that user account information has been compromised, although a list of email addresses for global Battle.net users excluding China was accessed.  In addition, the answer to the personal security question and information relating to Mobile and Dial-In Authenticators were also accessed. Finally, “cryptographically scrambled versions” of Battle.net passwords (not actual passwords) for players on North American (which includes Malaysian players) servers were taken. 

However, unlike the lax security measures taken by both Amazon and Apple, the information that were accessed are not enough for hackers to gain access to individual accounts. Blizzard uses Secure Remote Password protocol (SRP) to protect these passwords, which is designed to “make it extremely difficult to extract the actual password, and also means that each password would have to be deciphered individually”.

Therefore, while there is a high chance that these Battle.net accounts might not be hacked into, some preventive measures such as changing your account passwords will eliminate the chances of your account being hacked completely. 

 (Source: Kotaku, Engadget)

Dark Knight Visit's the Victim

Batman star Christian Bale has made a personal visit to see seven victims of the Aurora movie theatre shooting to express his condolences to them and their families.
The 38-year-old British actor, spent two-and-a-half hours at the Medical Center of Aurora this afternoon with five patients admitted to the Colorado hospital and two others who had traveled from Denver's Swedish Medical Center to meet Bale
The Oscar winning star of the 'Dark Knight Rises' made the visit to the hospital to talk to patients injured by James Holmes' massacre last Friday, in which 12 people lost their lives and 58 others were injured.

Bale traveled with his wife, Sibi Blazic and met with a number of emergency doctors, police officers and paramedics who were the first responders to the shooting at the Century 16 cinema theater in Aurora.
'It was good for the patients,' Voloch said about Bale, who spent around 10 minutes with each person. 'We hope it was therapeutic for them, and all the staff really appreciated him coming.'

Yahoo pasword leaked

Earlier today friday the 13th, Yahoo Inc. admitted that a file which contained user names and password of around 450,000 user accounts has been leaked out into the Internet. Said to be an “old file” that originated from Yahoo! Contributor Network, these user accounts not only involved Yahoo domain but domains that belonged to other companies and organizations as well.

That being said, the company pointed out that less than 5-percent of the Yahoo accounts in the list actually had working password. The company have already working on to fix the security loophole as well as changing the passwords of the Yahoo users and alerted other companies might be involved in the security breach.

A security outfit called Sucuri Labs has obtained access to the file and came out with a useful tool to check if your email is part of the leak but judging from Sucuri’s analysis of the file, we suggest that you change your Yahoo password regardless of whether your email is involved or not.

Manny Pacquiao vs Timothy Bradley

†   Right to Assume Fix in Main Event   †

Pacquiao dominated Bradley Saturday night. Many who saw it believed Pacquiao won by a margin of at least 10-to-2.

Everyone except the judges, the only people who mattered. Conspiracy? Here are a few reasons why the fix could have been in.

Pacquiao dominated

Instead of just mentioning how much Pacquiao dominated, let's look at the numbers. According to Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports, boxing experts had Pacquiao winning the fight decisively.

Pac-Man landed 253 of 751 punches thrown, a connect rate of 34 percent. Bradley only landed 159 of 839, a connect rate of just 19 percent. Pacquiao's shots were much more powerful, too.

Generally, if the fight is close, judges will turn to the number of punches landed as the ultimate difference-maker. Surprisingly that wasn't the deciding factor here.

Boxing took another hit Saturday night and the sport should be ashamed. We'll probably never know the truth, but the proof may be in the pudding. 

Nayati is back home

What good news for the day: the 12-year-old schoolboy, Nayati Moodliar, who was abducted outside the Mont Kiara International School last Friday reportedly been FOUND. He's safely back in the arms of his parents now :)

Nayati was abducted at 7.35am on April 27 while walking to the Mont' Kiara International School.

Police sources said after several attempts at negotiations, the kidnappers finally agreed on a substantial ransom amount which was paid to the kidnappers Thursday morning.

The sources said the kidnappers contacted the family shortly after he was grabbed by two men in a black car and later demanded for a ransom for his safe release.

City police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Mohmad Salleh confirmed Nayati was now with his family, saying that the child was released safely and unharmed at a rest and recreation stop along the North South Expressway near Sungai Buloh at around 7.55am on Thursday.

He added that police are still investigating the kidnapping and urged the public with information on the case to call 03-2115 9999.

The awareness campaign that had spread quickly since the moment Nayati was abducted early Friday morning on the way to his school has been incredible, to say the least. Bravo to all who were involved – the public, the police, the government, the media – and even those from overseas whom the Moodliars have never met – and are never likely to meet – who have offered their time, skills and money without any expectation of any form of compensation.

On top of the speedy posters that have been posted all over town in no time, the setting up of the ‘Please help us to find Nayati Moodliar’ Facebook page has also done wonders in getting the ball rolling.

A prominent businessman was also kind enough to offer RM50,000 via Malaysian Digest for information leading to the safe return of Nayati which kick-started our “Bring Nayati Home” campaign

12 year old kidnapped

Kuala Lumpur : A 12-year-old Indian origin boy was allegedly kidnapped a few meters away from his apartment in Malaysia while walking to a neighborhood school.

 

Nayati Shamelin Moodliar, who is a Dutch national, was was on his way to the Mont Kiara International School, hardly 200 metres away when he was allegedly abducted by two men on Friday and fled in a black car.

Police are investigating the incident after the family lodged a report at the Brickfields station. Though the number plate of the car was noted, police said that the registration number of the vehicle was phony. Also, even after 24 hours after Nayati's kidnapping, no ransom calls have been made. 

 

The boy's parents have appealed to the abductors to release their only son as soon as possible. "We just want him to come home safely. Please release our son and contact us. We do not want any trouble. We just want our son back, please," the boy's father Sham Moodliar, who is an Indian, said.

The abducted child has not been located yet. Police has informed that Amber Alert has been issued. 

Meanwhile, the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak yesterday made an impassioned plea to the abductors to release him. "Let's all pray and, through social media amplify and search for Nayati," he tweeted. "I appeal as a father, for Nayati not to be harmed in any way. Spoke directly to IGP (Inspector-General of Police) to investigate this matter."

Residents in the area, who live in apartments surrounding the school were both upset and angry. According to sources, if the boy is not in Malaysia, he

could be whisked to neighbouring countries like Thailand. Majority of the children at the school are expatriates including several Indian nationals. The kidnapping incident came at a time when the police force was busy readying for a massive electoral reforms rally whose organisers have not been given permission to hold the sit-in at a downtown square.

The school in a statement said, "School was in lock-down due to the abduction of a Grade 7 student Nayati Moodliar prior to the start of the school day. All other students are safe and accounted for."

This is where he was kidnapped