“Fools
Rush in where Angels Fear to Tread”
by Ram
Krishnaswamy
20th
July 2017
Having
graduated from Clarkes Tables to Calculators in the 60’s to Fortran Programming
using punch card systems in 1970 to Windows Table Top Computers with 40 meg
hard disk with Monochrome Monitors in the 80’s to Apple Mackintosh 128K in 1984
that cost $7500, today in 2017 I live in a Mac World with a 27 inch iMac with
Retina 5K display, 3.8 GHzs Processor and 2 Terrabyte Hard disk all for $3500,
and probably cheaper if I shop around. There is no bulky computer sitting on
your table and the monitor is your Computer.
The Old
Nokia Analogue mobile phone that was so reliable to talk to family and friends is
now classified as a dinosaur and has now been replaced by state of the art
Digital Smart Phone such as Apple iPhone 7 and Samsung S8 etc dominating the
market. Mobile phones are not just for conversation any more but virtually a
mini computer in your hands. You can Google, You can email, watch You tube,
read news, Whats App, Instagram, Face Book, take amazing pictures and capture
videos of incidents instantly and millions of Apps to choose from to down load
some free and most for a price. You hardly need a Table Top computer these days
and the younger generation just use lap tops and iPads.
The funny
thing is senior citizens like me at age 70 use Whatsapp more than youngsters to
stay connected with family and friends and my wife prefers her Instagram…We
have all been forced to retrain year after year. I am a bloggaholic with over
60 Blogs I have created since 2005 on any topic I fancy…..
And then
we have smart TVs too that is hooked up to the home internet WiFi , with
facilities like Stan and Netflix streaming movies on line for a fee. Forget
movies you can watch full seasons of TV serials of your choice for a pittance.
Just when
I was feeling elated and over the moon with all these technological
advancements my mobile phone rang at 3.00am a few weeks back. I was concerned
it must be an overseas call to say some family member was seriously ill or had
passed away. I have dreaded late night phone calls all my adult life.
So I
grabbed the mobile phone and put my glasses on and took the call. The phone
burst into a spectacular light and sound show and I had to quickly mute the
phone as I did not want my wife to be disturbed. The message on the phone said
“ You are a lucky winner and can claim a brand new iPhone 7 if I entered the
comp quickly. I knew it was some kind of scam yet was foolish enough to see
what it was all about. To Claim my gift I had to give my First name, surname,
delivery address with Post code, reconfirm my mobile number, provide me email
address DOB etc.. When done I was asked to complete a survey. This is when I
decided to abandon what I was doing and switched the phone off and went back to
sleep.
From that
day onwards I am being bombarded with atleast five to ten unsolicited Calls
from Telemarketers mostly from India. It was so annoying that I have now
changed the setting to say any call from a number not in my address book is to
be treated as SPAM. When the phone rings and it is some one whose number is not
saved on my phone, I get a scrolling message that says “appears to be spam from
telemarketing company”. I just reject the call straight away.
As if this
was not enough I received an email from an anonymous hacker group which said
your site NODESCO.US will be DDos-ed starting 24 hours if you do not pay 0.05
Bit Coin. It also warned that if I contacted the police or the media etc Id be
in big trouble.. NODESCO was my company now defunct and never had a NODESCO.US
domain name or web site.. I took the bold step to delete the email and purged
it from the Mac.
Last week
I was reading a news paper article on Suicides in Hindustan Times on my iMac
when suddenly a message appeared to say :
“Apple
Support Centre – Attention”
Apple
Warning Alert!! Apple Cloud Scan has detected critical vulnerabilities in your
device. And only Apple Certified repairs that are backed by Apple can resolve
the issue. Start your repair request now by calling 10300-596-394 or Visit
Apple certified store.
Critical
Warning Alert!! Apple Device Infected
Error
Code: 020-163-221 System ID: ix2002
Status:
Call for immediate support 1-300-596-394
Malicious
Pornographic Spyware/Riskware Detected
Do Not
ignore this critical alert.
If you
close this page, your computer access will be disabled to prevent further
damage to our network.
The screen
froze and I could not close the page or shut the Computer down but I could
print the message as evidence.I knew I was in trouble so I just unplugged the
computer.
The next
thing I did was to phone my bank manager and told him what had happened and he
told me how I could ask the bank to lock my internet banking account.
Next I
Googled Apple support Chat and explained what had happened and the Consultant
told me I had done the best thing by unplugging the Mac. Now I have been asked
to take my Mac to an Apple store so they can clean my Mac and remove any
Malware and upload the software again.
I rebooted
the Mac and it seemed OK. As a first step I went and purged the history of all
browsing data in my two browsers Safari and Chrome and emptied the trash. Mac
seems to be working fine but I have to take it to Apple Store to figure out
what on earth is going on.
Now comes
the realization as to how vulnerable all computer and mobile phone users are
all over the world.
Todays
news in Sydney is that a Tax Office Employee has blown the whistle and
published a step by step procedure to access any mobile phone, even if the
phone was switched off or had its battery and SIM card removed. The phone can
still be accessed and all messages and contact list and call history etc can be
extracted with ease.
This being
the case how safe is it to use the mobile phone say for Apple Pay or Samsung
Pay like tap and go payments ? I know so many people who use the mobile phones
for Internet Banking too.
“Digital Payments”
How safe are the procedures and how safe are the Bank customers..
Recently a
doctors surgery was broken into and the thieves stole patient cards that showed
complete details of the patients with name DOB, address, email address home
number work number mobile number and most importantly Medicare numbers. Some
one somewhere is Making duplicate medicare cards that are sold in the black
market to illegal migrants who use the stolen identity to get free Medical
Care….
Now
Imagine what would happen in Digital India where all Mobile phones and Bank
accounts are linked to the Ubiquitous Aadhaar Cards… Indian will be the hackers
haven targeting people who have succumbed to Govt pressures and registered for
the Aadhaar card.
Do Govt
Babus and Elected Ministers understand the problem they are creating for all
Indians with Aadhaar ?
Afraid
not.
The Rich
and famous and powerful and corrupt Indians are safe for the moment as they
have refrained from enrolling for Aadhaar. The have nots who have been enticed
it enrolling for Aadhaar to get Social security payments, Govt subsidies,
Pensions, scholarships, disability and age pensions, NREGA Payments have all
been exposed to exploitation by unscrupulous scammers and hackers and
blackmailers.
