We all are aware of the wars India and Pakistan have fought and the resulted destruction especially precious human lives. In the current information age, some battles are not only fought with guns and tanks but also through media, internet and pen. Since the advent of Information Technology among the masses of South Asia in mid 1990s, the pace of cyber wars between Pakistan and India have also been increased.

Cyberwars between the two countries started in May 1998, when India conducted its nuclear tests. Soon after India officially announced the test, a group of Pakistan-based hackers called milw0rm broke into the Bhabha Atomic Research Center web site and posted anti-India and anti-nuclear messages. The cyberwars usually have been limited to defacements of each others’ sites. Defacement is a low level damage, in which only the home page of a site is replaced with hacker’s own page, usually with some message for the victim. Such defacements started in May 1998 and continued during Kargil War in 1999 and then during that era when the tension between India and Pakistan was at its peak from Dec 2001 to 2002. Therefore, the period between 1999 to 2002 was very crucial, when the troops were busy across the LOC exchanging gunshots and the hackers busy in defacing sites of each others.

According to attrition.org, a web site that tracks computer security related developments on the Internet, show that attacks on Indian websites increased from 4 in 1999 to 72 in 2000 where as the Pakistani websites were hacked 7 times in 1999 and 18 times in 2000. During the first half of 2001, 150 Indian websites were defaced.

During Kargil war, the first Indian site reported to be hacked was http://www.armyinkashmir.com, established by the Indian government to provide factual information about daily events in the Kashmir Valley. The hackers posted photographs showing Indian military forces allegedly killing Kashmiri militants. The pictures sported captions like ‘Massacre,’ Torture,’ ‘Extrajudicial execution’ and ‘The agony of crackdown’ and blamed the Indian government for its alleged atrocities in Kashmir. That was followed by defacement of numerous Indian governmental sites and reciprocal attacks on Pakistani sites.

Two prominent Pakistani hacker groups are PHC (Pakistan Hackers Club) and G-Force. The founder of PHC is Dr. Nuker. The US Department of Justice has identified “Doctor Nuker” as Misbah Khan of Karachi. Misbah Khan was involved in defacement of the official site of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee). Doctor Nuker struck back with an interview to a magazine Newsbytes where he claimed that the ‘federal grand jury made a mistake in indicting Misbah Khan of Karachi’ and that ‘he merely uses insecure servers in Pakistan to get online anonymously’. Doctor Nuker has been featured in international publications including Time and Newsweek.

G-Force is based in Lahore and it consists of eight members. Both Pakistan Hackers Club and G-Force are professional hackers with a specific aim: to work for the cause of Kashmir and Palestine. It is still to be seen how their hackings are helping the cause of Palestine or Kashmir! Pakistan Hackers Club has been around since quite long and apart from Indian site, they have defaced many USA and Israeli sites including US Department of Energy’s site. G-Force was founded in May 1999 after the nuclear tests and their initial target was Indian sites but after 9/11, their concentration has been shifted to US-based sites. According to zone-h.org, G-Force has successfully defaced 212 sites. G-Force’s “achievements” includes National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency and three military sites associated with the US Defence Test and Evaluation Professional Institute.

During this cyberwar, in December 2000, a wired.com news story created waves that claimed that an Indian hacker’s group “Patriotic Indians” has defaced the official site of Pakistani government pakgov.org. Later, it was revealed that the actual site of Pakistani government is pak.gov.pk, not pakgov.org and pakgov.org was in fact registered by the alleged hacker himself with fake information.

On the Indian side, there are various hackers groups that have defaced Pakistani sites. Among them, the most famous one is H2O or the Hindustan Hackers Organization. However, the independent as well as Indian analysts admit that at this cyber-front, Pakistan has always been winning this war. There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, Pakistani hackers are organized in groups where as most of the Indian hackers are working as solo. Secondly and the most important reason is the religious motivation of the hackers based in Pakistan, to do something for the cause of Muslim brothers & sisters in Palestine and Kashmir.

At the government level, both the countries are doing their best to curb hacktivism. NIC (National Informatics Centre) of India and Cybercrime division of FIA (Federal Investigation Authority) in Pakistan are taking necessary steps to eliminate all forms of cybercrime, including hacking.

A few of the Indian sites defaced by Pakistani hackers are:

1. Indian Science Congress

2. National Informatics Centre

3. Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (State-run international voice carrier)

4. External Affairs Mnistry

5. UP government site

6. Ministry of Information Technology

7. Mahindra & Mahindra

8. Rediff Chat

9. Asian Age newspaper

10. Aptech India

11. University of Mumbai

12. Official site of Gujarat Government

13. GlaxoWellcome India

14. The Parliament home page

15. SetIndia.com

16. Department of Electronics

17. Engineering Export Promotion Council, Ministry of Commerce

18. Center for Advanced Technology

A few of the Pakistani sites defaced by Indian hackers are:

1. The Nation (newspaper)

2. Pakistan Television

3. Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation

4. Official site of Punjab Government

5. Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology

6. Prime bank

7. Hamdard University

If fighting with our neighbours is in our genes, we can fight through the internet, media, newspapers and books but let us not fight with guns and missiles. There may be humiliation if a website is defaced but at least no human life is lost.

Please visit India-Pakistan Friendship Club (IPFC) to access more articles related to India and Pakistan.

Do you enjoy making short videos or movies? If you do, you will love YouTube.  YouTube is an online video sharing website that lets internet users, like you, upload videos that they made to the website, where they can be viewed by others.  Although it is fun and exciting to make and share your own YouTube videos, you will want to display some caution when doing so.  Posting videos on YouTube can be dangerous, especially if improperly done. That is why it is advised that you always keep internet safety in the back of your mind, when creating your YouTube videos.

Perhaps, the most important safety tip that you need to remember is to protect your identity.  You will want to refrain from mentioning your name in your YouTube videos, especially your full name.  You will also want to refrain from mentioning your address in any of your YouTube videos.  While you may think that mentioning the city or town that you live in is okay, as long as you don’t give your street address, you may want to rethink doing so. There are a large number of internet users who are resourceful; with the right information, they can easily find out important information about you, including where you live.

One of the reasons why YouTube is so popular, aside from the fact that you can watch or upload movies to the YouTube site for free, is the fact that you can rate, leave comments, or talk about YouTube videos with other internet users.  If you talk with certain members enough you may end up developing a close online friendship with them.  Still, it is advised that you keep the previously mentioned safety tip in mind; do not give out any of your personal information.  Whenever you use the internet, whether you are using YouTube or not, you need to remember that it is difficult, if not impossible, to verify who is sitting behind the computer screen on the other end of your conversation.  No matter what online exchanges take place, you will want to protect your identity. 

When it comes to internet users further researching you, many YouTube video submitters wonder why anyone would do such a thing.  While different individuals have different motives, you should always assume that those motives are not in your best interest.  As stated above, different internet users have different motives, but one thing that seems to motivate them is seductive or attractive looking internet users.  Even if you are creating a video blog or a comedy skit, you will want to keep a close eye on your appearance.  Of course, you will want to look your best, but you want to be sure not to take it too far, as many can misinterpret your intentions; possibly putting you in harms way.

It is also advised that you be careful with what you post online, if you are making a video of yourself and your friends.  You need to make sure that all video stars know your intentions of posting the video for sharing on YouTube.  If you have a video that you shot candidly, you need to use your best judgment.  You want to be cautious of ingraining on anyone’s privacy, as it may not only reflect negatively on you, but it may also land you in hot water. It is also advised that you refrain from posting clips of movies, television shows, or music videos that you do not have rights to.  This is a violation of copyright.  In most cases, your YouTube video will simply be pulled, but, in rare instances, you may be faced with legal action.

The previously mentioned safety tips are just a few of the many that you will want to keep in mind, when making a video to upload on to the YouTube website.  In all honesty, it is best if you just use your best judgment.  Should you feel uncomfortable doing something, like just making a YouTube video in general, you are advised to listen to your gut, as it is often the best sign of trouble to come.

An internet filter is a piece of software, designed to control access to online content – sites and pages available on the web.

Think of it as a nightclub bouncer, letting in the good-time punters, while keeping out the troublemakers. Filters are most commonly found in private networks, such as workplaces, libraries and schools – helping to ensure that users within the network cannot access material, which violates office policy and industry regulation. But you can also get personal filters, like OnlineFamily.Norton, which run on your home computer to give you personal control over the internet safety in your household.

On a much larger scale are nationwide filters, applied by ISPs under government instruction, to comply with legislation and local customs – think China, Cuba and Uzbekistan.

How a filter works

A filter sits between you and the sites you try to access, screening for inappropriate content using a whitelist, blacklist or keyword system.

A whitelist system works like an exclusive guest list, where access is granted to a pre-determined list of “safe” websites. On a blacklist system, the opposite happens – access is denied to sites on the pre-determined “no admissions” roster.

Keyword filtering operates in a similar way to blacklisting – only instead of sites, the blacklist is made up of words flagged as inappropriate. The keyword filter scans the contents of requested sites, and access is allowed if no forbidden words are found.

What gets blocked?

Legitimate content may get blocked by accident.

In terms of blocking access to content, filters do their job painfully well – that is, targeted inappropriate content gets blocked, but so do innocent and well-meaning sites with legitimate information. For instance, a keyword filter on a public library computer may be configured to filter all sites containing the word “breast”. In most cases, this is successful in blocking unwanted sexual material – but may also deny access to cooking recipes (“chicken breast”), costume & fashion sites (“place tape measure under the breast”) and medical information (“breast cancer”).

For a filter to work effectively, it must be continually monitored, reviewed and updated to ensure that it is on par with real life – no easy task, by any means.

Network-level and ISP-level filters offer a broad, no-think solution, but are unable to cater to individual needs, which can result in a “lowest common denominator” approach – unsuitable for even a wider audience. Making modifications to a filter at this level can be expensive to instigate, and has a large area of impact if something goes wrong.

A personal filter is often recommended as a more affordable and practical alternative. While it only works in your home, you can tailor it to suit the needs of your household – which means more suitable protection for you and your family.

Do filters actually protect users?

A filter is simply a tool for blocking websites – and like all tools, can be effective when used correctly for the right purpose.

It’s a common misconception that an internet filter is adequate for preventing access to unwanted material. Filters cannot effectively monitor private channels – email, instant messaging, peer-to-peer file sharing, and offline media – the more frequented methods for distributing illegal and questionable content. While a filter may provide basic user protection, they are by no means a catch-all solution for keeping trouble at bay.

Staying safe online

Really staying safe online means getting to know your environment, understanding the risks and remembering what to do in a difficult situation.

Today, many people rely on computers to do homework, work, and create or store useful information. Therefore, it is important for the information on the computer to be stored and kept properly. It is also extremely important for people on computers to protect their computer from data loss, misuse, and abuse.  For example, it is crucial for businesses to keep information they have secure so that hackers can’t access the information. Home users also need to take means to make sure that their credit card numbers are secure when they are participating in online transactions. 

A computer security risk is any action that could cause lost of information, software, data, processing incompatibilities, or cause damage to computer hardware,   a lot of these are planned to do damage. An intentional breach in computer security is known as a computer crime which is slightly different from a cypercrime. A cybercrime is known as illegal acts based on the internet and is one of the FBI’s top priorities.  There are several distinct categories for people that cause cybercrimes, and they are refereed as hacker, cracker, cyberterrorist, cyberextortionist, unethical employee, script kiddie and corporate spy.  The term hacker was actually known as a good word but now it has a very negative view. A hacker is defined as someone who accesses a computer or computer network unlawfully.  They often claim that they do this to find leaks in the security of a network. The term cracker has never been associated with something positive this refers to someone how intentionally access a computer or computer network for evil reasons. It’s basically an evil hacker. 

They access it with the intent of destroying, or stealing information. Both crackers and hackers are very advanced with network skills.  A cyberterrorist is someone who uses a computer network or the internet to destroy computers for political reasons.  It’s just like a regular terrorist attack because it requires highly skilled individuals, millions of dollars to implement, and years of planning. The term cyperextortionist is someone who uses emails as an offensive force. They would usually send a company a very threatening email stating that they will release some confidential information, exploit a security leak, or launch an attack that will harm a company’s network. They will request a paid amount to not proceed sort of like black mailing in a since. An unethical employee is an employee that illegally accesses their company’s network for numerous reasons. One could be the money they can get from selling top secret information, or some may be bitter and want revenge. A script kiddie is someone who is like a cracker because they may have the intentions of doing harm, but they usually lack the technical skills. They are usually silly teenagers that use prewritten hacking and cracking programs. A corporate spy has extremely high computer and network skills and is hired to break into a specific computer or computer network to steal or delete data and information.

Shady companies hire these type people in a practice known as corporate espionage. They do this to gain an advantage over their competition an illegal practice. Business and home users must do their best to protect or safeguard their computers from security risks. The next part of this article will give some pointers to help protect your computer. However, one must remember that there is no one hundred percent guarantee way to protect your computer so becoming more knowledgeable about them is a must during these days. When you transfer information over a network it has a high security risk compared to information transmitted in a business network because the administrators usually take some extreme measures to help protect against security risks. Over the internet there is no powerful administrator which makes the risk a lot higher. If your not sure if your computer is vulnerable to a computer risk than you can always use some-type of online security service which is a website that checks your computer for email and Internet vulnerabilities. The company will then give some pointers on how to correct these vulnerabilities.

The Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center is a place that can do this. The typical network attacks that puts computers at risk includes viruses, worms, spoofing, Trojan horses, and denial of service attacks.  Every unprotected computer is vulnerable to a computer virus which is a potentially harming computer program that infects a computer negatively and altering the way the computer operates without the user’s consent. Once the virus is in the computer it can spread throughout infecting other files and potentially damaging the operating system itself. It’s similar to a bacteria virus that infects humans because it gets into the body through small openings and can spread to other parts of the body and can cause some damage. The similarity is, the best way to avoid is preparation.  A computer worm is a program that repeatedly copies itself and is very similar to a computer virus. However the difference is that a virus needs o attach itself to an executable file and become a part of it. A computer worm doesn’t need to do that I seems copies to itself and to other networks and eats up a lot of bandwidth. A Trojan Horse named after the famous Greek myth and is used to describe a program that secretly hides and actually looks like a legitimate program but is a fake.  A certain action usually triggers the Trojan horse, and unlike viruses and worms they don’t replicate itself. Computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses are all classifies as malicious-logic programs which are just programs that deliberately harms a computer. 

Although these are the common three there are many more variations and it would be almost impossible to list them. You know when a computer is infected by a virus, worm, or Trojan horse if one or more of these acts happen:

- Screen shots of weird messages or pictures appear.
- You have less available memory then you expected
- Music or sounds plays randomly.
- Files get corrupted
- Programs are files don’t work properly
- Unknown files or programs randomly appear
- System properties fluctuate

Computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses deliver their payload or instructions through four common ways. One, when an individual runs an infected program so if you download a lot of things you should always scan the files before executing, especially executable files. Second, is when an individual runs an infected program. Third, is when an individual bots a computer with an infected drive, so that’s why it’s important to not leave media files in your computer when you shut it down.  Fourth is when it connects an unprotected computer to a network. Today, a very common way that people get a computer virus, worm, or Trojan horse is when they open up an infected file through an email attachment. There are literally thousands of computer malicious logic programs and new one comes out by the numbers so that’s why it’s important to keep up to date with new ones that come out each day. Many websites keep track of this.

There is no known method for completely protecting a computer or computer network from computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses, but people can take several precautions to significantly reduce their chances of being infected by one of those malicious programs.  Whenever you start a computer you should have no removable media in he drives. This goes for CD, DVD, and floppy disks. When the computer starts up it tries to execute a bot sector on the drives and even if it’s unsuccessful any given various on the bot sector can infect the computer’s hard disk. If you must start the computer for a particular reason, such as the hard disk fails and you are trying to reformat the drive make sure that the disk is not infected.

The internet may seem to be a very educational place but it also has a number of hazards associated with it. True to the fact it is a huge database of knowledge, people benefit a lot when it comes to gathering some essential data relating to their research project.

Even children have a lot of help in completing their homework in time. However, there are a lot of anomalies of the net which are essentially and specifically not good for children. First of all, there is a lot of unapproved and unauthorised adult content on the net.

This sort of content can be potentially harmful for your child. Secondly, due to the growth of social networking websites and the vulnerability of children, they are at the risk of being lured on by unsocial elements into doing dangerous things. It is therefore advised that parents give due thoughts about the internet safety for children.

Social networking may seem to be like a very harmless thing to do but in reality it is potentially very dangerous. This is to say that it can be very much addictive for a teenage kid. They can get addicted to making friends on the net and this can hamper with their daily schedule because they start spending long hours on the internet. As a result their performance gets hampered and they get lower grades. There other social networking dangers too that parents need to be aware of and save their children from.

The internet thus has a very important role to play in our lives by helping us to carry on with our daily routine smoothly and aiding us in every possible way. But beware of certain sites or links on the net that can potentially damage your computer. These sites are the source of unwanted programs like viruses, malware’s etc. A Free antivirus download will solve all your worries in such a condition.