Taliban: Phones, email, website hacked

ARTICLE BY GOWTHAM

KABUL: The war in Afghanistan enteredcyberspace when the tech-savvy Taliban said their phones, email and website had been hacked to spread a false report that the movement's spiritual leader, Mullah Omar, was dead.

Although the Islamist group banned television during its time in power between 1996 and 2001, its communication strategy in the decade-long war now includes a website, mobile phone text messages, emails and posts on Twitter andFacebook.

The Taliban -- ousted by US-backed Afghan forces for harbouring al Qaeda militants blamed for the September 11 attacks on the United States -- regularly promote their attacks, opinions or exploits online in a publicity war with the West.

Pakistani author and Taliban expert Ahmed Rashid said that, prior to 2001, the Taliban's "media reach to the Afghan people and the world had been virtually zero and totally ineffective".

"They learnt quickly that the war against the Americans had to be fought on many fronts," he said.

The online proficiency of the Taliban could be attributed to an influx of younger recruits during the past decade, said Thomas Ruttig, co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, but he said the overall strategy was not new.

"Islamists, even the early modernist and non-violent ones like Sayed Jamaluddin Afghani or the Egyptian Muhammad Abdu, have always suggested to use Western advanced technology to overcome the West's domination," he said.

"That's not much different from today's Taliban." The Taliban are paranoid that modern technology will betray hiding places. They have threatened to attack mobile phone operators' towers and offices if networks aren't shut down at night, when they fear foreign troops could track them down.

Hacking inquiry 
The cyber attack on Wednesday again sparked Taliban threats of revenge against the telephone network providers. They blamed "American intelligence" and accused a "cunning enemy" of committing "technical larceny".

A spokeswoman for NATO-led troops in Afghanistan said they had no information about the incident.

The Taliban regularly change the addresses of their websites, and website addresses are often corrupt or link to other websites such as dating or online shopping sites.

A "security encyclopaedia" for Islamist militants posted online several years ago -- and translated by the U.S.-based SITE institute -- urged strict precautions when using mobile phones, warning that Mullah Omar had come close to being assassinated after his phone signal gave away his whereabouts.

The Taliban is also concerned about Afghans using mobile phones to pass on information to foreign and government troops.

In the Panjwai district of southern Kandahar province recently, villagers in rural areas where the Taliban are still influential said insurgents had started smashing mobile telephones found on people outside their homes. Villagers said phones found at homes by insurgents were not destroyed.

Now it has to be on alert against cyber attacks. Mullah Omar was the second false high-profile death this week blamed on hacking. On Monday, the website of Britain's The Sun newspaper was hacked and a fake report posted that media mogul Rupert Murdoch had been found dead in his garden.

And just as the British parliament is investigating claims of phone hacking by Murdoch's News of the World newspaper, the Taliban said their Information and Cultural Commission has started an inquiry into how its communications were hacked.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force declined to comment on the Taliban allegation.

Samsung launches new Galaxy Tab

ARTICLE BY GOWTHAM


SEOUL: Samsung Electronics Co launched a thinner and lighter version of its Galaxy tablet in its lucrative home market, trying to halt the runaway success of Apple Inc's iPad.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is an upgraded version of the 7-inch Tab introduced in October.

Blockbuster iPad sales announced by Apple Tuesday underscore the challenge for the South Korean company.

Apple sold 14 million iPads in the first half of the year, compared with analysts' sales estimates of about 7.5 million units for the Galaxy Tab over 2011.

"As our smartphone business grew very fast within a very short period of time, I believe it's just a matter of time for our tablet business to improve," J.K. Shin, head of Samsung's mobile division, told reporters.

Samsung is Apple's nearest rival in the booming mobile device industry as it leverages its cost competitiveness and access to chips and core tablet components.

It has sharply narrowed the gap with Apple in the smartphone market, but remains a distant second in the tablet market, which research firm Gartner forecasts will surge to 108 million devices next year from an estimated 70 million in 2011.

"Apple's quarterly results showed again it's indeed the strongest rival to beat. Samsung will have a tough second half due to growing competition from Apple as it is set to introduce a new iPhone," said James Song, an analyst at Daewoo Securities.

Blockbuster sales of the iPhone and iPad again helped Apple crush Wall Street's expectations for its third-quarter results. Apple said Tuesday that concern over iPad 2 supply constraints had eased and demand was still outstripping supply in some markets.

The sale of the Tab in Korea is Samsung's fifth launch after its U.S. debut a month ago and its sales kickoff in Indonesia, where the company says it commands a 65 percent market share. It has also launched the device in Italy and Sweden.

Pricing for the new product, slightly thinner and lighter than the iPad 2, starts from $500 in the U.S. market, the same price as the iPad 2.

Samsung faces the challenge of moving beyond being a hardware company, clever at copying ideas, to becoming more creative and better adept at software at a time when consumer gadgets are getting smarter.

Second-quarter profit at Samsung, the world's largest maker of memory chips and televisions, fell by a quarter as weak earnings at its flat screen unit dragged, overshadowing robust sales from its mobile division.

Samsung reiterated Wednesday it aimed to boost tablet sales by more than five fold this year. It didn't provide specific numbers but analysts expect the company to have sold about 1.5 million units last year.

Cognizant faces H-1B visa abuse charges by US

ARTICLE BY GOWTHAM

BANGALORE: Multinational software firm Cognizant, which competes with India's Infosys,TCS and Wipro for a share of the US market, is facing allegations of H-1B visa abuse by an American staff the company fired recently.

Around 18 employees of Molina Healthcare, aCognizant customer, have filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles court alleging that they were replaced by lowly paid workers from Cognizant.

When contacted by ET a Cognizant spokesman said the lawsuit had no merit.

"Cognizant takes legal and regulatory compliance very seriously. It is Cognizant's view that this lawsuit is without merit, and we will vigorously contest it and pursue all legal remedies that may be available to us. Cognizant is a leading US-based provider of business, technology, and consulting services. The healthcare industry is one of the largest industry segments that Cognizant serves," he said.

The US-based magazine Computerworld reported earlier this month that the IT managers along with Cognizant at Molina Healthcare "increasingly catered to the Indian workers while leaving US workers, mostly security analysts and programmers who earned at least $75,000 a year, feeling excluded prior getting laid off last year," the report said.

Among other charges, the lawsuit also accuses the Cognizant customer of discrimination based on nationality.

As US struggles with stubbornly high unemployment rate of over 9%, immigration has become a hot topic among local citizens and opinion makers.

In February this year, Jack Palmer, a project manager with Infosys accused the company of misusing short term and easier to obtain B-1 visas by bringing low cost Indian workers to the US. A federal grand jury in Texas has already sought information from Infosys and an investigation is underway.
While Infosys has denied the allegations, experts tracking the sector say Indian firms need to focus harder on creating local jobs and become more sensitive to job losses as they become more global.

While political rhetoric is nothing new when it comes to outsourcing and job losses, the recent regulations like the one that doubled visa fee for funding Mexico border security and increasing rejection rates for Indian workers seeking short term posting in the US, hint at a brewing trade storm between the countries.

Last year, the Congress added another $2,000 to the H-1B Visa fee. In June this year, Zoe Lofgren of California proposed a bill that would increase wages paid to H-1B workers to ensure American candidates don't lose out.

Experts such as Philadelphia-based immigration lawyer Morley J Nair said in an earlier interview that at a time when US unemployment rates are high, anything even remotely connected with job discrimination will evoke a backlash.

"These cases should be of concern to all types of employers who put restrictive conditions in their ads that can lead to discrimination of any kind, not only to Indian companies operating in the US. Moreover, in this era of high unemployment, any employment ads that even remotely seem to contain restrictive or tailored requirements will invite more attention than needed," he said.

As more US companies, apart from foreign firms like Infosys, face challenges of immigration, even the political rhetoric against immigration is beginning to turn soft. On Monday for instance, Senator Schumer, famous for calling Infosys a 'chop shop', said immigration actually creates jobs - a significant departure from his earlier stand accusing outsourcing companies of stealing American jobs. In an interview with Politico, Schumer said an overhaul of the current immigration system is needed.