Logical or Practical Muslims?

It was a nice sunny day when I was on my way back to home from university, waiting for my bus at the bus station while sitting on a bench observing people passing by me. I was looking at my watch again and again as I had nothing to do, on my left I saw an old lady walking very slowly towards the bench, while I was watching her all of a sudden a young girl running, trying catch her bus, came in the way of old lady, for a moment I thought young girl is gonna bump into old lady but some how she managed to maintain her balance and did not collide. The young girl asked old lady if she is fine, needs any help and apologized to her like 5 to 7 times for coming on her way. The old lady sweetly replied its OK you go ahead. That day something hit at the back of my head, I questioned myself: what the hack was that, what if something similar would have happened in our society no one would have even bothered to turn around and see if other person is fine or not. The point here is why does all this lack in us. These people are not Muslims then how come they are so nice to each other, I mean from where did they learn all this?

Another major difference I found in this western society and in our society is: If I go to a restaurant/bank/public service office, I see people forming que without pushing anyone or showing frustrated facial expressions. This shows these people have patience to stand and wait for their turn, enough patience to stand and smile at each other. Its just they care for each other and unfortunately this also lacks in us 😦

This blog post of mine is not to degrade the society I belong to, its just to create an awareness that we as being a Muslims are not following Islam properly, in fact, keeping unlawful sexual intercourse, pork and alcohol aside, people here in western society are following all those teachings mentioned in Holy book (Qur’an) which makes a better society. We call our self Muslim but we don’t practice Islam, we are Muslim because we are born in Muslim family and Adhan (Azan) was delivered in our ear but people here in west are not Muslim but they practice Islam by following mostly all the major core element (daily life things) mentioned in Qur’an and Hadith. Ask yourself, are you a logical or practical Muslim?

Lets promise to our self that we need to be nice to each other, as much as we can. It needs to be like a competition, if other person is nice, I need to be more nicer than him/her. Lets not wait for someone else to start, initiate yourself and spread love and harmony among each others. May God Bless us all. Ameen

Social Engineering an Information Security Issue in a Corporate World.

Information is said to be one of the most valuable asset for organization, especially for organization which are developing new innovative products. So the information which is the intellectual property always has threats from being acquired by attackers. An attacker here can be our competitors, hacker and even government agencies. To make a strong defensive strategy we need to know the center of gravity of opponent as shown in Table 1. This is to understand for what purpose enemies are attacking our organization (Welch, Buchheit, & Ruocco, 1999).

Attacker	Purpose	Center of Gravity
Competitors	Organization who have similar business, try to have information superiority to gain success.	Secrecy, knowledge, wealth
Government	To gain politically	Finance, knowledge
Individual Attacker (Hackers/Criminal)	To gain fame, self-satisfaction.	Freedom, wealth, access to IT infrastructure

Table shows attacker, the purpose behind attacking our organization and the
center of gravity (Welch, et al., 1999).

It has been observed that organizations focus more on technical security of their organization such as firewalls, password, network and operating system, it is more of a protection mechanism that is applied to secure technical operations. Usually the emphasis is on physical protection mechanism and other operational security issues. As there is no security in terms of information implemented, there is no awareness created among employees’. Due to this employees usually disclosed sensitive information (names of employees, designation, telephone number and etc) to unauthorized person. This unauthorized person could be an attacker. This mishandling of information can cause loss of billions of dollars to the organization (Winkler, 1996).

Similar impact has been observed in the organization. We are planning to start our campaign to create awareness among employees regarding handling of sensitive information of their organization which is also the intellectual property of organization.

The ultimate goal of an attacker is to acquire sensitive information which if gained would make him superior in information i.e. information warfare tactic. An attacker usually applies “Social Engineering” which is a non technical method to acquire information. A lack of awareness among employees causes an attacker to be successful; generally, employees are only asked not to disclose password, log-out personal computer if you leave your desk. Many employees do not understand the level of sensitivity of a document and often throw it away in bin. There are many cases reported that employees often reveal information to unauthorized person to get rid of from annoying phone calls or emails. The organization is also to be blamed for this as they do not practice to educate employees in terms of social engineering attacks (Winkler, 1996).

Now the main thing is how an attacker utilizes social engineering method. Social engineering is said to be a method in which an attacker interacts with targeted organization’s employees asking them for information. Attacker applies deception to show a fake identity such as computer support staff and may ask employees for their login password, which in most of the cases employees give away. Another way could be that an attacker gains a job in an organization and may be given official access to sensitive information, even if not given access it may get information from others. Attacker can also take advantage of other techniques involved in social engineering, it can go for trash dumpster, this is also known as dumpster diving. This seems comic but this technique really work, lot of employees throw away  information written on a piece of paper, this information is usually very important for an attacker to know; it tells about the organization or updates which product is about to release and all. Burr bags and shredders are use for the purpose of destruction of information written on paper. A case was reported that U.S telecommunication systems were compromised and were brought down this by gaining passwords from the New York Telephone Company garbage (Winkler, 1996). Apart from this, there are other techniques also used in social engineering, the competitors hire these groups of people who work for collecting information for them so they can be superior in terms of information. These attackers practice shoulder surfing techniques and eavesdropping to collect sensitive information.

The impact of social engineering make organization loose business from market, for example if an electronic gadget developing firm was about to launch a product which was one of its kind and the competitors come to know about the product, its features and launch date then competitors might take advantage of this and would launch a better product before the launch of your firm. This would have severe impact on the launch of new product in market, organization would suffer heavy financial damages and could lose place in market.

Dua for Rain and Thunder

After facing flood in Badin, Sindh, we are experiencing heavy rainfall in Karachi. Lets Pray that this rain does not causes any harm to anyone. Below are the verses I am sharing which are to be recited when there is a thunder and rain. May Allah Bless us all.. AMEEN.

Source: http://voyageure.wordpress.com/2008/02/05/dua-for-rain-and-thunder/

At the time of rain:

اللَّهُمَّ صَيِّبَاً نَافِعَا

Allaahumma Sayyibann Naafi’aa

“O Allaah, (bring) beneficial rain clouds.”
(Bukhari – Fathul-Bari 2/518)

After it has rained:

مُطِرْنَا بِفَضْلِ اللهِ وَ رَحْمَتِهِ

Mutirnaa bifadhlillaahi wa rahmatihi

“It has rained by the bounty of Allaah and His Mercy”
(Bukhari 1/205, Muslim 1/83)

At the time of thunder:

سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي يُسَبِّحُ الرَّعْدُ بِحَمْدِهِ وَالْمَلَائِكَةٌ مِنْ خِيفَتِهِ

SubhanAllaahil ladhii yusabbihur ra’du bi hamdihi wal malaa-ikatu min kheefatihi

“Glory is to Him Whom thunder and angels glorify due to fear of Him.”

[Whenever Abdullaah bin Zubair radhiyaAllaahu anhu would hear thunder, he would abandon all conversation and say this supplication. See al Muwatta 2/992.
It was graded authentic by Al-Albani as a statement of Abdullaah bin Zubair only.]

Back In Action

First of all Ramadan Mubarak to all my readers. Finally I am back on my blog. It has been ages I have not updated anything here, its all due to some personal stuff and busy schedule :). Just a little update on what I am up to. Now I am here in Perth, Australia. My flight landed here on 11th Feb 2011 and now it has been almost six months. I am here for the purpose to study for my Masters Degree and by the grace of ALLAH my first semester has been completed. It’s a very new learning experience and there is a lot of international exposure which is making me think and learn in a new dimensions (I call it a Z Dimensions). Studies here involve a lot of research work and I could relate it to my Final Year Project (FYP) which I did in FAST-NU… wait a minute 😀 with all this how can I forget to mention my Uni Jigz(Close friends) Gulnar, Madiha & Faheem, I miss them like anything. I have learnt a lot from them which is helping me tackle all my study load and research work. These three maniacs, cartoon characters :p deserve to study abroad and act as an ambassador of Pakistan because the way they think is all required here to represent our country in a positive manner. Along with studies, I am working on my new ideas and soon you all will see a product launch (INSHAALLAH). Apart from all this, I am planning to organize some events here in future which will make our Pakistani community stronger. My plan was to organize an event on 14th of August, celebration of our Independence Day but due to time constraints and tough schedule it couldn’t be materialized, but I am hoping to work on new plans soon 🙂

It is 7th Ramadan, Sunday and time is 8:50am, I missed my Sehri as I switched off my alarm and went back to sleep, telling  myself that I’ll get up in ten minutes and my next ten minutes were at around 7:30am :p , well this all is part of life. Yesterday I cooked Biryani for the first time in my life and it really tasted good, I still have some left, I will eat that today 🙂 After coming here I discovered a new talent in me, lol 😀  I am a good cook and thanks and Hugs** goes to my MOM, she taught me cooking before I left Pakistan, I took some cooking sessions from her and they are helping me a lot to survive.

I would like to list out few things which would be helpful to all those who are planning to study abroad or are about to fly. My intentions are not to discourage you or make you feel scared for leaving your country, its just few guidelines which might help you when you are in a foreign country. Once you have planned to live away from your family and friends, you must have only one thing in mind i.e. your goal is to study, study and study, its like a challenge. You have to manage everything on your own, trust me everything… If you are accommodation is on-campus university residence, you are lucky as you don’t have to search for place to live but but in my case I had to find an accommodation after landing here which was another challenge for me and I Thank ALLAH for making me find this house, I love this place. OK, back to the point :p  learn cooking before leaving your country, you cannot eat out every time, its expensive and after sometime you feel sick. Time management is a basic key which is going to lead you to the doors of success. It gets difficult to manage studies with job but you have to do it, there is no way out. Take your studies seriously, obtain good grades because this is the only purpose for you to leave your country, family and friends. You might come across people who are going to misguide you but you need to focus and think twice before you do anything, in short you have to be a good decision maker. One of the important thing which you always need to keep in mind is that you are an ambassador of your country, you represent your country. Don’t do any such unethical thing because of which people start pointing fingers at you and your country, which eventually leads to the hatred. One of the incident I came across in my university was; I saw this Pakistani guy trying to cheat in examination and I was like this is so ridiculous and what if he is caught, this guy has no respect for his country and for his own self. Cheating in any aspect of life is not a solution for anything it might be a temporary way out but in future it costs you a lot and if you are caught you have to bear the consequences. And please stop swearing in your native language, we think people don’t understand but trust me they do, your expressions speaks a lot on your behalf so please try not to use any harsh words or foul language for anyone, just act humble be polite as much as you can. The worst thing is we do not practice this all in our own country and we try to be good when we go else where. Soon I will be writing another post on this issue , we need to act human. I think these guidelines are more than enough to understand your responsibilities as an adult and as a true citizen of country.

I guess its enough for today, I am tired sitting in this position and typing this post, lol I need to move around a little. I will keep on posting new stuff I have came across.

Have a Good Sunday time with your family 🙂 Check out this biryani pic below, I made it hehehe 😀

 

Hidden Talent in Youtube

This song is from movie “Rang de Basanti”. Both the talented singers are from Avicenna School, guitarist/singer name is Ahmed. He is part of Band ESharp and has done his professional studies from SZABIST. Ahmed has sung this song with very high energy, unfortunately the girl couldn’t follow same but has tried her level best to synchronize with guitar. It is a great peace of work by these talented singers. It takes a lot of effort to sing and play guitar simultaneously. Must Say, Hats Of to you Ahmed. Good work. Keep it up.
You can follow Ahmed’s Band ESharp on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/esharpism

Fleecing Unaware Citizens

I recently experienced something which I would like to share with you all today in this small article.  Since few days back my mom was asking me to take her for shopping and I being lazy, always turned down her request :-p then finally day before yesterday I made an effort & took her for shopping. Along with mom, I picked my sister from office (@ Schon Circle) and took them to gulf. Upon getting there I experienced same issue as always; car parking and was getting hyper :E finally I managed to find a place,  as that place was very narrow I had to make more efforts to park car. Well when I was getting off, a guy with yellow pcap came… guess who was it…!!! it was a guy who works for CDGK and collects payment for parking car (I always hate the way they deal with people).. I was like errrrr aaj phr sae…. while I was thinking all this he tore a car parking receipt from a book and asked me for Rs 20/=, I read the receipt and it was written Rs 10/- for one hour, I told that guy that its clearly written on this receipt that I have to pay Rs 10/= and what he replied to me was what if I cross this digit 10 from my pen and make it 20, I was shocked to hear that, I told him “bhai aes main likha hai das rupay main bees kyun dun, he said sab daetey hain bla bla bla…” I refused to give him Rs 20/= then another guy in yellow pcap joined our conversation and said the same word what that person said to be a minute ago. I straight away told him “sorry bhai sahab I wont give you bees rupay kyun kay aes main 10 likha hia“. I further added that I am not an illiterate (this time my voice changed with little anger) I know how to read and write, you cant make fool out of me. One of the guy said “bhai yeh receipt purani printed hain and our contractor wont forgive us, he doesn’t give us new printed receipt (with Rs 20/= printed) and asks us to charge Rs 20/- from you people, if you don’t pay us we have to give from our own pockets on your behalf.”  Now at this point I couldn’t figure out what is right and what is wrong. Well I gave them Rs 20/= and mentioned to them that I am just giving you Rs 20/- only because I don’t want you both to be caught and pay from your pockets and if you both are lying then ALLAH is watching all this and HE will catch you both on the day of Judgment.  They both took Rs 20/-, gave me recepit and went away saying nothing.

The point which I would like to mention here is that it is not the matter of Rs 10/- or Rs 20/- infect  it is the mater of principle,  I have to pay what is written on the receipt. But again I  don’t know, they might be saying truth that contractor is doing all this, so why should they suffer. We are living in a system where people are not fulfilling there responsibilities properly. To be a strong NATION we all have to be sincere with the system we living in, till then nothing can change.

Welcome To My Blogging World

I am Yasir Tariq a young Software Developer by profession. Well it is the first post I am writing for my Blog and I really don’t know how to start about it though I want to share a lot of experience with you people. I have started blogging with influence of my friendZz in my gathering. I will be writing soon on interesting topics more of my unforgettable experiences and Techy stuff. So Hit Back Soon 🙂