Some snaps of Sh. Anand Prakash whose article is posted below.

Jaswinder Singh Kainaur

Engineer Sh. Anand Prakash Earned Rs. 1.2 Crore from

Finding Software Bugs in Facebook, Twitter & Zomato

From hacking into the social media accounts of his friends, to finding more than 90 security flaws for Facebook – Anand Prakash has come a long way with his love for technology and interest in ethical hacking. This is his story.

It was while preparing for his engineering entrance exams in Kota, Rajasthan that Anand Prakash first became interested in hacking. “I had a smart phone and Internet packs were very costly at that time. I came across some kind of proxy setting and figured out a way to use the Internet for free,” he says. The service provider rectified the loophole after some time when many users came to know about it. But for Anand, it was the beginning of a very eventful journey towards building a career in the field of hacking – the kind that’s ethical.

The information given by him is mentioning in italics in this article.

“What I do now is called security research, not hacking,” he is quick to correct.

Today, the 23-year-old is a security engineer with Flipkart, uses the Internet in a more responsible manner, and has been rewarded by many organizations for finding flaws in their software or technology setups.

Anand, who is from the town of Bhadra in Rajasthan, was always interested in computers.

“It was always the same with me. I used to score better in technical subjects, but when it came to subjects like geography, environmental studies, etc., I used to face a lot of problems,” he recalls.

As a student, Anand strengthened his newly acquired knowledge of hacking by experimenting among friends.

“I used to practice phishing on my friends’ accounts with their permission. It is the most basic process in hacking. It involves extracting information like usernames, passwords, etc., by sending out emails to the victims in a way that they will trust them enough to open the links,” he says. Getting access to the password of a friend’s Orkut account was Anand’s first hack.

After Kota, he joined Vellore Institute of Technology to pursue a course in computer science engineering. Anand continued to polish his knowledge about ethical hacking and different programming languages in college, and practiced whatever he learned among friends.

“Up till then, I only knew about hacking processes that involved using some automated tools. And that did not interest me after a point. Finding security flaws in systems is completely different from what I was doing then,” he says.

In the third year of college, Anand came to know about Facebook’s Bug Bounty Program. It offers recognition and compensation to security researchers who find vulnerabilities in Facebook and report them according to the organization’s responsible disclosure policy.

By then, Anand was well-versed in languages like PHP, JavaScript, etc.

“I liked to analyse codes. And when I learnt that Facebook has given monetary compensation to someone for finding a bug in their technology, I thought of giving it a try,” he says.

He utilised the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP), which is an initiative by OWASP Foundation for the improvement of software security in different organizations around the world. The project provides users with open source study materials to understand  application security over the Internet.

“I started learning with the help of OWASP, followed experts on Twitter, and read up a lot about security research. Fortunately, I found a bug on Facebook in just a month. It was a loophole that enabled me to find people online even if they had turned off their chat,” he says. Anand received his first bounty of USD 500 for reporting this issue.

Then he learned that many such organizations welcome people who find security vulnerabilities for them. And the work turned out to be so interesting that there was no turning back for the technology enthusiast. To date, he has found about 90 bugs for Facebook, and ranks fourth in the Facebook wall of fame 2015.

The highest bounty Anand received from Facebook was a sum of USD 12,500 for finding a major security flaw because of which a user could post anything on his/her profile using someone else’s account. “For example, I could post a picture, a video, or text, and it would be visible on my Facebook wall as a post from your side,” he explains.

After college, he did an internship with the Cyber Police Investigation Branch of Gurgaon Police. There he worked on finding the different strategies used by cyber criminals.

He has also reported issues to companies like Twitter and Google and has earned Rs. 1.2 crore in the process. He was able to hack into the systems of the restaurant discovery and search application Zomato to gain access to the accounts of their 62 million users. He disclosed this issue to the company and they fixed it in two day, appreciating his efforts.

“I always first report the issue to the organization without exposing it elsewhere. It is called responsible disclosure. Then I take permission from them and post about it on my personal blog if they allow it.”

But Anand is not very happy about the way many Indian companies treat security researchers:

“Some companies are very responsive. They fix the bugs immediately and also give monetary compensation without much delay. But if you report bugs to many companies in India, they reply saying they will take legal action against you. The condition is very bad in terms of security here. But it is changing slowly. I have come across some companies that are now open to security research.”

With new technologies coming up every day, Anand’s hunger for learning keeps developing. His advice to those who want to pursue a career in security research: “Try and report bugs to companies in a responsible manner. And do not disclose the issue unless you have permission. Security research is a great thing if done ethically.”

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See Video of Indian ( Punjabi) Ladies Dance at America

Some snaps of a Tea seller Sh. Vijayan and his wife Mohana, who visited 17 countries, whose story is posted below

An Inspiration story

J.S. Kainaur ‘Chandigarh’

Inspiration story of a Tea seller Sh. Vijayan

who visited 17 countries alongwith his wife

            Here,  I have got an opportunity to presents a story of a legend man who has discovered this magical dimension of his life. He is simply tea-seller who travels the 17 countries of the  world with his wife. The power of his dreams, the strength of his will and passion in his single-minded pursuits have let his spirit spread it is invisible wings and soar into the air, inspite of his social and economic conditions. After reading about him, it has comes to know that the name of this inspiration story is Sh.Vijayan & his wife name is Mrs. Mohana. They belongs to Ernakulam in Kerala state.  His wife help him at the shop by preparing  eatables as they also sells  the small food items like idli, upma & curry etc., besides the tea. He tells  about his shop that anyone may satisfy for his hunger by spending 10 to 25 rupees there.  He provides 06 idly for 20 rupees, an upma, curry or tea  for Rs.25/- only. Both are fully satisfied with their work & leading a joy ful life. About the support of his wife, he says that in fact she is source of his strength. He don’t know how to explain it, as she provides him with all the energy which he needs. As Swami Vivekanand said, “you can see & hear with your eyes and ears, but you cannot experience any thing with the presence of mind”.

Like the every human, they have also some aims in the life. Out of them,  an aim is to go to  picnic to get the experience & knowledge by visiting the different places in India  & as well as foreign countries. According to him he visited many places alone. But, together they went to Madras, Kanyakumari, Bangalore, Delhi, Haridwar, Egypt, Jordan, London, Paris, Switzerland, Venice, Singapore & Malaysia etc. It seems that they looks around 55 to 60 years old. As we are aware that almost every human being are naughty  during their childhood. Sh. Vijayan was also a naughty boy during his childhood as he  use to steal food grains from his own house and sell them in the market to meet the expenses of visiting new places.

There are many thoughts of the prominent personalities. Mr. Ray Bradury (an writer) said, “First you jump off the cliff and you build your wings on the way down” . Like that,  this story also teaches us to make strong will power and immense love to achieve their desires. He has good income from the tea shop. As soon as he has enough money, he approaches banks for a loan, travels to a new country, and repays the loan over two or three years. It is his hobby as he want to see the world. That is his desire, his only desire!  He praised the Supreme Power, “God has blessed me with more than what I deserve, dream  or wished for”. And thus, with the belief that all of us have only one lifetime to do everything, he has spent close to Rs. 10-15 lakhs on his journeys. But for him, that money is nothing when compared to the places he has seen and the knowledge he has gained. And when people call him crazy, he simply says – “Yes, I am crazy. Everyone has their own will,  I got self satisfaction and that is why I do so.

We are achieving our targets with the grace of ‘GOD’.  He believes in ‘GOD’. He thinks that a time will come when his journey ends as a time granted by the Almighty. All of this will go on, he strongly believe in it. During their journey, they got many experiences of disappointments & delights. He has shared an experience that all the people with whom they travelled so far are millionaires. All of them, when they exchange 100 or 500 dollars notes, he exchanged only 5 or 10 dollars note.  Someone asked him with  funny way that he is wasting the money by visiting here & there without any gain. If he had invested that money on a land or property, it would have been beneficial for his future. In the reply, Vijayan explained that if money is his only concern then he would not be able to do any thing, the knowledge and experiences he gains would have been missed. Amongst thousands of men, hardly one strives for perfection and amongst those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows me in truth. These are his feelings that he cherish.

            Mr.Vijayan believes that their lives are full of journeys, no matter where we are.  He want to travel again more as he has desire & will power. Thus, he works every day with the only aim of travelling to a new country, his next destination.  

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Great personality Shri Ramesh Kumar Dharmanand, Engg Asstt., AIR, Chandigarh

*Jaswinder Singh ‘Kainaur’, Chandigarh*

Great personality Shri Ramesh Kumar Dharmanand,

Engineering Assistant, AIR, Chandigarh.

            I hereby introducing a different type great human personality Shr. Ramesh Kumar Dharmanand, whose photo is given hereunder, who is working as Engineering Assistant at AIR, Chandigarh.

            Any body may judge his personality after seen his photo that he is looking like a gentleman & religious as he is wearing the dress of Sadhu-Saints. He is always wearing light cream colour’s Kurta-Pyjama & fitted therein some pieces of other cloth of some dark colour. Sh. Dharmanand is wears a cloth of the same dark or white colour alongwith the neck & shoulders like the mufral. His hair of head has been rounded like ropes (Jattas of Sadhu). He is ties the hair like a ‘Joora’. He does not wears any cap, cloth or turban etc on head and kept beard in long length. He does not wearing the shoes in the both hot & cold seasons. Mr. Dharmanand used cycle to go on duty which is 6-7 kilometres away from his residence. However, avails transport facility from  office side in odd hours during very winter days. He remains maun & donot speek . He is interacting with the other people by adopting the face impression and indicatng sign or writing on papers etc. He is expresses his views by writing in Hindi on paper after listening the urgent question of other people. He is used mobile message to interacts with the colleagues to make the co-cordial relations.

            Mr. Dharmanand told during discussion to this writer that he is still unmarried. His age is 58 years at presently as he was born on 13.05.1957 at Distt. Amritsar, Punjab. Later on, his parents settled at Amritsar city. His academic qualification is Higher Secondary part-II & Technical qualification is I.T.I. course.  He had joined the Govt. service as Technician at Doordarshan Kendra, Jalandhar on 13.11.1979.  Thereafter, he got promotions as Sr. Technician in 1985 & Engg. Asstt. in 2001 year. At present, he is working on this post at AIR, Chandigarh. It has been seen in the past history that some people are having deaf & dumb since their birth. But, in the life of Sh. Dharmanand is not like that persons as he has stopped  voluntarily to spoke after came major change in his life at the age of 27 years.  Then, he makes his dress as simple & religious dress which is going on at this time like a religious gentlemen. On enquiring about the major changes in his life, he told that he has visited 3-4 times an important place in India, where happened  a major & good incidence. He saw there some religious spiritual power at that time, as told by him that which cannot be described due to spiritual concerned. He thanked the GOD, who  showed him a supreme power. It is achieve3ment for his life. After happening that incidence he took an oath to stop his speech with the other humans & aimed to live simple life. When he was asked about to the reason of major changes then he told that there was a very important incidence for him as it was concerned with some spiritual power. Hence, he do not want to share with others. However, he explained that when he is trying to get the reason, then the movement of his incidence, the story drag him back in old time. This is the main reason that he do not share the suspense. Thus, the suspense, he whishes to keep as secret.

            He does not give more important to human relations. Mr. Dharmanand says that he doesn’t  interacts with the people, because they are making many different type of un-necessary questions. Here, it can be say that he doesn’t involve in any controversial matter & interested to live his life with his own style. He is performing his official duty with devotion. His Incharge (Engineering Head) also praise about his official duty. HH He is vegetarian as well as teetotaler. He doesn’t drink the tea. He has main wish to live his life on simple way simple food.  He explained briefly in writing in Hindi with the praise of GOD;

‘Prem maanga to, prem mila,

Dard maanga to, dard mila,

Raaz maanga to, raaz mila,

Faqiri maangi to, Faqiri bhi mili’

In the ends, he is wishes to deliver his message to the people in writing in Hindi;

‘Karam karo, par usme mamta nahi honi chahiye, Karam karo, Karam bhogta mat bane.

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Punjabi Kavita

 

NoZe vokfJto

u'DK’u yVQk j' frnk

fJZe NoZe vokfJto

u'DK’u yVQk j' frnk

fJZe NoZe vokfJto

 

sK d{i/ T[whdtko

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feT[Afe t'NoK B{z T[BQK’u

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fe fiBQK B/ nZi sZe

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p[oh Bio tkb/ s/ok w{zj ekbk

 

 

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gZsoeko B/ nzro/ih’u phB pikJh

 

nzro/ih id'A ;wM Bk nkJh

sK wzsoh ih B/ T[; B{z jh

nzro/ih ftZu jh vKN brkJh

Ue/ NkNk pkJ/ pkJ/ jkoB gbhI

 

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^^^^^^^^^^^^^