September Hoax

It is the last day of September 2020. The heavy downpour still continues, unrelenting. It rained heavily, incessantly all through the month. Lakes and rivers have swelled up to alarming levels. The meteorological experts have predicted more rains throughout the next week. Don’t know what devastation is waiting to wreak its anger on the city which is already reeling from the deadly Covid19.

It brings back memories of fifty years ago when the city faced unusually heavy rains almost reaching the level of floods. It rained incessantly without any respite all through the month. And then, someone decided to play a cruel joke on the hapless citizens. It was 24th of September in the year of 1970, the year I just joined college after finishing higher school.

I was at the general market shopping for new shoes. Those days, I was quite fond of ankle high boots. The kind the cowboys wore in the western movies. It usually needed enough time to hunt around to get what I was looking for. After hours of hopping around footwear shops, I finally found what I was looking for, a tan colored pair of beautiful boots. I was thrilled and quite exhilarated. I loved those boots!

As I was walking home, swinging the shoe package, I suddenly felt a commotion all around. People were hurrying up. They were actually running hither thither as if chased by someone or something. And then a group of men ran screaming “bhaago, Gandipet ka katta toot gaya, bhaago, paani aaraha hai (run, Gandipet bridge has crumbled, run, water is coming)”. It did not make much sense to me. Gandipet Lake was nearly 25 kilometres away from the city. Even if the bridge collapsed, how can it be a threat to the city! As I looked around, I got the answer.

Men in groups were looting shops that were still open or were in the process of closing. They just grabbed whatever they could lay their hands on and ran. They did not even spare the poor street hawkers, selling fruits, toys and general household wares on their push carts. I knew beyond any doubt that what was happening around was a scam, a hoax being played on gullible people. 

The looting men could have been part of the scamsters who created the hoax or they were taking advantage of the confused situation. I couldn’t take it any more of the looks of fear and desperation on the faces of the shopkeepers. They were caught in a helplessness, not knowing whether to run for their lives or to save their shops.

I hurried home wondering what could be the situation at home. As I neared my house, I saw my dad standing outside our house with a worried look on his face. My uncle was standing in front of the house, with his hands on his hips, glaring at no one in particular. When he saw me, he screamed “where have you been, the whole city is in fear, people are drowning and you are roaming around”. 

I have never seen my uncle so angry or heard him talk to me with such anger and rudeness. His eyes were blazing with anger and I could almost feel smoke coming out of his nostrils and ears. I blurted out “I was at the market and I did not see any water. I only saw men looting shops”. That made my uncle more mad. He screamed at me to go inside the house. When you are an elder, anything and everything you say is right! It has to be right! That is life!

As for the chaos and mayhem, when you get possessed by fear, the power of reasoning, education, everything goes out of the window. The scamsters who played the hoax understood that fact. But I wonder if they even expected that the hoax would work or even imagined the magnitude of chaos they would create with their evil scheme. And oh boy, did it work! It was a very successful hoax.

Later I came to know that many people had abandoned their homes after packing whatever personal belongings they could gather and proceeded towards the hills and higher grounds. There were also reports of many houses being burgled. 

I do not know how many people really fell for the scam, but it was one of the most cruel, sad, embarrassing hoaxes ever played on the people of the city of Hyderabad. I want to believe that people have become wiser after that cruel joke. But you can never be sure. People might still be falling for bigger hoaxes, of different kinds, played by master scamsters in the garb of well wishers.

Anyway, it was an unbelievable incident that I happened to witness. That unforgettable incident from my past was brought back to life thanks to an article in one of the local media houses ("paani aaya bhago").

Dad, who is this lady!

Couple of weeks ago a friend of mine had some problem with his Note Pad. After removing his personal data, he took it to the local certified service center. He was given a date of delivery and when the time came to collect it he was told that the problem was complex and was given another date of delivery. After few more rescheduled delivery dates and lots of shouting, he finally got back his Note Pad.

When my friend's son powered-on the Note Pad, he gave out a startled scream, "Dad, who is this lady!". To my friend's horror, he saw a young Filipino girl's smiling face on the desktop. After examining files on the drive, he found hundreds of photographs of the Filipino girl and others, may be her friends. Some of the photographs appeared to be very personal and intimate, taken at home or at parties.  As he browsed through the directories, he found files containing details of credit cards and debit cards with PINs and files with contact addresses and telephone numbers. Worst of all, he found that the Note Pad was not even protected with login-password.

After careful examination, my friend was quite certain that the Note Pad was his but the data was not. He could not find any of the applications that were previously installed on his Note Pad. Instead, he found all sorts of crazy games, chat sites and other applications.

He called the service center and inquired how someone else’s data got into his Note Pad and what happened to his applications ! The service center technician answered nonchalantly "it is not possible for such a thing to happen sir...we are running this center for so many years, such a thing has never happened..". When my friend, who was by then quite perturbed, threatened that he would call the Filipino girl and tell her that all her personal data has been given to him by the service center. With that the technician started apologizing for the mistake and promised to correct the mistake. He even offered to return the money paid for the service.

After taking back the Note Pad to the service center and getting the applications restored, my friend found out what really happened. Whenever the customers brought the devices with problems, the service center first took full backup of the data before starting the service. On completion of the service, they restored back the data from the backup. In this case, they copied someone else's data on to my friend's Note Pad.

Information privacy is a very serious matter in the world of information technology. Many laws are passed and guidelines framed for the protection of personal and sensitive data. Most organizations spend thousands of dollars to ensure that the personal data of its employees and its customers are well protected. When they put in controls and security measures, they even get certified to provide assurance to their customers on how well their systems and data are protected. 

In some countries exposure of personal data is liable to legal proceedings. You visit any web site and you will find statement of "Privacy Policy". It is required by law that any website that offers services and stores customers data should state their data privacy policy. 

It is very likely that people do not read these privacy statements because it is hidden right at the bottom of the web page in small letters with hyperlink highlighted. Perhaps these websites state the privacy policy just because it is legally required. They may not even want people to actually read them. It is very much like the advertisements of mutual funds and insurance products on the television. The message that their product is subject to market risks is hidden in surreptitiously fast paced audio and unreadable text.

Fraudsters and Scamsters go to extreme measures by using technology or by exploiting human weaknesses to get access to personal data. Even some social web sites who offer services try to extract whatever piece of personal data they can collect. They not only use it themselves to help their businesses, but they also share the data with their partners.

Some people give scant regard for protecting their own private and personal data. Sometimes such carelessness may lead to exposure of not just their own data but even the personal information of their friends and relatives, sometimes even leading to serious consequences!

By misfortune if we have to take our smart device to the service center, we are handing over our entire personal data to these guys! Can we be sure what they could be doing with our data!

It is a safe practice to backup the data and delete it from the devices periodically! Chat messages especially should be deleted after saving into files, if it is really required for record. It  does not take much time to do it.

It is better to be safe than sorry!

There are many web sites that offer tips on safe usage of smart devices. I came across one such web site which gives quite useful tips:

 http://www.staysmartonline.gov.au/home_users/Secure_your_mobile_phone_and_devices 

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