Global internet slows after ‘biggest attack in history’
March 28, 2013
The BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones explains why the attack is like a “motorway jam”, alongside expert David Emm from Kaspersky LabCo continue reading the main story
The internet around the world has been slowed down in what security experts are describing as the biggest cyber-attack of its kind in history.
A row between a spam-fighting group and hosting firm has sparked retaliation attacks affecting the wider internet.It is having an impact on popular services like Netflix – and experts worry it could escalate to affect banking and email systems.
Five national cyber-police-forces are investigating the attacks.
Spamhaus, a group based in both London and Geneva, is a non-profit organisation which aims to help email providers filter out spam and other unwanted content.
To do this, the group maintains a number of blocklists – a database of servers known to be being used for malicious purposes.
Recently, Spamhaus blocked servers maintained by Cyberbunker, a Dutch web host which states it will host anything with the exception of child pornography or terrorism-related material.Sven Olaf Kamphuis, who claims to be a spokesman for Cyberbunker, said, in a message, that Spamhaus was abusing its position, and should not be allowed to decide “what goes and does not go on the internet”.Spamhaus has alleged that Cyberbunker, in cooperation with “criminal gangs” from Eastern Europe and Russia, is behind the attack.Cyberbunker has not responded to the BBC’s request for comment.’Immense job’
Steve Linford, chief executive for Spamhaus, told the BBC the scale of the attack was unprecedented.
“We’ve been under this cyber-attack for well over a week.
Continue reading the main story
‘Decapitating the internet’
Writing exactly one year ago for the BBC, Prof Alan Woodward predicted the inherent weaknesses in the web’s domain name system.
He wrote: “It is essentially the phone book for the internet. If you could prevent access to the phone book then you would effectively render the web useless.”
Read Prof Woodward’s full article
“But we’re up – they haven’t been able to knock us down. Our engineers are doing an immense job in keeping it up – this sort of attack would take down pretty much anything else.” Mr Linford told the BBC that the attack was being investigated by five different national cyber-police-forces around the world. He claimed he was unable to disclose more details because the forces were concerned that they too may suffer attacks on their own infrastructure.
The attackers have used a tactic known as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), which floods the intended target with large amounts of traffic in an attempt to render it unreachable. In this case, Spamhaus’s Domain Name System (DNS) servers were targeted – the infrastructure that joins domain names, such as bbc.co.uk, the website’s numerical internet protocol address.Mr Linford said the attack’s power would be strong enough to take down government internet infrastructure.
“If you aimed this at Downing Street they would be down instantly,” he said. “They would be completely off the internet.”He added: “These attacks are peaking at 300 gb/s (gigabits per second).
“Normally when there are attacks against major banks, we’re talking about 50 gb/s.”
Clogged-up motorway
The knock-on effect is hurting internet services globally, said Prof Alan Woodward, a cybersecurity expert at the University of Surrey.
“If you imagine it as a motorway, attacks try and put enough traffic on there to clog up the on and off ramps,” he told the BBC.
“With this attack, there’s so much traffic it’s clogging up the motorway itself.”
Arbor Networks, a firm which specialises in protecting against DDoS attacks, also said it was the biggest such attack they had seen.
“The largest DDoS attack that we have witnessed prior to this was in 2010, which was 100 gb/s. Obviously the jump from 100 to 300 is pretty massive,” said Dan Holden, the company’s director of security research.
“There’s certainly possibility for some collateral damage to other services along the way, depending on what that infrastructure looks like.”
Spamhaus said it was able to cope as it has highly distributed infrastructure in a number of countries.
The group is supported by many of the world’s largest internet companies who rely on it to filter unwanted material.
Mr Linford told the BBC that several companies, such as Google, had made their resources available to help “absorb all of this traffic”.
The attacks typically happened in intermittent bursts of high activity.
“They are targeting every part of the internet infrastructure that they feel can be brought down,” Mr Linford said.
“We can’t be brought down.
“Spamhaus has more than 80 servers around the world. We’ve built the biggest DNS server around.”
source: www.bbc.co
Happy Holi !!! – From Indian Tollways Team
March 27, 2013
Source-http://www.cool1world.com/holi_colors_on_the_wall-wallpapers.h
The foreign Hindu monks at India’s Kumbh Mela
March 26, 2013
The foreign Hindu monks at India’s Kumbh Mela
Baba Rampuri zealously guards information about his past life
Amitava Sanyal reports from India’s Kumbh Mela, the world’s biggest religious gathering, on the stories of three foreigners who have become top Hindu monks.
JAMES MALLINSON
Sir James Mallinson is perhaps the only baronet to wear dreadlocks.
The fifth baronet of Walthamstow started growing his hair around the time he first travelled to India in 1988.
He had enrolled to study Sanskrit at Oxford University’s St Peter’s College because his only other option, Chinese, came with a “boring introduction”.
At the end of his trip to India, he “fell in” with a group of Hindu monks in Kashmir and became fascinated with their way of life.
James Mallinson was renamed Jagdish Das by his order
In 1992, Sir James was initiated into a Hindu order with the monastic name of Jagdish Das at Ujjain in central India.
“I was kidnapped by some competing monks who wanted me as their student. Finally it was Ram Balak Das who got me initiated,” he says.
Sir James received his doctorate – on a critical translation of a 14th Century Sanskrit text on yoga – in 2002 from Balliol College, Oxford.
In India, when not with Hindu monks, he runs a paragliding business in Bir in the western Himalayas.
Sir James was ordained a mahant, or abbot, of a Hindu religious order in early February at the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad.His friend from Eton, actor Dominic West of The Wire fame, had wanted to make a documentary on his work in India.When Sir James offered his guru some money for the film crew’s fortnight-long stay, he was offered the post of mahant.
“The word translates more as a military commander than an abbot,” says the Sanskrit scholar.
VALERY VICTOROVICH MINTSEV
Valery Victorovich Mintsev had an experience at the age of six that he could not quite articulate.But it was inspiring enough to make him stand on a rock and tell his puzzled young friends “the ways of the universe”.
It took the 46-year-old monk, who is the son of a Ukrainian typographer and Soviet Communist party member, another 10 years to “find the right words”.
That was when he came upon the texts of Shankaracharya, an 8th Century Indian philosopher and Hindu revivalist.
Valery Mintsev met a Hindu monk in 2006 who reinforced his ideas
While studying Cold War politics at the Kiev Higher Naval Political School, a belief that Russians and Indians are descended from the same Aryan ancestors became stronger.
“Why else do we have old Russian places named after Indian deities – like Ram and Sita lakes or Narada mountain?” asks Mr Mintsev.
A 2006 meeting with Pilot Baba, a Hindu monk who got his name because of his former career as a fighter pilot in the Indian Air Force, reinforced his ideas.Three years ago, Mr Mintsev was initiated into a Hindu order with the monastic name of Vishnu Dev.
Later this year the Russian monk is planning to put up a Chinese-made, 18m (59ft) bronze statue of Dattatreya, the presiding deity of his sect, at his 1,000-acre retreat situated 600km (373 miles) east of Moscow.Why did he choose to be a Hindu monk? “I have searched for freedom all my life and I got it in Hindu philosophy. It must be a great connection from a past life,” is his explanation.
BABA RAMPURI
Baba Rampuri guards his personal history – his life before he came to India from the United States in 1970 – with a fierce zeal.Not even those who have known him for decades know his real name. What is known is that he came from California.
But when asked to comment on reports that he is the son of a Jewish plastic surgeon, he laughs and says, “maybe I was his daughter who had a sex change.”
The Kumbh festival is the world’s largest religious gathering
Whatever his antecedents, Baba Rampuri is today one of the most successful Hindu monks from the US.Part of his popularity flows from being one of the first Westerners to be initiated into the secretive Juna order of monks, the largest of the 13 powerful sects that control religious affairs at the Kumbh festival.The publication of his book Autobiography of a Sadhu: A Journey into Mystic India, later added to the mystery.
In 2010, Baba Rampuri was made one of the three abbots of the order’s international chapter and today he is one of the very few Hindu monks raising funds through internet-based social media.
He derives his monastic lineage from Keshav Puri, a monk buried outside Multan in Pakistan who is also called Multani Baba or Shamshad Tapa Rez.
“He is called a pir, a Sufi saint. And Muslims wearing black sit with Hindus wearing orange at his memorial meetings,” says Baba Rampuri.
So possibly there was an undercurrent of commonness between the faiths that we deny today.”
The belief is shared within his order but, like Baba Rampuri’s own past, the real history is shrouded in mystery because of a lack of verifiable evidence.
Source: http://www.bbc.co
NHAI project award touches new low of 787 km in FY13
March 26, 2013
Financial Express reported that the National Highways Authority of India has reached a new low in project awards, managing only 787 km in 2012 to 13 a level last seen in 2008 to 09 when the global economy witnessed its worst ever slowdown.
The global slowdown following the sub prime crisis in the United States had its effect on NHAI’s performance, which could award only 6 projects spanning 600 km.
The dismal performance during the current year in terms of project awards was preceded by high performance in 2011 to 12 when the NHAI and the highways ministry together had awarded a record 8,000 km of projects. Of that, around 6,000 km were awarded by NHAI and the rest by the road transport ministry.
Officials in NHAI said that their board is likely to take up the proposal for another 500 km of road projects in its meeting to be held on Tuesday. But it will be difficult for the highways authority to be able to complete the award of projects before the end of this fiscal.
Low award by NHAI will badly impact the government’s truncated target of awarding 5,000 km for road projects in the current year.
After a robust performance in 2011 to 12 the Budget set a target of 8,800 km of road projects for 2012 to 13 which was later increased to 9,500 km by Prime Minister Mr Manmohan Singh. Mid way the target was further revised downwards to 8,500 km and further down to 5,000 km which is unlikely to be achieved.
NHAI together with the road transport ministry will likely be able to award 2,300
Source: http://www.steelguru.com
8 projects operational, co may securitise assets: Sadbhav
March 25, 2013
Nitin Patel, ED, Sadbhav Engineering , says that recently the company as emerged as a successful bidder for the two lane project in Tamil Nadu. The project is based on annuity basis. The company has also submitted another bid for Rohtak-Hissar project for Rs 1300 crore, the results for which is expected today evening.
Out of the 12 projects, 8 projects are now operational and the company expects the ninth project to be operational by June. Going forward, depending on the equity and investment commitment the company may go for asset securitization.
Below is the edited transcript of his interview to CNBC-TV18.
Q: It is understood that your company has emerged as a successful bidder in NHAI’s two lane Tamil Nadu project. By when do you plan to start construction on the project? What will be the total cost and your profit margins?
A: This is a two lane road project based on annuity. The existing highway has width of seven meter which needs to be extended to 10 meter and the length of the project is 80 kilometers. We estimate the total project cost to be around Rs 400 crore and it will take around two years to complete the job. We have received a concession period of 15 years. So, for the remaining 13 years we will receive annuity amount from NHAI as per the terms of concession.
Q: How much margins do you make upfront?
A: In normal course, we expect to make around 12-13 percent at EBITDA level at EPC value and around 16-18 percent as returns on investment. This is the normal bidding criteria for us.
Q: What has been the activity from NHAI side on both build-operate-transfer (BOT) and EPC. How does the order pipeline looks? Are they looking aggressive in awarding orders?
A: On cash contract front, NHAI invited around 8-9 tenders during last month. The response was quite good and NHAI received bidders at almost 20-22 percent lower then their estimate cost on the cash contract front. On BOT front, only one tender went to IL&FS Transportation Networks (India) Limited (ITNL) which is of Barwa Adda to Panghat.
We have received annuity for the second project. Today, we have submitted a bid for Rohtak-Hissar project for Rs 1300 crore, the results is expected to be out by today evening. Five entities have submitted their bid including us. Another 2-3 bids will be submitted before March 31, the central government and the Planning Commission will give approval for rates for the projects. Later, based on that, NHAI will come for the bidding and particularly in BOT and annuity front.
Q: Do you have any plans to reduce debt, are you securitizing any project, your debt stands at over Rs 3000 crore?
A: Out of the 12 projects that the company has, 8 are now operational and we expect the ninth project to be operational by June. So, in terms of the operational projects the number of projects is high and also the revenue parameter seems reasonable.
So, based on our requirement of the equity and investment commitment we will plan to securitise one or two assets. We have started that process but we require equity investment over the period four years from now so the planning will be done as and when needed.
source: http://www.moneycontrol.com
Karnataka introduces intelligent transport system
March 20, 2013
Mr Osamu Yoshizaki, Deputy Director General, Road Bureau, MLIT, greeting Ms V. Manjula, Commissioner, Urban Land Transport and Principal Secretary at a conference on Intelligent Transport System for Strategic Urban Development in Indian Cities in Bangalore. – Photo: K. Gopinathan
Karnataka has made a modest beginning in using intelligent transport system (ITS) in urban transport management, said Ms V. Manjula, Principal Secretary, Karnataka Urban Development Department.
Addressing a conference on “Intelligent transport system for strategic urban development in Indian cities’, Ms Manjula said “ITS is the integration of information and communication technology with transport infrastructure, vehicles and users. It enables information to be collected and shared in order to help people make more informed travel choices, make journey more efficient and help to reduce the impact of transport on the environment.”
“Keeping these principles intact in Karnataka, few ITS projects initiated are B-Track in Bangalore by the traffic police.
Passenger information system (PIS) is by the BMTC and the vehicle location system (VLS) for city buses in Mysore,” she added.
As the State is getting urbanised at a faster pace, the use of ITS is becoming increasingly necessary.
Ms Manjula said “Karnataka is one of the more urbanised States in the country with 38 per cent of population living in urban areas. This population is spread over 237 census towns, with almost 66 per cent of the State’s urban population concentrated in 23 cities and Bangalore accounting for almost 11 per cent of the urban population.”
She explained that that ITS is very crucial in managing traffic in urban areas as vehicle density is increasing day by day.
“The growth of urban Karnataka has also brought in its wake of steep increase in the number of motor vehicles, the growth rate ranging from 10 to 14 per cent a year.
The number of vehicles has increased from 16 lakh in 1991 to 83 lakh in two decades,” she said.
B-TRACK
In B-Track project, the traffic management centre processes information collected through surveillance and enforcement cameras installed at various junctions across the Bangalore city, information conveyed through walkie-talkies by traffic policemen, and the plans signal phase timing alterations/congestion monitoring etc.
Information on congestion is conveyed through SMS to registered users of its service and flashed on information boards at vantage points.
GIS/PIS
BMTC has implemented a pilot project on ITS here an automatic vehicle location system is introduced in a limited way by installing GPS units devices on 189 buses.
Buses are tracked on real time basis and all the GPS units are controlled and monitored from a single control room.
Where as for PIS, BMTC has installed at select bus stops and at Bangalore International Airport which gives information on next bus, expected time, route number etc.
VLS
Ms Manjula said VLS is a world Bank-GEF funded project being implemented in Mysore city assisted by SUTP.
This project will be completed by March this year and will become operational from April.
In this project Central control station, automatic vehicle location system, passenger information system are all integrated to one control room through ITS.
Industry Trends – by Feedback Brisa
March 12, 2013
PBA Infra bags EPC contract from Solapur Tollways
March 11, 2013
Lalitha Rao ,Monday, March 11, 2013
PBA Infrastructure Ltd has been awarded the EPC contract for four laning the Solapur-Gulbarga, Maharashtra- Karnataka border section of National Highway 9, from Solapur Tollways Pvt Ltd, a joint venture of Coastal-Srei Consortium. The contract worth 780 crore is being executed as BOT (Toll) on DBFOT pattern under National Highways Development Project Phase-III. NHAI had appointed Artefact Projects Ltd as project consultant.
The Cabinet Committee of Infrastructure approved the project in November 2011 at a total estimated cost of992 crore including land acquisition, rehabilitation and pre-construction activities. The concession period including construction period of the project is 25 years. The project starting from km 249.00 to km 348.80 would cover the districts of Pune, Solapur and Osmanabad in Maharashtra.
Speaking to Projectmonitor, S.K. Bothra, President, PBA Infrastructure Ltd, said, “We are mobilsing fund through five banks with Canara Bank as the leading Bank. We are planning to start the work by April 15.”
While talking on the land details he said that about 80 per cent of the land has been possessed and the remaining stretch would be acquired soon. The four laning of the 100-km long stretch is expected to be completed in 36 months, he said.
Srei Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, the first beneficiary of the project, under consortium arrangements with various companies has a diversified portfolio of annuity and toll-based road projects close to 5,500 km with a total capital cost of around 13,000 crore, awarded by the NHAI under NHDP, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and various other State Governments.
In its 2011-2012 Annual report, the company stated that during the year under review, the Company as co-developer has successfully completed the construction of Thrissur-Angamali Road Project in Kerala on NH-47 under NHAI and Jaora Nayagaon Road Project in Madhya Pradesh on SH-31 under Madhya Pradesh Road Development Corporation. Meanwhile, the company also started the six-laning of Chandikhole Jagatpur Bhubaneswar project in Odisha on NH-5 under NHAI. Other than the Solapur- Maharashtra Karnataka Border project on NH-9 the company also won the Bikaner-Suratgarh project on NH-15 from Public Works Department of Rajasthan on build- operate transfer basis.
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