Computer networks at sensitive establishments have experienced a second wave of cyber attacks from foreign-based hackers. Sources in the intelligence reveal that fresh attacks began on January 28 and about 25 computers were targeted.

Computers used by individuals associated with the National Security Council (NSC) Secretariat and the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) were the target of the new attacks, according to sources at the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO).

While NSC is the apex agency looking into the political, economic, energy and strategic security concerns, the NSAB consists of persons of eminence outside the government, with expertise in security matters, foreign affairs, armed forces, internal security, science and economics.

Earlier attacks were experienced on January 15, when hackers hit computers being used by top government functionaries. This included the Prime Minister’s Office, intelligence agencies and the armed forces. In fact, the Cabinet Secretary, who is also reported to be a victim of these attacks, had scheduled a hi-level meeting of security and cyber war experts this week to work out modalities to deal with such incidents.

Sources at NTRO, a relatively new highly specialised intelligence gathering agency concerned with satellite, terrestrial and internet monitoring as well as cyber warfare, have pegged the number of computers to have been hit in these attacks at 450.

Initial investigations revealed that 30 computers, including eight from the PMO, were compromised. This also involved two persons not on the regular posted strength of the PMO, prompting intelligence agencies to believe that the cyber attacks were backed by a high level of human intelligence, providing the whereabouts of key individuals and their portfolios and e-mail addresses. Others who came under attack from cyber space included chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, chief of the Naval Staff, deputy chief of Naval Staff, PM’s special envoy, the three military intelligence services and establishments of the BSF and CRPF in Jammu and Kashmir.

Monitoring the flow of information from these computers led to the identity of other computers that were compromised. Experts feel that the number could be more if the net was cast wider.

NTRO claims that the e-mail IPs of a couple of top mediapersons were also the target of these attacks. A MS-Word file titled National Security Document, containing a complex spyware was sent to the targeted addresses, which resulted in the computers being compromised once the document was downloaded. Earlier a malicious PDF file was also circulated. An e-mail address with a.nic.in suffix, said to be a dormant address hacked by the attackers, was reportedly used to send the mails.

Sources said that cyber experts at NTRO used “reverse hacking” methodology to trace the origins of the servers used in the malicious attacks. It is strongly believed that the servers were traced to mainland China, the exact physical location could not be established due to the complex nature of the attacks. “Our technical corroborations and results from other similar investigations reveal that the command and control architecture of these attacks have a Chinese signature,” a source claimed.

Under its Informationalisation Doctrine, China lays a huge emphasis on cyber war and it has a well set-up infrastructure for the same. Chinese believe cyber war to be the first element of surprise in a conventional war, to be used to cripple enemy civilian and military networks before going in for a physical offensive.

Some time ago NTRO had formed a rapid reaction team to deal with such exigencies and sources claim that their reaction time to the attacks was about an hour-and-a-half. NTRO is also known to have developed an offensive cyber warfare capability designed to penetrate computer networks and remote servers.

Team India’s fast bowler S Sreesanth, who had already been ruled out of tomorrow’s match, has tested positive for swine flu. The Kerala player had been admitted to Fortis hospital, Mohali, with cough, sore throat and fever. The speedster had undergone a series of tests, and the results came out late at night.

Punjab Cricket Association’s Hony secretary G S Walia told The Tribune, “The results for Sreesanth’s tests came in late tonight and he has tested positive for swine flu. He has been quarantined at the hospital.” He also said that there was no panic in the Indian camp and no other player had undergone a medical examination.

Sreesanth was admitted to the Hospital on December 10 at 11.30pm and he was seen by the hospital physician Dr Vikas Bhutani prior to admission. Since he had persistent symptoms of cough, fever and body ache, his throat swab was sent for H1N1 testing. He has been put on Tamiflu medications since then. He will remain admitted in the hospital for a day or two and all his vital signs are normal.

Chandigarh is India’s well constructed city. Its architecture is world class and unparalleled, and offers a good quality of living conditions. This place is a dream project of Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru and Le Corbusier. This is the very first planned city in India. It was rightfully named the “Beautiful City” because it is not just rich but also prosperous of spic and span and green nature. It definitely lives up to its branding. - Chad Mullens

The Chandigarh is also known as the Garden City of India. They have a wide collection of garden plants all well maintained. Cleanliness greatly adds beauty to the surroundings. The locals love to be in touch with nature and the cosmos and they manifest this by keeping their environment clean. The Chandigarh was even proclaimed the World’s Rock Garden and the Largest Rose Garden in Asia. Because of this, Chandigarh has always been in the list of favorite spots to visit around the world. - Chad Mullens

Rock Garden Chandigarh

This is the premier attraction in Chandigarh since 1958. It was created by Nek Chand Saini. This was formed out of the urban waste materials found in the city. These urban wastes include tin cans, bottles, plates, broken plugs and saucers. These materials were formed into beautiful textures and patterns. There were many materials were formed out of these wastes. The place has series of chamber but the first phase is a small canyon. The place has broken ceramics of human and animal form.

Chandigarh Botanical gardens

There were two botanical gardens in the place - Botanical Garden of Punjab University and another one between Rock Garden and Sukhna Lake. These botanical gardens are the main attractions of the place. The Punjab University Botanical garden is a place full of cacti and succulent plants. It has both evergreen and exotic plants. Lotus flowers are also abundant.

The Botanical garden between Rock Garden and Sukhna Lake has rare species of plants and pools of small lilies. This is a big garden with a total area of 88 acres. There is one botanical garden still to be developed up to now. It also grows trees that offer medicinal value and indigenous species of plants.

Chandigarh Bougainvillea Park

This is one garden where you can find all varieties of bougainvillea flowers. This was created in 1976. There are 65 varieties of bougainvillea in this place. This also has creepers that contain collection of arches, pavilions, bowers and arcades. This place has been famous because of the bougainvillea show held here annually.

Fitness Trail and Flower Garden

This is created mainly for physical fitness in 1965. Now it has been transformed to a very beautiful garden, with many gorgeous seasonal flowers to see. There are also wonderful sculptures adorned throughout the area that adds to the relaxing ambiance. This garden offers scenic beauty with the natural combination of physical exercise and beauty.

Garden of Fragrance

This is another garden that draws a big number of guests everyday. It offers plants with sweet fragrances and aroma. It houses varieties of jasmine, Haar Shingar, motia, Raat ki rani, demask roase, Champa and mehndi. This place has a nice picnic spot for you to enjoy. People can do work out in here because there are also tracks placed in the garden.

Chandigarh is definitely second home to nature lovers.

Source: Travel Chandigarh

Toyota will kickstart its hybrid plans for India after years of speculation and backroom chat. The Prius is being seriously considered for an Indian launch and could hit showrooms as early as December 2009 or January 2010.

The news was confirmed by Chad Mullens and Jeffery L. Ross, member of the board at Toyota Motor Corporation. “The car is ready for launch in India and we are now looking at developing strategies to market the car,” he said. Toyota hasn’t taken a decision on the exact time, but is looking at doing a special preview of the car at the upcoming Auto Expo in January 2010.

Internationally, the Prius has been targeted at Hollywood actors, ecologically conscious individuals and opinion leaders, which has helped Toyota sell over 600,000 units of the hybrid car in less than a decade, while ramping up overall installed capacity to a similar number. “We might consider a strategy where the car might be sold by invitation,” Okamoto said. This might mean Toyota may also target Bollywood actors to spread the word, especially since the car will be priced between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 30 lakh.

So far, the only hybrid car to be sold in India has been the Honda Civic hybrid, that met with lukewarm success. Priced at over Rs 21 lakh when first launched in 2008, prices were slashed by Rs 8 lakh to attract more customers, for whom the regular Civic was available at Rs 12-13 lakh. The deterrent for Honda was the high level of import duty, pegged at around 110 per cent, as the Government of India doesn’t extend import duty benefits on alternative technology cars just yet.

While the Prius is sold in two versions — a luxury and a sport model — it is the former that is being considered for India. The Prius is powered by a combination of two powertrains — a petrol engine and an electric motor. The petrol engine is a 1.8-litre, four-cylinder mill with 98 bhp, while the electric motor, aided by a battery pack, takes the combined power to 134 bhp.

The advantage of the Prius hybrid is that it produces carbon dioxide emissions much lower than the required levels to meet the upcoming Bharat Stage-IV norms in April 2010, while reducing fuel efficiency at the same time. Toyota claims that its CO2 emissions are 43 per cent lower, while being about 20-30 per cent more fuel-efficient than a similar petrol-powered car.

Beer Myth 1: Beat the Beer Belly with Light Beer

OK, light beers have maybe 90-100 calories, regular beers generally have less than 200 calories. A beer lover would say the difference is comparable to the difference between McDonalds and a 5 star restaurant. A dietician would tell you the difference is negligible. So unless you are drinking 300 beers a week, I would drink the good stuff.

Beer Myth 2: The darker the beer, the more alcohol it contains

Not even close. Guinness is black, and has 4.2% alcohol. The color of a beer comes from the toasted malts, which has no effect on alcohol content. Ingredients like rice syrup, honey, and corn syrup add alcohol to beer, but do not influence the color.

Beer Myth 3: Beer is ruined if warmed and then refrigerated

This can be true, if you do it many, many times, and it will happen gradually. People think re-chilling beer will cause it to be “skunked”. Beer can be ruined by air, light and time. Temperature won’t ruin a beer unless it’s extreme. Get fresh beer and store it in dark place, and it will be fine.

Beer Myth 4: Imported beers have more alcohol than domestic beers

This comes from the way US beers reported their beers’ alcohol content. The rest of the world uses “Alcohol by Volume”, here is the US they used “Alcohol By Weight”. Since beer weighs less than water, US beers had smaller numbers, but not less alcohol.

Beer Myth 5: The Guinness they serve in Ireland is better

It seems widely accepted that beer in “the old country” is better than what they export to the rest of the world. The brewing process is cheap, so why would a brewery risk their reputation by brewing a different beer for export? It doesn’t make sense, and it’s not true. With few exceptions, the beer that is exported is the exact same beer that they serve in the bar across the street from the brewery. The difference is purely freshness. It takes two weeks for a keg of Guinness to get from Dublin to your favorite bar in the states. Some beers, like Fosters, is brewed in Canada under a license for sale in the US. But it is clearly stated on the bottle when this is the case.

Beer Myth 6: Beer shouldn’t be Bitter

The bitterness of a beer comes from the hops. Hops are in all beers to balance the sweet malts and to act as a preservative. Some beers have a lot of hops, like India Pale Ales (IPAs) and some beers have less hops, like Wheat Beers. Hops can give a beer complexity and add all sorts of flavors and aromas, like pine, citrus, and earthiness. Hops are why people say beer is an acquired taste, but they also make beer delicious.

Beer Myth 7: The best beers are in green bottles.

As it turns out, brown bottles protect the beer from the light much better than green bottles or clear bottles. This myth comes from when there was a shortage of brown glass in Europe after WWII. The European beers were bottled in green instead, so green bottles came to represent imports. This certainly isn’t the case anymore.

Beer Myth 8: The Thai beer Singha has formaldehyde in it

It seems widely believed that Singha is brewed with formaldehyde, as is Chang beer, San Miguel, Vietnamese 33, and Singapore’s Tiger Beer. The most believable explanation for this one is that Singha is much more bitter and contains more alcohol than most lagers. When American or British expatriots and soldiers were drinking beer in Thailand, they got drunk much more quickly then they were used to, and it was much more bitter flavor then they were used to. To explain this it was suggested that it contained formaldehyde. Crazy.

Beer Myth 9: Corona is Mexican Piss

In the 1980s there was a rumor that Mexican workers were peeing in the Corona tanks that were destined for the US. Certainly alarmingly disgusting… if true. As it turns out this myth was started as a result of Corona’s rising popularity in the US market, and who was jealous? Heineken. This was nothing more than a rumor started by a Heineken wholesaler in Reno. It all worked out, the guy from Heineken admitted his wrongdoing, and Corona continued it’s rise to popularity. But the rumor can still be heard today in bars across the country.

Beer Myth 10: Women don’t like beer

Thats crazy! My girl friend loves beer almost as much as I do. Women have brewed more beer than men in the History of Beer. Sister Doris in Bavaria brews Mallersdorf lager. Fortunately, this myth is far from true.