Denigrating Obamas in Internet

Search engines are becoming ultimate engines for development and crime. One can google other's vital details, locate remote places through maps, find out the tastes of people, political views and many more sensitive information. What is considered to be the best aid for knowledge sharing and communication sans frontiers turning out to be a strong commercial proposition and global terror aider. This cannot be averted just by simply saddening over the issue. It needs a strong commitment and vigilance by Netizens and Engine operators like google. Without the proactive participation of these two partners it is impossible to curb the violence through Internet. The immediate need is software to track the culprits and fixing them tooth and nail. The earliest it is done is the better for the world.

In the latest venom spiller Google image search brings a caricature of Michelle Obama as monkey at the top of search on her name. As Google had clarified in its communication that it cannot do much about it the ball is in the court of Internet criminals who manage to malign Obamas. It is sad that Internet played a pivotal role in bringing Obama as the president of the United States and the same Internet is devastating his happiness as the president.

The Times of India writes on 26 November 2009


Google has apologized for a racist caricature of Michelle Obama that became the top result for users searching for images of the US First

Anyone typing "Michelle Obama" into Google Images this morning, was presented with an altered photo depicting the US president's wife with animal features.

However, the California-based Internet giant distanced itself from this by posting a message above the offensive photo.

The note, which states "Sometimes our search results can be offensive. We agree" directs users to a page explaining the technology giant's policy on "disturbing" search results, The Telegraph reported.

The message makes it clear that the Michelle Obama image is not endorsed by Google, but indicates that the company will take no action to have it removed.

"Google views the integrity of our search results as an extremely important priority," it states.

"Accordingly, we do not remove a page from our search results simply because its content is unpopular or because we receive complaints concerning it."

"We apologise if you've had an upsetting experience using Google. We hope you understand our position regarding offensive results," it ends.

Phising Hotmail Accounts

Phising is inevitable in the high flying online word. None lives without a password and an email. Whatelse can provide a field day for the criminals. Aptly they are called cyber criminals. The worst scam so far has been unveiled in the Hotmail front.

The Times of India writes (10 October 2009)

In one of the biggest phising scams ever, the passwords of more than 10,000 Hotmail accounts were found to have been compromised and posted online.

The huge security breach was first reported by the website neowin.net, which said a list of the account details had been posted last week on pastebin.com, a forum used by software developers. This scam, as later reports suggested, may have compromised the privacy of at least 20,000 more accounts of users belonging to a number of other popular email providers such as Gmail, Yahoo and AOL.

According to security researcher Bogdan Calin of Acunetix, the hacked accounts show people still tend to go for weak passwords. The hack exposes the lazy and unsecure password habits of their users despite heightened security threats. Based on their analysis of the hacked passwords, rearchers have released a list of 10 most common passwords. Have a peep! 123456 tops the list of most common (and amongst the stupidest) passwords, Bogdan Calin told PCWorld. Calin reportedly got hold of the 10,000 stolen Windows Live Hotmail usernames and passwords that were posted on the Web site PasteBin late last week after which he analyzed and reached at the list.