Showing posts with label Virus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Virus. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

The Dog Question

You may be working late. After you reached your area by the sub-urban train or city bus, you have to walk the last mile to your home. You start walking... Suddenly, a dog runs towards you barking!

Has this happened to you?

You are a law abiding citizen who wears helmet while riding your motorcycle. But the street dogs of the locality don't like it. They give a good chase now and then. One day you hit a pothole or a stone, throwing you over the handle bar.

Has this happened to you?

Every day around 100 people are bitten by dogs in Chennai alone (as of 2013). From people going for a walk/jog for their health to street vendors who carry their bags and baskets on head for a living, dogs are making everyone's life miserable. Yet for few "animal lovers", everyone needs to tolerate these ugly and demonic creatures.

If you raise a complaint with the city officials, they will say that they will only do a "family planning operation" (this is the exact way they mention sterilization!) and capture only rabid dogs. Also, they claim that almost all dogs are vaccinated and there is no risk of rabies! But again, every year around 10 people are dying in Chennai alone due to dog bites (as of 2013). Chennai Corporation has a habit of appending "ALL DOGS ARE NOT RABID DOGS" in all complaints related to dogs. But there are still lots of questions unanswered! Read on...

What Are The Problems With Dogs?

1. They bite:

Unlike what these people say, not only rabid dogs bite. ALL DOGS BITE. It is almost arbitrary. Anything can intimidate them. For some dogs, just carrying a luggage, being tall or heavy, having a beard etc. are enough to get intimidated. Also they bite out of fear. Irrespective of what corporation or Blue Cross claims, after getting bitten by a dog, we MUST visit doctors and get the injections immediately. Else we may end up as rabies victim statistics of the year! I have seen dogs biting women, children, elderly people and disabled people with my own eyes. One of the case was heart wrenching. A visually challenged man was selling pencils boxes. A dog bit him. When some of the public (including me) tried to stone the dog, a lady (from what she said, I assume she feeds those stray dogs daily) came and defended the dog saying, it is the mistake of the blind man to show a cane. So her dog got upset and afraid of his behavior and bit him! What a logic?!!

2. They Contaminate the Surrounding
Not only stray dogs. But ALL dogs pee and defecate. How good it will be to get greeted with dog poop or dog vomit on your doorsteps? They drip their saliva everywhere they go, pee anywhere they like and defecate wherever they want. This poses a great risk for people's health. Dogs can carry many virus/bacteria apart from rabies which can cause diseases and even death in humans. Will these dog lovers come and clean every dog shit and vomit on call basis? These dogs take dip in drainage and roam freely on roads. Who knows what percentage of diseases is spread through these 100,000+ dogs in the city!

3. They Are Nuisance for Road Users

Almost everyone has a friend/family or self who got chased by a dog while riding a bike and crashed, fracturing few bones and got some stitches. But the denial of corporation authorities and animal lovers are sickening. They are hurt by a stone thrown on a dog, yet they want us to take it easy when our loved ones suffer fractures! How humane? Also we have to count the cost of servicing the vehicles too! How much public's money is wasted for the kinks of some?

4. They Bark and Howl

Dogs destroy peaceful sleep of people. What about the grandpa who recently had bypass? Or the new born baby in her cradle? Don't they deserve sleep, let alone the night shift workers, early risers and students? These dogs howl and bark suddenly and wake people during nights and days!

5. They Give a Hard Time for Pedestrians

People are encouraged to take a walk to nearby places for sake of health and environment. But these filthy creatures make it hard for people to take a walk on the road. They bark, they chase and they come and smell/lick our bags and dress. It may be OK for animal lovers to get "licked" by dogs. But not for me! I have seen people chased by dogs, falling down or getting hit by vehicles.

Who Is Behind This?

Blue Cross, People for Animals and PeTA (yes! The same group that kills thousands of animals in USA every year and the one that protested against Jallikattu) are claiming that it is cruel to kill dogs. They don't even want the dogs to be relocated or kept in shelters. They want the dogs to be free on the streets! They want the dogs to be treated humanely. But at what cost? By treating humans like dogs? If their sterilization strategy had worked, how can the dog population can be 170,000 and counting? If their vaccination programs are for real, then how can 10+ people are dying of rabies? These are deaths that happen apart from general population which takes anti-rabies shots shortly after bitten by dogs. I myself have a firsthand experience with Blue Cross. I rescued a cat from a pit. I called them, but they refused to pick the kitten up. So I took it to their office myself. They took the kitten and asked me for money! They said that I must give money to feed the animal or else I should take it back! This is their version of love for animals it seems. If they are animal lovers, why they force a person who rescued a kitten to pay money? These organizations involve in many more questionable activities and put animal interests (or what they see as animal interests) over human interests.

If They Want...

So, if they want to keep dog(s), they can. But they have to keep it in their house and when they bring them out, they should accompany them. The dogs can be free inside their home and but they should be chained and handled properly on roads. If any dog without chain or a human company is encountered, people should be allowed to kill the dog in self-defense. Even if the dog is licensed, if there is no chain AND no human supervision and the dog is not inside a private property, we should have the right to kill them.

If they want to save the stray dogs, they can take them to places like Blue Cross or PeTA, where they can give whatever royal treatment they want to give. They can "love" their dogs as they claim that they are "animal lovers" and enjoy their dogs' licking skills. They can have "family planning operations" or have planned families. They can vaccinate or they can skip it for fear of "vaccination induced autism" or for treating rabies virus humanely.

If their flawed argument is applied to other creatures like cockroaches, flies, mosquito etc., imagine where we will be heading to! Will corporation also refrain from pouring larvicide in water tanks to treat mosquito humanely? Or are we supposed not to kill rats and cockroaches in our houses? What about the tapeworm or ringworm? Are doctors wrong to kill them with Albendazole? Where these people's stupid anti-human love for "animals" will end? Will they also fight for humane treatment of polio virus by banning Polio vaccine? If it is OK to kill certain virus/bacteria/insects/animals for human welfare, why not these dogs?

Already these dog-lovers are protesting against dog meat in China yet they never fail to buy mutton or beef for their beloved dogs. Why it is OK to kill a lamb or ox to feed a dog and not OK to kill a dog for well-being of many humans living in that area? These animal welfare lobby are a bunch of rich people with followers (yes, they are a cult) from all walks of life. They just touch the emotional nerves and make people believe that they have a point. Unless we count their paraphilia for animals, there is not point to defend these dogs.

Government should take rigid steps to ensure safety of civilians and suppress this type of people with deviant and unethical views and behaviors. Life and well-being of citizens are far more important than few stray dogs. They don't have a family waiting for them. They don't have a future for themselves. But people who lost their life and health to these dogs have all these. My vote in coming election is to the party that will surely eliminate all these unworthy creatures.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Rain Rain Go Away?

It is rainy season again. A good rain is what farmers need to grow crops, forests need to sustain the flora and fauna, people in cities need to replenish the ground water, power-plants need to supply us with electricity and the list never ends... The purest natural source of water, "The Elixir of Life" as told by Sir C V Raman, is rain. Nature itself distils the water! Removing salts, killing germs and leaving behind sediments, Sun works as a huge boiler that provides us with pure water. Whenever scientists look for life in other planets/moons they look for liquid water. As Valluvar said, "The world can't sustain without water!". But what our people think about rains? Some people like the "Little Johnny" want their life to go on as usual and feel rain as a spoiler! But for a "regular" life 365 days, we have to happily receive rain for at least 15 days!

Bad Roads?

A subway, completely submerged in water.
We should not be angry with the rain for bad roads. We should raise our voices in proper forums to repair the roads regularly before the winter begins. Also the sewer system should be prepared to handle rainwater and waste water efficiently. Rainwater falling on highways and other places like bus stands and railway stations can be harvested easily. Already government has started some initiatives like that, but due to bad maintenance, these systems are barely working. So stop accusing rains for bad roads!

Mosquitoes?!
Mosquito repellents are secondary!

Rains are not the "cause" of increased mosquitoes and mosquito borne diseases. It is human inefficiency to keep the surroundings clean of stagnant water which creates suitable breeding havens for mosquitoes. And one more thing, mosquitoes that cause diseases mostly breed in fresh water. They don't breed in drainage or murky waters usually. Also the water on roads usually dries in few days, hence mosquito larvae can't grow to mosquitoes in road side puddles. But on the other hand, water stored in tanks, pots, vessels are where these mosquitoes find fresh water to breed. Also places like AC machine cases, discarded tyres, broken plastic/glass articles can hold clean water for many days providing suitable space and duration for mosquitoes to breed.

Fever and Diseases
Maintain cleanliness!

With rain, we get more fever and diseases. It is not the rain water itself that causes the diseases. It is the germs which utilize the moisture in air and on surfaces to survive for longer periods and easily spread from person to person. Sunlight, which kills many germs in sunny days of summers is also scarce. So what can we do? By maintaining clean habits, one can protect himself and others from catching infections. Frequent hand washing, avoiding touching face/eyes/mouth/food without washing hands, sneezing in to kerchiefs, wearing shoes, avoiding urination and defecation in open etc can prevent lot of infections. Taking brooms in hand is not the only way to create a "Clean India"! Every person maintaining a good personal hygiene is a soldier in this fight against diseases.

Conclusion

Some believe that if people are upset due to rains, there will be lesser rainfall! I am not one of them. We can neither summon rain through rituals nor we can send rain away by wishful thinking. But what I mean by this article is, if we take proper steps and remain well prepared, rainy seasons are enjoyable. It is a chance to thank the Almighty for the divine providence. Next time when it starts raining when you are half way to office, just find a teashop, have a hot tea/coffe and enjoy the love of nature poured upon us!

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Operation Windigo - The New *NIX Security Threat

In a previous post, we have seen that free operating systems are relatively safer than Windows or OSX based systems. But still, there are sporadic incidents of malrware/trojans/security vulnerability happening. After NSA revelations, the free software codes are reviewed strictly and lot of overlooked vulnerabilities are surfacing as in the case of GnuTLS (but it seems not many are actually affected due to it). Now security researchers have revealed that a widespread attempt is made to infect Linux/Unix servers.

This attack so far is targeted ONLY towards servers. But this is a crucial lesson for us to learn that, just running GNU/Linux or BSD or any other OS makes you secure by default. To be secure, you must spend time to make your system secure. At least install ClamAV immediately if you have not installed it already. Anyway, let us see how this Operation Windigo works.
ClamTK in action

Operation Windigo uses several different malwares to infect servers and hence they try to earn money by sending spams and redirect users to ad sites or making users to download trojans for further infection.

The following are the list of malwares and their role/behaviour involved in the operation.

Ebury is used to create a backdoor (illegal entry to your machine without your notice). It can also steal your SSH password.

Cdorked is also a backdoor provider. But it can also make end users to download malicious files.

Onimiki is used to redirect users to different IPs for a given URL pattern.

Calfb is a Perl based spam engine. It can send spam mails with malicious links to users.

Boaxxe.G and Glubeta.M are the files sent to Windows users so that their machines can be infected for causing further damage.

To quickly check if you are infected, open a terminal window and type the following.

$ ssh -G 2>&1 | grep -e illegal -e unknown

ssh -G showing "unkown option" in Fedora

If there is an output, you are safe. If blank, you may be infected! To dig further, follow below steps.

$ su

Enter your password

# ipc -m

If you see any process attached to any user with full read/write permission for all users (666) and size greater than 3MB, it is a strong indicator of infection Ebury infection.

The above commands check for Ebury. The other malwares and their checking are not suitable for home users. As told earlier, chances are very slim to have this infection in your PC/laptop as the target is mainly servers. So far 25000 servers are compromised. That is very less compared to billions of infected Windows machines.

References:

1. http://www.welivesecurity.com/2014/03/18/operation-windigo-the-vivisection-of-a-large-linux-server-side-credential-stealing-malware-campaign/

2. https://github.com/eset/malware-ioc/commit/b4c4a6d8a67b22693d04092b5962875b6d0fabeb

3. http://www.clamav.net/lang/en/