No breach in computer security system: PMO

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has said there was “no breach” in the security systems of its computers or those in other central government departments.

Asked about a media report that hackers from China have targeted computers in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), an official in the PMO denied the report.

“Attempts have always been there to hack our computers, but we have our security systems in place,” a PMO official told IANS.

“There has been no breach on our security system, we are absolutely safe,” PMO media adviser Harish Khare told IANS.

According to a Headlines Today TV channel report, hackers from China had targeted computers in the PMO around Dec 15 last year and “investigators are still coming to terms with the depth of the damage”.

It said the hackers had aimed at the “cream of India’s national security set-up: National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan, Cabinet Secretary KM Chandrashekhar, PM’s Special Envoy Shyam Saran and Deputy National Security Advisor Shekhar Dutt. The four and up to 26 others were squarely in the crosshairs of the hacking attempt”.

“The hacking spyware itself was embedded in a PDF document. And the Trojan Horse was programmed to carry out an array of functions, including downloading files, accessing emails and passwords and also accessing the desktop from a remote location,” it said.

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What’s Islam? Don’t Ask Google

Google’s search engine returns common results to most queries as you type. But the “don’t be evil” company appears to be censoring its results when it comes to Islam.

Type “Christianity is” into Google and you’ll get a list of common searches. But the engine appears to suppress results for “Islam is.”

Type a few words into the search field on Google’s home page and the engine automatically returns a helpful list of popular, similar searches for the words you’ve typed in so far — a convenient way to find the right information.

Enter “Christianity is” and you’ll find results that, while offensive, at least indicate common discussions on the Internet. Likewise, type “Judaism is” and Google suggests other, potentially offensive searches such as “Judaism is false” and “Judaism is not a race.”

But type “Islam is” into the search engine and Google’s auto-results pane mysteriously vanishes, leading some to conclude that Google, whose mantra is “don’t be evil,” is censoring its search results.

According to Google’s Web site, the query suggestions that appear as you type are drawn from from searches you’ve done (if you’re logged in), searches done by users all over the world, sites in the search index and ads in Google’s network.

The company also explains that “We try to filter out suggestions that include pornographic terms, dirty words, and hate and violence terms. If you encounter a term that should not be suggested, please let us know by posting in the Google Web Search Help Forum.”

Perhaps the returned results are so inappropriate that all results have simply been turned off, an option some Internet users label ‘cowardly.‘ After all, search for hot-button items such as “scientology is” or “Muhammad is” and the results are even more offensive.

A Google spokesman explained that the weird absence of results is just a software problem: “This is in fact a bug and we’re working to fix it as quickly as we can.” But the company would not respond to requests for clarification.

An intriguing corollary: Google offers search suggestions for future tense queries as well. Ask “Christianity will” and Google suggests “Christianity will end, it will disappear,” and “Christianity will end.” Ask the same about Islam and Google notes that “Islam will dominate the world” and “Islam will destroy Europe.”

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