Research Outlook: IIT, IIEST

Scene 1, IIT Kharagpur

The person who introduced you to the alphabets of your subject stands right in front of you, a picture of elegance. His assistant whips out a deck of cards – he’s going to perform magic! The assistant hands the deck over to five random people in the audience, who pick five cards. All five are shown to the audience. One card is returned to the audience, and the assistant places the rest, one by one, in front of the magician. Voila! He predicts the suit and number on the fifth card accurately!

‘He’ was Dr. Naveen Garg from IIT Delhi (ask NPTEL fans of CST about him).

Scene 2, Final Year classroom

One of us, the five who attended Research Scholars’ Day at KGP, pulls out a deck. The self-appointed magician sees his assistant fumbling and quips ‘he can choose any five cards!’ The ‘assistant’ takes out several 5-tuples, but none of them would execute the trick. A second magician enters and snatches the deck ‘like a boss’. He calls a second assistant, who ponders deeply before choosing the cards. A viewer cries out ‘how on earth is this random?’ The second assistant, refusing to give up, sacrifices himself in the altar of bravery by dropping the whole deck on the floor. Ultimately, the trick ends with the second magician predicting the fifth card wrong!

The above card trick (which I’ve hyped up several notches) represented a Bipartite Graph Matching problem, the topic on which Dr. Garg presented an engaging lecture. Just on the previous day, we had participated in a captivating Research Promotion Workshop there.

Imagine you’re on a long drive, supersaturated by scenic beauty on both sides of the road. You turn on the wi-fi on your smartphone (yes, I’m brave enough to imagine an Indian city dotted with wi-fi access points) and Heath Ledger starts threatening Gotham City in your phone screen. Or let’s deal with something less glamorous and more necessary – type a Facebook comment in roman Bengali, and the red crinkled spell-check lines do not appear. Instead, clicks on the roman Bengali show more word suggestions. Your relative is ill and has received an expansive test report which s/he can’t comprehend. Scan and upload it to your desktop and view the salient points, related information after few clicks.

This is a zipped snapshot of research at IIT. Talk about research at our home turf. I, myself, was interested in projects since 3^rd semester. Now I’m working with a software (whose author is senile, and no one uses it any longer) which runs only on the ancient OS installed in the CST Department server. Our faculty has to be explained ‘what is Twitter’ every time the students working on Social Networks give a presentation. Students get asked ‘what project on data mining have you done if you don’t know how rand() function in C works?’ and ‘what work in chemical bond-prediction have you done if you don’t know everything about all the types of bonds? That’s XII^th standard chemistry!’

I’ll wrap up here. After all, ‘Never tickle a sleeping dragon’, as all Potter-fans know too well.

Quantum Mechanics and quantum computation

First of all, Why quantum computing? Haven’t classical computers achieved great speed and efficiency already?

Well the answer is we need more speed and efficiency. Quantum computing provides more speed and efficiency, allows reversible computation and even solves algorithms faster. In fact there exists a field of study called quantum algorithms which focus on the computational power of quantum systems and in some cases these algorithms can solve problems in polynomial time while classical algorithms require super polynomial time to solve problems.

In the given article, I will try to give a brief introduction to quantum computing and the basis of creating a quantum computer. I’ll try being as less technical as possible, without going into much derivations and detailed analysis , rather an overview of some of the basic principles like the concept of qubits and move on to quantum gates with a brief outline of universal gates.

Given below are some odd features of quantum particles:

• Complete knowledge of a system’s state is forbidden - A measurement reveals only a small amount of information about the quantum state of the system.

• The act of measuring a particle fundamentally disturbs its state.

• Quantum entities do not have trajectories. All that we can say for an elementary particle is that it started at A and was measured later at B. We cannot say anything about the trajectory or path it took from A to B.

• Quantum Mechanics is inherently probabilistic. If we prepare two elementary particles in identical states and measure them, the results may be different for each particle.

• Quantum entities behave in some ways like particles and in others like waves. But they really behave in their own unique way, neither particles nor waves.

These are the reasons that led Richard Feynman to say “I can safely say no one understands quantum mechanics”

To begin with lets start with some basic notations. I’ll just give some basis to show the concepts of quantum gates and an example of quantum algorithm to show it’s computational efficiency.

Qubit

Let us consider a thought experiment of considering an electron as a bit such that the ground state is considered as 0 and excited state as 1. The state of the system can be written in Dirac notation as
|ψ> = α |0> + β |1> with α, β ∈ C and |α|² + |β^|2 = 1

Here α and β are the complex amplitudes of the system and the square of the magnitude represents the probability of finding the electron at a particular state.
(Simple I hope… just the basic thing that the sum of the probabilities of finding an object is always =1).
The system can be represented on the complex vector space as shown:

Let |ψ>  be the vector which is being measured. In order to measure we need some reference, which is called the basis vector. The most common basis vectors used for measurement are the |0>, |1> basis and also the |+>, |-> basis which are at 45 degrees to the |0>, |1> basis.
It can be carried out in any arbitrary basis. I’m not going It is important to note that any state of the system is obtained by a rotation of the vectors in the circle, i.e. if we can obtain the future state or rather the evolution of the qubit in time by rotating it in the circle shown above.

Quantum Gates

I’ll try to keep the discussion simple by focusing on single qubit gates, just to give an understanding of how such systems work. Some examples of quantum gates are as follows:

Bit Flip Gate (X)

This flips a bit from 0 to 1 and vice versa, something like the NOT gate in the classical case.

Phase Flip Gate (Z)

 

It is like a NOT gate but unlike bit flip it acts in the +, - basis I ‘d shown earlier.

Hadamard Transform (H)

In addition, there are 2 qubit gates like CNOT and CSWAP gates which act as quantum gates.

Universal Gates

Just like the universal NAND gate, the quantum analogue lies in the gates like CNOT,X, Z, H, π/8 rotations through which we can construct any given circuit.[1]

Quantum Algorithms and efficiency

To round up this article, let’s look at an example of the improvement in efficiency of by using quantum algorithms.

Parity Problem: Given a function f: {0, 1}ⁿ -> {0,1} as a black box such that f(x)=u ^. x for u € {0,1}ⁿ, the problem is to figure out u with as few queries to f as possible.

Complexity of Solution:
For a recursive version of the parity problem,

• ·    Classical algorithms satisfy the recursion in T(n) > nT(n/2) + ni.e. T(n)=Ω (n^logn)
• ·         Quantum algorithm satisfies recursion in  T(n) = 2T(n/2) + O(n)i.e. T(n)= O (n log n)

Metallum 2014

METALLUM is the annual symposium-cum-tech fest of the Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering of Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur and is organized solely by the students of the department under the ambit of the Society of Student Metallurgists (SSM).

METALLUM is aimed at bringing industry and academics closer, with the sole focus being on advocating the exposure of students towards the industrial scenario and help students get acquainted with various advancements in the industrial sector by interacting one-to-one with renowned dignitaries from both industry and academics.
After the promising success of METALLUM 2012, METALLUM 2014 was organized with great zeal and enthusiasm to carry on the legacy of the prestigious department and to achieve even bigger milestones. METALLUM-2014 was committed to the cause of taking up “MICROSTRUCTURE” as its theme and stressed on the design of microstructure of materials in the symposium and events that it intended to execute.

It was a 3 days tech-fest comprising of a series of interesting and attractive events with a huge number of participants from various renowned institutionsacross the country. A seminar on the theme -“Microstructure of Materials“  was organized by SSM under the aegis of TEQIP-II where various technical papers were successfully presented by UG students and Research scholars.

On the eve of 75^th year of glory, we the students of Metallurgy and materials engineering department took the opportunity to celebrate the occasion and we hope that with the constant support of our professors we have made this endeavor  ​a huge success and helped the flags of the department fly even higher. 

Know-How

In this publication we thought to unravel to you one of the common piece of technology which we all have used whenever we have traveled in metro railway; though small but technically beautiful. Its the travel coin or the travel-pass card that we use as a token for our journey. Came across so many times, but did you imagine any time what they are composed of ? Here we will explain it in as simple as possible.

In our +2 we have learnt the theory on which this technology is based, it is, Faraday’s principle of magnetic induction. These tags are technically called passive Radio-Frequency-Identification [RFID] tags. Going term by term, 'passive' tags power themselves from the energy they collect from high gain antennas, i.e. they don't have an inbuilt power source.

'Radio-frequency' implies that they use low frequency [120- 140 kilohertz] or short range systems (< 40cm). So, due to these two reasons they must be in close proximity to the RFID reader’s antenna in order to
collect enough energy to function.

Working Principle :

A current flowing through the coil of a reader produces a magnetic field around it. This field induces the tag’s coil in the vicinity to generate a small current. The tag switches on and off the loaded resistor by its information stored in an inbuilt circuitry to change the impedance of the reader antenna coil. This brings about variation of the current in the tag’s coil, which in-turn causes a small current variation in a reader’s coil due to the mutual inductance between the two, and the variation is detected by reader. This is how, the reader obtains the tag information by variation of reader antenna voltage. This form of communication between a reader and a tag is called 'load modulation'.

RFID tags transmit many different pieces of data, which in this case is the tag’s unique identifier. The unique identifier stored in the database at the back-end is used as the key that identifies information about the users
journey.

Powerfully Done: Paper on Power-Saving Sensors

 “A developed India by 2020, or even earlier, is not a dream. It need not be a mere vision in the minds of many Indians. It is a mission we can all take up - and succeed.” - Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, India 2020: A Vision for the New Millennium.

It is with these words in mind that we came up with the idea of a Power Saving Passive Infrared Sensor Module: a device that is simple yet effective, smart yet unpretentious: in short, truly Indian!

The average household spends more than Rs.18000 a year on electricity bills. Standard power saving modules available in the market are either too expensive for the common man to buy, or do not possess sufficient longevity to justify its price. We focused on solving this problem by designing a power saving module that costs only Rs.850, and is also durable enough to serve the customer for a good number of years.

The Passive infrared (PIR) sensors detect infrared energy radiating from objects within their field of vision without emitting any radiations (hence the name passive). The most common object a PIR sensor detects is the human body. This property of the PIR sensor has been used to detect when a person has left or entered an area. Depending on this movement, a power saving module has been designed, which switches on/off the power supply to a room automatically. This reduces the power expenses occurring due to human negligence in switching off lights, fans etc.

Reality Check

                   The IIEST bill was passed at the Rajya Sabha on 19^th February, 2014. A long struggle is finally reaching its conclusion and now the only thing that awaits is the President's signature, which is merely a formality. It seems to be a time to rejoice, hoping for a better future. However, will the students' welfare be looked after is still a big a question.

                   It is a natural fact that whenever a section of a society has too much power they tend to misuse it, forgetting their responsibilities. That is exactly what has happened with our universty authorities, who have assumed absolute power after stopping union elections as the Students' Welfare Board and Faculty Coucil among other committees remain devoid of student representation. Afterfailing shamelessly time and again to address students' issues they remain anapologetic and arrogant on their stance.

                   In 2013, a random audit of the mess accounts was performed in which a discrepancy of close to 1.5 lakhs came to light. Without enquiring how this occurred in the first place it was decided that the deficiency would be met by charging extra deficit from the boarders in the current academic session. So we would be paying our parents' hard earned money for food we did not even consume or worse still for some corrupt individual's misdeeds.

                   Recently the mess transactions have been automated and still, after 5 months from its implementation the whole process is quite vague to us students. Many of us are facing harrasment with irregular mess fee and added late fee deductions each month. Some have been charged twice for the first three months' fees even though they have already payed their dues using the previous arrangement of mess fee books. When approached the bank officials send the students to the mess sections saying they can do nothing about it and the employees in the mess section keep avoiding their responsibilities.

                   Post Graduate students are given stipends from the State Government but they receive the sum a semester late from the university. Though this sum arrives within the stipulated time at the university but the delay in handing them out to the students is caused intentionally to gain undue interest from the bank. This results in a lot of difficulty for the students and a few individual efforts against this practise was of no avail.

                   The Annual Budgetary Estimates and University Audit Reports  are to be publicly available for everyone and thus it is to be uploaded on the university web site. But the last time they were uploaded, was way back at the 2007-08 academic session. When a few students demanded a copy of these documents they were told at first to file an RTI but later agreed to hand them over is given a mass petition of atleast a thousand signatures. Such a reply, shows the authorities' arrogance, as they boldly withhold public information because they know no steps will be taken against such unlawful behaviour by senior post holders. But still these students managed to gather a mass petition for the purpose and got hold of these documents but the university is not handing over the Annual Audit Report of the 2009-10 academic session and we can only speculate what the reasons might be for that.

                   In the past few months we have only scratched the surface and who knows what we can dig up if we keep at it. There are already a lot of rumours around the extent corruption that is endorsed by this university. Who knows why suddenly in the past 3-4 years the placement scenario of the university is degrading daily? Has the quality of students suddenly dropped or the job market is turning from bad to worse or are there other factors we are not considering? This column, perhaps sadly, does not endorse rumours or we would have a lot more to talk about.

Six Months Episode 3

                                                            FIVE

-“I think my brother has started doubting about our friendship”, said Suniti.

-“What?  Your brother? He hardly knows me! How could he come about us?”, said Ravi.

-“I don’t know, but last night he gave me a huge speech like a philosopher.”

-“What sort of speech?”

-“About growing up, life, struggling,  not trusting strangers and so on.”

-“Yeah I understand. Don’t worry, guardians give such lectures and ‘bla bla bla’s at this age, don’t take it so much seriously. Just relax.” He planted his hand on hers.

She smiled, “Yeah, probably you’re right, I must not get tense. Thanks! You’re my best friend.” She held his wrist tightly, shook it and giggled. Ravi smiled, “you are so simple and child-like, you deserve a best friend in your life. Why are you so introverted?”

-“You forget, I do have a friend”, she kept her hand on his shoulder, “my best friend indeed.”

Ravi put down her hand from his shoulder and held it softly, “I know dear, I am not talking about myself, other than me you’ve no friends, you are so shy.”

-“Why should I need other friends when I have you?”

-“Yeah, we wouldn’t have been friends if I did not interact with you.”

Her eyes became bigger as she said “I paid attention to you, that’s why you approached me!”

-“Well yes, but I played the main role.”

-“You!” ,she planted a light punch on his hand. Ravi laughed and returned the punch back to her.

-“You hit me!”,she said dramatically and returned it too.

-“Ok my friend you win. It’s because of you we’re friends, you are so smart, so, so smart”

Suniti laughed.

MONTH-3

“ I never asked her about the boy. I always wanted to, but I could not, because I did not want her to feel that I doubted her. I chose to keep silent.

       After two months, I had six truckloads of packages in my store. Gradually I grew eager to know what was there. I knew that it was forbidden and I also knew that there were electronic goods in there, still, I had a strong intention open up and see the products. Besides, Suniti and my mother always wanted to know about what kind of business I was doing. I did not want to disobey that man who had given me such an opportunity.

     There was also a telephone in the bungalow. That was always for business purposes. I was not allowed to use that phone except for contacting Mr. Sam. He used to call me sometimes and collected the necessary information for his business from me. That day he called me again,

-“Hello. Sunil speaking.”

-“Hello my boy.”

-“Yes Mr. Sam , what can I do for you?”

-“How’s the business going Sunil?”

-“It’s wonderful, as usual. There are eight trucks full of goods in the store.”

-“Right. Two weeks left for the returning truck to arrive.”

-“Yes sir, that’s right.”

-“Okay. Keep calculating, After this month, I want to talk to you.”

-“About what sir?”

-“About the job, my boy.”

-“Why Sir? Is there anything wrong?”

-“Oh no no no no, Sunil, you are very simple, no there is nothing wrong with your duties, It’s about something else, relax, okay?”

-“Okay sir, thank you sir.”

             He hung up the phone. I started to think what he was talking about? Would there be any change in my duty? Or, would there be any promotion in my post? Well, whatever, all I knew was not to worry, as he had asked me to relax.

             It was afternoon then, after completing my lunch and siesta I dressed up and went out for my evening walk. I changed my evening walk path from the one Suniti used to return, to a road through woods. It was a beautiful path and a very ideal for an evening stroll. I didn’t want to be a cause of such an awkwardness to them. I thought it was enough to understand for her from that speech that I told her that night. It was a narrow path covered with dry leaves falling from the trees on the both sides of the road. So, there was only sound of my feet crushing those dry leaves on the path. The silence was beautiful, periodically broken by the sound of my feet on the dry leaves. After a walk of twenty or thirty minutes I stopped to take some rest and breathe.

But, there was something wrong happening behind me, yes, something that was invisible, something that was following me all through the road, because as soon as I stopped, there was sound of feet and leaves lasting for just a moment later, and I was damn sure that I had not missed that moment.  It was not a fancy, I was sure. I turned back and looked around for a long time, but I could not see anyone or anything. I was afraid thinking that it was some kind of wild animal, because I was inside woods and I had walked a long path and the woods had become deeper. But this narrow path was created by daily walking of human beings and I never heard about any animal in these woods, the woods weren’t dense enough. May be it was a snake! I assumed that and kept on going further. That sound did not come chasing after me anymore. It  was definitely a snake.

                       Suniti returned home a little bit late, no, she did never returned so late after the previous night, but she never returned at regular times too, it was not tough for me to understand what is going on between them.

-“Suniti, I want to talk with you about something”, I could not hold my anger and my will to warn her again to be with a stranger, because I knew she was a very simple girl and she could never make out what a stranger had in mind, anyone could fool her. May be that boy was a really nice guy, may be not. But I had to talk about it.

-“Wh-what vaiya?”

-“Come here.”

                   I pulled her to her room. I did not want my mother to hear all the things that could worry her sick at this age.

-“ Who’s that boy?”

-“What vaiya?”

-“Don’t behave like you don’t know anything. Tell me!”

-“What are you talking about vaiya?”

-“Don’t lie to your own brother. Stupid!”

-“You followed me na?”

-“No dear I didn’t follow you, I saw you with him.”

-“How would you see him if you weren’t following me?”

-“I was on my evening walk. Now don’t question me, answer me!”

-“ He’s my only friend vaiya.”

-“Suniti, couldn’t you find a friend from your own school?”

-“ I don’t have any friend in school. I hardly speak to anyone.”

-“Then how did you get acquainted with him?”

-“ He spoke to me first, and now we are such good friends. Don’t scold me for this, please.”

-“Look Suniti, please try to understand, it is not safe for you-“

-“Please vaiya, my life is boring without that friend. I can’t only study all the time! I need a friend to talk to! Please try to understand vaiya!”

-“Okay, as you wish, I can’t make you realize what I am talking about, may be one day you will know.”

              I came out from her room. I did not want to argue with her any further.

The next day, I took the same path for walking. And this time I took a small bag on my back and kept a bottle of carbolic acid in it, to spare myself from snakebites.

This time I walked for just five minutes, I heard the noise again. I stopped, then it stopped also. But I didn’t turn around, again I started to walk, it started again. Well, now my patience had crossed the last mark of my patience-meter and I turned around quickly without stopping and waiting and quickly brought out the bottle. But something moved away behind the trees. No, it was not an animal and obviously not a snake. It was a human being, he began to run away, I chased him, I didn’t want to lose him because he was following me from the previous day, I wanted to know the cause. He was too slow and it took me a little seconds to catch him. He looked like a mad, he was wearing dirty clothes, clothes were torn at different spots, his hair was grey and rough and tall enough, he was very weak. He looked at me making his eyes bigger and he had a clear fear in his eyes for getting caught by me.

-“Who are you?”

      He didn’t reply. I repeated the question sternly. He remained silent for some time, and then, laughed out loudly. It irritated me to handle such a mad guy, but I had to know why he was following me?

-“Tell me, who are you and why are you following me?”

    He kept his smiling for a while. Then he said just three words,

-“Don’t do this.”

    Then suddenly he gave a jerk and released himself somehow from my grasp and ran away. I had no energy and intention to chase such a mad guy down again. But his words left me astonished. I stood there for a while thinking about what he had said to me.”

Untitled

আমি সারা জীবন...

পায়ে হেঁটে বাস-ট্রেন-প্লেন-লঞ্চ-জাহাজে চেপে,

মাধ্যমিক-উচ্চমাধ্যমিক -জয়েন্ট-প্রাইভেট টিউশান ছাড়িয়ে,

চাকরি-প্রমোশান-ইনসেন্টিভ-ইন্সুরেন্স-এল.আই.সি. করিয়ে,

বিয়ে-মধুচন্দ্রিমা-রোমান্স-খুনসুটি-বাচ্চার ভবিষ্যত গড়িয়ে,

রবীন্দ্রনাথ-জীবননান্দ-গীতা-বেদ- উপনিষদ -বার্ধক্য-বৃদ্ধাশ্রম পেরিয়ে,

ঠিক দুই কিলোমিটার পথ পাড়ি দেব....

ঠিক দুই কিলোমিটার পথ..

শিশুমঙ্গল হাসপাতাল থেকে ক্যাওড়াতলা শ্মশানের দূরত্ব ঠিক যতটা.....

সেই ক্লাসরুম

মনে পড়ে সেই প্রথম দিনের কথা ?

অবাক চোখে তাকিয়ে ছিলাম তোর দিকে-

কি জানি একটা ঘোর লেগেছিল চোখে!

ছুঁয়ে দেখেছিলাম-

তোর বুকের পাঁজরগুলো।

পেয়েছিলাম আমার মতোই আরও অনেককে!

মু‍গ্ধ, বিস্মিত, কৌতুহলী কিংবা ভীতও!

তারপর থেকে অনেকটা পথ পার করেছি।

তুই এসেছিস নানা ভাবে, নানা সাজে;

কিন্তু সঙ্গ ছাড়িসনি।

কখনও বিরক্ত হয়েছি-

তোর আঁকড়ে ধরার চেষ্টায়।

কিন্তু যেন এগিয়ে আসছে সেই সময়-

তোকে ছেড়ে যাওয়ার,

Just miss করার।

আমার কান্না-হাসির মুহূর্ত,

টিফিন কাড়ার ঝগড়া;

বেঞ্চ যখন তবলা,

আর তুই গানের আখড়া।

আজ শাস্তি পাওয়ার দিনে,

ক্লাসরুম দাঁড়িয়ে কাঁদে একলা মনের কোণে।।

এক প্রেমিক আর এক ঝাড়ুদার

মাঝে মাঝে একা হওয়ার বিলাসিতা
--- আজ আর নেই !

নিঃসঙ্গতার বড়াই করতে করতে ক্লান্ত মন।
প্রিয় বকফুল শালোয়ার
জায়গা পেয়েছে গলির মােড়ে –
কালো প্লাস্টিকে ঢাকা মুখ।

ফোঁটা ফোঁটা লাল রং রাস্তায় ;
হিমশীতল ঘরে শীতলতম তোর হাত।
নীল চোখ এখনও ভয়ে মাখা মাখি।

আমি কি একা ? নাকি তোমরাও সবাই ?
আরও একটা আধখালি শব্দের ব্যাগ
শেষ চিৎকারে ছারখার।
কতদিন আগুন জ্বালাইনা ......
কতদিন বৃষ্টিতে ভিজিনা ......

Noviembre - A film by Achero Manas

Noviembre, a Spanish film by Achero Manas revolves around an idealistic street theatre troupe, which wrestles against its existence against several odds – social, political and financial in nature. The story has been presented in the form of a retrospective; a fictitious documentary where some elderly members of the group share the memories of their youth.

Together, these members tell the story of their friend Alfredo, whom they met at a drama school in Madrid. A young, bright and talented boy, his thoughts were wavering, creative, idealistic and liberal. He was disappointed with the pedantic ways of the drama school which hindered free flow of ideas. He believed drama to be a form of art that needed participation of both the performers and the spectators; and interaction between them. His concept of theatre extended beyond the stage and came face to face with the people – It came straight from the actors’ heart and connected with the people.

So, Alfredo came up with his own theatre group “Noviembre”. He and his friends performed outdoors, in the town square, in streets, parks, provoking people with their acts of demons, lunatics and so on. They swept their viewers away with laughter, tears, fear and surprise.

The story, on one hand, depicts the struggle of Noviembre with a shoestring budget; and legal problems, bans, police arrests kept them busy.  On the other hand, it shows their internal ideological conflicts and problems in their personal lives. Complications arise when money comes into play, widening the chasms in the group.

The film ends with a perfect climax where Alfredo, cornered in personal as well as professional life, sacrifices himself for Art, for Art always triumphs! He is shot dead by the police in his last show.

A dynamic story, combined with smart story-telling, Noviembre is a treat for the eyes. The film lets us relive the true essence of street dramas and aptly reveals the revolutionary potential of theatre, how it can arouse one’s conscience, and spark a change in the era when rapid commercialisation of Art had eaten away its true spirit.

The actors had been well cast, and Oscar Jaenada was flawless in the shoes of Alfredo. With the message, the film packed moments of laughter, drama, sorrow, romance and didn’t fail to leave a little for the imagination of the audience.

Cyber-crime: A brief review

The word ‘hacking’ fascinates us all, though the actual term that should be associated with illegality is  cracking’. Many of the Web sites we visit every day are under cyber attack by malicious hackers looking to disrupt business transactions, discourage people from using a particular online service or exact payback for some real or perceived slight. One of the most common ways to bring down a site is to flood its computer servers with so much traffic, they slow to a crawl or shut down because they simply can’t handle the volume. This is known as a denial-of-service (DOS) attack .

The weapon of choice in these cyber salvos is mainly the botnet, a virtual armada of computers consigned to deluge Internet servers with requests for data to the extent that those servers cannot function. Botnets are used to perpetrate distributed DOS (DDOS) attacks against a target, and often the owners of those computers don’t even know that their systems are up to no good. This is because cyber criminals first break into those computers using a virus, worm or some other malware, turning someone’s PC or server into a “zombie” that can be controlled remotely.

In one high-profile example, the hacker group Anonymous launched a DDOS against Paypal, MasterCard, Visa and others in December 2010—dubbed Operation Payback—after the payment services stopped processing donations to the WikiLeaks site. Operation Payback participants used a piece of software called the Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC) to recruit computers for their attacks. LOIC actually included a feature that allowed computer users to voluntarily join Anonymous botnets. U.S. authorities charged 14 people for their roles in the attacks.

One of the newer approaches to launching DDOS attacks is to recruit mobile devices via DDOS apps to participate in these attacks, according to a recent report from cyber security firm Prolexic Technologies. In such cases, mobile device owners actually agree to participate in the attack by downloading the app and giving control of their phone or tablet to the attacker. This may not have been a real threat a few years ago, but the proliferation of increasingly powerful mobile devices has made them a valuable contributor to any botnet, the report says.

Attackers often protect their own identities by creating forged Internet protocol (IP) sender addresses for the servers they commandeer to commit DDOS attacks. Any investigation into the source of the assault leads to a spoofed address rather than the actual perpetrator. An increasingly popular approach is for an attacker to send forged requests for information to a computer or group of computers, which in turn send their flood of
responses to that forged address. This is known as a distributed reflected DOS attack because the actual culprit is using an unwitting middleman to perform an attack. Taking this one step further, sometimes attackers deliberately create queries that elicit much larger responses, thus amplifying the attack without much additional effort.

Site owners can combat DOS attacks in a number of ways—adding more servers for redundancy and backup or setting up firewalls that attempt to filter traffic coming from questionable sources, for example. Unfortunately attackers continue to find ways around such defenses, creating an escalating virtual arms race involving Web sites, cyber criminals and law enforcement.