More on online security: Penpal

Got an email today from an email ID purporting to be from Paypal. It urgently sought my attention and informed me that my Paypal account has been hacked into and I should immediately (of course, in my best interests) log into the website and update my accounts. With the nice, sweet warning that if I didn't do that, my account would be suspended.

The email was so well written, that for a minute I really started believing that I actually have a Paypal account. The good folks had generously also provided the link to click on,in the e-mail itself. This was how the link looked like: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run. I am *very* suspicious when it comes to online security so I knew this was a lemon. Try the link, see where it goes! The link look perfectly valid. In fact, Paypal users use this link as a shortcut to log in. In reality the link actually goes to another URL: http://217.5.157.244/update/paypal/login.htm, which is a fraudulent website. The amazing thing is that the website looks exactly similar to the real Paypal website. Hope nobody's been fooled by this one. See the images below:

False Paypal:



Real Paypal:

Jet Airways does not care about user security!

In this day and age, when credit card information thefts are rampant, here is Jet Airways doing their bit to ensure that your information is more easily misused.

Just found this big problem on the Jet Airways site while applying for an award ticket. Towards the end of the process, the website throws up a site where the user can enter his credit card details, name, number, expiry, card type, et al on an UNENCRYPTED page.

Now how stupid is this?? I am careful enough to check such things, but I wonder whether others have entered their card info on this page. Notice the http:// page rather than an https:// page.

Can I sue Jet Airways over this and make a million bucks? Nah, perhaps not. But I hope Jet fires the guy who set up this page. What an ass.

Orbit white teeth

My teeth were stained with gook from many many years of eating, drinking, smoking. After much pestering by my gf, I finally got myself an appointment at the R.V. Dental College and Hospital, in J.P Nagar for dental scaling. In foreign countries, a visit to the dentist is like a visit to the cleaners. Ha ha. Thankfully India has not caught up with the west in such nonsensical practices of daylight robbery. A scaling procedure might cost upwards of Rs 750 in any upmarket dental clinic in India. Amazingly, its a pittance at the hospital I visited. Rs 50. Thats a dollar. Ha! say I. Match that, Mr smarty pants american dentist.

Is R.V. Dental College and Hospital a dump? Far from it. It's an old, well respected dental hospital in Bangalore. Its clean, well maintained, with fancy equipment, good doctors, very professionally run, punctual. The dentist who operated on me was a professional and performed her work fast and well, with almost no bleeding. This was my first visit to the dentist in my life, and I was well taken care of. Unfortunately, its not very well known, which is a real pity.

I have got my potty cleaned, as my gf puts it ;) and now I have Orbit white teeth.