Aladdin's Genie and Me !!

Nope, this blog ain’t about the dream I had last night, nor about the Genie that granted me some wishes. Yes in contrary to my very first blog, where I mentioned that I wouldn’t be using this blog as my personal dairy, but I had to since I was running out of articles.

December 13-15, Venue: Kalkaji, New Delhi

It all began when I received a mail from my boss, who nominated me for a 3-day training, I was amazed to hear by boss say, you would be trained on Aladdin, and my colleagues were ridiculing me that I would be taught how to rub the lamp for 3 whole days.

A quick Google search took me to Aladdin’s Homepage, a few clicks here and there and I soon realized Aladdin was yet another security based company based in Israel, just like Radware, RSA Security & Checkpoint, I always wondered what security has got to do with a country like Israel, the Genie from Aladdin had an answer to my question, which I will touch upon in the later part of this blog.

Well for people who have not heard about Radware, RSA Security , Checkpoint, and Aladdin, let me tell you that these are Top Network Security Companies that manufacture and deploy products like Firewalls, Intrusion Prevention Systems, Load Balancers, One Time password and PKI Solutions. Well if the last 2 lines didn’t make sense, let me tell you that all those devices are part of the Networking Industry which secures your organizations environment and prevent unauthorized intruders (Hackers) from intruding your privacy and the organization’s critical information.

Well the training was about Aladdin’s E-token system, a smartcard/USB token which acts as a substitute for all your Email passwords, Digital Certificates. Although the concept of the carrying gadgets along is fast picking up in a country like India, however the user acceptance of such systems still might a major issue, the solution may not be feasible in most cases except for in environments where access to high end systems like Mainframes needs to be secured.

The e-Token system is supposed to be a centralized storage for all your personal passwords, corporate email, Banking passwords, Single Sign-on passwords, Digital Certificates, well what does that mean to the end user, hmm you are no longer required to have complex passwords containing upper case, lower case, numerical values, special characters, for different applications, considering an IT professional user has to remember about a dozen different passwords for his emails , yahoo chat, orkut, banking, desktop passwords, corporate emails, domain logins ……. All these stored on your USB token and protected by a single PIN/passphrase, well a 2-factor solution always scores more cookie points on any given day, however on the flip side, the day you forget your token, you will end doing nothing but sipping coffee the whole day. Yes very similar to the way you sometimes go bankrupt and your ATM card is lying in your desk back home, well the concept of borrowing passwords doesn’t exist in the security world.

With organizations being forced to comply themselves to the standards like ISO:15000, BS7799, HIPPA, BASEL II & Sarbanes Oxley which make it mandatory for the employees to follow certain norms that minimize the risk of critical information being stolen, the day is not far away when you would be forced to carry an e-token to work.

The concept of One-Time-password solutions has already being implemented in many companies, I believe most of you must have seen your IT friends carrying the flashy tokens as a keychain, with 6 digit no’s flashing on the small LCD display, reminding of you of the Timer on a bomb that’s could blow off anytime, just like it does in most Hollywood movies, I have seen a couple of my friends trying to act techno-savvy, and impress their colleagues, trust me having used the token in the previous organization I worked for, one is better off without it.

Well if you wonder how the whole concept of One-Time-password solutions work, let me explain, 2 factor authentication means, you need to prove your authenticity to the server twice, yes you have a password and a RSA token, which displays a random password once every 60 seconds, if you need to log on to your email or any server, you need to enter the password followed by the password on the Token that you posses, the server that you authenticate to is synchronized with the Token allotted to you, so at any given point that random number on your token would be equal to the random number on the server for your user account, and your colleague’s token would have a different random number that is synchronized with his account on the server, so even if you share your password with your colleague he can use it once, as the password for each account would be changing once every 60 seconds, both on the server as well as on your token.

Ministry of Company Affairs, Government of India (GoI) has initiated MCA21 program, for easy and secure access to its services in a manner that best suits the businesses and citizens. MCA21 is envisioned to provide anytime and anywhere services to businesses. It is a pioneering program being the first mission mode e-governance project being undertaken in the country. This program builds on the GoI vision to introduce a Service Oriented Approach in the design and delivery of Government services, establish a healthy business ecosystem and make the country globally competitive. According to this program, it makes the use of digital signatures mandatory for both individuals and organizations dealing with the GoI

Well according to the Aladdin’s Genie, the European Union is trying to coming up with a similar act, and it comes up a pleasant surprise to most Indians as the Indian Information Technology Act is often criticized for having too many loopholes and for working on a reactive rather than an proactive basis, has managed to promote this concept ahead of the European council.

Digital Signature?? Similar to how one signs a document or a form, a digital signature is a process of signing an online document digitally, the analogy ends here. To sign a document digital you need a digital certificate, A digital certificate is issued by a Certificate Authority who owes the responsibility for issuing unique digital certificates to each individual so that he can be trusted after initiating any online transaction.

Digital Certificates are issued by Certification Authorities like Verisign, Thwate, Entrust, GeoTrust, and a few others. yupeeeeeeeee, India has now got its Certificate Authority called SafeScrypt provided by SifyComm in association with Verisign.

So by signing a document digitally, you attach your digital certificate to the document, and the receiver checks with the Certfication Authority if the certificate attached is a genuine one. However the certificate cannot be used by anybody else. (the whole concept of computing the hash of the document and signing it with your private key, and the receiver using your public key to compute the hash again and comparing them, and also verifying the authenticity of the certificate from the CA is beyond the scope of this Blog)

Well coming back the mystery behind security companies having their base in Israel, According to the Genie, Ori Ammar my trainer, the whole concept of having a strong cryptographic security base comes in from the Israel Military troops who came with proprietary security solutions for their data Networks across the country during the late 1980’s. Modern day Security companies have all been established by people who have retired from the Army. Unlike in other countries where even high secure Govt. & Military networks are built, operated and maintained by 3^rd party service providers external to the organizations. Phew was It the actual reason? Well according the fairytale the genie had no reason to lie.

The Genie and Me
(Ori Ammar - Alladin E-token Presales Consultant)

Having wrapped up the training session and having grabbed whatever I could from the genie, I picked up my gift –an Aladdin bag, and was on my way back home for the weekend.

Life back in the office is so monotonous, doing the same repetitive and boring work, seeing the same people, sitting on the same chair……… staring at the same female, sipping coffee from the same machine……………

Life is so boring, I keep hoping I would be nominated for some other training in the near future………………..

Hardwork after office hours?

It's half past 8 in the office, but the lights are still on... PCs still running, coffee machines still buzzing...and who's at work? Most of them???


Take a closer look... All or most specimens are 20-something male species of the human race...

Look closer... again all or most of them are bachelors... and why are they sitting late? Working hard? No way!!!Any guesses???

Let's ask one of them... Here's what he says... "What's there 2 do after going home... here we get to surf, AC, phone, food, coffee . thats is why I am working late... importantly no bossssssss!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the scene in most research centres and software companies and other off-shore offices. Bachelors "time-passing" during late hours in the office, just bcoz they say they've nothing else to do...

Now what r the consequences... read on.

"Working"(for the record only) late hours soon becomes part of the institute or company culture. With bosses more than eager to provide support to those "working" late in the form of taxi vouchers, food vouchers and of course good feedback,(oh, he's a hard worker... goes home only to change..!!).

They aren't helping things too...To hell with bosses who don't understand the difference between "sitting" late and "working" late!!! Very soon, the boss start expecting all employees to put in extra working hours.

So, My dear Bachelors let me tell you, life changes when u get married and start having a family...office is no longer a priority, family is... and that's when the problem starts.................... because u start having commitments at home too.

For your boss, the earlier "hardworking" guy suddenly seems to become a "early leaver" even if u leave an hour after regulartime... after doing the same amount of work. People leaving on time after doing their tasks for the day are labeled as work-shirkers...

Girls who thankfully always (its changing nowadays... though) leave on time are labeled as "not up to it". All the while, the bachelors pat their own backs and carry on "working" not
realizing that they are spoiling the work culture at their own place and never realize that they would have to regret at one point of time .

So what's the moral of the story??

o Very clear, LEAVE ON TIME!!!

o Never put in extra time " *unless really needed*"

o Don't stay back un-necessarily and spoil your company work culture which will in turn cause inconvenience to you and your colleagues.

There are hundred other things to do in the evening…Learn music... Learn a foreign language... try a sport...TT, cricket.........importantly Get a girl friend take him/her around town... Join salsa ….. As my friend RKJ did

And for heaven's sake net cafe rates have dropped to an all-time low (plus, no fire-walls) and try cooking for a change.

Take a tip from the Smirnoff ad: "Life's calling, where are you?"

PS: This views in this article are that of Infosys Mentor Dr Narayana Murthy, and have nothing to do with the Author's personals views

In Search of an Ideal Job !!!!

Hoping that a Masters Degree in Information Technology (Trust me I wasn’t sure if I really deserved one) from a reputed so called T-school would kick off my career which it ‘almost’ did.

However I must admit that inspite of being a Post-Graduate I was as confused as ever, infact even more confused than I was after Graduation.

I was lost among a whole bunch of professionals who call themselves IT Consultants, Information Security Consultants, and Project Managers. With due respect to them, and to be honest to myself I felt I didn’t deserved to be one among them.

May be I was right, I ended up being a Engineer in a Network Operations Center in an MNC BPO, working for the Americans who are not quite as bigoted towards Asians particularly Indians as we normally imagine or they are projected by the Oscar nominated movies.

Oh yes, this blog was supposed to define an ideal job which never exists in reality, and about an Individual who leaves behind a job in MNC BPO which is a 10 minute drive from his home, and ends up in a city 1000 miles away to join a small company which most people would not have heard off, or would never hear in the near future, all this neither for monetary benefits, nor for career growth, but in search of an ideal job. Yes how foolish can one be ?

Yes an ideal job is a paradox, but since I have started to define, let me make an attempt without focusing on the end result.

1) QoW: Quality of Work, Learning, value addition are terms that seem that you often hear from college pass outs, very few carry the zeal forward into their later stages of the career. Yes, Monday Mornings are tough, they get tougher when you end up doing repetitive, non challenging, meaningless work, or sometimes no work at all, I sometime wonder how my mom and dad never got tired of doing the same work for over 3 decades, without cribbing !!!

2) Family Support : I often think about people from cities like Chandigarh, Patna, Bhilai, Luckhnow work in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Banaglore, Hyderabad, I bet they wouldn’t want to go to Chennai. But for most of them going back home would be a distant dream, yes after-all who doesn’t want to go home at 6:00 in the evening and have the home made delicacies. I have seen people sacrifice almost everything just for a job in their hometown, yes but if I was back in my hometown, I wouldn’t have been writing this blog.

3) Social Life: Ever Since the concept of MNC BPOs came into existence, I catch up my friends only through Instant Messengers & Social Networking portals for the fear of calling them during the wrong time of the day/night. Yes a 9-5 job 5 days a week remains a distant dream.

4) Repect: Yes Respect for who you are in the organization, and respect for the work you do. A Software company respects its Software Engineers, and a BPO respects its Call Taking Agents, a Networking company respects Networking Engineers, don’t make the mistake of joining Software Company as a Network Engineer or Vice-Versa, you would never be considered as a revenue generator.

You don’t expect appreciation from the CEO of the company for every project I complete, but a little appreciation from your immediate manager would cheer you up, and makes you responsible, which most of you would agree.

5) Monetary benefits: Yes Money is not everything, but it is definitely something that the world goes crazy about. Yes it may not be able to give you the respect you deserve, or bring your family closer, or give you work satisfaction, but most of you would accept it as a substitute for the rest.

Yes, Just 5 factors would be an ideal definition for an ideal job, a 5/5 doesn’t exist, you should call yourself lucky if you have a 4/5 job, and shouldn’t be cribbing if you have a 3/5 job, and crib and let life pass by if you have 2/5 job, and probably use timesjobs.com, monster.com if you have a 1/5 job.

Yes, I am the Idiot (according to many) who probably had a 0/5 job and has come in search of this ideal job.

But to be honest, I never could have even imagined that my first job would last for 10 months, considering my mom and dad haven’t switched companies for the past 25 years.

Yes the last 10 months have been the toughest, Swapping shifts twice or thrice a week, working on the weekends, working on Indian Holidays, working on American holidays, getting tinkered by your manager, working on excel sheets filling up useless data, and earning half of what my best friend in college is now earning HURTS !!!!

So having come a long way, the biggest lesson life has taught me is very simple one

My Ideal job is how ‘I deal’ with it !!!!

Freedom of expression?

What exactly does a blog mean??? "Freedom of expression"

I feel its just one way to let out your frustration on an issue, an individual, a social element. Blogs are nothing but last resorts taken by an individual in absolutely hapless situations where you don’t have people who can listen to you and your grievances. Your only hope being some crazy individual who has all the time in this world to reach your blog page among those millions of WWW pages on this wonderful medium called internet, more often than not this individual comes across your page only after dust has settled on the issue that has driven you crazy.

Hmm, Yes I am talking about blogs, Blogs that are based on serious issues, social issues, issues on humanity, politics, corruption, patriotism, blah blah blah blah ………………………..

More often than not, we do come across blogs based on real life incidents, I occasionally feel I could have survived the rest of my life without reading most of them (just like you could have lived the rest of your life without reading this one) until you really know the blogger personally, so that you can laugh over the article, and ridicule him/her when u catch up later.

Yes It ain’t mandatory for me to know, what you did last summer or for that matter last weekend, or about the winters in Delhi or the summers in Chennai, or about your train journey to your hometown, unless you are an intelligent & good looking female (who actually do exist in contrary to the opinion most men have) and more importantly I should have fallen in Love with you.

Ok back to blogging………..

While I was writing this blog, I was just thinking of a situation where you come up with a very good piece of epilogue, a story or an article which deserves to be told, however most often than not the possibility of your blog reaching out to people is left to the search-engine’s web-bots who actually crawl up the billion pages on the web and make sure that your blog’s page rank is lower enough to throw them out of reach of the amateur internet surfer, a safer bet would be to rely on your social networking portal like Orkut to SPAM people in your friends circle force/beg/threaten them to read the piece of crap. It just doesn’t end there, you want them to post a comment, an honest one, which again is not too honest enough to hurt you. (This is what I am exactly going to do once I finish this)

I got deviated almost a couple of times (just in case if you are still reading this) from the topic, which was meant to be all about blogging………

Well they say all good things come to an end, this one is definitely NOT even close to “Good” so I don’t want to END this topic, so I am finishing it abruptly. Right Here Right Now !!

PS: Now My future as a blogger lies in the hands of my friends

- An Amateur Blogger (who gets paid for doing something and ends up doing nothing)