Faulty EVMs in Gujarat Being Replaced Immediately, Says Poll Commission

Ahmedabad: More than 70 Electronic Voting Machines failed to function in Gujarat, where assembly elections are being held for the first phase today. The machines were spread across 16 seats of Surat's urban and rural seats. The Election Commission said the faulty machines are being replaced immediately.

COMPLETE COVERAGE OF GUJARAT ELECTIONS

Tinkering of EVMs have been a huge grouch of the opposition after the BJP's sweeping victory in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand in the last round of assembly polls earlier this year. In the run-up to the elections in Gujarat, the Congress had made no bones about its concerns.

The party, which earlier suggested placing cellphone jammers outside rooms where EVMs would be kept, have deployed a team of three lawyers and experts for every constituency. Normally it deploys one such team in Ahmedabad.

"There are 24,000 polling booths in Gujarat. The problem has occurred in 7 or 8 booths," Chief Election Commissioner Achal Kumar Jyoti told NDTV. "We have a number of EVMs in reserve. Concerned officials keeping continuous check," he said.

Altogether, 4,397 Electronic Voting Machines have been deployed across 19 districts, where 89 seats are up for grab. The Election Commission said the machines were tamper-proof and adequate security measures have been taken to guard them.

Earlier this year, Mayawati, whose party had got steamrolled in Uttar Pradesh, had alleged that the BJP victory had been made possible through mass-scale rigging. Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party, which had lost in Punjab, had echoed the allegations.

Denying the accusations, the Election Commission had issued a challenge asking anyone to hack the machines in what it called a "hackathon", but there were no takers for it.

The allegations of tampering surfaced again after the local body elections in Meerut and Kanpur last month, which too, were won by the BJP.  The Election Commission said those were instances of malfunction, not tampering, and the machines had been replaced.

Gujarat Assembly elections 2017

Gujarat Assembly elections 2017 dates have been announced and voting will be held in two phases. While  89 seats in 19 districts will vote on December 9, the remaining 93 seats in 14 districts will vote on December 14. The counting of votes for all the 182 Assembly seats will take place on December 18. The term of the 13th Assembly ends on January 22, 2018 and the 14th Assembly has to be constituted by then. The 13th Gujarat Assembly has 120 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs, 43 are from  the Congress, four belong to other parties/independents while the remaining 15 seats are vacant.

The total number of voters in the state is 4.33 crore out of which 2.11 crore are in phase one for which voting will take place on December 9 while 2.21 crore can exercise their franchise in the second phase on December 14. There will be 50,128 polling stations in the state and central forces will be used to provide security and environment for free and fair conduct of the elections. The announcement for the Gujarat Assembly elections 2017 were made by Chief Election Commissioner AK Joti on October 25.

Joti added that Rs 28 lakh is the limit for electoral expense per candidate and all those contesting will have to open a separate bank account for poll expenses. Every candidate will have to fill all the columns in the affidavit while filing his/her nomination. According to Joti the Election Commission will issue a notice to candidates who leave any column blank. He added that the candidature of an aspirant may be cancelled if the notice is ignored and the Election Commission does not receive any reply within the stipulated period. Public can use Suvidha app to lodge complaints related to elections With the announcement of the electoral process, the model code of conduct has come into force in the state and on the central  government.

Gujarat has 20% voters belonging to the upper caste, Patels or Patidars constitute 16%, other backward castes are 32%, tribals 22% while Muslims are 10%. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP secured a massive 61.1% of the votes in Gujarat while the Congress could claim only 33.5%. Smaller parties and independents bagged the remaining 5.4%. However, the BJP's vote share in the 2012 Assembly elections was 47.9 per cent. The Congress had managed to secure 38.9% of the votes. The figures were almost similar in the 2007 Assembly elections when the BJP got 49.12% of the votes and the Congress had 39.63%.

Gujarat Assembly elections are usually a two-party contest. The BJP and Congress are the main rivals with the former in power in the state since 1995. Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is also trying its luck in the state for the first time. While BJP has been the dominant party in the state for over two decades, the state has witnessed a lot of upheaval in the last couple of years. The agitation by Patidars led by a young Hardik Patel and Dalits following the thrashing of four men from their community on allegation of cow slaughter has seen a lot of churning in state politics with the BJP forced to even change its chief minister.

Anandiben Patel was given the charge after Narendra Modi, who was the chief minister of Gujarat since October 2001, took over as the Prime Minister of India in May 2016. Following allegations of poor governance and violence during the Patidar agitation, Anandiben was removed and Vijay Rupani took over as the Chief Minister in August 2016. Narendra Modi has been the longest serving chief minister of Gujarat. He occupied the chair for 4,610 days and under his leadership the BJP won three consecutive Assembly elections - 2002, 2007 and 2012. The first Gujarat Assembly elections were held in 1962.

BJP and Congress have been involved in an ugly war-of-words in the run-up to the elections. Both parties have accused each other of playing dirty politics. Both the outfits have been lobbying hard with Patidar leaders and trying to join their parties. Patidars are extremely influential, and dominate the politics and economy of the state. In July 2015, community under the leadership of Hardik Patel started demanding Other Backward Class (OBC) status. The community held massive protests, many of them violent, under the banner of Gujarat Sardar Patel Sevadal and Hardik Patel-led Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS).

With the violence spiraling out of control and showing no signs of abating, the then chief minister Anandiben Patel announced a scheme to lure the Patidars. Under the scheme the state government offered scholarships and subsidies along with 10% reservation for economically backward classes. But the Gujarat High Court quashed the 10% reservation in August 2016.

Send Scam Emails To This Chatbot And It’ll Waste Their Time For You

Whenever we open our email box, we find lots of scam emails. Recently, cybersecurity firm Netsafe launched an email chatbot which goes by the name Re:scam. The Re:scam chatbot basically replies the scammer for you.


Send Scam Emails To This Chatbot And It’ll Waste Their Time For You

Whenever we hear the word “Chatbots” we usually think about wasting our time. Chatbots are basically a waste of time. However, have you ever wondered about wasting someone else’s time with the help of chatbots?

Whenever we open our email box, we find lots of scam emails, some of the emails are targeted to dupe money and others are targeted towards a phishing page and much more. However, what if you can waste the time of email scammers?

Recently, cybersecurity firm Netsafe launched an email chatbot which goes by the name Re:scam. The Re:scam chatbot basically replies the scammer for you and it does some good job to waste the time of scammers. Users just need to forward their scam emails to me@rescam.org and the proxy email address will waste the time of the scammers for you.

The cybersecurity firm Netsafe also made an awesome video promo of their Re-scam bot. The technology behind this chatbot is simple and it relies on a pre-programmed conversation.

YOU CAN WATCHED THE VIDEO HERE:

According to Netsafe “Re:scam will continue the conversation indefinitely – or until the scammer stops replying.” For more information visit Re:scamwebsite.

So, what do you think about this? Share your views in the comment box below.

OMG! Samsung Galaxy J7 Explodes Mid-Air In Jet Airways Flight

Recently, in a flight of the airline of India between Delhi and Indore something happened that untied the fear between the passengers. The Boeing 737-800 made its local flight of routine when a passenger heard a noise similar to the one of her cell phone and realized that smoke came out from the bag that was placed near her feet.

OMG! Samsung Galaxy J7 Explodes Mid-Air In Jet Airways Flight

In a flight of the airline of India between Delhi and Indore something happened that untied the fear between the passengers.

The Boeing 737-800 made its local flight of routine when a passenger heard a noise similar to the one of her cell phone and realized that smoke came out from the bag that was placed near her feet.

The cell phone belonged to the Delhi resident, Arpita Dhal, and was stored in her purse under the seat. After 15 minutes of flying, she noticed smoke coming out of the bag and called the crew for help, according to Hindustantimes.

“It was panic in the air. We pray to God,” said Atul, Arpita’s husband who was with her and added that the fire extinguishers on board did not work. The passenger said the cell phone was a Samsung Galaxy J7 and it caught fire when it was inside her purse, this Friday.

At that moment the crew members were serving sandwiches to the passengers as the cabin began to fill with smoke, and the passengers began to panic. Apparently, the fire of the cell was suppressed pouring water.

“I will complain about Jet Airways after I return home. This is a safety issue for passengers on flights. If there is a large fire or explosion, what will they do when their fire extinguishers do not work?”.

A Jet Airways spokesman confirmed the incident, but said it was resolved “according to the procedures”. Dhal’s husband, Atul, said the crew had to put the phone on a water tray to put out the fire. After this unexpected incident, the plane continued its journey for landing in Indore.

We know that cell phones that catch fire are a real nightmare for everyone, which is why the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is already banned in air travel, but now another model has created the same fear.

So, what do you think about this? Simply share your views and thoughts in the comment section below.

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HBO Hacked Again! Twitter & Facebook Account Of HBO & GOT Hacked

Things are not going right for HBO. The notorious group OurMine has taken down the social media accounts of HBO. On Wednesday night, the hacking group OurMine sent messages over HBO’s official Twitter and Facebook accounts.

HBO Hacked Again! Twitter & Facebook Account Of HBO & GOT Hacked

There were lot’s of hacking stuff going on. We have recently seen hackers have managed to hack into the HBO networks and leaked the unreleased episodes of TV shows. Hackers have also leaked the personal data of the cast of the popular Game of Thrones series.

Things are not going right for HBO. Two days ago, we have seen upcoming Game of Thrones season 7 episode 6 was leaked online and it comes from the source itself. HBO Spain has accidentally aired the upcoming episode of Game of Thrones.

Now, the notorious group OurMine has taken down the social media accounts of HBO. For those who don’t know about OurMine Group, this is a group of hackers who keep “testing” the security of tech companies.

The group previously managed to hack twitter accounts of Jimmy Wales, Mark Zuckerberg, and even Sundar Pichai. On Wednesday night, the hacking group OurMine sent messages over HBO’s official twitter and Facebook accounts which read:

“Hi, OurMine are here, we are just testing your security ,HBO team please contact us to upgrade the security – ourmine .org -> Contact”

According to the reports of Variety, the hacking group was also able to take control of Twitter account of Game Of Thrones. But, HBO immediately removed the traces and take back the control.

Well, the hacking attempts conducted by OurMine hacking group is just to show their capabilities and they refrain themselves from leaking any protected information. Definitely, things are not going right for HBO these days. So, what do you think about this? Share your views in the comment box below.

Top 15 Uses Of OTG Cable That You Should Know

As we all know, USB OTG or USB On-The-Go is one of the important inventions and it can be used in many ways. We have mentioned Top 10+ Uses of OTG cable that you probably don’t know.

#1 You Can Charge Android with another

This is the technique which Android users will love to utilize as this allows you to charge two smartphones and the phone which acts as the USB host will automatically charge the other device. This will be a very helpful technique if you need to charge your phone in an emergency.

#2 Connect a Portable Hard Drive

You can connect the portable hard drive or external storage with the help of an OTG cable. You just need to connect the OTG cable to your smartphone an external storage. You can access the external storage device easily. You can even transfer files from phone to external storage with the help of OTG cable.

#3 Connect a Game Controller

If you think it’s too boring to play first person shooting Games in an Android device then you can try connecting a Game controller with your Android device through OTG cable. Nowadays many Android games support external gamepad, and you can easily connect an external game controller to your device using OTG cable.

#4 Connect USB Light

Have you ever imagined that if your phone could light up a LED lamp? Of course, you will say no! However, you can connect a USB based LED Light to your Android phone using OTG cable. You can even connect LED flashlight for capturing images at night if your phone doesn’t have a front flash feature.

#5 Connecting LAN cable

You just need to buy a LAN to USB controller and connect it to your Android device! Just like shown in the image above. You can enjoy the broadband internet in your Mobile directly.

#6 Share Contacts, Messages between two phones

With the help of Samsung’s SmartSwitch app, you can transfer messages, call logs, contacts and much more between Android devices with the help of OTG cable. This will be very useful and also consumes less battery.

#7 Connect Keyboard and Mouse

If you don’t like to navigate your Android device! If you use messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook a lot then you will love to exchange messages with Keyboard and Mouse. You can connect your USB mouse and Keyboard with your Android device using OTG cable.

#8 Connect a camera

If you love photography then you will love to connect your Android device with Camera. Now you don’t need to connect your Camera with Computer if you need to clear up few pictures just connect your Android device with Camera using OTG cable.

#9 Print Saved Documents in Android Phone

You can use the app PrintShare which will automatically download drivers for USB printers on your Android smartphone. Just connect your Printer with Android device with the help of OTG cable to print a document directly.

#10 Connect a USB Fan

USB Fans almost works with the electric charge. However, you might have seen Laptop cooling pads are usually connected with the help of USB. You can connect USB fan with your Android Device using OTG Cable.

#11 Create Music On Android

Well, almost every modern musical instruments like keyboards, guitars can directly connect with PCs via the MIDI standard. Well, with USB OTG, you can connect all the instruments with your Android devices.

#12 Connect Ethernet

Do you know, you can also use the wired Internet generally known as Ethernet on your Android devices directly with the help of OTG cable? Well, there might be times when you don’t have access to WiFi or cellular data, that time connecting Ethernet using OTG will turn very useful.

#13 Recording Audio with external Microphone

Well, Youtubers will find this very helpful. You can use an external microphone to record your voice in Android. Users can connect the external microphone on to the Android using OTG cable and can record it.

#14 Card Reader

If you are holding an Android smartphone that doesn’t support microSD card, don’t worry with the help of OTG cable you can use your card reader to connect with your phone. You just need to have an OTG Plus Card reader, which lets users connect MicroSD card with any Android.

#15 Chromecast or HDMI

With the help of OTG cable, you can mirror your Android screen to your home TV. Users just need to have an HDMI cable or Chromecast and OTG cable to connect their phone to TV or LED in the USB port. You can watch movies, play audios using this trick.

So, these are few lesser known uses of USB OTG cable! If we had missed any feature then let us know in the comment section below. I hope you like the post! Share it with your friends too.

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Google Paid High School Student $10,000 For Reporting Security Flaw

Recently, a high-school student from Uruguay has been rewarded with $10,000 because he managed to discover a vulnerability in Google. Google’s security team had confirmed that the bug he reported was indeed effective.

If you think hackers always make money by engaging in criminal activity, then you were wrong! Giant companies like Google, Facebook now have bug bounty programs in which security researchers were rewarded for disclosing existing flaws in the system.

The previous year, Google has released a result which shows that hackers were rewarded $3 million throughout 2016. Recently, a high-school student from Uruguay has been rewarded with $10,000 because he managed to discover a vulnerability in Google.

The student goes by the name Ezequiel Pereira, says that he found the vulnerability after a bout of boredom last month when he was playing with Google services using a web security testing tool known as Burp Suite.

Well, he was playing with Burp Suite to find the vulnerability, after many failed attempt, he managed to found that the internal web page of yaqs.googleplex.com didn’t have the username or password check in place. Let me tell you, Googleplex.com hosts several Google App Engine applications.

Ezequiel Pereira wrote “The website’s homepage redirected me to “/eng”, and that page was pretty interesting, it had many links to different sections about Google services and infrastructure, but before I visited any section, I read something in the footer: “Google Confidential”

“At that point I stopped poking at the website and reported the issue right away, without even thinking of a better way to show the vulnerability than with Burp”

He also shared screenshots of the email exchanges with Google’s security team the same day. Google’s security team had confirmed that the bug he reported was indeed effective. Pereira says he was surprised when he received $10,000 from Google team for his work after a month.

Well, Google has resolved the vulnerability, Pereira wrote “The bug has been fixed now, and, according to Google, the large reward was because they found a few variants that would have allowed an attacker access sensitive data”

Giant companies like Google, Microsoft, and Apple are offering huge rewards for encouraging people to report any security flaws in the services. So, what do you think about this? Share your views in the comment box below.

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