BLOG FROM RAKESH KUMAR JHA

Bitcoins worth £18,500 ($24,000) that were sent to hacker group the Shadow Brokers have been moved. The funds were received during an auction of hacking tools that failed to attract much interest before the group eventually  released the tools for free . One leak included an exploit that  helped the WannaCry ransomware  to spread around the world. This tool and others are believed to have been stolen from the US National Security Agency (NSA). The agency has not confirmed or denied this. The bitcoins have been moved to multiple addresses, leading some commentators to think that the Shadow Brokers plan to obfuscate the transactions, before perhaps exchanging the bitcoins for traditional currency. "Ever since the Shadow Brokers announced themselves, I've had an alarm on their bitcoin wallet just monitoring any changes," cyber-security expert Mikko Hypponen at F-Secure told the BBC. "I was surprised when I got an alert that they had emptied the wallet....

NEVERS: A solar tree with giant square leaves that convert sunlight into electricity was unveiled in the central French town of Nevers today, allowing passers-by to charge their phones, surf the internet... or just enjoy the shade. The town of 37,000 on the Loire  river is the first in Europe to experiment with the technology developed by Israeli company Sol-logic. Inspired by the acacia tree found in the Israeli desert and African savanna, the futuristic-looking "eTree" also supplies water and street lighting. The first prototype was unveiled in Israel  in 2014. A year later the first operational model was presented at the COP 21 climate conference in Paris.  Since then solar trees have been planted in around 10 cities in Israel and the US.

It’s easier than you’d think From the beginning, Snapchat has never been a particularly intuitive app to use. And now, five years in, with the addition of more and more new features and several redesigns, using the ephemeral messaging app can still be confusing if you don’t already know where everything is and what it does. Fortunately, I’ve spent hours puzzling through the labyrinthine digital corridors that make up Snapchat, and I can teach you the tricks. WHY USE SNAPCHAT? Like it or not, Snapchat is one of the most popular messaging platforms out there today, one that’s grown dramatically from its original reputation of “that app that people use for sexting” into a huge social network in its own right. Plus, the filters are really fun! So, there’s that. NAVIGATION Snapchat gets a bad rap when it comes to its confusing navigation, but if you look at things at a zoomed-out level, it’s actually pretty simple. There are five main screens to using the Snapchat app: ...

NAGPUR: Soon electric  vehicles used for commercial purposes such as taxis, auto-rickshaws and buses won't require permits. The road transport ministry is working on this proposal in its bid to push electric vehicles across segments to check air pollution and high dependence on imported crude oil. The ministry has already set a similar model by allowing e-rickshaws to ply without getting permit, though they have to be registered and must meet minimum safety requirement. Sources said while doing away with permits for such vehicles will reduce corruption, the government won't compromise on security features such as installation of GPS, panic button, CCTV cameras, mandatory insurance and maximum fare they can charge from passengers. In a bid to push electric vehicles for ferrying passenger, Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari and Maharashtra  chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday launched the country's first multi-modal electric vehicle project in Nagpur. A fleet ...

The chances of beating the odds, reckons  Bipin Preet Singh , increase manifold for an "underdog". The cofounder of India's second largest mobile wallet,  MobiKwik , knows the kind of odds stacked against him: the Alibaba-backed largest wallet player Paytm, which recently raised $1.4 billion funding from SoftBank and claims to have over 220 million users, has been aggressively using cashbacks to lure users; the third largest wallet player  FreeCharge  has been on the block —  Paytm  is reportedly close to buying it out — putting a question mark on the viability of the wallet business; traditional banks such as HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank have been mounting pressure with their own wallet play; and government's  BHIM  (Bharat Interface for Money), a  mobile payment app based on Unified Payment Interface, has not been making things easy for wallets where margins are wafer thin or almost non-existent. Time, therefore, seems ripe to look beyond ...

These days, RAM a.k.a Random Access Memory is the most important factor that one sees before buying a smartphone or a laptop or a computer. The common perception today is that higher the RAM, speedier the system will be. However, most of this are true, but RAM alone can't determine the speed of the system. Today, in this article we come up with some of the important things you should know about the RAM. What is RAM?  Basically, RAM is the volatile memory, meaning, it will erase all the data once you clear it or restart the device. This specific part of the system is used to store the data of the system temporarily and data being actively used by applications. Types of RAM  The RAM comes in two form factors -- DIMM (Dual In-Line Memory Module), which is found in desktops and servers, and SO-DIMM (Small Outline DIMM), you can see this in laptops and small computers. Even though, it has different sizes, the technology behind this is same. Saying that you cannot ...

Planning to build a PC on your own? Then get ready to drown yourself into what so-called BIOS. While this looks intimidating, but it isn't too hard to understand either. The expansion of BIOS is " Basic Input Output System", which is found inside each and every PC around the world, This universal program stored on a small memory chip on the motherboard basically controls the computer operations including operating system, hard drives, video cards, keyboards, mouse, printers, and other such devices you connect to your computer.  Every time we boot up the PC, the BIOS determines who should do what. For example, how much RAM the PC should use, which hard drive should boot up first, and more. Invented by IBM, BIOS also lets you test hardware, load boot loaders and install OS.  Accessing BIOS  There is no common way to access BIOS from your PC. The way you enter BIOS depends on PC's motherboard manufacturer and involves holding multiple keys during boot up. If yo...

NEW DELHI: Rapid digitisation in all sectors in India has made the country critically prone to targeted cyber attacks and 'WannaCry' ransomware attack is "just the tip of the iceberg", a cyber intelligence security company warned on Wednesday. "Owing to the government initiatives and efforts, coupled with booming penetration of smartphones, PCs and high-speed internet access, the challenges associated with such attacks amplify significantly -- making India one of the hot favourite destinations for a targeted  cyberattack ," Israel-based Vital Intelligence Group said in a statement. The firm also said 'WannaCry' ransomware, that exploited MS17-010 vulnerability in a Microsoft  Windows  operating system and hit nearly 200,000 systems in 150 countries, is the first wave of several upcoming cyber intrusions as digitisation spreads its footprint across the globe. "The recent attack strengthens the point that the biggest existential threat tha...