Update: Axis Bank ATM Hackers Operated from Hyderabad

UPDATE: Even as you're reading this, cops from the Oshiwara police station, located in suburban Mumbai claim to have traced the hackers to Hyderabad. Further reports suggest that not only did the hackers manage their entire hack operation from Hyderabad, but were also Nigerian nationals. Their exact location in Hyderabad hasn't been traced yet. Adding to these details, a report in the Mumbai Mirror also states that the usual modus operandi of such a scam would be either placing accomplices at banks and other call centres, or acquire a duplicate security strip, placed at the back of a debit card to get all personal debit card details. In what comes as a shocker to several Mumbaikars who quite routinely withdraw cash from the Axis Bank ATMs dotted across the city, it is being learnt that the security of the ATM systems of the bank have been compromised. According to a report in the Mumbai Mirror, the first set of complaints has been coming from Oshiwara, located in suburban Mumbai. The ATM in question located in Oshiwara incidentally happens to be at a stone’s throw distance from the Oshiwara Police Station. Exercising caution.. Over the month, the report stated that several irate customers began filing complaints after they realized that the money withdrawn by them from the ATM and the money, a much larger amount that got actually debited did not match. Apparently, the repeated complaints did not draw much action from the cops, initially but when one of the cops in the station itself (Asst. Inspector, Sanjay More) got duped, the cyber crime cell was called in.  According to a statement that a spokesperson from the bank provided to Mumbai Mirror, it was revealed that the ATM at Oshiwara wasn’t the lone one affected. Several other Axis Bank ATMs across the city are now being speculated to be among those affected. Although the mode, and any other specific details of the hack haven't come through, what is being spoken about, albeit in hushed tones is the use of an external device that records all details of a customers card on swiping. The bank has, as on August 1, 2011 filed an FIR with the Cyber Crime Cell.  With statistics being as worrying as the loss of over Rs. 8 lakh in less than a month, this news of the security being compromised has again raised the issue of lack of security present. Have you been affected by the hack? Do let us know in the comments section below.

Earth Had Two Moons, New Model Suggests

                  Slow collision between lunar companions could solve moon mystery.

The near side of the moon (right) is much smoother than the far side.

Photograph courtesy NASA

Ker Than

for National Geographic News

Published August 3, 2011

Earth may have once had two moons, but one was destroyed in a slow-motion collision that left our current lunar orb lumpier on one side than the other, scientists say.

Astronomers have long been puzzled by the differences between the side of the moon that always faces Earth—the near side—and the side that always faces away, the far side. The topography of the near side is relatively low and flat, while that of the far side is high and mountainous with a much thicker crust.

(Take a moon mysteries and myths quiz.)

According to a new computer model, this discrepancy can be explained if a smaller "companion moon" collided with our moon's far side early in its history. Such a collision would have left the far side splattered with especially hard rocky material that now forms the current lunar highlands.

For the theory to work, the smaller moon must have crashed into the larger one at about 4,400 miles (7,081 kilometers) an hour.

"This is the slowest possible collision the two massive bodies could have if they fell into each other’s gravity," explained study co-author Erik Asphaug, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC).

At this relatively slow speed, the far-side collision wouldn’t have been energetic enough to melt rock or carve out a crater. But it would have been forceful enough to plaster material from the smaller moon onto the larger moon.

"It's like a car crash, where you have crumpled bumpers but you don't melt the cars as they're colliding," Asphaug said. "This is the same kind of phenomenon."

Moon Collision Created Meteor Shower

The new theory, by Asphaug and UCSC postdoctoral researcher Martin Jutzi, is detailed in the current issue of the journal Nature.

According to their model, the two moons coexisted peacefully for about 80 million years, each in its own stable orbit. The moons were the same color and composition, but one was about three times larger than the other, Asphaug said.

"Our moon looked like a big dinner plate in the sky ... and when it set, there was this other moon trailing it by about 60 degrees," he said.

(Related: "Trojan Asteroid Found Sharing Earth's Orbit—A First.")

This brief period of lunar harmony was shattered, according to the model, when natural gravitational interactions with Earth caused both moons to drift farther away from our planet. The sun's gravitational tug then destabilized the smaller moon’s orbit and caused it to fall into its larger sibling.

Though not very energetic, the collision would have ejected trillions of tons of lunar debris into space, obscuring both moons for several days.

"When the dust cleared, you had one moon that might have looked similar to our moon today," Asphaug said.

For up to a million years after the event, Earth would have been bombarded by moon bits of various sizes, the biggest of which could have been as much as 62 miles (100 kilometers) across.

"You'd have meteors raining down all over the sky for a long period of time," Asphaug said, though there probably would have been no life yet on Earth to witness the spectacular sky shows.

Lunar Smashup Opens Up "Cool Problems"

Astronomer Jeffrey Taylor of the University of Hawaii said the new moon theory is very interesting and worth further investigation.

Asphaug and Jutzi's model not only accounts for the moon's asymmetry, Taylor said, but the findings also explain the fates of the smaller, companion satellites that another theory predicts should have formed alongside our moon.

One of the leading theories for how our moon formed is that it was born after a Mars-size planet crashed into Earth shortly after the solar system's formation about 4.5 billion years ago. (See "Earth-Asteroid Collision Formed Moon Later Than Thought.")

Scientists think the earlier smashup created a ring of molten rock debris around Earth, which eventually coalesced into several bodies, including our current moon. (Related: "The Moon Has Shrunk, and May Still Be Contracting.")

But "if that's the case, what happened [to the smaller moons]? This is one thing that could have happened to them," said Taylor, who was not involved in the study.

The new theory isn't without its problems, however. For example, it doesn't explain why the lumpy far side of our moon shows a high concentration of aluminum, Taylor said.

If the two moons had formed from the same material, as is assumed, the companion moon—and its splatterings—should have been low in aluminum, like our own moon's interior.

(Related: "Ancient Moon Had Earthlike Core?")

However, this problem could be resolved by future lunar studies, Taylor said, and it's not a serious enough reason to dismiss the theory.

"If anything," he said, "it just opens up more cool problems to work on.

Traffic Cops in Gurgaon to go Hi-Tech With Project 3rd Eye

Project 3rd Eye, India’s first traffic violation tracking system will be coming to Gurgaon first, followed by other cities depending on the success of the project. Traffic cops will now carry a GPS-enabled mobile phone fitted with a special software called Tselina, so whenever there is a traffic violation, the cop has to simply snap a photo which is then automatically uploaded on a server along with the offender's licence plate and co-ordinates of the location. Now, this would work well for parking violations and such but I’m not sure if this would work for, let’s say, jumping a red light.

Say cheeese (Image Courtesy : MediaNama)

The first leg of the project involves equipping 300 traffic cops with a Nokia E5. Now, we’ve reviewed the E5 and the camera isn’t one of its strong suits. It’s a fixed focus camera to begin with and also it takes a while to for the image to be processed once you hit the shutter button so if the offender is in motion, it's going to be almost impossible to get a clear shot. The trial runs have already begun in June along the National Highway 8 and the east and west traffic zones. Once the photo is uploaded, a challan will be dispatched to the offenders along with the co-ordinates of where the offence was committed. While this is good attempt at making the roads safer, I just don’t see it working. To capture an offence, the constable would have to be ready with the phone at all times which is not practical. Let’s see how well this pans out. 

The Best 3G Plans in India... And the Winner is..

With 3G exploding all over the country picking the right plan can be a little harder than it looks. This is especially true since we have to deal with a plethora of service providers and their in-your-face-ads.

With 3G exploding all over the country picking the right plan can be a little harder than it looks. This is especially true since we have to deal with a plethora of service providers and their in-your-face-ads. Airtel, Vodafone, BSNL (MTNL), Idea et al have come up with a massive range of plans to ‘help’ us consumers, but it can be quite a confusing task for some. With 3G being quite expensive, choosing the wrong plan would mean an instant increase of a few Thousands in your bill. It’s imperative to make the right choice and that’s what we are here to help you with. We’ve analyzed all the available plans in five of India’s metropolitan cities viz. Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Bengaluru. We’ve computed a comparison chart on the current available plans on the basis of three different user profiles: Low-end users, Intermediate users and Advanced users. Each of these profiles have a separate plan for BlackBerry as well, just in case that’s your preference. We’ve also created two separate comparison charts for pre-paid and post-paid users. To give you a better idea of what we mean, here’s a short description of the profiles we’ve taken into account – Low-end users – People wanting to access basic e-mail, social network and chat on the go, all fall into this category. We’ve capped off the data usage patterns up to 2GB per month with video calling of 100 minutes. Intermediate users – This category comprises of individuals wanting ‘more’ out of their mobile internet connection. Their usage includes office email synchronization, access to multiple accounts simultaneously, increased social networking, video calling, downloading of games and applications; and occasional tethering to use 3G services for internet connectivity on other corresponding devices. The usage patterns we’ve identified for this profile are up to 5GB per month with video calling of 200 minutes. Advanced users – This last profile would includes people who require high levels of data usage. Besides the usual social networking and multiple email accounts these users would also use services for intensive video calling, frequent downloading of a range of applications and sending and receiving emails that contain large attachments of data like presentations etc.Accessing and downloading files off of Cloud-based services like drop box etc. and tethering or sharing of their 3G connection by using a device as a modem or Wi-Fi hotspot would be characteristic of those in this profile. Their usage patterns have been set at 6GB and above with video calling of around 500 minutes. Based on the parameters mentioned, choose your profile, select if you're a BlackBerry user (check box) and choose your city from the list. The best available plan will simply show up in the box below. If you happen to be a post-paid user and prefer to stick to that, you need to follow the same procedure in the box below. Depending on your location, the plans will vary. There are also other plans that vary on a daily basis so you might want to check with your service provider before getting into anything. The plans we’ve selected currently cover five of the main areas in India. However, please understand that prices and plans will vary with the state and the city you currently are in. Also, mobile network operators are known to change plans without prior notice, so that should be another factor to be taken into consideration. Always check with your provider for more information.