Sunday, October 26, 2008

I am voting for change

I am voting for change because I want a brighter and better future for all Dhivehin.

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You can find the original campaign call here.

Friday, October 03, 2008

How Secure Is Maldives Government Data?

I am as excited about the first ever presidential elections about to be held in Maldives. And like any other enthusiast, I regularly check the Election Commission website. Now there is this link in it which points to a site for checking the registry of eligible voters. At first it seems to be a simple search site which would be a typical web frontend and a database backend.

DNS lookup gave “205.178.152.25” as its IP which doesn’t seemed to look like a typical Dhiraagu or Focus IP. It was in fact allocated to the US based Network Solutions.

Then it came to mind about why the Government of Maldives is using a “.COM” domain instead of the more appropriate “.GOV.MV” hierarchy.

A registry lookup showed this:
Domain Name: MALDIVESELIGIBLEVOTERS.COM
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC.
Whois Server: whois.networksolutions.com
Referral URL: http://www.networksolutions.com
Name Server: NS85.WORLDNIC.COM
Name Server: NS86.WORLDNIC.COM
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Updated Date: 25-sep-2008
Creation Date: 25-sep-2008
Expiration Date: 25-sep-2009

Registrant:
Origin IT and Facility Solutions Pvt Ltd
Type II/1, Dr.V.S.I.Estate
Thiruvanmiyur
Chennai, Tamilnadu 600041
IN

Domain Name: MALDIVESELIGIBLEVOTERS.COM

Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
Origin IT and Facility Solutions Pvt Ltd murali@originitfs.com
Type II/1, Dr.V.S.I.Estate
Thiruvanmiyur
Chennai, Tamilnadu 600041
IN
91-9940115895
So what exactly is a Maldivian Government database doing in the hands of an India IT company? Outsourcing? Even this kind of information?

To say the least, this is from the same Government which required me to submit in writing to query about what the national sport of Maldives is.

Somehow the Government doesn’t seem to think that its citizens’ information is worth shit. Even if the information available on this database can be used to get bank info from our state owned wonder bank too.

In this age of technology, where Identity Theft is the growing crime market, surely this is a stupid thing to do.

Hmmm... this could mean that Maldives is really running out of I.T. people. Wonder where they are... Wherever they are, surely not anywhere near where their advice can be heard by decision/policy makers.