Indian Newslink 15th June 2016 Digital Edition

JUNE 15, 2016
12 VIEWLINK
The English Fortnightly (Since November 1999)
Issue 348 | June 15, 2016
Passage to Fiji
bumpy but
endurable
From all points of view, the two-day visit of Prime
Minister John Key to Fiji last week opened up as many
challenges as opportunities and the effective meeting
and utilisation of which be a two-sided equation.
The chemistry between Mr Key and Fiji’s Prime Minister
Josaia Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama is yet to evolve into a plausible
leadership combination for better times ahead, but it was
easy to see that both were trying hard to make things work.
If Mr Bainimarama took cudgels against New Zealand and its
government, he had good reasons for doing so – from his point
of view.
Anger and hope
His speech at the State Banquet hosted in honour of Mr Key
at the Grand Pacific Hotel on July 9 was punctuated with anger,
frustration, disappointment and disgruntlement – all of the past
in which New Zealand was seen as one friend who betrayed.
The speech was also marked by expectations, hope and
optimism.
Mr Bainimarama was thankful to New Zealand for its financial,
material and military support as his country went through
the worst aftermath of natural disaster. Tropical Cyclone
Winston that ravaged through the country on February 20,
2016 brought many countries rushing to help; of these New
Zealand stood out in monetary and emotional terms.
Mr Bainimarama was grateful but set the tone for the future.
“Your aid must complement the implementation of our policy
agenda, not undermine it. After all, we do not always want to
be dependent on aid. And this can only be achieved if we work
in a collaborative manner. Work with us because there are
many lucrative business opportunities for New Zealand companies
given the liberalisation and modernisation of the Fijian
economy under my Government,” he said.
Possible Partnership
Mr Bainimarama believes that Fiji and New Zealand can
strike a closer bond and a great partnership, provided these are
based on mutual confidence and trust.
“Welcome to Fiji. It has been a long time between drinks,
as they say - 10 years since we last had a New Zealand Prime
Minister here, even though we now welcome over 100,000
Kiwis every year. We hope that like them, Fiji will be where
happiness finds you,” Mr Bainimarama said.
In that same breath, he quipped, “But just don’t talk about the
Rugby.”
Some imponderables
There are still a number of imponderables that Mr Key
should work through to regain the confidence, and more important,
the level of friendship that is worthy of a powerful
neighbour.
There are three counts on which Mr Key has not seen any
success.
Firstly, his entreaty to return to the Pacific Islands Forum had
Mr Bainimarama indicate an instant refusal. The Fijian government
would not think of re-joining the regional bloc (from
which it was ousted in 2009 and reinstated in 2014), unless
Australia and New Zealand are ousted or downgraded their
role and China brought in as a member.
Secondly, Mr Bainimarama appeared to have been silent
when Mr Key asked if he would support the candidacy of Helen
Clark to the post of Secretary General of the UN. But having
heard his attack on the former New Zealand Prime Minister,
Fiji is unlikely to be sympathetic or supportive.
Thirdly, Fiji still has a closed mind on the Pacific Agreement
on Closer Economic Relations (PACER) Plus Trade negotiations,
saying that it is no longer a promising instrument of development
and economic growth.
We will analyse each of these issues in our forthcoming
editions.
But for the present, we would like to believe that New
Zealand and Fiji are on the threshold of a new plane of relationship.
They need to work together for the betterment of
their peoples.
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Liquidators do not perform serenades
Pritesh Patel
Liquidators or Insolvency
Practitioners are no different
to funeral directors
and as such perform the
last rites of a company to properly
‘put it to sleep.’
You will seldom witness a funeral
director giving his or her business
card and the same can be said
about us, as liquidators in New
Zealand.
There are approximately 50 active
in New Zealand and it is a
high octane, stressful occupation
in which a no-nonsense approach
needs to be taken for effective discharge
of duties. Sometimes it is
an ungrateful task and at times
someone will try and take a swing
(yes literally!) at you.
Hostile environment
Liquidators deal in a hostile environment
juggling many variables
simultaneously.
They include creditors, landlords,
finance and banking institutions,
laid off employees and to
some extent shareholders.
No two liquidations are the
same.
Some of the matters we have
witnessed in the course of discharging
our duties are (a) Threats
by creditors (b) Aggressive stance
by landlords (c) Houdini’s Act: disappearing
assets immediately
upon appointment of a Liquidator
(d) Stock misappropriation by
shareholders whilst the Liquidator
is operating the business in liquidation
with a view to maximising
the dividend for creditors and
(e) Misguided attempt by a debtor
to issue proceedings against a
Liquidator when they are lawfully
discharging their duties.
On average, there are approximately
3500 liquidations in New
Zealand per annum which encompasses
about 75% as insolvent liquidations
and the balance made
up of Solvent Liquidations shared
amongst about 50 active insolvency
practitioners like us.
Solvent Liquidations are for
companies that have fulfilled their
purpose or for other reasons and
hence the shareholder (s) do not
require them to continue.
The Law
All liquidations are governed by
the Companies Act 1993 and the
principal duty of a Liquidator is to
immediately take control of the assets
of the company.
Distribution of liquidated assets
is done in accordance to the Act
as 1, Secured Asset Distribution
2, Liquidator’s fees and disbursements
3. Employee wages including
Holiday Pay 4. IRD (GST and
PAYE) 5. Unsecured Creditors and
6. Shareholders
At the heart of these is the ‘Pari-
Passu Rule,’ which prescribes that
all creditors must be treated equally
(on a pro-rata basis).
Topical Issues
There are a number of issues
that would be of interest to
Liquidators, shareholders, the
business community and even the
government. Some of them are as
follows:
Phoenix Company
As Liquidators, we see instances
where a shareholder sets up a
new company preceding the liquidation
of the old one.
The new company ‘inherits’
the business. We are required to
scrutinise all breaches of the law
including this and there can be
penalties if the matter is pursued
through the Court.
In the past weeks, security
teams of many businesses have
been under siege with billions
of information about various
accounts stolen.
Although most of the data hacked
was at least four years old, it is a
matter of serious concern. These
data appeared on the ‘Dark Web,’ a
section of the Internet for illegal activities.
The current stolen data was
uploaded on a website called, ‘The
Real Deal’ and is sold for thousands
of dollars, mostly in ‘Bitcoins,’ a
popular Internet currency.
The hacker in this connection is
called, ‘Peace of Mind.’
Rising cybercrime
The global tendency to complete
most tasks online rather than offline
has led to the growth of cybercrime.
Cyber criminals, often
hackers, proliferate the worldwide
web.
Last fortnight, Facebook Chief
Executive Mark Zuckerberg had his
Twitter and other social media accounts
hacked, with his passwords
uploaded for sale.
His password, according to
unconfirmed web reports was
‘dadada.’
Hashing and Salting
Encryption methods are constantly
changing and the two methods
currently in use are ‘Hashing’
and ‘Salting.’
Hashing: Passwords and such sensitive
information is never stored
‘as is.’
The cache of passwords is converted
into a mass of cryptographic
hashes.
Hashes are ‘meaningless’ strings
of characters into which passwords
are mathematically transformed to
prevent them from being misused.
The hashing logic is developed in
such a way that it is easy to perform,
but difficult to reverse.
When a user logs-in to a website,
the password is hashed using
the same algorithm and the hashed
version entered is compared with
the hashed version of the original
password set when creating the account.
If the hashed versions of
both these passwords match, then
the programme rightly concludes
that the “original” password is correct
and allows further access.
The Programmes
Hashing uses specialist programmes.
The exact kind of hashing
that the passwords have
undergone determines how easy or
difficult it is for potential hackers to
crack them.
In simple words, the easier the
algorithm used for the hashing process,
the easier it is for the hacker
to un-hash the passwords. Hashing
programmes that are commonly
used are are SHA1, Argon2 and
bcrypt.
A hash-cracking programme
works by generating and guessing
billions of possible passwords
Voidable Transactions
Simply put, the Liquidator is required
to ascertain if there have
been any transactions at the expense
of the current (at the date
of liquidation) creditors.
Such transactions are voidable
and can be reversed (clawed back)
by the liquidator.
Shareholders Current Account
If the shareholder’s current account
is overdrawn, the Liquidator
would normally seek repayment
of the amount.
We have seen many such cases
before the Courts recently.
Reckless Trading
Liquidators also have an obligation
to report to the authorities if
there has been reckless trading by
the Director(s) of a company to the
detriment of its creditors.
Currently we are seeing an upsurge
in liquidations involving retail
business.
High overheads, declining foot
traffic due to an increase in online
buying and other reasons are contributing
to this upsurge.
In all situations, we believe that
early intervention is necessary to
preserve the position of creditors
and shareholders alike.
Pritesh Patel is an Insolvency
Practitioner and Principal of
Patel & Co. Phone (09) 2776852
or 021-2775080; Email: pritesh.
patel@xtra.co.nz; Website: www.
patelandco.co.nz
The above article should be read
as a general interest piece and
not as an in-depth report or legal
advice. The views expressed in
this article are those of Pritesh
Patel and as such do not reflect
those of his firm or Indian
Newslink. Pritesh Patel, Patel &
Co and Indian Newslink absolve
themselves of any responsibility
or liability that may arise in this
connection. Readers are advised
Add ‘Salt’ to your passwords and be safe
Anand Mokashi
and automatically comparing them
with the stolen hashed passwords
to find matches.
Salting is a technique used to
strengthen the hashing process
by adding random characters to
the original password and subjecting
them to the hashing algorithm.
Hackers get confused between the
real password and the characters
added (salted).
The obvious question that is
asked, is, ‘Can I be 100% safe?’
The answer always is, ‘No.’
However, by using some commonsense
techniques, you can minimise
risks of your data being
compromised. Do not use easily
guessable passwords. As a simple
thumb-rule, if the password is
in the dictionary, it is a weak password.
Similarly avoid names of
spouse, pet, city of birth and common
words.
Do not save passwords credit
cards, financial details and other
sensitive information online.
Hackers cannot hack data that are
not available. As far as possible, do
not engage in sensitive transactions
involving money in public places.
If possible, use credit or debits
cards with small limits for online
transactions.
If you believe that your computer
has been hacked contact the Police.
Anand Mokashi is an IT Lecturer,
Consultant and Digital Media
Specialist with a passion for all
things online. Email: anand_mokashi@consultant.com