The Canadian Parvasi - Issue 23

The International News Weekly INTERVIEW/OPED
09
December 01, 2017 | Toronto
Dawood Ibrahim is depressed
as his only son becomes Mullah
Indo-Asian News Service
THANE: Absconding mafia
don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar
is reported to be suffering from
bouts of depression owing to a
family hurdle, which, despite his
manpower and gunpower, he is
unable to resolve, according to
police officials.
The problem apparently is his
third child - and only son - Moin
Nawaz D. Kaskar, 31, who has
turned his back on the "family
business" is a devout Muslim who
has chosen to become a Maulana,
or a cleric-cum-religious teacher.
"Moin is understood to be
deadly against his father's illegal
activities which have given
the entire family a notorious
reputation worldwide and made
many of them wanted fugitives
everywhere," Thane Anti-
Extortion Cell head Pradeep
Sharma told IANS.
He said this and other nuggets
of an internal strife in the family
tumbled out in bits and pieces
during the ongoing interrogation
of Iqbal Ibrahim Kaskar, Dawood's
younger brother, who was nabbed
in three extortion cases last
September by the Thane AEC.
Iqbal Kaskar has informed the
investigators that a deeply worried
Dawood is afflicted by bouts of
despondency over who would
look after and handle his vast
underworld empire in the future.
More so, as his other brother
Anees Ibrahim Kaskar is now
ageing and reportedly not in robust
health, other brothers are deceased
and no reliable close relatives
available to take over the reins of
the empire. "His son is practically
estranged from the family and all
its businesses since the past few
years, but it is not clear if he is on
speaking terms with his father,"
said Sharma, a former "encounter
specialist" dreaded by the mafia,
with many scalps of dreaded
criminals under his belt.
Iqbal Kaskar told the
investigators that his nephew Moin
is now a respected and qualified
Maulana, who is a 'Hafiz-e-Quran',
having memorized the entire Holy
Quran which comprises 6,236
verses.
Besides, he has discarded the
comforts of the family's palatial
bungalow in the fashionable
Clifton area in the posh Saddar
suburb of Karachi and opted to
live a mendicant's life in a mosque
adjacent to their home.
However, his wife Saniya and
their three minor children have not
abandoned him and are living with
him in the small quarters provided
by the mosque management.
Moin's main religious activities
comprise teaching Holy Quran
and Islamic preachings to young
children, leading the call of prayers
and congregation of 'namaz' at
various occasions and other
social-religious responsibilities
associated with a cleric.
"Its clear that Moin, who could
have inherited his father's vast
legal and illegal business empires,
ironically, has decided to become
a man of God and completely
shunned a life of luxury which was
at his command," Sharma said.
Earlier, Moin, who is a
business management graduate,
used to help out his father in some
of his line of works, but gradually
drifted away to the "divine call of
Allah".
A handsome young man, in
September 2011, he settled down in
life and married a wealthy Karchi
businessman's daughter, Saniya
Shaikh, who helps out in her
family businesses in Pakistan and
Britain.
Of Moin's siblings, Mahrukh
got married in 2006 to Junaid, the
son of Pakistani star cricketer
Javed Miandad, and middle sister
Mahreen tied the knot with a
US-based businessman's son in
early 2011. Earlier, Iqbal Kaskar
had revealed that Dawood is in
excellent health and living in
Karachi under the protective
eyes of the Pakistani agencies,
dismissing all speculation on his
physical well-being that keeps
floating occasionally.
The investigators are hopeful
that in the coming days, he may
reveal more information about the
Godfather's family imbroglios and
provide clues to the future of his
activities.
Dark Web helping hackers execute Ransomware-as-a-Service, warns McAfee
By Sourabh Kulesh
NEW DELHI: As governments
and companies face
an uphill task to stop hackers
from stealing data, the
Dark Web is providing them
a safe haven, helping them
scale up and execute massive
data breaches, global
cyber security firm McAfee
has warned. Dark Web is an
encrypted network of websites
and communities that
exists outside of mainstream
Internet culture.
"We are witnessing a
scaling model called Ransomware-as-a-Service
where
criminals are hired by an entity
to host everything, use
their own infrastructure,
tools and expertise and the
employer gives them a target
as well as the magnitude
of attack," Vincent Weafer,
Vice President, McAfee
Labs and Product Development,
told IANS.
"Before carrying out the
attack, hackers are clear
that they would vanish if,
in case, the attack fails. The
hackers make sure that
their employer gets caught
and they escape," Weafer
added.
For example, encrypted
software such as Tor's ability
to hide the identity of the
attacker is key to cybercriminals.
Tor is a free software
for enabling anonymous
communication.
The McAfee executive
also said that crypto-currencies
like Bitcoin are also a
major reason why cyberattacks
are increasing.
From a product point
of view, Weafer said, there
is little that cyber security
companies can do to stop
communication on the Dark
Web, but they can help provide
intelligence to the regulators.
"We are not looking at
products that could track
those criminals on the Dark
Web but can provide expertise
in terms of where
and what information is
flowing and which types of
groups are operating. That
information can be shared
with regulators and governments
because they are the
ones who will be chasing the
criminals," Weafer said.
McAfee has assisted several
law enforcement agencies
in cybercrime cases and
Raj Samani, Chief Scientist
and McAfee Fellow, is a special
advisor to the European
Cybercrime Centre at The
Hague.
Samani also leads the
NoMoreRansomware.Org
website -- an initiative by the
National High Tech Crime
Unit of the Netherlands' police
and Europol's European
Cybercrime Centre -- that
aims to help victims of ransomware
retrieve their encrypted
data without having
to pay.
Samani said that the majority
of the breaches worldwide
were "SQL Injection"
(a type of web application
attack) issues where people
were clicking on malicious
links.
"I agree it is important
for cybersecurity companies
to stay ahead of the criminals
and innovate continuously,
but we must not forget
the fact that a majority of the
breaches were carried out
because of fundamental errors,"
Samani told IANS.
"WannaCrypt could
have been patched. We knew
its propagation method like
20 years ago. It was spread
like old school worms used
to attack across systems.
Majority of the issues could
have been stopped by just
doing the basic fundamentals,"
Samani noted.
When asked how cyber
security companies are designing
products to protect
and help customers retrieve
data, Weafer said whatever
is happening in terms of the
change in attack methodology
and its impact, what
people are doing and what
hackers are going after, decides
the product design.
McAfee protects over 300
million devices worldwide
and has a presence in more
than 2,000 companies, government
institutions and
healthcare.
In India, the company
has got a retail presence and
also works with top government
institutions. McAfee
has its largest research and
development facility in Bengaluru
that employs over
1,000 engineers.
For Samani, the first
step to protect the data is
keeping a back-up.
"The best way out is
to back your data. As you
read this, take a five-minute
break, kick off a back-up and
then continue with what you
were doing. It doesn't matter
what hackers do -- whether
they leave your data encrypted
or decrypt it (if you
refuse to pay ransom) -- you
are covered. And make sure
to go for offline back-ups as
well," Samani advised.
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