Hackers make the most of the bleak job scene

Identity thieves and hackers are setting increasingly sophisticated traps to dupe the jobless, who are evidently off guard

New Delhi: Identity thieves and hackers are turning the bleak employment situation to good account by attacking job portals and obtaining information about applicants, for which a subterranean market is in operation.

Amid the current recession, hackers are attacking corporate job sites and also setting up fake ones for collecting applicants’ personal information, Internet security firm Trend Micro said.

“Continued rising unemployment has led more people to apply online for jobs, both through online job aggregators and individual corporate sites, thus turning the job portals into a gold mine for collecting personal data,” Trend Micro Product marketing manager Abhinav Karnwal said.

Karnwal further added that in a difficult hiring climate, applicants may feel constrained to give a potential employer whatever information asked for — even if it’s her/his social security number or bank account number.

An analyst tracking the sector feels that identity thieves and hackers are setting increasingly sophisticated traps to dupe the jobless, who are evidently off guard.

The hackers usually sell the important data collected from resumes, like mobile numbers, addresses, email IDs and other personal details, in the underground economy.

Moreover, the hackers are also targeting job seekers by sending fake ‘work from home’ offers.

While the leading job portal Monster.com was not available for comment, Naukri.com said that it has not faced any incident of hacking recently.

To avoid falling prey to hacking, Trend Micro suggested that applicants should contact employers directly rather than posting resumes on a large career site that can be easily trolled by hackers.

It further suggested that if applicants do get a call, they should do some research before calling them back.

Really?

The claims, the facts, the bottom line

THE CLAIM

Some dogs look like their owners

THE FACTS

It is one of those eternal quirky questions, at least for dog owners. But only recently have scientists taken a close look at actual studies of the resemblance between dog owners and their pets. In 2004, researchers in San Diego found that subjects in a study were able to correctly match pictures of dog owners with their pets more often than not, but only when the dogs were pure-breds. Simple traits such as hair and size played a smaller role than facial expressions. The same year, a University of South Carolina psychologist challenged the findings in a separate study. The San Diego researchers countered with a reanalysis that confirmed their initial findings.

Earlier this year, a scientist in England undertook a study in which 70 subjects were asked to match pictures of 41 dog owners with a breed. They were able to match successfully at least half the time, far better than chance. Similar to the San Diego study, the subjects said they matched the pictures mostly by personality traits that they believed the dogs and their owners shared. Scientists suspect that some people look for certain traits, which reflect their own personalities, when choosing a dog.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Some studies argue that dogs can resemble their owners, but the research is debatable.

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THE CLAIM

Drinking tea can lower your iron levels

THE FACTS

With its bounty of antioxidants and relatively moderate levels of caffeine, tea is one of the healthiest beverages around. But drinking tea is said to block the body’s absorption of dietary iron, potentially causing a deficiency.

Studies have shown that there is some truth to the idea. Compounds in tea called tannins can act as chelators, binding themselves to minerals and inhibiting the body’s ability to absorb them. In one study, scientists examined the effect by getting people to have a meal consisting of a hamburger, string beans and mashed potatoes with various drinks. When the subjects had tea, there was a 62% reduction in iron absorption. Coffee resulted in a 35% reduction. Orange juice increased iron absorption by approximately 85%.

But there was a twist. Coffee and tea affected only levels of non-heme iron, the kind found in grains and vegetables. Heme iron, found in meat, fish and poultry, was unaffected.

In India, where anaemia is common across age, gender and economic levels, it may pay to limit these beverages, particularly for vegetarians dependent on non-heme iron.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Compounds in coffee and tea can affect iron absorption.

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THE CLAIM

Eating parsley can eliminate bad breath

THE FACTS

People have long tried to freshen their breath with parsley. Its fresh, strong flavour would seem to make it a natural deodorizer. And its green colour is a sign of chlorophyll, thought to have antibacterial properties (sulphur compounds that cause bad breath are produced by various strains of bacteria in the mouth). But researchers have found little evidence to corroborate this. While it may have an initial effect on odour by masking it, it does little to reduce the concentration of volatile sulphur compounds. One unlikely food that has been shown to reduce levels of sulphur compounds is green tea, although the effect may be temporary, lasting no more than an hour or two.

Mouthwashes can be effective when they contain two ingredients in particular— zinc and chlorhexidine. But those that contain alcohol may make the problem worse by drying the mouth. Several studies have also identified a number of other factors that contribute to bad breath, including being overweight, drinking heavily and smoking.

THE BOTTOM LINE

There is little proof that parsley counteracts bad breath.

4 states drawing too much groundwater

Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi are depleting at least 30% more of their groundwater resources than previously estimated by the government

New Delhi: Four north Indian states — Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi — are depleting at least 30% more of their groundwater resources than previously estimated by the government, a new report from the US National Aeronautical and Space Administration, or Nasa, says.

The study, conducted by a team of Nasa scientists is being published in Friday’s edition of Nature, a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

Unequal sharing: While only 58% of the country’s groundwater is recharged every year, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana are the only three states digging beyond the dynamic zone for groundwater. Ramesh Pathania / Mint

The scientists used satellite imagery from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, a pair of satellites launched by the space agency in 2002, that has to-date monitored Antarctic ice and the sea-floor displacement that triggered the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004.

The scientists report these states depleted on average 17.7 billion cu. m. (bcm) of water annually between August 2002 and October 2008, more than the government’s estimates of 13.2 bcm in the same period.

They conclude that groundwater depletion in the region was equivalent to a net, irreplaceable loss of 109bcm, or nearly 20% of India’s annual water consumption of 634bcm.

The four states account for almost 114 million people, or almost 10% of the country’s population, and are dependent largely on irrigation for farming.

According to the Planning Commission, irrigation consumes 83% of the country’s annual water budget.

“We computed the uncertainty in our estimate to be about plus/minus 4.5 km3 per year, so the two estimates are reasonably close, but based on our analysis the annual deficit is a bit larger than previously believed,” Matthew Rodell, lead author of the study said in an email to Mint.

The authors of the study say that average rainfall was nearly the same during the period, thereby ruling out climate variability as the culprit for these depleting storage levels.

“The paper clearly says there’s a plus/minus 4.5 bcm error in the estimate. So on the lower side, that’s close to our estimate,” said B. N. Jha, chairman of the Central Groundwater Board, which monitors groundwater levels, using a reliable method of measuring water levels in a national network of 15,000 wells.

“When you take satellite measurements over such a large area, as opposed to physical measurement, there are bound to be errors,” Jha added.

Economic boom threatens water crisis: study

The study of three states in northwest India, found water was being extracted at an unsustainable rate as the region undergoes rapid economic development

New Delhi: Rocketing domestic use and farm irrigation have seriously damaged groundwater supply, and drinking water may become scarce, according to a study released on Wednesday.

The study of three states in northwest India, including the capital New Delhi, found that water was being extracted at an unsustainable rate as the region undergoes rapid economic development.

Water shortages are a growing concern in the country, with this year’s monsoon so far delivering only a fraction of the rainfall needed by farmers to save their crops.

Satellite and land data between 2002 and 2008 showed that the groundwater level was being depleted by about four centimetres a year, said the report by three US scientists and published in Nature magazine.

The extraction in the states of Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana was the equivalent to 109 cubic kilometres (26 cubic miles) of groundwater which is far more than government estimates.

“The consequences for the 114 million residents of the region may include a reduction of agriculture output and shortages of potable (drinking) water, leading to extensive economic stresses,” the study’s authors said.

They said population growth, irrigation and development had put pressure on water supplies across India, where groundwater management is poor, and added that shortages could trigger social conflict.

In the short-term, the government this week warned that 80% of the country was threatened by drought due to the weak monsoon.

India’s hundreds of million farmers rely on the annual rains to soak the rock-hard earth and turn it into fertile soil.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh moved to quash fears of hunger, saying that grain stores were adequate after two years of good harvests.

The study was conducted by Matthew Rodell of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and Isabella Velicogna and James Famiglietti of the University of California.

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