Google Chrome’s Password Security is Absolutely Zero

But One Expert Says Password Information Can Still be Secured

Photo by by Dev.Arka, Flicker Creative Commons License

By Jehangir Khattak

Google’s Chrome may be one of the most popular browser in the world, but it may have another distinction too -- It is one of the most vulnerable in terms of password security as well. Google acknowledges the huge security flaw but has no plans to rectify it, reports Charles Arthur in the British daily The Guardian.

The flaw, says Charles Arthur, offers unrestricted password access to anyone with access to user’s computer because plain text logon details for email, social networks and company systems are stored in the browser's Settings panel.

Besides personal accounts, sensitive company login details would be compromised if someone who used Chrome left their computer unattended with the screen active.Seeing the passwords is achieved simply by clicking on the Settings icon, choosing "Show advanced settings…" and then "Manage saved passwords" in the "Passwords and forms" section. A list of obscured passwords is then revealed for sites - but clicking beside them reveals the plain text of the password, which could be copied, or sent via a screenshot to an outside site.But the head of Google's Chrome developer team, Justin Schuh, said he was aware of the weakness and that there were no plans to change the system.

Chrome is one of the three most widely used web browsers in the world. Web designer Elliot Kember discovered the flaw while exploring the privacy settings of the Chrome.

According to Eric Lubbers, the Mobile Editor of The Denver Post, despite Chrome’s absolutely zero password security, there are still ways to secure the password information. In his blog, Eric identifies four precautions for personal information security on the Chrome. These include:

• Make sure your computer is password locked at all times
• Don’t let anyone use your computer. Ever.
• Use an encrypted password manager like LastPass or 1Password
• Turn off Chrome’s password manager

Online privacy and digital security has turned out to be the most hotly debated subject following disclosures by whistleblower Edward Snowden about National Security Agency’s massive “prism” surveillance program. It is this growing concern and public debate that lead to the announcement of a major reform of the program by President Barack Obama on August 9.  

Some critics are calling the reforms as insufficient, yet many more are calling it as a step in the right direction. There is a near consensus on the importance of the program for the American national security in the Congress.

The online security debate has also brought business bonanza for some little known search engines such as DuckDuckGo. The main reason for the overnight popularity of this 20-person Philadelphia-based business offers what none of the big search engines do: zero tracking.

Charles Arthur in another recent article in The Guardian noted: “If the NSA demanded data from DuckDuckGo, there would be none to hand over.’

Click here to read the full article.

Deserts' Photovoltaics Promise

Glittering Deserts From California to Gujarat and Saudi Arabia Offer Huge Untapped Resource -- Why Can't Pakistan Embrace Unfolding Solar Revolution? 

A view of solar power project at Charanka in the Indian state of Gujarat, completed with US help in 2012. -- Photo American Center Mumbai, Flickr Creative Commons License) 

By Staff

A global race is on to tap solar energy for long-term sustainable energy security by countries around the world. Many developed and developing countries are building new solar power plants in their desert backyards. 

In the US, a vast glittering Ivanpah solar facility will be commissioned by the end of this summer. It will produce 392 megawatt electricity, making it the largest concentrating solar power (CSP) plant in the world.

In the desert near Abu Dhabi, Middle East's first large CSP -- Shams-I -- has already been commissioned, producing 100MW of electricity. The Saudis have bigger and ambitious plans for electricity from renewable sources. They want to produce 54,000MW from renewable sources, including 41,000MW from solar, by 2030.

In South Asia, India inaugurated a 600MW solar power generation facility at Charanka in the western state of Gujarat on April 19, 2012. The project was completed with the US help. 

Energy-starved Pakistan also has vast deserts but little plans to harness this abundantly available cheap source of energy. Pakistan can learn a lot and benefit tremendously by embracing the new technology to tap solar electrons. But despite facing crippling power crisis, it still lacks political will. The recently-announced energy policy offers little hope for its photovoltaics future as the policy has no major initiative to tap solar energy. 

Europe, with its mostly overcast skies unfit to pull electrons from sun rays, has even bigger dream. It wants to generate solar power in Africa and transport it through undersea transmission cables to the continent to meet its future energy needs. 
This emerging reality of today was fiction of yesterday. Photovoltaics is the promise of today and tomorrow. But this exciting promise has its own challenges which are explained by Dave Lavitan in this beautiful article published in Scientific American.

The Root of Washington’s Ills

Thanks largely to thousands of lobbyists, Washington
 has become the wealthiest city in the nation. 
Photo by by Rollinho, Flickr Creative License

In 1990, Ramsay MacMullen, a distinguished Yale historian of Rome, published a book that took on one of the central questions of his field: Why did the greatest empire in the history of the world collapse in the 5th century? The root cause, he explained, was political corruption, which had become systemic in the late Roman Empire. What was once immoral became accepted as standard practice, and what was once illegal was celebrated as the new normal. Many decades from now, a historian looking at where America lost its way could use “This Town” as a primary source.
An excellent opinion piece by Fareed Zakaria in Washington Post.

Did Pakistanis Vote for a Tiger or a Lion?

By Jehangir Khattak
This story was originally published in the voicesofny.org

Supporters of the PML-N party in New York celebrate the victory of Nawaz Sharif
at its Brooklyn office on Coney Island Avenue with a stuffed lion, although
the official party’s symbol is a tiger. The local supporters of Sharif aren’t
 the only ones mixing up felines. (Photo by Mohsin Zaheer)

When the average American sees a picture of a donkey, the Democratic Party may not spring immediately to mind. But if the donkey morphed into a zebra, and images of both animals, or even live donkeys and live zebras, started appearing at Democratic Party rallies, people might take notice and be just a little bit puzzled.

In Pakistan today, where symbols of political parties are printed on ballots to allow the 45 percent of the population that is illiterate to stamp their vote with ease, there seems to be some confusion as to whether a tiger or a lion is the symbol of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the party whose leader, Nawaz Sharif, and parliamentary candidates swept the May 11 elections. 

The ‘Lion of Pakistan’ is displayed in a party poster along 

with the party’s longtime symbol, the tiger. 

(Photo via PML-N USA website)

PML-N’s party flags are decorated with a drawing of what clearly looks like a tiger, and for years voters have associated Sharif and his party with that majestic feline prowler of the Asian jungles – never mind that the Bengal tiger hasn’t been seen outside of zoos or private “big cat” farms in Pakistan for decades. The tiger image was approved as the symbol of the party by the Election Commission of Pakistan, one of more than 170 symbols the Commission approved.

But during the recent elections, the lion suddenly roared into view as a symbol of PML-N.

The Facebook page of the party calls Sharif a “lion” – but the words run alongside the image of a tiger. The website of the party’s U.S. chapter, meanwhile, displays two different images of Sharif, one with a lion and one with a tiger. Prides of lions, it should be noted, never roamed the wilds of Pakistan.

The PML-N party managed to fan the confusion by using real tigers at some rallies and lions at other events. A rare white tiger that appeared at some PML-N rallies during the 2013 election campaign died because of prolonged heat exposure. On Friday, the Lahore High Court, the highest court in the Punjab province, issued notices to the PML-N and officials of the wildlife and environment department for public display of endangered white tigers.

Language may contribute further to the confusion. In Urdu the word for tiger is “sher” (transliterated) while the word for lion is “bubber sher. ” It’s possible that in translation, or even sometimes in common usage, the distinction may be lost. Google translate, for one, calls both tiger and lion by the same name – “sher.”

In the run-up to the May 11 vote, PML-N leader Sharif was often referred to as “the lion of the Punjab” and at times as “the lion of Pakistan.” Yet at rallies he would leap onto the stage amid chants of “Dekho dekho kon aaya, sher aaya sher aaya,” which means: “Look who is coming, the tiger is coming.”

Meanwhile, supporters of cricket star Imran Khan of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party – who wielded the unmistakable cricket bat as their party’s image – would chant at PTI rallies: “Dekho dekho kon aaya, sher ka shikari aaya” meaning “Look who is coming, the hunter of tiger is coming.”

Is it any wonder that The New York Times, in a May 14 story about Pakistan elections, identified the lion as PML-N’s election symbol? Or that U.S.-based supporters of PML-N held high a stuffed lion during their election victory celebration at the party’s Brooklyn office on Coney Island Avenue?

A lion watches the PML-N victory celebrations in New York. (Photo by Mohsin Zaheer)

So which big cat is it – tiger or lion? Voices of NY (VNY) decided to seek clarity from members of the Pakistani diaspora in New York.

VNY: What is the PML-N’s election symbol?

An editor of a New York Urdu language weekly:Tiger.

VNY: Can you tell the difference between a tiger and a lion?

Editor: I am not sure… Oh, I think lions have longer tails.

Aaliya Syed, a health industry professional based in Hicksville, Long Island, has another explanation for the confusion. “In Urdu a tiger is called a ‘cheetah’ and a lion a ‘sher.’”

Asked about his party’s election symbol, here is what Rohail Dar, president of the U.S. chapter of the PML-N, had to say:

VNY: What is your party symbol?

RD: It’s a lion.

VNY: Oh really? But the Election Commission of Pakistan gave your party the tiger as its symbol.

RD: Yes but there was a confusion… Our symbol may be a tiger, but in reality it’s a lion, as our leader is the strongest of all, like a lion.

Syed thinks Sharif’s looks may be the issue. “Is it because he is a courageous man or because he has a lion’s face?” she is asked. “I think that’s the way he looks.”

To the New York-based poet Khalid Irfan, considered an authority on Urdu, there’s no question that a tiger’s a tiger and a lion a lion. “PML-N supporters are yet to find their lion in a tiger,” he quips.

For Sharif and his supporters, of course, the main thing is that the big cat won – whichever one it may be. Irfan doesn’t see the confusion over the party’s symbol returning till 2018, when Pakistan is expected to elect a new parliament, and the PML-N brings growling lions and snarling tigers back to election rallies to impress voters.

Perhaps PLM-N’s rival parties, to gain some traction and add to the confusion, could adopt the leopard or the cheetah as their symbols.