As the pandemic has wreaked havoc in the lives of many, stories of kindness, selflessness and sacrifice act as a ray of hope in such dark times.
In one such incident, an RSS sevika, Shivani Wakhare, shared the story of the ultimate sacrifice made by the 85-year-old RSS worker Narayan Dabhadkar from Nagpur.
The incident was then shared by a swayamsevak Rahul Kaushik on Twitter attaching the images of the original post.
The incident originally narrated in Marathi on Facebook reads, Narayan Dabhadkar an RSS worker who spent his entire life serving the society contracted covid amid the second wave of the pandemic. As his SPO2 levels dropped, his daughter frantically tried to get him a hospital bed in the city.
Facebook post narrating the incident
After umpteen attempts, she managed to reserve a bed for him at the Indira Gandhi hospital. Dabhadkar kaka, as he was fondly known as, started getting breathless while he was being taken to the hospital by his grandson-in-law, Wakhare wrote. As the two waited for the hospital formalities to be completed, Dabhadkar kaka saw a woman in her 40’s along with her children crying and begging the hospital authorities for a bed to admit her husband who was in a critical condition.
Without giving a second thought, Dabhadkar kaka calmly informed the medical team tending to him that his bed should be offered to the lady’s husband. He said, “I am 85 now, have lived my life, you should offer the bed to this man instead, his children need him.”
Facebook post narrating the incident
He then made his grandson-in-law call his daughter to apprise her of the decision. Perplexed on hearing his decision, she hesitantly agreed with him after a while. Dabhadkar kaka immediately signed a consent form saying he was forfeiting his bed for the young man and asked his grandson-in-law to take him back home.
After battling the virus bravely for the next three days, he left for his heavenly abode.
We have seen time and monetary sacrifices being made to give someone a better life, however, sacrificing one’s own life to ensure a long life for the other is surely an act not many can fathom.
With this let us also take a moment to thank our frontline workers, medical staff and individuals who have been serving society selflessly and tirelessly as the nation battles the pandemic.
Amidst the rising cases of Coronavirus in the country, a mosque caretake was reportedly thrashed by fellow Muslims for trying to enforce social distancing guidelines at a masjid. The incident took place on Saturday (April 24) in Devinagar in the Paonta Sahib town of Himachal Pradesh, as per a report in Amar Ujala.
As per reports, the victim has been identified as Abdul Aleem. He informed the police that he has been the caretaker of the Medina masjid for over 5 years. A resident of Ward No. 9, Aleem reportedly goes to the masjid every day to ensure its smooth function. At around 8 pm on Saturday night, he went to offer Namaz at the masjid. However, he found 20-30 locals offering prayers at the mosque premises in violation of social distancing rules.
The victim informed that government rules dictate that not more than 5 people can offer Namaz at one time at the masjid. When he tried to convey the same to the locals, it led to a heated argument. The frenzied mob then attacked the masjid caretaker Abdul Aleem. He was assaulted with sticks, and he fell to the ground. When the victim’s son Abdul Habej tried to intervene, he was also hit on the head with sticks.
During the violent attack, both Abdul Aleem and his son Abdul Habej were badly injured. They were rushed to the hospital and are currently undergoing medical treatment. A case has been registered against the accused by the police. According to District Superintendent of Police (DSP) Bir Bahadur, an investigation has been launched into the case. As of April 26, Himachal Pradesh has reported 13,577 active cases and a total of 1,336 fatalities.
As citizens of Delhi haplessly wander in a struggle to find a hospital bed for critical patients, the Delhi government has decided to reserve 100 rooms of the luxurious Ashoka Hotel in New Delhi for setting up of Covid care facility for the use of Justices, other judicial officers of Delhi High Court, and their family members.
Delhi government to convert 100 rooms of Ashoka Hotel for setting up of a Covid Health facility for Justices and other judicial officers of the Delhi High Court and their families. pic.twitter.com/6O4qnGu9Km
The decision comes after the AAP government received a request from the Delhi High Court to set up a Covid Hospital Care facility for Hon’ble Justices and other judicial officers.
The Primus Super Speciality Hospital of Delhi has been given the responsibility to manage the patients at Ashoka Hotel, a five-star facility. A detailed notification to that effect was issued by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Chanakyapuri, Geeta Grover.
Some key directions in the order include:
The Primus Hospital shall run the CHC facility at Ashoka Hotel
The staff of the hotel shall be provided all protective gear and given basic adequate training
Ambulance for the transfer facility will be provided by the Primus Hospital
For any shortage of hotel staff, the same will be provided by the Hospital
All the services including rooms, housekeeping, disinfection & food for the patients etc. shall be provided by the hotel
The charges shall be collected by the hospital and the hospital shall make the payment to the hotel
Delhi government asked to enhance health infrastructure
Delhi is currently witnessing an acute shortage of oxygen beds for critical COVID-19 patients. ICU facilities are no longer available because of the heavy influx of patients. The national capital recorded 350 deaths and 22,933 new coronavirus cases on Sunday.
Amid the soaring numbers, the Delhi HC has also requested the Delhi government to enhance health infrastructure by expanding sample collection and testing centres. The citizens have also been raising an alarm of the delay in test results.
PIL to consider judicial officers as frontline workers
Meanwhile, owing to the nature of work at a Court, a Public Interest Litigation plea has been filed by Shobha Gupta and other advocates enrolled with the Bar Council of Delhi before the Delhi High Court to treat the judicial officers as frontline workers and to reserve facilities in private/government Covid hospitals for the treatment of judicial officers and their families.
The petition stated that Covid protocols were not being followed in courts exposing the staff to the risks of Covid-19 amid the second wave.
This comes taking into consideration the fact that a number of judges and staff had fallen prey to the Covid-19 pandemic since January and some even lost the battle to the deadly virus.
As India grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, many in India are trying to put two and two together to figure out what could have gone wrong and whether anything could have been done after seeing the red flags. Twitter user Navroop Singh, who is an IPR attorney, on Tuesday took to Twitter to analyse whether the UK variant in Delhi came via ‘farmers protests’ by Punjab farmers.
UK strain has been most reported in Delhi with figures touching 50% in latest spread. The UK strain was first found in Punjab when NRIs got the strain with 80% cases in Punjab of UK strain. How did it spread from Punjab to UK – via Farmers Protests and the relay race of Villages.
Earlier in March, it was reported that over 80% of cases in Punjab were due to the UK variant of the Chinese coronavirus.
March report on UK Variant
As per reports, the UK strain was first found mostly amongst the NRIs who had returned from the UK. As per reports, in March Kapurthala and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar accounted for nearly 26% of percent of all COVID cases in Punjab. Punjab’s Doaba region comprising of these two districts contributed to 25.6% of all COVID related deaths on March 19. On April 5, it accounted to about 28% of COVID deaths in Punjab.
Doaba farmers continue to come to Delhi
Doaba is also known as the ‘NRI belt’. As per reports, the NRIs in this area are also a huge supporter of the Aam Aadmi Party. Ahead of 2017 state assembly elections, AAP supporters from abroad had campaigned for AAP candidates in the region. It is believed that may of the NRI relatives who visited their ancestral homes back in Doaba unknowingly brought the UK variant virus with them. Of the four districts falling under Doaba region, AAP has two MLAs.
The Doaba ‘farmers’ continued to march towards Delhi for the protests. Hence, unknowingly, from these regions, the infection seems to have reached the Singhu and other borders in Delhi where the Arhatiyas are protesting against farm laws.
Subsequently, the Central government raised concerns in April first week that the ‘farmers’ coming from Punjab to Delhi for ‘protests’ were causing the surge.
April report on UK variant causing surge
The Punjab ‘farmers’ might have unknowingly carried the infection to ‘farmer protest’ at Delhi borders and subsequently to Delhi. This can seen through the fact that the UK variant has been behind the surge in Delhi cases.
Delhi and UK variant
On 24 April, 2021, it was reported that the presence of highly transmissible UK variant had almost doubled in Delhi between first and last week of March. In March last week, it comprised of 50% of all samples in Delhi. In April first week, about 28% of the samples had the UK variant.
The UK variant (B1.1.7) emerged with an unusual number of mutations and affected the surge in UK since November 2021. This variant spreads more easily and quickly with 30-50% enhanced transmissibility than the original Chinese coronavirus that emerged in Wuhan.
Despite the warnings regarding severity of the infection, Arvind Kejriwal led Delhi government is not only letting the protests to continue but also providing facilities like free WiFi. It must be noted here that there have been reports that the oxygen transported to Delhi was delayed because the tankers had to take alternate route because the ‘farmers’ were blocking the borders and roads to Delhi. This led to the initial oxygen crisis in Delhi under which the national capital is still reeling under.
You can blame center for allowing Flights from UK when that strain spread to Punjab. But crowding Delhi borders with Protestors when Punjab was badly infected a highly infectious & lethal strain was criminal. And all those who backed it are equally culpable for the mess in Delhi.
As stated by Singh, the UK variant has not yet been reported from Haridwar Kumbh or in West Bengal where rallies were held.
On Monday, April 26, Delhi reported 20,201 new coronavirus cases and 22,055 recoveries. Total coronavirus cases have been over 10 lakh in Delhi while active cases currently stand at 92,358.
According to France’s chief anti-terrorism prosecutor, the Tunisian migrant who murdered a policewoman in France last week was radicalized into Islamic terrorism, on top of facing mental health issues.
The Islamist attacker, who has now been identified as 36-year-old Jamel Gorchene, fatally stabbed a 49-year old, mother of two, female police employee in Rambouillet, a Paris suburb, last Friday. The attacker shouted “Allahu Akbar” i.e. God is great in Arabic, during the stabbing. He was later shot and killed by a police officer after refusing to drop his knife.
Jean-Francois Ricard, France’s first prosecutor of the National Terrorism Prosecution Office, told media outlets that the attacker’s “radicalization hardly appears in doubt,” and that he suffered from “certain personality disorders.” Gorchene’s father told the prosecutor that his son had adopted a ‘rigorous practice of Islam’.
“On the other hand, he also said that he (Gorchene’s father) had noticed behavioral troubles since the beginning of this year,” the prosecutor added. Gorchene embraced “an ideology that legitimizes violence against those who offend the prophet,” the prosecutor Ricard said.
According to the investigators, Gorchene watched multiple videos of songs praising jihadist fighters and glorifying Jihad on his phone moments before the attack. A Koran and a prayer rug were found in his scooter afterwards, Ricard said.
Jamel Gorchene was originally an illegal immigrant who arrived in France illegally in 2009. However, just last year, Gorchene had received his French residency permit, and he had visited his family in Tunisia just last month.
Five people, including Gorchene’s cousin, have been detained in relation to the gruesome crime.
France has faced a wave of Islamist terror attacks since at least 2014, which has resulted in more than 250 casualties. Some notable ones include the Charlie Hebdo shooting, the 2016 Islamic State Nice truck attack resulting in 86 deaths, Samuel Paty’s murder last year, etc.
French President Emmanuel Macron met with the victim’s husband and said that France will not give up its fight against Islamic terrorism.
On Saturday (April 24), a 19-year-old girl named Nidhi Paswan was murdered at her residence by her stalker and his two aides. The incident took place in Krishnanagar street number-20 of Roorkee in Uttarakhand, which falls under the jurisdiction of Gangnahar police station.
As per reports, the primary accused has been identified as Haider Ali. He would stalk and pass derogatory remarks at the victim every day. He had even approached her for marriage but the offer was turned down by Nidhi. An enraged Haider, along with two aides Sariq and Riyan, reached her house on a bike. They broke into her home on Saturday afternoon and murdered her in broad daylight.
Her throat was slit open by the trio. While Riyan and Sariq managed to flee the crime scene, Haider was caught red-handed by locals after they heard the screams of the victim. He was then handed over to the police. Reportedly, Nidhi Paswan was a BBA student and also worked at a local beauty parlour. BJP MLA Deshraj Karanwal said, “These men killed an innocent girl brutally in broad daylight. They must be put behind the bars and the law should take its course against them.”
All accused arrested by the cops
He along with the family members of the victim staged a sit-in demonstration and demanded the immediate arrest of the three accused. While speaking about the matter, SP (rural) Pramendra Singh Dobal informed that a case was filed following a complaint by the victim’s brother Dinesh. The two absconding accused were arrested on Sunday morning by Inspector Manoj Manwal from near Rahimpur gate.
Haider Ali had planned a cold-blooded murder
The police also informed that Haider Ali knew the victim for over 3 years. On returning home from Dubai, he began chasing Nidhi every day. But an uninterested Nidhi did not pay any heed to him. The cops said that Haider and his two friends had come to her house with the intention to murder her. They had first thrashed the victim, before slitting her throat with a paper-knife.
Police team awarded for solving the case within 24 hours
SP Dobal said that a cash prize of ₹2.5K has been awarded to the police team for solving the case within 24 hours. The police team comprised Inspector Manoj Manwal, Sub Inspector Manoj Siraula, Sunil Ramola, Vinod Gola, Deep Kumar, Naveen Purohit, Lokpal Parman, Preity Tomar, Jehangir Ali, constable Bablu, Mukesh Joshi, Vijay, Sandeep, Zakir Ali, and others.
Nikita Tomar murder
In October 2020, a 21-year-old student Nikita Tomar was shot dead in full public view by two men outside the Aggarwal college in Ballabgarh, Faridabad. The video of the gruesome act caught on camera had gone viral.In the CCTV footage, the assailant was seen stepping out of his car and pulling out his revolver. Nikita was seen struggling to get free and she had managed to flee for a brief moment before the accused grabed her again.
While Nikita struggled to free herself from the man, he then shot her in point-blank range. The other accused, Mohammad Rihan, was also pulling Tauseef back into the car. Tomar had filed a molestation complaint against Tauseef a few months prior to her murder. However, the family later dropped the case. Her family had alleged that Tauseef started hounding her again and pressuring her to embrace Islam.
Last month, the district sessions court in Faridabad convicted prime accused Tauseef and his friend Rehan in the sensational Nikita Tomar murder case. The third accused, Azruddin, who had supplied a weapon to the accused, has been acquitted.
After Twitter removed left-wing activist Prashant Bhushan’s anti-mask tweet more than two weeks ago for spreading misinformation, many expected the former AAP member to calm down. However, in a tweet today, Prashant Bhushan attempted to slyly push the anti-vaccine narrative by raising doubts as to the efficacy of vaccines in the U.K. vis-a-vis India.
In order to make sure his tweet stays up and is not removed from Twitter, Bhushan masked his anti-vaccine narrative in the garb of criticizing “graphs”.
People use the graph of falling cases& deaths alongside rising vaccinations in UK, to show how effective vaccines are to stop the Pandemic. But see the same graph in India! I am not saying that Vaccines are responsible for the current wave, but graphs are not necessarily evidence pic.twitter.com/7TSJIHY6rh
In order to prove Bhushan’s anti-vaccine tendencies without a shadow of a doubt, one only needs to read Bhushan’s own words. On February 1 of this year, Prashant Bhushan announced that “Covid is naturally dying down in India!” and therefore the Finance Minister’s allocation of Rs. 35,000 crores to private vaccine companies at the time was somehow incorrect. Bhushan referred to the vaccines as “untested” in order to further propagate his anti-vaccine narrative.
FM announces 35,000 Cr of our money to be spent on Pvt Vaccine Companies for untested Vaccines at a time when Covid is naturally dying down in India! But this money cannot be given to poor migrant labour who lost their jobs or to Farmers for MSP on their crops. Wah FM sahiba!
On February 15, Bhushan once again questioned people who are “promoting untested vaccines in India”. In the same tweet, Bhushan makes assertions that Coronavirus is somehow slowing down in India, and laughably declares that Delhi and Mumbai are “at herd immunity”. For someone who has been this categorically wrong about the pandemic, we wonder why Prashant Bhushan continues to comment on it.
Don’t understand why people are still promoting untested Vaccines in India when Daily Covid cases, active cases&Covid deaths are down to 10% of peak&deaths are <100 daily. Sero surveys show that >30 Cr have been infected with death rates <1/2000. Delhi,Mumbai are at herd immunity https://t.co/m0g28iOmiZpic.twitter.com/IRbEb6CMQY
On March 30, Bhushan made his biggest anti-vaccine comment. In a tweet, Bhushan falsely claims that the vaccines promoted by the Government, including Bharat Biotech’s COVAXIN, are ineffective against the U.K. strain and the South African strain. However, a recent ICRM study concluded that COVAXIN is effective against both the U.K. variant and the South African variant. Prashant Bhushan provides no evidence for his claims of ineffective vaccines, obviously.
Amazing how Govt&media is hyping the fresh Covid wave& Vaccines, w/o asking whether fresh wave is due to UK & South African variants; &if these vaccines are effective against Variants. Punjab reported 84% of new cases are UK Variants. Studies show present vaccines are ineffective
In a tweet on April 10, Bhushan wrote, “The data suggest that facemasks are ineffective to block transmission of viral and infectious disease such as COVID-19. Wearing facemasks has been demonstrated to have substantial adverse physiological and psychological effects”. He had added this text from the quoted report, asking his followers on Twitter to “read this detailed study on Masks”.
Screenshot of the now removed tweet by Prashant Bhushan
Soon after he posted this anti-mask tweet, he was widely criticized on social media by users of all ideological leanings, including left-wing personalities. Many people had reported the tweet as spreading misinformation. As a result, Twitter removed the Tweet later in the day, saying that it violates Twitter Rules.
Drawing conclusions from Bhushan’s own words, it seems obvious that Prashant Bhushan inhabits some vaccine hesitancy, which does not come as a surprise considering he’s an Anti-Masker as well. However, the one thing which all the above-mentioned tweets/examples make clear is this, Bhushan is not a person to listen to when it comes to COVID-19, about masks, vaccines, or anything really. People will be much better off following the advice of doctors and scientists rather than a has-been political activist.
Australian fast bowler Pat Cummins took to Twitter today in order to announce his donation of 50,000 Australian Dollars to the PM Cares Fund specifically for the purchase of oxygen supplies. “India is a country I’ve come to love dearly over the years and the people here are some of the warmest and kindest I’ve ever met. To know so many are suffering so much at this time saddens me greatly,” the Kolkata Knight Riders star wrote in his post.
Even though the reactions to this announcement were overwhelmingly positive, some liberals on Twitter couldn’t resist the urge of throwing political shade at Pat Cummins in the form of ungrateful snarky replies. From ESPN journalists to online movie critics, liberals in all forms couldn’t simply accept Cummins’ grateful donation without a fuming repudiation of the PM Cares Fund, a fund specifically created for combating COVID-19.
The fuming Liberal reaction to Pat’s donation
Arjun Namboothiri, an ESPN journalist based in Bengaluru, was quick to utilize his verified check mark on Twitter to baselessly allege that the PM Cares Fund is somehow “mismanaged”. Not only that, Namboothiri then went on to link a Google Doc, ungratefully asking Cummins to donate to organizations listed in the Google doc, instead of the PM Cares Fund.
The ESPN journalist later deleted his baseless allegations, however a screenshot of the same was saved for posteriority.
Source: Twitter
Another Liberal, trying to conceal his inner anguish by writing “such a heartwarming gesture” proceeded to link so-called “deserving, authentic movements” where he thinks Pat Cummins should actually donate. Another example of ungratefulness.
Hi Pat! Such a heartwarming gesture!
Here is a list of deserving, authentic movements that are fighting covid in India. Please consider donating to one of them instead. https://t.co/Vf4VuuR68v
A self-identified Congress supporter informed Pat Cummins that his generosity is “immensely appreciated” but he has given it to the “wrong hands”. Then the person baselessly claims that the PM Cares Fund is “mainly used for winning elections”.
Your generosity is immensely appreciated @patcummins30 But you’ve given it to the wrong hands. #PMCaresFund is a private, unaudited fund. It was made in the backdrop of #COVID19 but mainly used for winning elections.
Saif Alam, a self-described “unapologetic Muslim” from Mumbai and founder of a Non-Profit smugly writes, “Hey Pat, could have donated to my cause, PM cares doesn’t care.”
— ????? ??????? | Cʜɪᴇғ SG (@tamizhsudhakar) April 26, 2021
Pearl Shah, some sort of influencer on Twitter, thanked Cummins for the “nice gesture” but questioned the funds going to PM Cares Fund instead of a so-called “genuine charity”.
What a nice gesture. But I wish it wasn’t the unaudited PMcares fund and a genuine charity. https://t.co/uAY6I7TdMy
Another Twitter user, who incidentally is a supporter of the IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders, the team Cummins plays for, wrote off Cummins’s donation as a “noble intention wasted”. The user then claims that Cummins contribution will end up “buying West Bengal MLAs” without any basis in fact.
PM cares fund? A noble intention wasted. Cummins contributed for Covid resources but it ended up buying WestBengal MLAs https://t.co/tWDSYmWE1b
Abijit Ganguly, a liberal stand-up comic, actually tried to forcefully request Cummins to donate to other charities that are “accountable”, instead of the supposedly unaccountable PM Cares Fund.
Thank you Pat. You’re a great guy. Just that don’t put the money in PM Cares. Repeated RTIs have led to the open announcement that it’s not accountable to anyone and any funds allocation won’t be disclosed. Pls donate to any of the other numerous charities that are accountable.
Sucharita Tyagi, a small YouTuber who reviews movies and somehow is verified on Twitter, also felt the need of making her sentiments known by urging Cummins to not donate to the PM Cares Fund. She later deleted her tweet.
Source: Twitter
The writing on the wall is clear, it appears that liberals seem to have no concept of national solidarity, and cannot look past political differences in order to deal with the pandemic. The message from Pat Cummins was pure, genuinely seeking to help out a country which he has visited multiple times over the years.
Pat Cummins also called upon fellow cricketers to donate and help out India during this coronavirus pandemic. It is sad to witness that non-Indians can look past differences in order to help India as a common good, however our fellow liberal Indians can not.
On April 25, a hacker group identified as ShinyHunters allegedly released data of 20 million Big Basket users for free on a hacker forum. The hacker wrote that the data file contains email, password (hashed), name, phone number, address, order details and other information of the users. It is believed that the data is from the infamous October 2020 breach. The information security firm Cyble Inc. had identified the breach and published a post on November 7 on its website.
Post by Shinyhunters on hackers’ forum
What had happened in 2020?
As per a detailed report published by global threat intelligence SaaS provider Cyble, the alleged data breach happened on October 14, 2020. Cyble detected the breach on October 30 during its routine Dark Web Monitoring. The data was available for $40,000. Cyble validated the data, and on November 1, they informed BigBasket about the breach. The company urged them not to disclose the breach. Cyble advised them to let the customers know as they have the right to know about the breach.
On November 2, Cyble started informing the customers about the breach. VP-Engineering, Big Basket, approached Cyble for support and service, but Cyble refused, stating it was a high-risk engagement. However, later Cyble agreed to provide free/non-obligatory services. Big Basket was supposed to disclose the agreement between Cyble and Big Basket, but nothing happened from Big Basket’s end.
On November 7, Cyble made a public disclosure about the breach. On November 9, Big Basket acknowledged that the data was leaked. It has to be noted that not only the data of Big Basket but other companies were also compromised. Cyble later found out that the infamous hacker group ShinyHunters was behind the breach. On November 12, it was revealed that a threat actor identified as The Polaris had paid ShinyHunters $40,000 for the data.
Cyble named in FIR by Big Basket
Interestingly, Big Basket named Cyble in its FIR registered on November 6, 2020, with the cyber cell of the Bengaluru Police against the data breach. Cyble said, “Ironically, it appears that the complaint has made against Cyble itself – who was the informant of the breach aka “shooting the messenger. Cyble reportedly handed over the matter to its legal team to take appropriate action against Big Basket over alleged false accusations.
Disclosure by Big Basket
On November 10, Big Basket made a disclosure statement on social media platforms and said that as the company has been using OTP for login, there was no need to change the password. However, the company did not say anything about the other information like name, address, phone number etc., getting leaked.
Dear bigbasketeers,
Here is an update on the alleged cyber breach issue. We will keep you updated on developments. Thank you for your continuous support and trust.
“The only customer data that we maintain are email IDs, phone numbers, order details, and addresses, so these are the details that could potentially have been accessed. We have a robust information security framework that employs best-in-class resources and technologies to manage our information. We will continue to proactively engage with best-in-class information security experts to strengthen this further,” Bigbasket said.
After the recent uproar, the company again issued a statement and said that no further action required. However, it does not mention that the data leaked has personal information including name, address and phone numbers that can be used by scammers.
Dear bigbasketeers,
Here is an update on the alleged cyber breach issue. Thank you for your continuous support and trust.
The SQL file that is available for free to download on the hackers’ forum allegedly contains full names, email IDs, password hashes (potentially hashed OTPs), pin, contact numbers (mobile + phone), full addresses, date of birth, location, and IP addresses of login among many others. OpIndia’s sources have revealed that the data made available by ShinyHunters on the hackers’ forum is legit, and it has all the information mentioned in the description. We cross-checked the information provided by our sources who had access to the data and confirmed it was true.
Experts’ views on the data breach
Alon Gal of UnderTheBreach said in a tweet thread, “To better understand how bad this type of hash is for the passwords, I can test 700,000,000,000 (700 billion) attempts at a password per minute with my RTX 3080.” “These passwords are essentially plaintext,” he added.
To better understand how bad this type of hash is for the passwords, I can test 700,000,000,000 (700 billion) attempts at a password per minute with my RTX 3080.
— Alon Gal (Under the Breach) (@UnderTheBreach) April 25, 2021
While talking to OpIndia, Sourajeet Majumder, Independent Security Researcher, called it shocking and disappointing. He said, “The leaked dataset includes phone numbers and other details of many famous personalities as well who are possibly users of Big Basket. I even found my own PII data as a part of the dataset, which was quite shocking and disappointing for me.”
The leaked dataset includes user’s names, SHA-1 hashed passwords, address, emails, phone numbers, IP address besides other details (screenshot attached). Fortunately, it doesn’t include any Credit Card details. (2/3) pic.twitter.com/H6PjCSqnBy
He added that there are high chances that this dataset which has been publicly dumped, is the same dataset for sale a few months back. “Since the scale of this data breach is quite alarming, Big Basket must look into this asap and notify it’s users about this breach so that they can stay alert from any scam calls or phishing campaigns,” he added.
I believe this can be the same dataset which was being sold by “ShinyHunters” in 2020 for ₹30 lakhs. However, the scale of the breach looks quite alarming and @bigbasket_com should look into this asap !@troyhunt you may want to add this at @haveibeenpwned 🙂 (3/3)
To stay on the safer side, user’s too must change the passwords of their social media accounts, if they have been using the same password which they once used to sign up on Big Basket. Additionally, they can visit haveibeenpwned.com to check if their PII data was leaked in this breach.
Sunny Nehra, Admin at Hacks And Security, told OpIndia that Big Basket should come forward and inform its users about the corrective steps it has taken since the breach. He also insisted that users should change their passwords to be on the safer side. “As the data has a lot of personal information, I would advise Big Basket users to stay cautious of the malicious links in emails and messages. Scammers, hackers and threat actors can use such data breach to initiate scams that can lead to financial losses.”
Troy Hunt of HaveIBeenPwned said that the 52% of the breached data information was already available on the website. Additional information has been added, and users can check if their information was leaked.
Where to check if your information has been leaked?
Cable made the breached information available on AmiBreached.com. Android and iOS users can get full access to their services by downloading the mobile application. You can also check it on HaveIBeenPwned.com.
About ShinyHunters
The group has been active since 2015. Other aliases of the group are Shiny Hunters, #TheDarkOverlord, Gnostic Players. NightLionSecurity reported that in 2016 they started began terrorizing and extorting organizations. It gained popularity due to the extortion of medical providers and the sale of stolen medical records. In 2017, they started extorting companies like Disney, Netflix and others, saying they will release advanced copies of their productions if their ransom demands were not met. In January, they announced a “change of ownership” on Twitter. NightLionSecurity said that the actions taken as part of The Dark Overload can be traced back to a hacker identified as Christopher Meunier of Calgary from Canada.
Ways to avoid cyber attacks
Do not click on any unverified or unidentified links in emails, messages or on social media platforms.
Do not open attachments from untrusted senders.
Download media from websites that you trust.
Do not plugin unfamiliar USBs into your computer.
Keep your security software updated and backup your data regularly.
Keep your passwords unpredictable. Do not use names, birthdates and other identifiable information. Change passwords regularly.
On Sunday (April 25), NDTV invited ‘epidemiologist’ Eric Feigl-Ding to discuss about the 2nd wave of Coronavirus in India.
During the interview with journalist Vishnu Som, Eric Feigl-Ding claimed, “The data in India is very poor. The number of deaths is not being reported properly. India is well on its way to million deaths by August 1.” He also predicted that the death toll might not even be 1 million but surpass 5 million by August as well. He asked the Indian government to splurge free aid to people and enforce curfews in the country. An ‘epidemiologist’ by profession, Eric Feigl-Ding also called for a ban on political rallies.
Screengrab of the tweet by NDTV
The ‘expert’ also claimed that there is a 20 times to 50 times deaths in crematoriums than what is being reported by the Government. He does not appear to be aware that Covid-19 is not the only cause of death in the world and people can die from other diseases as well.
For further context, around 27,000 people die in India every day from all causes. Between now and August, there are three months which is roughly 90 days. That is, on average, roughly 2,430,000 will die between now and August from all causes in India. According to the expert, Covid-19 deaths alone could surpass 5 million by August.
During an interview with India Today on April 16, the ‘epidemiologist’ went on to claim that the total number of cases in India could actually be 5-10 times higher than it was being recorded.
(Video Courtesy: Youtube/ India Today)
Who is Eric Feigl-Ding?
According to the Harvard TC Chan School of Public Health, Eric Feigl-Ding is a public health epidemiologist, nutritionist, and health economist. But there is more to him than what meets the common eye. His prolific rise as a ‘star expert’ on Coronavirus was uncharacteristic of any health researcher/epidemiologist or scientist. He chanced upon to read a research paper on Coronavirus and predicted the outbreak of a pandemic in January last year. He is also not an infectious disease expert, he is a chronic disease epidemiologist.
In a tweet (which now stands deleted), he wrote, “HOLY MOTHER OF GOD—the new coronavirus is a 3.8!!! How bad is that reproductive R0 value? It is thermonuclear pandemic level bad—never seen an actual virality coefficient outside of Twitter in my entire career. I’m not exaggerating.” The tweet went viral and the number of followers rose from a paltry 2000 to 1,60,000. Thus, Eric Feigl-Ding surpassed all other epidemiologists, featured in CNN and other liberal TV networks, and talked at lengths about the Coronavirus pandemic.
After his rise to fame, several epidemiologists have come forward to question his credentials. Under the condition of anonymity, one epidemiologist told the Chronicle of Higher Education that Eric Feigl-Ding has zero background in infectious disease research. He accused Ding of peddling a ‘bunch of half-truths’. Another epidemiologist regretted, “Everyone is very frustrated with him and regretting that we didn’t band together to discredit him.” Marc Lipstisch, the Harvard professor of epidemiology, has even labelled him as an ‘unqualified publicity seeker’.
On March 19 last year, Lipsitch tweeted that epidemiologists such as him don’t like a ‘charlatan exploiting a tenuous connection for self-promotion.’ In a now-deleted tweet, he opined that Ding’s analysis of Coronavirus was based on 80% conventional wisdom, 20% promotion of pseudoscience, and 100% derivatives. He added, “To be fair, given % above, most of what he says is not wrong. But he gets something spectacularly wrong sufficiently often that you just should find other parts of the firehose of info to drink from, and you will get better water.”
Screengrab of the tweet
Nutritionist turns Coronavirus expert: The case of Eric Feigl-Ding
Lipsitch further emphasised, “There are dozens of good lists of actual experts in some relevant topic out there to listen to on COVID. Eric is an expert on nutrition. Eric does have training in epidemiology, but it’s a big field.” Interestingly, the Chronicle of Higher Education also found that all of Eric Feigl-Ding’s academic articles focused on the health effects of exercise and diet. One of his listed research papers was about wearable devices that could help track physical activity. His scholarly articles were also based on the effects of childhood obesity, consumption of red meat and cancer risk, etc.
His academic interests centered around nutrition, for which he was appointed as an ‘unpaid visiting scientist’ in the Nutrition Department of Harvard University. Interestingly, such appointments last for only about a year. Nevertheless, he was warned ‘many times’ to stop promoting himself as someone equipped with ‘specialised knowledge’. However, the pandemic proved to be a perfect opportunity for Eric Feigl-Ding to taste success and fame.
Harvard Epidemiologist continues to shine despite several U-turns
To make things worse, Eric Feigl-Ding was not even the first to warn netizens about an impending pandemic. While speaking to NPR the previous day, Epidemiologist W. Ian Lipkin cautioned, “The outbreak is going to be much larger…we need to move very quickly if we’re going to contain this virus.”
But, Ding got the recognition only because he happened to quote excerpts from the research paper mentioned earlier. And even in the said tweet, he falsely claimed that R0 of SARS-Covid-1 (which led to pandemic in 2003) was 0.49 compared to the realistic figure of around 3. He had to later explain to his ‘new followers’ that he was not an infectious disease expert or epidemiologist.
Eric Feigl-Ding was forced to delete the very tweet that made him famous, owing to serious questions posed by netizens about his credibility. He also had to delete other tweets, suggesting genetic similarities between HIV and Coronavirus. He also once ended up equating ‘re-infection’ with that of ‘virus reactivation.’ He had also suggested that N-95 masks cannot prevent healthcare workers from contracting the flu and is of no use against the Wuhan Coronavirus as well. However, just weeks later, he was at the forefront of the Twitter campaign #masks4all.
Eric Feigl-Ding and ‘damage control’ mechanism
The Harvard ‘epidemiologist’ has tried to whitewash his double-speak or his sudden U-turns on his claims (such as the one on masks.) “We all misread a detail or a Y axis or an X axis. I feel like I’m pretty good at synthesizing what I read and trying to be able to translate it for the public,” he justified. Eric Feigl-Ding also took offence to comments made by Marc Lipsitch. “It’s pretty insane to make a claim that 20 percent is pseudoscience. I do not want to dignify all this pettiness in the middle of a pandemic,” he said in his defence.
Not an expert in infectious diseases but still felicitated as top Covid healthcare professional
Eric Feigl-Ding also said that he was not an expert in infectious diseases and that he had never misrepresented his credentials. Furthermore, he said that his knowledge is based on his degree as a ‘general epidemiologist.’ While talking about his Twitter theatrics, he said, “A lot of my followers, unless you spoon-feed it to them, they won’t read it.” Despite no background in infectious diseases, Eric Feigl-Ding was placed second on the Covid list of top 100 Healthcare professionals.
Screengrab of the tweet
He also enjoyed considerable support from the President of the Federation of American Scientists named Ali Nouri. “I think some of the criticism has to do with his style rather than the substance…It’s not typically what scientists do, but it’s been working for Eric,” Nouri emphasised. Even the Democratic Governor of New Jersey Phil Murphy had vowed to take his help to flatten the Curve in New Jersey.
NDTV, Harvard, and a non-expert in Coronavirus
His outspoken nature, lack of domain expertise, his association with the Harvard University, and the ability to make outlandish claims such as 5 million Covid-19 deaths by August in India made him an ideal guest for NDTV. For Indians, who require continuous brainwashing from foreigners to understand their own problems, Eric serves as the right candidate.
While India is facing a surge in Coronavirus cases, a ‘non-expert’ in Coronavirus was thus the need of the hour for NDTV. With his political commentary feeding the anti-Modi lobby, Eric set the platform to peddle more fear in the minds of the Indians distraught for the Chinese virus.
