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Facebook honours Kerala teenager for helping rectify a WhatsApp bug

Agencies
June 5, 2019

Alappuzha, Jun 5: Facebook has honoured a 19-year-old student from Kerala for spotting a memory corruption bug on its instant messaging platform WhatsApp, the media reported.

K.S. Ananthakrishna, a B.Tech student at Pathanamthitta Mount Zion College of Engineering College, detected the bug that enabled other people to completely remove files on WhatsApp without knowledge of the user, according to a report in Kerala-based Mathrubhumi on Monday.

A resident of Alappuzha, Ananthakrishna had found the bug two months ago and informed Facebook officials.

Facebook examined the solution provided by the young student and after two months of observation, then social networking giant decided to honour him for successfully identifying the error and also suggesting a fix to rectify the error.

Besides presenting him with a cash award of $500 (approximately Rs 34,000), Facebook also promised a spot for Ananthakrishna in the prestigious Hall of Fame, according to the report. Ananthakrishnan’s name is mentioned at the 80th spot in Facebook’s Thanks List this year.

In addition to his research on ethical hacking, Ananthakrishna is also engaged in working for Kerala Police Cyberdome, a research and development centre of Kerala Police. According to a Mathrubhumi report, Ananthakrishnan is the son of Krishnakumar of Alappuzha Moncompu Krishnavihar and Mathrubhumi agent Sreeja. 

WhatsApp recently also detected a code developed by Israeli cyber intelligence company, NSO on its platform that allowed hackers to install spyware on a user’s smartphone through a WhatsApp call. This meant that a WhatsApp call could make your entire data vulnerable to NSO, even if you didn’t answer the call.

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News Network
April 7,2020

Udupi, Apr 7: The district administrations of Udupi and Uttara Kannada districts have appealed to the state government to request Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to allow COVID-19 tests at Manipal’s Kasturba Hospital.

Kasturba Hospital was granted approval by the ICMR to conduct tests on samples to detect the novel coronavirus on March 24, however it rescinded it later.

Udupi district Deputy Commissioner (DC) G Jagadeesha stated that the Council did not provide any reason for the cancellation of approval; his office has requested the Chief Secretary to pressurise the Council in granting approval again.

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News Network
February 6,2020

Shivamogga, Feb 6: A youth, who allegedly uploaded pornography and inappropriate videos of children on social media, was arrested by the district CEN police after a tip-off from the CyberTipline.

The accused is a resident of Sorab taluk and is said to be below 18 years. He uploaded the objectionable content during April and May last year. He was traced based on the IP address of his computer and the mobile call records shared by the investigating agencies.

He was arrested in January under the provisions of the Information Technology Act 2000 and sent to judicial custody, said police sources.

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News Network
April 1,2020

Bengaluru, Apr 1: Karnataka government along with BBMP has asked project contractors, builders and developers in the city not to send their labourers to their native place and instead provide them with amenities like food and shelter in this lockdown period.

It was also warned with legal action would be taken against them if they violating the instructions from the government .

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