World and Pakistan Lost Talented Arfa Karim, Youngest MCP

The World's Youngest Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP), Arfa Karim from Pakistan has passed away and lost the battle of life at the age of sixteen (16), after remaining admitted at Combined Military Hospital (CMH), Lahore Pakistan on Saturday Night (14-Jan-2012), she breathed her last after being in coma for over 26 days at CMH Lahore (Pakistan). Arfa Karim had earned the Microsoft Certification at the age of Nine (9) and she died at the age of sixteen (16).

Arifa Karim remained in intensive care at Combined Military Hospital (CMH), Lahore after suffering an epileptic seizure and cardiac arrest a few weeks ago that caused severe heart and brain damage. This ultimately led to a heart attack. She had been on life support. Arfa Karim suffered cardiac arrest on December 22, and had been under treatment at CMH since. Microsoft had also arranged a team which was following her case closely along with Pakistani doctors. After battling for life for 26 days, one of Pakistan's brightest talent left this world for good.

Arfa Karim was born in 1995 and she achieved the honor of World�s Youngest Microsoft Certified Professional when she was only 9 years old in 2004. Bill Gates, the Chairman of Microsoft, invited Arfa to visit the Microsoft Headquarters in the USA in the age of 10 only. Arfa Karim was also certified for flying a plane at a flying club in Dubai at the age of 10. Arfa was also honored by the Pakistan Government for the Fatima Jinnah Gold Medal in the field of Science and Technology and she had also got the Youth Award in 2005 from Pakistan Government and Arfa has also won the Presidential Award for Pride of Performance.

Pakistan and World has lost the talented girl and May her soul Rest in Peace (R.I.P.). Her funeral will be offered in native city Faisalabad, Pakistan.

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11:17 AM | 0 comments

Pakistan To Ban Encryption Software And VPN Connections Within Country

Pakistan's Telecommunication Authority (PTA), a governing body in Pakistan which looks after and maintains country's network traffic and also examines website structure and its access points within country has blocked encryption VPN connection in Pakistan due to terrorism and other hacking activities. It�s not a first time that Pakistan has banned any particular website or connection, In past Pakistan and PTA had also banned popular social networking website "Facebook� because of blasphemous material about the religion on Facebook.

According to the Guardian report, the banned was made over encryption and VPN connections specifically targeting Virtual Private Network (VPN) in country. All internet traffic in the country travels through the Pakistan Internet Exchange, which can be intercepted by the military and civil intelligence agencies. The move echoes a crackdown against encrypted communications across the border in India and in China. 

People have been using VPNs to bypass the filters, access data, and send private communications, but the PTA is requiring ISPs to report customers who are still using this technology. In Pakistan most of the company's owners are not happy with this step from PTA because in Pakistan many local and international companies use VPN technology in order to maintain an end-to-end tunnel that can be used to encrypt sensitive data between branch offices, and those connections will fall under this ban. According to the PTA note people can request waivers to this ban, but it is unclear how that process will work and who will be allowed to apply for these exceptions.

The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority legal notice urged ISPs to report customers using "all such mechanisms including EVPNs [encrypted virtual private networks] which conceal communication to the extent that prohibits monitoring". Anyone needing to use this technology needs to apply for special permission

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8:51 AM | 0 comments