Hi-tech Crime via Your Home PC

Recently, BBC showed just how at risk PCs are of being taken over by hackers. Hijacked home PCs are being used by hackers to send out millions of spam e-mails. In a special broadcast last March 14, BBC demonstrated how this is done.

Hackers use slave home PCs to bombard its target website with requests for access to make it inaccessible.High-traffic websites with big revenues are a "massive target" for this. Hackers can 'disable' a website and cause it to exceed its bandwith. According to the BBC, these high-trafic websites end up paying "ransom" money to hackers so that they would stop their attacks.

We have to make necessary steps to ensure that our home PCs don't become hackers' "toys". There are no visible signs that our PC is being controlled by someone else, we really can't tell. Our PCs can be compromised by visiting an infected web page or by opening an e-mail containing a virus as an attachment. Protection systems really need to be switched on and kept updated all the time to prevent being taken over by these cyber-criminals.

Tribute to women

International Women's Day, celebrated during March 8, is an occasion marked by women's groups around the world. This date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday.

When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day, they can look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.

This is a day when ordinary women are remembered as part of those who made history. It is rooted in the centuries-old struggle of women to participate in society on an equal footing with men. In ancient Greece, Lysistrata initiated a sexual strike against men in order to end war; during the French Revolution, Parisian women calling for "liberty, equality, fraternity" marched on Versailles to demand women's suffrage.

As a tribute to all the women in my life, I will share this poem written by Lilia Quindoza Santiago (with my own translation in English --I hope it suffices):

Isang Tugon kay Elynia: Ang Pagiging Babae [In Response to Elynia: On Being a Woman

Ayaw kong isumpa ang pagiging babae I don't want to curse my being a woman
Sa panahong ito, kabarong makata, during these times, co-poetess
Kahit pa sugatan ang lahat ng sulok though wounds scar each and every corner
Ng puso ko't kaluluwa. of my heart and soul.
Ayaw kong isuko ang kayariang I don't want to give-up the identity
Ako rin ang bumubuo. that I myself carved.
Di ko ipamimigay I will not give away
Ang mumunting butil ng diwang even a small grain of consciousness
Ako rin ang bumubuhay. that I myself gave birth to.

Totoong "kasumpa-sumpa True, "to be a woman in this time of war is
ang maging babae sa panahong ito" to be cursed"
Kung panatag nating aakuin If we peacefully accept
Ang hinulmang pagkatao the image that was carved for us
Sa mga nagdaang siglo through the past centuries
Nang walang pagtangi sa sarili without arguing for our own identity
O walang pagsalungat sa pang-aapi. or without fighting against oppression.

Ngunit sa ganang akin But in my opinion,
Ang pagkababae'y marami pang kahulugan being a woman has many more meanings
Bukod sa pagtutol sa kostumbre't kaugalian than contradicting norms and customs
Ang pagiging babae'y pagkatha being a woman is creating
Ng mga tulang di pa nalilikha; poetry that has never been created;
Ang pagiging babae'y pag-awit being a woman means singing
Ng di pa naririnig songs that have never been heard
Ang pagiging babae'y pagtuklas being a woman means discovering
Ng daigdig na di pa natutuklasan, a world undiscovered as yet,
Ang pagiging babae'y paghubog being a woman means molding
Ng mundong di pa nabubuo a world not yet fully formed
Ang pagiging babae'y pagluwal being a woman means giving forth
Ng buhay na di pa nararanasan. a life that has not yet been experienced.

Ngunit higit sa lahat, ang pagiging babae'y But most of all, being a woman is
Higit pa sa lahat ng ito more than all of these
Na tayong kababaihan lamang bilang tao That only us women as people
Ang tanging makakatanto. can truly understand. ]