[zenren]

I don't see any issue in the crackdown by the Delhi Police. If someone is flouting the law, the Police has every right to nab them. With this modus operandi, the police is not even inconveniencing a passenger which would have been the case if they did the checking on the main roads and seized the vehicles.

With a new incident of sexual harassment charge lodged against another Uber driver in Delhi recently, there is no surprise in this latest wave of crackdown from police. I'm not sure if there would be any small charge against the victim too, since she was using a banned taxi service and indirectly promoting the operation of the taxi service despite the ban.

For those who are against the crackdown of police against Uber, would you not hold the government and police partially accountable in case someone you know has to endure a bad experience from a Uber driver? Once an unfortunate incident happens, we always hear the discussion regarding how the government and police should have intervened earlier to prevent it.

Probably the high earning potential with Uber and the likes is making some of those criminal minded people to take up this job to make easy money and their animal instincts would be still with them, waiting for a chance. I can't think of any other reason why there are more such incidents reported with the new generation providers recently compared to the conventional taxi cabs which were always operating on our streets all these years.

[drmohitg]

+1. I was listening to the ACP, Delhi Traffic Police today morning on the radio. And I don't have any reason to not agree with him. One can question the motive and the timing but there is no hiding from the fact that currently these companies are flouting the law and hence the law has every right to put an end to such business practices.

[msdivy]

Taxi hailing service Ola's website hacked

Online taxi hailing service Ola's website was today hacked with attackers claiming to have accessed user information like credit card details, a claim that the firm vehemently denied, saying there was no security lapse and only "dummy" user values had been compromised.

This is the fallacy of asking such companies store credit card details. 100% sure that they will goof up.

[vivek.ks]

Originally Posted by msdivy

Taxi hailing service Ola's website hacked

This is the fallacy of asking such companies store credit card details. 100% sure that they will goof up.

This was just a Dev server with dummy values. No production data was accessed. I wonder why media is not reporting that

[hserus]

Originally Posted by vivek.ks

This was just a Dev server with dummy values. No production data was accessed. I wonder why media is not reporting that

Speaking as someone who has worked in security since the mid 90s -

1. Staging and dev environments are supposed to be an exact match to production

2. If their SQL tables and everything else are out there for the taking in staging, they are very likely to be so in production as well

3. Credit card data is supposed to be stored encrypted on disk and is subject to other strong controls based on PCI-DSS. Passwords need to be hashed and also stored so that random other system components can't get their hands on it (which is why you have SAML or OAUTH authentication tokens). None of those appear to be followed in the dev environment.

4. Dev and staging environments need to be firewalled off from the general public and only accessible over a VPN - these clearly weren't, unless an Ola developer's VPN credentials were also compromised (which doesn't seem to be the case).

In other words, what I see in their dev environment doesn't fill me with too much confidence. I am thinking of going back to plain old cash payments and no online shopping at all for the vast majority of Indian portals.

[JD1]

Originally Posted by hserus

I am thinking of going back to plain old cash payments and no online shopping at all for the vast majority of Indian portals.

Don't you use Verified by Visa/3D secure/MasterCard secure code as an additional auth for online transactions?

[hserus]

Originally Posted by JD1

Don't you use Verified by Visa/3D secure/MasterCard secure code as an additional auth for online transactions?

I do. But let us put it this way - if some genius stores your name, card #, cvv2 and expiry date in an unprotected database, anybody who gets that dataset can use your card on any number of payment gateways that don't enforce 3D secure. Or just clone your card data onto a magstripe and use it on any number of older POS terminals around the world that don't enforce chip and pin, or are set to bypass it.

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by vivek.ks

This was just a Dev server with dummy values.

Why is their Dev server facing the Internet?

Originally Posted by hserus

In other words, what I see in their dev environment doesn't fill me with too much confidence.

Security is the last frontier for most the companies. Their primary goal is to get the feature out ASAP and then later add security, if required. So better be safe with your cards & eWallet.

[vivek.ks]

Originally Posted by msdivy

Why is their Dev server facing the Internet?

You are correct in your statement. It should be available publically

[triedeverything]

I hope this is the right thread to ask this question. My parents (senior citizens) will be in Chennai for a few days. They will arrive only at night, after 11 pm. They are not very app savvy. I've booked rooms for them and want to be sure that they aren't taken for a ride by the taxi/auto wallahs. Is there a way that I can book an OLA taxi for them (using the app from Bangalore), so that they can be picked up from the railway station in Chennai and taken straight to the hotel? If no, what's the best alternative for transport? My dad knows Tamil, but otherwise, it's probably an all new place for them. Since it is the Indian railways, I don't want to book in advance ... not sure how delayed it will actually be.

TIA

[cpbopanna]

Originally Posted by triedeverything

I hope this is the right thread to ask this question. My parents (senior citizens) will be in Chennai for a few days. They will arrive only at night, after 11 pm. They are not very app savvy. I've booked rooms for them and want to be sure that they aren't taken for a ride by the taxi/auto wallahs. Is there a way that I can book an OLA taxi for them (using the app from Bangalore), so that they can be picked up from the railway station in Chennai and taken straight to the hotel? If no, what's the best alternative for transport? My dad knows Tamil, but otherwise, it's probably an all new place for them. Since it is the Indian railways, I don't want to book in advance ... not sure how delayed it will actually be.

TIA

The safest alternative is to request the hotel to arrange a pick-up from the railway station. Please don't take any chances trying apps at this late hour!

[mvadg]

Originally Posted by hserus

Speaking as someone who has worked in security since the mid 90s -

<snip>
In other words, what I see in their dev environment doesn't fill me with too much confidence. I am thinking of going back to plain old cash payments and no online shopping at all for the vast majority of Indian portals.

@hserus and others in this area (security).

1. Which, according to you are the 'safer' Indian portals (yes, I agree, your answers will in no way make you liable in any way in case of any unfortunate...)?
   
2. What advice do you have for the paranoid using some of these online portals?
   
3. Lets say, I have imprudently given my card details to some of these unsafe portals, what could I do to reduce my exposure to fraud?

I tend to use cash everywhere, but in cases where its just not feasible, I'd like to reduce the risk to an absolute minimum.

TIA

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by hserus

3. Credit card data is supposed to be stored

Personally, I never use online cab apps if that requires providing credit card information in a manner where it could be stored. In lieu of that:

1. I load amounts upto 1k / 2k in "wallet" via netbanking (E.g. : For UBER)
2. Pay in cash (E.g. : For Meru)

For other online activities:

1. I opt for cash on delivery (and pay by credit card at that point)
2. Pay be netbanking
3. If it is unavoidable, I use a credit card with very low limit

Originally Posted by mvadg

I tend to use cash everywhere, but in cases where its just not feasible, I'd like to reduce the risk to an absolute minimum.

Key is to ensure that site/app can not initiate payment in future without any action on your side.

In worst case (E.g.: Airline that provides no other payment option and has the only flight to a country/city/date), I pay by card and than report the card as lost. That costs approx 100 - 200 Rs.

[hserus]

Originally Posted by triedeverything

Is there a way that I can book an OLA taxi for them (using the app from Bangalore)

Just book using olacabs.com and specify the train number + approx arrival time as published on the timetable. There are enough cabs in the area that the driver can call them and work things out, or hand off to a different driver.

The other alternative is that there is a prepaid taxi stand (fast track) just outside the side entrance (where you turn to the right instead of going out straight where the buses stop)

Originally Posted by mvadg

@hserus and others in this area (security).

1. Which, according to you are the 'safer' Indian portals (yes, I agree, your answers will in no way make you liable in any way in case of any unfortunate...)?
   
2. What advice do you have for the paranoid using some of these online portals?
   
3. Lets say, I have imprudently given my card details to some of these unsafe portals, what could I do to reduce my exposure to fraud?

The foreign portals tend to have better security and more well defined customer service practices. For online shopping amazon.in works fine. They presumably use the same payments infrastructure and are supervised by the same security team as amazon worldwide. For taxis just use ola and settle with the driver using cash. I think uber now allows that as well.

There are some alternatives you can use - get your bank to issue you a low limit debit or credit card (basic card, not 5+ lakh limit visa signature etc) and use that for shopping.

Or otherwise (if you get benefits such as miles on your card) watch your cc online statement like a hawk, set up sms + email alerts etc so that any funny transactions are immediately picked up and flagged to your card provider for dispute. Online, don't ever make a cc transaction on a site that doesn't deploy ev-ssl (several browsers denote that with a green ssl lock icon).

This last part is all ot to this thread topic. Please pm me if you want more help - I will suggest things if I can (given limited time).

If you gave your data to some portal / restaurant chain / brick and mortar store / wherever, which you find out has suffered a data breach, or if you start to see funny txns on your card, immediately cancel it and get your bank to issue you a new one.

[tanwaramit]

Originally Posted by triedeverything

I hope this is the right thread to ask this question. My parents (senior citizens) will be in Chennai for a few days. They will arrive only at night, after 11 pm. They are not very app savvy. I've booked rooms for them and want to be sure that they aren't taken for a ride by the taxi/auto wallahs. Is there a way that I can book an OLA taxi for them (using the app from Bangalore), so that they can be picked up from the railway station in Chennai and taken straight to the hotel? If no, what's the best alternative for transport? My dad knows Tamil, but otherwise, it's probably an all new place for them. Since it is the Indian railways, I don't want to book in advance ... not sure how delayed it will actually be.

TIA

Its so simple, change your location by search and point to the location where your parents are (at that time).

I have done it multiple times. In my account (in uber app), I have booked several times for my brother in Mumbai with me being in Delhi.

Once driver calls, I just connect them Or tell them that the driver has reached.

He has old iPhone which doesn't has iOS 7 (min requirement for Uber app).

Try out this well in advance, infact right when you read this. so that you are confident of booking the cab at that time.