A HI TECH JIHADI IN YAHOO

Last year, 31-year-old software engineer Mohammed Mansoor Asgar Peerbhoy, principal software engineer with Yahoo, who is now accused of masterminding terrorist attacks on India, completed a course in ethical hacking and cyber crime, posted his feedback about the course as: "Mind-boggling". Mannu added, "Really unleashes the power of information." You bet!

Mannu alias Peerbhoy is a principal engineer / architect at Yahoo India and reportedly earns 19, 00, 000 Rs. per year. And yet he decided to attack the very country which gave him birth, education, ensured his safety and growth to such an exalted position by bombing the country and killing hundreds and thousands of innocent people and children.

Mansoor attended the six-day course on network security at Internet security solutions firm E2Labs in Banjara Hills, Hyderabad. "It was a one-time crash course on network security, and Mansoor had already done some courses on the subject," said a spokesperson for E2Labs. The course included training in protection of information security, cyber law, phishing, hacking, identity theft and online fraud. It is obvious he made good use of his training.

Investigators said Mohammed Mansoor Peerbhoy, 31, was the head of a "media terror cell" made up of "highly qualified, computer-savvy people belonging to good and educated families" who had drafted emails sent just before or after the blasts in Delhi, Ahmedabad in Gujarat and Jaipur in Rajasthan.

"The Indian Mujahideen started a media wing with software engineers," Rakesh Maria, joint commissioner of Mumbai police, told reporters. "They had the technical knowledge to know to send out messages just before the blasts and after the blasts took place."

Peerbhoy was one of 15 men arrested by police in Mumbai in connection with an alleged plan to bomb the city during the current holiday season.

Peerbhoy's role - along with two other software engineers - is alleged to have been to hack into unsecured wireless internet sites in Mumbai to send emails that spoke of "blowing apart your tourism structure … and demolishing your [Hindu] faith in the dirty mud".

via Guardian

You also heard that he was very tech savvy and an nginx (a faster and apparently better alternative to Apache web server or even lighttpd web server) expert. Just how tech savvy was he?

• On file descriptors
• demonstrates detailed knowledge on nginx and unix process model
• demonstrates strong understanding of httpd as well as nginx
• more httpd knowledge
• he knows nginx
• strong understanding of socket, tcp handshake and more
• suggests a patch (bug fix) to nginx
• suggests architectural changes to nginx
• he knows linux

If I were to evaluate him as a software developer just based on his email communication, I would easily give him 7-8 out of 10. He has deep subject knowledge. He has taken a keen interest in working with nginx community to improve the software and also he is in general helpful to others. He communicates well and appears to have a good rapport with Igor, nginx creator.

I don't blame Yahoo for hiring him. His credentials and his internet profile can easily give him a cozy job anywhere, that is until you know who he really is, a jehadi bent upon killing all non-moslems and for what? .. getting virgins / houris in heaven?

How can a company know that a smart, tech savvy professional can be a jehadi in disguise? I wonder how his colleagues at Zimbra are feeling today…

Test for ethics?

Should companies include a test for ethics before hiring? Such employees can seriously tarnish the image of their companies and their hiring policies. Imagine what would have happened if he decided to take it out on his colleagues!

Read his full profile : TIMES OF INDIA REPORT