How I got myself a capable laptop

It all started with my old (and very hated) HP Pavilion notebook (i5, 12 GB RAM, 500 GB HDD) almost dying on me. I wanted to get a new laptop, the only reason I stuck with HP for so many years was that I got it as a gift and I wanted to squeeze every drop of use I could get from it.

Well, let's get a new one then, and I wrote down what I needed -

Must have

1. Good, tactile, backlit keyboard
2. HDMI, not micro HDMI
3. Screen less than 13 inches
4. Good battery life

 Should have

1. i5-i7 would do, AMD Ryzen as well
2. Should be portable
3. Easy to open, repair and upgrade
4. USB 3.0
5. RAM 8 GB or more
6. 256 GB SSD or more

 Nice to have

1. Should support extra battery
2. SIM card slot
3. Swivel support
4. Graphics card
5. MIL-STD-810G
6. Fingerprint sensor for easy login

My options were quite limited considering what I needed would be automatically expensive - I was looking at spending at least INR 75000-100000 (USD ~1000-1300) to get a new one. That too a base model. 

I didn't mind buying a used one, if it served my purpose and was in good condition. I reached out to my connects in hardware segment and asked for their advice. 

A used Ferrari is always a Ferrari, a new ALTO will never match it.

Point well noted.

They referred me to leased laptop distributors, which typically have inventories of laptops which are leased to corporate for 2-3 years and then brought back once the contract is over. Since they are used, people are less inclined to buy them, but their configurations are top notch as compared to their retail consumer segment counterparts and they are built to repair. These laptops are then dismantled and their parts flood the after sales market. The distributors are more than happy if their laptops are sold before they are dismantled.

After having friendly chitchat with a lot of distributors, I finally narrowed my options to Lenovo X250 and an HP EliteBook. The keyboards were nice and tactile and the form factor was small. At one of the distributors, from a heap of laptops, I picked 2 and I asked the person if I can open it. He said why not, and he opened it for me. Both were in good condition, sporting 256 GB SSDs, 8 GB RAM, i5 5th gen processors and were costing INR 14000 (~USD 190), a far cry from new ones, but workable configuration. I asked about warranty and after a bit of negotiation, he agreed for a 1-year repair warranty for INR 2500 (~USD 34). Windows 10 pro was provided for free.

I was about to settle it for X250 one (as it had more ports, was smaller and checked almost everything I needed), one of associates waltzed in and said, "we just got a shipment of some new stock". I asked if I could take a look and they pointed me to next door.

From a heap of X260s I picked 3 - one with no battery and i7 6gen, one with an extra 6 cell battery with i5 6gen and one had 1 TB HDD. I asked if I could swap parts, and they said we don’t care, it’s all the same for us.

I took the extra battery and plugged it into i7 one. CPUZ said it had Skylake i7 6600u and Samsung 8 GB built in. It had 256 GB SSD and a working WWAN module (SIM module) as well. Single memory slot (DDR4, 260 pin SODIMM) but was easy to open and clean. After playing it with for 1 hour, post testing all the ports, modules, running some stress tests, and haggling a bit, I went home with a deal at INR 17000 (~USD 230) with 1-year warranty from distributor, Windows 10 pro bundled.

Then I did some research and checked the maximum RAM it supported - 16GB, 2133MHz DDR4, non-parity. Probably, enough for what I do. 2133 MHz is a bit hard to get by, so a better option was to buy 2666 MHz one since it will run automatically at 2133 Mhz. I did some research (read: going through Reddit threads, Lenovo forums) and found that one user was able to successfully upgrade it with 32 GB of RAM (M471A4G43MB1, costs around INR 27000/ ~USD 370 even more expensive than the laptop). Post upgrading to latest BIOS, I decided to take the risk and got myself a cheaper one (ADATA AD4S2666732G19, 32 GB RAM, 2666 MHz, INR 9000/ ~USD 122) from one of the distributors.

Went back home, disabled internal battery from BIOS, unscrewed & pried back cover and disconnected battery cable. Swapped out 8GB one with 32 GB one. Connected battery cable, power cable and was met with POST screen. Assembled everything back again and ran memtest86 and windows memory diagnostics. Everything was squeaky clean :). Hardened everything, installed virtual box, migrated my VMs, installed emulators and voila, my new system is ready.

I have been using X260 since last 6 months as my primary laptop with the following configuration which runs multiple VMs simultaneously, is used for maintaining remote infrastructure, occasional retro gaming/ emulation and occasional writing :  

1. Tactile backlit keyboard
   
2. 6th Gen Intel Core i7-6600U Processor, Turbo Boost 2.0 (3.4GHz)
3. 32 GB memory (ADATA AD4S2666732G19)
4. 12.5" HD (1366 x 768) IPS
5. 256 GB Samsung SSD
6. 3 Cell internal + 6 cell external battery
7. SIM card slot (WWAN)
8. 3 USB 3.0 ports (Superspeed)
9. 1 HDMI/ 1 Mini DisplayPort
10. 4-in-1 Card Reader (MMC, SD, SDHC, SDXC)
11. Intel I219 Gigabit LAN & Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260, with Bluetooth® 4.1
12. MIL-STD-810G compliant
13. Weighs around 1.5 KG
14. Bundled Windows 10 Pro

Total Cost - INR 26000 / ~USD 352

Lessons learnt –

1. Research, hunt and haggle
2. Be very specific about your requirements
3. Technology evolves every day, see what fits your needs on a long-term basis

Subnormality–The Webcomic that demands your reading.

Its feels like aeons since I have written anything at Prohack. Actually, I got busy with my side projects, job & some pretty shitty sticky situations (I am looking at your CitiBank) .

Life was crawling ahead & first time in my life I truly felt helpless against the greater powers acting, but that’s an another story for some other time. Life at Orange has been good, has technology , scenarios & responsibilities that actually empower you. So far so good, lets see how it goes ahead. 

Nevertheless, its not my life I have come to discuss today here, its something about a webcomic I read too much. I have always been a fan of webcomics, be it the all time classic "User Friendly" or the new ones (well they are fairly old by internet standards but still..) xkcd,The Oatmeal , Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal , Penny Arcade , Cyanide & Happiness , Awkward Zombie , Brawl in the Family ,Hijinks Ensue , Dualing Analogs , Dinosaur Comics , JL8 & some pretty cool others (read:too tired to type); they have been a part & parcel of my life since the time I became a netizen.

Be it sublime humour, philosophy , video games or just anything, I believe web comics as a medium ace anything contemporary. Then in & around ~2008 I came across Subnormality, A comic within the umbrella of Viruscomix which are described as "Comix with too many words since 2007" by author Winston Rowntree, & I was blown away by its content. I was instantly hooked & 5 years later, I am a fan.

It has been satirical, practical , intricately detailed , heart-warming , absurd, carefully drawn, full of easter eggs & pop culture references & caters to a very specific audience who have the patience to handle ~1500 - 2000 word texts inside speech bubbles just for the sake of reading a webcomic. But once you see through the veil, trust me, its one hell of a gem that demands a reading.

Just in case its not your cup of tea, you can go through Abnormality which I believe is a fork of Subnormality created to cater Cracked.com & is equally good.

Also, Winston's other comix at Viruscomix are “Sector 41” (a nod to Akademgorodok/Zheleznogorsk), "Things they Dont tell you (but should)" which are a must read.

Just in case you want to test the waters before getting addicted to awesome webcomics by Winston Rowntree, you can read

1. Monstrous Discrepancies
2. Understanding Nuclear Weapons
3. Seven Reasons
4. The Closer you get
5. Video Game Design
6. Logo Design primer
7. The Stupid Planet

for a start. Meanwhile, I am reading Zanadu again.. :)

Snapdeal Sucks - My experience with Snapdeal.com - Its Pathetic,slow and unresponsive

It all started with me hunting for a point and shoot camera for my mother. To be frank , any camera with no hassles & fair performance would have qualified and I was personally looking for Nikon L26;  but since it was deemed out-dated by Nikon itself, I hopped in for Nikon L27 violet colour camera. Now, to be frank I never wanted to go out of Flipkart/Infibeam since they have stood the test of time with me, but somehow I ordered it from another popular online portal Snapdeal.com & there the things start to get interesting.
For starters, I never received any email of purchase confirmation, I thought it might have landed in junk/spam folder but hell no. I double checked my email filters, searched every label but nopes..zilch..nada..I  simply didn't get any email receipt of purchase from Snapdeal. It was the first omen of a Bad Deal (aka Snapdeal) . Thankfully I didn't closed my browser windows, I was lucky to take the snapshot of transaction , noted down the transaction id from my bank statement , drank a glass of water & wiped away the sweat that scorching Delhi summer delightfully gave me.
5 minutes later I received an SMS from Snapdeal regarding my order number, I matched it with my snapshot, went online again and found after providing my details, the estimated shipping date was 20th May 2013.
I tried to login into Snapdeal and found that since I created an account long time ago (when Snapdeal was not into store business and was into deals business) , I didn't actually remembered its password. I tried to reset it, but received *NO EMAIL* from Snapdeal. Now that was alarming, I was not able to reset my password, not able to get an email receipt and I was not very sure about the delivering capability of Snapdeal (quick search on mouthshut.com was quite revealing).
Immediately I called customer care (+91-92126-92126) , after hearing to whistles and caller tune for 5 minutes (yes, *5 minutes*) , my call was picked. I explained to CCE -

1. I am not getting email from Snapdeal.
2. I did not received an receipt.
3. I am unable to reset my password.
4. What is the status of my order as of now and by what time will it get delivered.

The CCE responded -

1. He can not reset password nor help me in any regards in account or email issue.
2. My order was under processing and he can not provide an estimated delivery date.

I thanked him and hoped for the best.
Also, I logged into Snapdeal via FB authentication and was still not able to reset the password.
That was on 15th May 2013.
Now ,to be frank I have never ordered anything from Snapdeal before, one of my friends (Gurpreet Singh) had once ordered some stuff from it , but he warned me about Snapdeal's performance issues after I placed the order.
While I was gleefully cursing him "Saaley pehle kyu nahi bataya !!" , he reassured me that they are slow but they atleast deliver the goods.
"Also, shipping date is 20th,you might be getting goods before that in your hands", he finished gulping his last glass of lassi.
Nervously I reassured myself and crossed my fingers. Who knows, It wasn't for me, it was for my Mom and I wanted to get it delivered on a timely manner.
17th May came and status was still "processing" on the website. Furthermore I tried calling to customer care thrice with no one responding on the number. They also hanged up on me on one occasion without CCE interaction.
Now I was getting a bit angry.  18th May, it was Saturday noon and order was still under processing. I tweeted to Snapdeal

No response from Snapdeal as of now. Also, I sent the email to Snapdeal helpdesk (help@snapdeal.com)

Team,
I bought Nikon Coolpix L27 16MP Point & Shoot Digital Camera (Purple) Order Number 994202497 Item code 1333471211, its been 3 days but I have NOT received the email reciept of order. Further more I am not able to verify my snapdeal account as I am not getting any emails from Snapdeal regarding verification and order.
I have looked into SPAM/JUNK folder to no avail. I mentioned the same to customer care on 9212692126 but they were helpless.
Furthermore, Why is it so much delay in processing the order ? 3 days and its still processing. Whats the bottleneck in it ? I never had such slow response from any of online retailers I have used ?
Please get back to me on the double.

You guessed it right, no response from Snapdeal.
On 20th May I shot another one.

Dear Team,
Still awaiting your response. Its quite incredulous that I am following up for an email response which should have been your duty . Its 20th may and the product page still shows shipping date of 20th May with no update. I had a word with CCE Maninder Sandhu (yeah I got lucky, finally your customer care picked the call) for  an update on the order but then he himself was helpless regarding the same.
Its pathetic how you are keeping the money interest free without giving any proactive updates on the status of order and keeping customer completely blind on it.
Nevertheless, I will be waiting till 21 May on an update for a fair chance. After that , I will be cancelling the order and will be filing for a refund.
Regards

Seriously, I could have posted call records but then I think it would have been a bit overkill. But then, if they could record our calls for "quality & training purposes" then why cant we use them for some real "quality" purposes ?
I had no idea what was going on, at least an email response would have sufficed. We live in a country where consumer is hailed as king, I have no complains with late deliveries, I am actually angry with no/diminutive response from Snapdeal team. I have paid for an item first rate , online , in single transaction with no dues pending , no instalments and they are keeping my money interest free , processing it according to their whims and are providing no reasons for delay. Furthermore, response time is pathetic, I got the reply from Snapdeal on Facebook page / Twitter , 2 days later, & that too that they are looking into it and order will be shipped today.

Also, a quick look on their FB page reveals that I am not the only one frustrated from Snapdeal, see the below image or click the mentioned link.

Later,  I got an SMS from Snapdeal that order has been delayed.

But the online portal is still showing that order is under processing and I really dont know what information to trust.

I was also not able to cancel my order as I CANT REACH TO CUSTOMER CARE AND I AM NOT SURE IF MY EMAILS ARE EVEN READ. As per Snapdeal's guidelines, they can choose to accept or deny my request of cancelling the order based on their convenience and understanding of situation.

If you cant read it, to quote Snapdeal (Trust me, its an amusing read)

10.2 Cancellation by the User: In case of requests for order cancellations, Snapdeal reserves the right to accept or reject requests for order cancellations for any reason whatsoever. As part of usual business practice, if Snapdeal receives a cancellation notice and the order has not been processed/ approved by Snapdeal, Snapdeal shall cancel the order and refund the entire amount to You within a reasonable period of time. Snapdeal will not be able to cancel orders that have already been processed. Snapdeal has the full right to decide whether an order has been processed or not. You agree not to dispute the decision made by Snapdeal and accept Snapdeal's decision regarding the cancellation.

Very cute .
Bet I would have called Snapdeal for cancellation and they would have cancelled my request because they “had processed my order” .. and because its written in clause 10.2 .
As of now, summing up my entire experience on Snapdeal echoes the following problems again and again -

1. Lack of proper communication to customer.
2. Unresponsive support &
3. Broken implementation of information systems.

I want to reiterate again, that I don't have any problems with delays provided proper , proactive and responsive communication is done with customer and issues regarding information are handled adeptly. I once had an order from Flipkart halted for around 14 days, but never once I had to be bothered about it because the responsive CCE’s provided me concrete updates, on 7th day they offered a refund which I gladly accepted.
As of now, I haven't got any response on my tweet to Snapdeal

Another call to CCE Maninder Sandhu (I just got lucky) was fruitless although he was a nice chap and was trying to help.
Lessons learnt :

1. I wont be shopping from Snapdeal again, thats for sure, unless they make some really radical changes in their system.
2. Wont be ordering from my hard earned money from portals that are pathetic.

I do hope Snapdeal takes my rant as constructive criticism and infuses something into its DNA for the greater good.

Meanwhile, I am still waiting for my camera to be delivered .. : (    
(6 Days at the time of writing ) and counting..

Update 21 May 2013 6.04 PM IST  : 

To top it off as of now -

1. Still estimated shipping time on webpage is showing 20th May, but it has been updated that tracking number will be available in 12 hours, so I actually dont know what is the correct update.
2. Snapdeal_help on twitter promised a a shipping by today but to no avail . They actually update my Mother and not me regarding that, but alas, its still showing pending.
3. According to CCE Akash, package is ready for courier and will be shipped by tomorrow first half. One more date..Lets see how it goes.
4. Snapdeal FB page removed the negative comments, however you can see them in the picture which is given above.

Update 21 May 2013 7.00 PM IST :

Got a call from Snapdeal Okhla Office from Monika , provided courier tracking number and apologized for delay, I thanked her. Also, as per her, the tracking number will be active within 12 - 48 hours, I promptly checked the 11 digit tracking number which was not active on Courier service (Bluedart) page. She might be right. Will check it tomorrow morning.

Update 22 May 2013 6 PM IST :

AS of now, Snapdeal has *FINALLY* shipped my order (YAY!!) . But again, it has been delayed by Courier Service. As of now, I was in talks with Assistant Mgr at Courier service who was quite helpful and said the product will be delivered by tomorrow. All I hope it is a functional one as this long delay has shaken my already non existent faith in Snapdeal.

Update 23 May 2013 6 PM IST :

Finally, after numerous delays, Order was delivered.  The bottomline ? Well, the issue was already escalated at Snapdeal end , the pity was that when I checked at support.snapdeal.com , my ticket was not updated in 3-4 days, and one was closed with remark that customer (thats me) was not reachable. Excellent, it was only when I started escalating the matter on online and social platforms, they came into action and hasted the matter. Still its 8 days, which is well beyond the norms of a normal e-comm site.
I am glad it all ended well. Mom got the camera and I got to see the inner workings of an e-comm site.

An open letter to Pramit Jhaveri - Citibank India - No Resolution, Customer care sucks & they lie, a lot.

Dear Mr Pramit Jhaveri ,

Last October an incident happened with me , on a fuzzy evening I went to the nearest ATM near my home - Deutsche Bank ATM where I provided my card to my cousin who went inside ATM to take money as I was on a concall with my office & guided some poor chap who required my help . Since you cant enter an ATM while talking on phone, I remained outside.

Turns out that there was no guard / money at ATM ,the machine gave an error after pin was entered and never dispensed the money. Also, there was one more guy who had the same experience.

Well, I finished call put my phone in my pocket & strolled to nearby Axis Bank ATM where we withdrew 1000/- INR and went home. Turns out some nasty surprises were waiting for me. I got a message from Citibank that 10K have been withdrawn from my account , flabbergasted I reported the incident to Citi on 7th October.

What happened next ? Ah well..to tell a long story short -

1. Citi reversed my money in 2 days (that was fast) & said they are investigating the issue.
2. Then they said the transaction was valid & reversed it again. 
3. I disputed & said show me the CCTV footage -> no response.
4. Called their Citiphone officers (sic) muliple times & they said to check with Deutsche Bank, I commented why they were not taking end to end responsibility, they said its out of their scope.
5. Then I checked with Deutsche Bank and they said they will not entertain my request for CCTV footage.
6. Citiphone officer advices me to lodge FIR & I duly oblige.
7. Dec 2013 - Citi reverses money again & as per Simmy Sebastian (Citi escalation executive) on email, money is debited to my account & investigation continues.
8. 5 months later (28 March 2014) Citi reverses money again :D with NO CONCLUSIVE INVESTIGATION & charged an overdraft of 3899/-.

Well Done Citi..

Now this pissed me off. I just survived humiliation at paying a bill because I thought there was money in my account when there was not. After fighting 38 minutes (at dead of night) with Citi IVR and their agent Chirag, I finally wrote an email to you , the acting Citibank CEO/hotshots describing the whole affair.

Here is the full email (which I expect you should have gone through by now, if not..then my faith is dwindling) -

(I have redacted my email address from all of the following email communication)

​

---------- Forwarded message ----------From: Rishabh Dangwal <XXXXXXX@gmail.com>Date: Sat, Mar 29, 2014 at 2:06 AMSubject: Attention !! // 020-486-450 // New Ref# SDN14026864 // Citi Transaction & Customer Service Failure at Grassroot level // WORST SERVICE & FEEDBACK.To: "india.branchbanking.head@citi.com" <india.branchbanking.head@citi.com>, india.consumerbanking.head@citi.com, india.ceo@citi.com, india.operations.head@citi.com, Executive Response <executiveresponsedesk@citi.com>, "head.customercare@citi.com" <head.customercare@citi.com>, vikram.saras@citi.comCc: "retail.dox.india@citi.com" <retail.dox.india@citi.com>, "nishashriram@citi.com" <nishashriram@citi.com>, r.singh@citi.com, rakesh.singh@citi.com, collection.external.ombudsman@citi.com, Rishabh Dangwal <admin@theprohack.com>

Mr Pramit / Mr Ashish / Mr Anand / Mr Vikram,
Gentlemen,
Let me bring incident 020-486-450 (New ref# SDN14026864 ) to your attention where Citibank has shamelessly ripped off all the rules of customer service. We all hate typing emails at 2 AM at night, ain't it ?
Short Summary : 

1. On 7th October 2013 , a mis-transaction of 10000/- was done on my Debit Card at Deutsche Bank ATM for which Citi was *UNABLE* to provide any conclusive feedback for 5 straight months. 

1. I was provided an immediate credit & it was agreed on email with Simmy Sebastian (Email attached) that Citi will provide me CCTV footage of ATM as an evidence before reversing any credit.  

1. As discussed with *countless* Citiphone Officers (sic) they recommended to get in touch with Deutsche Bank (which I did) , raise FIR with police (which I did, again) but everything went futile & today (28 March 2014), Citi has reversed the transaction *WITHOUT INFORMING ME IN ANY FORMAL MANNER* & *WITHOUT PROVIDING ME CCTV FOOTAGE OF THE TIME OF INCIDENT*, & even penalized an overdraft of 3899/- .

Now points of concern are -

• Citi *NEVER* informed me that they are closing investigation at their end and reversing credit, I barely survived humiliation when I thought I had money in my bank account when there was none, thanks to Citi as transaction was reversed.

• FIR has been raised with police, CCTV Footage acts as an evidence in this regard. Citi didnt provided it & concluded it, then shall I sue Citi for causing hindrance in investigation ?

• Citi failed to provide me the CCTV Footage & failed to meet the commitments & left me in a dire financial situation without explanation & information.

• One sided followups were being done with NO PROACTIVE UPDATES on this matter.

I will be escalating the matter to RBI Ombudsman for failure of Citi to provide a conclusive feedback & failing at all echelons of customer service, its a huge disappointment at all grounds. I should infact also inform my colleagues at Orange Business Services (France Telecom) to migrate their accounts , its bad PR & its well justified if you ask me.
Right now, I had a word with Chirag Jain (Citiphone officer) at dead of night & in a 38 minute call I was unable to get to a senior person who can take responsibility & can be accounted for some justified action .  
Infact I am so frustrated with onesided followups that once its solved, I would close my account with Citi & encourage my finance head at Orange Business Services to do the same, somehow I believe from this incident that how broken is the customer service at a world renowned bank like Citi.
PS : I know you all might be busy, so I have finally decided to blog about it at Prohack (www.theprohack.com) where I can make note of the progress which Citi makes once an issue is reported to head honchos of a company. If this doesn't works out right now, I would then know if I can trust Citi again or not. 
I am attaching all the relevant documents of 

1. Followups done with Citi

1. Agreement done with Citi wrt CCTV footage

1. FIR

1. Followup with Deutsche Bank 

as a proof and testament of my words, lets see if Citi can finally provide me resolution.
I still want to believe & hope Citi stands for its customer values, requesting your urgent attention & complete cooperation in sorting this matter out.
Best Regards, ,

---

Rishabh DangwalNetwork Security Specialist 

,

Orange Business Services (France Telecom)RHCE | CCNA | ITIL | CEHWebsite:   www.ThePROHACK.com ,  www.RISH.co.in "Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes ?''

Trust me, if this isnt sorted out now, then I would recommend to NEVER TO OPEN an account with Citi since if a CEO cant sort a mess out, then of course a customer service is no good.
More over , its a huge fail in customer service that a guy is forced to address his concerns to CEO of Citi because the lower rungs of service and escalation fail to provide *any viable resolution*.

The best part Mr Pramit ?
Well..that ATM closed out, & I pointed it to Simmy/lots of other Citiphone folks that at max 2 months of video is stored in the ATM CCTV hard drive, and if you dont act fast, *YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO GET THE CCTV FOOTAGE*. Turns out they are not having any and are now bullying me by keeping me in dark.

Well Mr Pramit, if Citi can charge me to withdraw money from any other ATM, then I expect some services from Citi that safeguards my interests. It makes me shudder how one-sided this whole affair has been, if only you have an idea, a complete fail of all the echelons.  If Citi can provide me CCTV footage since its a criminal case & stop taking independent conclusive actions without informing customer. Its a breach of customer trust and is an epic fail in code of conduct.

I still believe you guys have sensible online services, but customer service is one area in which Citibank India fails spectacularly.

I hope something could be done on it ? Aint it? Noone wants to type an email at 2 AM at night and blog at 2:40 AM about his horrible experience. If Citi wants that , then no thanks, I will close my account as soon as its sorted and will encourage my colleagues to do the same.
What a waste..

Rant aside..

I do hope something can be done in this regard. Wave your magic wand sire, I will be waiting for some concrete action..

Best Regards

Rishabh Dangwal


Update 29 March 2014 12:07 PM IST :

One long time blog reader & friend suggested to get it reported to RBI. Duly acknowledged, complaint have been raised with RBI.

Update 29 March 2014 04:05 PM IST :
Had a word with Citi CCE -Navneet/S Mahesh who confirmed that they will have some response by Friday 4 April 7 PM IST . Also confirmed if Overdraft will be reversed and money will be credited back on my account, he was affirmative. Mahesh Confirmed that he will have some update on CCTV and promised a call back by 31 March NBH. Provided this Blogpost URL as a timeline of incident.

Update 29 March 2014 04:50 PM IST :
Consumer complaint 82619.1.2014 lodged against Citi Bank .

Update 30 March 2014 08:25 PM IST :
47 minute call was finished with Citi Helpdesk with approximately 20 minutes of being on hold, excluding 2 minutes of fighting with IVR.
After 5 tries by Merin (Citi service desk) , her manager Manisha Sitaram (on duty floor manager) came on call.

• Asked her about the status of investigation -> she was clueless.
• Asked her why a callback was not arranged bacl -> She was clueless.
• Asked her what the heck Chirag Jain (on duty floor manager) & S Mahesh (on duty floor manager) doing -> They were on leave / not available

Asked her to make note of 5 questions -

1. Why Citibank did not provided me CCTV footage & why transaction was reversed.
2. Why Citibank reversed transaction & did not intimate me , although it was agreed with Simmy Sebastian (Citi Executive response desk, Mumbai) that he will check & update regarding CCTV footage.
3. Why is this incident being dragged on for 5 months.
4. What is the status of followups being done for CCTV Footage with Deutsche Bank.
5. Will Citibank credit money back (along with overdraft) since they have not provided any CCTV footage & they have no right to do it.

Provided her the URL of this blogpost , details of Simmy Sebastian, current executive incident owner Laxmiprabha Kotian at Citi end & asked her to arrange a call back by 31'st March 5 PM IST during NBH.

Lets see how Citi takes this incident up.


Update 30 March 2014 08:50 PM IST :
Shot an email to Citi again since they failed to acknowledge anything.

---------- Forwarded message ----------From: Rishabh Dangwal <XXXXXXX@gmail.com>Date: Sun, Mar 30, 2014 at 8:53 PMSubject: Re: Attention !! // 020-486-450 // New Ref# SDN14026864 // Citi Transaction & Customer Service Failure at Grassroot level // WORST SERVICE & FEEDBACK.To: "india.branchbanking.head@citi.com" <india.branchbanking.head@citi.com>, india.consumerbanking.head@citi.com, india.ceo@citi.com, india.operations.head@citi.com, Executive Response <executiveresponsedesk@citi.com>, "head.customercare@citi.com" <head.customercare@citi.com>, vikram.saraf@citi.com, arghya.dasgupta@citi.comCc: "retail.dox.india@citi.com" <retail.dox.india@citi.com>, "nishashriram@citi.com" <nishashriram@citi.com>, r.singh@citi.com, rakesh.singh@citi.com, collection.external.ombudsman@citi.com, Rishabh Dangwal <admin@theprohack.com>

Good Evening Gentlemen,
Seems like 40+ minutes calls , 5 months old pending incidents ( & still counting) , no call backs, one sided followups from customer end and unexpected/surprise charge-backs are becoming the new hallmarks of 201 years of Citi in India.
Is there anyone even working on the matter ? I am still waiting for an acknowledgement from your end.
Meanwhile the incident history is now live at goo.gl/LAcB0G  (just in case your executives/underlings are not providing your proactive updates) & you can have a look at the glorious way the incident is being handled by Citi. 
Awaiting some action on the matter since its now long overdue.
Best Regards, ,

---

Rishabh DangwalNetwork Security SpecialistOrange Business Services (France Telecom)RHCE | CCNA | ITIL | CEHWebsite:   www.ThePROHACK.com ,  www.RISH.co.in "Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes ?''

Update 30 March 2014 09:13 - 09:30 PM IST :

Finally got a revert from Citibank Vice president Jinit Thakkar, although it was on a separate email chain.

On Sun, Mar 30, 2014 at 9:13 PM, Thakkar, Jinit <jinit.thakkar@citi.com> wrote:
Dear Mr. Dangwal,
This refers to you email of March 30th 2014.
We acknowledge receipt of your email.
Due to an extended holiday, on occasion of Gudi Padwa, we will respond to you by Tuesday, April 1st 2014.
Would appreciate your understanding till then.
Regards,
Jinit Thakkar
Head- Executive Response Unit
022-61755648

Pat went the response.
​

---------- Forwarded message ----------From: Rishabh Dangwal <XXXXXXX@gmail.com>Date: Sun, Mar 30, 2014 at 9:30 PMSubject: Re: your email dated March 30' 2014 / SDN14026864 / old ref#020-486-450To: "Thakkar, Jinit" <jinit.thakkar@citi.com>Cc: Executive Response <executiveresponsedesk@citi.com>, "principal.nodal.officer@citi.com" <principal.nodal.officer@citi.com>, "india.branchbanking.head@citi.com" <india.branchbanking.head@citi.com>, india.consumerbanking.head@citi.com, india.operations.head@citi.com, india.ceo@citi.com, "head.customercare@citi.com" <head.customercare@citi.com>, rakesh.singh@citi.com, "nishashriram@citi.com" <nishashriram@citi.com>, vikram.saraf@citi.com, arghya.dasgupta@citi.com

Hello Jinit,
Lets not start one more email chain on this issue since there are already plenty , I will be looping you in the main email chain & I expect a revert on the same one. 

Please let me know if Citi will provide me some conclusive feedback by 1 April or will it be the same 5 month old weasel words/updates of "under investigation"/"being looked by internal team"/"awaiting confirmation from internal team" since Simmy / folks left the investigation in lurch & have wasted a lot of my research time in followups with Citi, mental harassment aside. 

Awaiting a LEAN & concrete feedback from Citi.
Best Regards

---

Rishabh DangwalNetwork Security SpecialistOrange Business Services (France Telecom)RHCE | CCNA | ITIL | CEHWebsite:   www.ThePROHACK.com ,  www.RISH.co.in "Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes ?''

Update 30 March 2014 09:43 PM IST :

Looks like even the Citi India Vice president Jinit Thakkar have got a taste of bad customer service, from folks at Samsung, had a #facepalm moment.

An amusing read at -

www.consumercomplaints.in/complaints/samsung-c303958.html

Somehow, it feels like a guilty pleasure. FYI details are - Jinit Thakkar Asst Vice President , Citibank India, mob : 9820401881 

Update 31 March 2014 12:43 PM IST :

Had a word with Manisha Shriram / Jinit Thakkar from Chennai, they required 1 more day to investigate the issue since its holiday at Mumbai. Also, internally escalated the matter to Orange / France Telecom Finance department.

Update 31 March 2014 06:00 PM IST :

Finally got the call from Simmy Sebastian (executive response unit), to cut a long story short-

1. As per him he has retrieved the clippings.
2. He has seen that cash is being dispensed.
3. He asked if I was informed about cash reversal -> negative
4. He asked if I had communication from Keerti -> positive
5. Asked him to drop an email about it, he asked for 1 more day to have a conclusive feedback.
6. Asked him if anything is required from my end , he said nothing else is required.
7. He said he will provide a final stand on this regard by tomorrow.

Final Update : 

I am updating this in feb 2016, as I think it was long over due. Simmy called me and sent across the footage of ATM in a PKZIP encrypted file. Checked the footage and found out the ATM was misbehaving and another guy took out money. 

Bottom Line : 

No refund from Bank (Thank you Citibank :X ) . No action from Delhi Police. The ATM was tore down to make place for a new clinic. 

Welcome to India. 

Mikrotik Routers rock– Cheap, awesome and beats Cisco at same price

Working at Tulip Telecom has his own charm, you get your hands on an array of devices and lots of research . Well, i got my hands on Mikrotik routers, i have been working on them for a considerable amount of time (more than 6 months) and they are awesome. Here’s what i like in them -

• Awesome Router OS
• Extensive IP accounting which can segregate and display bandwidth utilization by IP,vlan,interface,source,destination .. and even more..you name it it has it.
• 3G modem/VPDN support.
• Extensive Queue and filter support, with ability to use burst limits and can be extended on individual interfaces, vlan etc. its a full fledged firewall provided you know how to use it.
• Wi-Fi support.
• Can do Email, SMS/SMS gateway..Hell..you can even run a PHP server inside Router OS
• Supports MPLS , BGP, OSPF, Multicast ,DHCP
• Netflow server
• Packet capture, Wi-Fi snooper, packet capture can be opened using wireshark
• Scripting support to insane levels
• Hardware encryption
• Easy to deploy
• Stable..and Cheap
• and much much more..

I would prefer it over a DD-WRT/Tomato enabled Linksys any day on a tight budget :) If only people knew about it..then i guess,picture would have been different for Cisco

I too Intended to join a Security NGO (period) and I was proved wrong.

I came to know about HANS when one of my friends joined it,and eventually I was interested. Hence I thought some research shall suffice before joining one.

PS : bear with me, I am on my android and my thumbs hurt :| Also, in some places, the formatting might not be correct, android blogging issues .

I actually visited their site http://www.indianhans.org had a look at it and found that it had -

1. A non working Facebook login api system which actually logs you out when you do try to log in, tested it on chrome 14.0.835.163 m / Windows 7 (office PC after hours). Also, a flawed login system that allows you to login inside the side without email confirmation, also PHP code is vulnerable.
2. Some outdated references to outdated CVE's and nothing of particular interest.
3. Some 0days which have been patched up long time ago
4. Whitepapers that on google hacking and mobiles which have been published like wildfire in late 2000's, again nothing of particular interest here
5. The "Team" that comprises less of experts and more of management folks. No one with any background of security here.
6. Link to Indian HANS youtube channel.
7. Pretty crap and old flash games about hacking. LAME !
8. Backtrack introduction (mainly) and no technical tutorials in short
9. Zero original research.

Disillusioned,  I wrote a mail to Indian HANS team and  queried Indian HANS team regarding the services they provide and what they do -

Subject : Queries for Indian Hans team from a Security Enthusiastic
Dear Indian HANS Team,

I have some queries which I would like to be answered -

• What is the ultimate motive of HANS ? Are you consultants ? If YES then on what grounds ? If NO, then ,

Can you provide links to your -

• Original research
• ORIGINAL technical advisories/papers
• Tools that you wrote
• Code that you released
• Configurations of exotic software
• Exploits and modules
• 0day/0hour vulnerabilities
• Vulnerabilities what you found
• Cases of complexity that were solved
• CVE
• Documentation of exploits 
• Original findings
• Which fellow infosec researchers are working at HANS? All i found was more of management guys (seriously?) volunteers,executives,technical experts,naive girls,inexperienced folks but no security folks or self confessed hackers with known security experience and expertise.
• What is the symbiotic influence of joining Indian Hans ? Or Why SHALL we join HANS ?

--
Warm Regards,

Rishabh Dangwal
Network Security Analyst
TheProhack.com | Rish.co.in
India

"0x72697368 was here, 2620796f75206172652077617374696e6720796f75722074696d65202e2e2064756d62617373"

 and waited.
 A day passed and the reply came.

Subject : reply to an abuse mail

Warm Greets,

First of all I would like to say thanks, for being so concerned about our organization.

Following are the thoughts I would like to share about our organization.

1)      Our motive is to fill the gap between the cyber victims and the security experts, as many times we felt that in spite of  availability to many security experts in market still victims are not able to get there answers.
2)      Yes, we are consultants/Knowledge Sharers as we guide the common measures to cyber victims and government bodies [maharasthra/Punjab police]such that they can overcome a cyber crime rate.
3)      I have written 2 International Papers :
·        In response to Google Hacking
·        Future Email Security

And 2 national papers:
·        Mobile Security and upcoming challenges
·        Acknowledgement based System for Mobile Security.
4)      I have not written any security tool/configurations yet But, I write other Business applications for Accenture as an Associate Software Engineer.
5)      We have solved numerous cases  which deals with daily cyber problems including ATM cloning case [chandigarh], Source code theft case [Pune], Abuse email, fake profiles, email threatening and other hundreds.  www.youtube.com/theindianhans
6)      Ya, you are right 90% of our Organization members have managerial skills, because we strongly believe that having only technical knowledge is not enough to cease the cyber crime rate, because solving a cyber crime is thinking out of the box process.
7)      Joining a HANS, shows your commitment towards our society, that you have a zeal to help others with your knowledge and skills.


I also wish to bring to your notice without hurting your ego and sentiments that,

We are not competitors of any private owned body who work only for money. Many times we get such mails which prove that really HANS is doing a greats job. These kinds of mails show our Power of being united and our influence on other private organization. It is my humble requests kindly don’t compare our NGO with other private organizations as our motto is different. we don’t believe in writing the viruses, exploits, tools and other stuff because these things wont help a common man who is not IT literate, to overcome a cyber problem. I wont ask you same the questions as I have nothing to do with same.  I hope I have given your answers without hurting you and your team members feelings. I highly apologize if I did so.

Thanks

Happy Hacking

HANS TEAM.

Now that was interesting, my mail has been treated as an abuse email, well..nevermind. A rather to-the-point approach may be confused with that. Well, what they said -

1)      Our motive is to fill the gap between the cyber victims and the security experts, as many times we felt that in spite of  availability to many security experts in market still victims are not able to get there answers.2)      Yes, we are consultants/Knowledge Sharers as we guide the common measures to cyber victims and government bodies [maharasthra/Punjab police]such that they can overcome a cyber crime rate. I actually expected that HANS shall justify itself as a for-profit/not-for-profit organisation and why it requires money to join it when the elite organisations for example Null is a self sustained, free and aimed at the very thing HANS intends to achieve. helping naive people ? Ofcourse..thats why a lot of organisations has been growing like mushrooms (kaizen ?) and making money from it by joining it.  The core thing is that i am 100% sure that volunteers / infosec reserachers wont learn anything new and will waste their time here.

moving on ,

3)      I have written 2 International Papers :·In response to Google Hacking·Future Email Security And 2 national papers:·Mobile Security and upcoming challenges·Acknowledgement based System for Mobile Security.Great..i disregard them as recycled content, already checked it. 4)      I have not written any security tool/configurations yet But, I write other Business applications for Accenture as an Associate Software Engineer. that was fine with me.  5)      We have solved numerous cases  which deals with daily cyber problems including ATM cloning case [chandigarh], Source code theft case [Pune], Abuse email, fake profiles, email threatening and other hundreds.  www.youtube.com/theindianhansAgain, they have solved a lot of cases and hundreds , i would regard it as weasel terms. no journal on how they were solved, the method, instrumental techniques, research employed, tools/techniquies deployed, the collaboration, nothing covered, nothing said, just distorted videos at youtube. Again..no references to it. 6)      Ya, you are right 90% of our Organization members have managerial skills, because we strongly believe that having only technical knowledge is not enough to cease the cyber crime rate, because solving a cyber crime is thinking out of the box process.7)      Joining a HANS, shows your commitment towards our society, that you have a zeal to help others with your knowledge and skills.

How management can help decrease cybercrime rates is beyond me unless they really have the skills to get it in their heads. All aboard the failboat here.

I also wish to bring to your notice without hurting your ego and sentiments that,

We are not competitors of any private owned body who work only for money. Many times we get such mails which prove that really HANS is doing a greats job. These kinds of mails show our Power of being united and our influence on other private organization. It is my humble requests kindly don’t compare our NGO with other private organizations as our motto is different. we don’t believe in writing the viruses, exploits, tools and other stuff because these things wont help a common man who is not IT literate, to overcome a cyber problem. I wont ask you same the questions as I have nothing to do with same.  I hope I have given your answers without hurting you and your team members feelings. I highly apologize if I did so.

thats nice of you,and encouraging, but since you dont write viruses,exploits,0days or anything remotely related with it, then -

• Why they are linked in your website at http://www.indianhans.org/index-4.html  ?
• How do you decipher complex hack jobs them when most of your team is management one with no background of security

Anyways..i fired up my android and wrote a reply.

Subject  - Re: reply to an abuse mail
Dear Indian Hans,

The email was not an intended as an abuse email as indicated by your subject,  I would rather pass your defenses as plain excuses for hiding underlying incompetence since it requires Money to join and still no viable, updated information/code/application (as you said you develop it as associate software engineer for organisations , yet saying that you bridge the gap) , accurate information (I studied the Google hacking and mobile whitepaper, the stuff has been published before a million times, hence I would just regard it something to enhance resume) and would consider your organization nothing but a money making enterprise run by homebrew entrepreneurs without any credible research, what you solved in cases what nothing I shall say of technical callibre or "hacking ", its in more generic sense called as tech support for those who know nothing about cyber security,  while earning fame and money in the process.
I earlier thought to join it, hence inquired about it in a rather direct & to the point manner,but your response, links, references and treatment of it as an abuse email (?) makes me guess its in my best interest to stay away and convey the same to intended audience.
Stay superb

-sent from my android-

call me harsh, but that is the reality. And I am waiting for the reply. Now, I can say that I too Intended to join a Security NGO (period) and I now I am thinking otherwise.

Best Security Magazine | Top IT Security Magazine and Zines Reviewed | Best Hacking Magazines Listed

Hi folks, consider this article the follow-up of the original series, this time I will be blogging about some really good magazines and zines where you can learn about computer and IT security. If you want to go through the previous articles in the series, you are welcome to give them a read -

• 3 Excellent sites for Hackers – Perl, Reversing and Searching
• 5 hacking sites for budding hackers
• 5 more hacking sites for budding hackers
• 5 hacking sites for security basics

Anyways, on to the topic, here

Phrack

Its so obvious that I dont think I need to repeat it again, and again. Phrack is an ezine written by and for hackers first published November 17, 1985. Described by Fyodor as

"the best, and by far the longest running hacker zine,"

the magazine is open for contributions by anyone who desires to publish remarkable works or express original ideas on the topics of interest. It has a wide circulation which includes both hackers and computer security professionals. The zine includes interviews of Blackhats and celebrates the most advanced security articles of the time. Stephen Wyatt or The_ut once commented that he was proud of -

“ Reading the last 5 issues of Phrack without learning anything new“

its that good :) If you are that good, I salute you teh_hax0r…for the lesser mortals, Phrack remains the wet dream of the security minded.

What you can learn here : Hacking in Pure Sense
Price : Free
you can visit phrack here

2600 & Cult of the Dead Cow


Again, two of the old school crews which are still highly active ,specializes in publishing technical information on a variety of subjects including telephone switching systems, Internet protocols and services, as well as general news concerning the computer "underground" and left wing, and sometimes (but not recently), anarchist issues. The content is focused on DIY projects for a more motivated approach.
2600 is the more sober of the two and is a must read for anyone into pure pleasure of security, Cult of the Dead Cow is more devoted to the hactivism and anarchist issues, but nevertheless, are a must read for any budding hacker or expert alike :)

What you can learn here : Hactivism, hacking at hardware level in the form of DIY projects
Price : Free
you can Visit 2600 here
you can Visit CDC zine here

Free Software Magazine (FSM), Also known as The Open Voice


Relatively new on the scene, FSM devotes itself to the FOSS, GNU, technical code and features regular technical columns. Also the magazine runs its own webcomic “the Bizzare Cathedral” which is a satire on Linux, open source and technology in particular. The magazine is the only magazine worldwide that is dedicated to the promotion of free software as a whole and has 2 primary goals -

• to promote free software and its use; and
• to educate the global community in the use of free software.

What you can learn here : Code, Linux , FOSS and Open Source in general
Price : Free
you can visit FSM here

Linux Journal/ Linux Format / Linux Magazine


Now we have some hardcore Linux Magazines which are highly targeted to the professional Linux User. When it comes to computer security and hacking, Linux is the heart and soul of hacking and hackerdom in general. These magazines focus on Linux on a whole and explore the OS with respect to articles on all levels of developing and using Linux and the software that runs on it, including everything from how to write device drivers to how to edit photos with GIMP.

What you can learn here : Linux Linux and More Linux
Price :

• Linux Journal : 8$ (approx 354 INR)
• Linux Format  : 6.49£ (approx 477 INR)
• Linux Magazine: 12.99$ (approx 576 INR)

you can visit

•  Linux Journal here
•  Linux Format here
•  Linux Magazine here

HITB Magazine

One of the best security magazines around, the HITB magazine aims to deliver their goal of giving researchers further recognition for their hard work, and to provide the security community with beneficial technical material . Born as the side project of Hack-In-The-Box community, the magazine covers exploits , loopholes, latest security insights and technical papers for the determined.

What you can learn here : Exploits, vulnerabilities, Technical articles, code and insights in the latest of
Price : Free
you can visit HITB here

Hakin9
 
The famed Hakin9 is a free, online, monthly publication on IT Security. The magazine is published in English and is available in the Internet as a free download.
Hakin9 is a source of advanced, practical guidelines regarding the latest hacking methods as well as the ways of securing systems, networks and applications.

What you can learn here : Securing systems, exploits, at par with HITB mag
Price : Free
you can visit hakin9 here

InfoSecurity/Chmag (India)

As a special nod to Indian security scene, these two magazines are doing a very good job in demystifying the “security” buzzword for the new and discusses corporate security and security in general . Clubhack Magazine is the venture of Clubhack which focuses on making hacking and information security a common sense for a common man. InfoSecurity is more targeted at security at corporate level and focuses on latest security trends.

What you can learn here : Beginning with security to the corporate level
Price : Free
you can visit :

• InfoSecurity here
• chmag here

I guess you will be more than happy to feast on the knowledge these fabulous sources above.

*update*  : I will be reviewing Insecure magazine soon along with Darkread.

./EOF

Best Security Magazine | Top IT Security Magazine and Zines Reviewed | Best Hacking Magazines Listed