Cyber Kurukshetra – An inspiration from the Mahabharata.

 

The Mahabharata is an ancient Indian epic where the main story revolves around two branches of a family - the Pandavas and Kauravas - who, in the Kurukshetra War, battle for the throne of Hastinapura. At 100,000 verses, it is the longest epic poem ever written, generally thought to have been composed in the 4th century BCE or earlier. The Mahabharata is written by the Ved Vyas Maharshi. Mahabharata teaches the way of living for a human being.

As an inspiration, we can interlink Mahabharata to Cyber Space or Cyber World and take valuable life lessons. We can grab some quick lessons from Mahabharata that will help one in their Cyber Space to stay safe and secured from Cyberattacks.

So, this blog will be helping one to stay safe and secure in the Cyberspace.

Ashwathama hatha narova kunjarova

Explanation: It means Ashwathama is dead. And kunjaraha means elephant. But this was used as a ploy to kill Ashwathama's father, Dronacharya. Yudhisthir is known to abide by dharma, and so Krishna convinces Yudhisthir to tell Drona that Ashwathama (the elephant) is dead. But Drona assumes they are talking about his son and is filled with grief.

Cyber Security lesson from the above sloka

Most of cyber-attacks these days are money scams or blackmailing people for money. All these kinds of attacks are done by the concept of Social Engineering. Cyber Criminals play with minds of the victims and get their information. This requires them to gain access of bank account.

Example: A person is need of job. Cyber Criminal might take that as vulnerability and send them a mail, call or text message stating to pay certain amount and they will be guaranteed job. Here, the hacker plays with their needs and emotions and makes a fool out of them. Fact is no company takes money for job.

Half knowledge can be extremely harmful

Explanation:  Arjuna’s son Abhimanyu can be seen teaching half knowledge which can essentially have an adverse impact. While Abhimanyu was aware about entering Chakravyuh, there was no way out.

Cyber Security lesson

In world of cyberspace, a lot of online shopping scams are happening due to user’s lack of knowledge towards banking principles.

Example: A shopping website sells products and seems to be legitimate. At the time of payment, users are being asked for UPI pin and even cards information, which are not asked at any point during a transaction. They do replicate the payment page with form or website. (This type of attack is called Phishing attack).

Greed will lead to one’s doom

Explanation

Yudhishthir can be seen being greedy and leading to one’s own doom. The tale witnesses him losing everything he possesses that includes his wealth and kingdom as well. He was seen gambling away a woman in the pursuit of hubris.

Cyber security lesson

We often get mail or text message that you won a lottery, or you won certain amount of money.  Greedy people or needy people will try to avail. This kind of attack is called Phishing attack or Social Engineering attacks.

War causes destruction to all, it is sinful, it creates hell, it gives the same result in victory and defeat alike.

Cyber Security Lesson

Cyber war or Cyber attack creates a massive destruction in terms of economically and many other aspects of world.

Example: Downing a sever with DDoS attack creates a revenue loss for the company and delay in the work for the end user how is using it which indirectly end user revenue also.

Lunching a Malware attack like The WannaCry ransomware attack was a worldwide cyberattack in May 2017 by the WannaCry ransomware cryptoworm, which targeted computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system by encrypting data and demanding ransom payments in the Bitcoin cryptocurrency.

 

He is a fool that practices truth without knowing the difference between truth and falsehood.

CyberSecurity Lesson: In the Cyber space we easily get fooled by cybercriminals. They replicate everything in similar manner of the original, which completely looks like a legitimate one.

Example:

There are two same chrome browser icons one bound with malware to it and other one is legitimate. Both have same visual appearance and similar functions. But spelling of icons are “chrome” and “Chr0me”. They look same and when we don’t take care of minute details and are in hurry, we click the wrong one and the malware gets executed.

Whatever is here, is found elsewhere. But what is not here, is nowhere else.

Cyber Security Lesson:

Data Privacy may be considered a myth. We assume it’s safe and secure but it is now available on the dark web. The data which is present on the dark web can be used to manipulate the human minds in terms marketing a product and even in an election.

Greif is destroyed by the knowledge