27:I[87087,["/_next/static/immutable/chunks/2corl6wyj4669.js","/_next/static/immutable/chunks/29n5y1fco65mp.js","/_next/static/immutable/chunks/2gy5gg4_1pywi.js","/_next/static/immutable/chunks/13ggluqxs2fvs.js","/_next/static/immutable/chunks/3whfejvldou9o.js","/_next/static/immutable/chunks/3-evdrh07jxzy.js","/_next/static/immutable/chunks/2ok0fp0-qyxch.js","/_next/static/immutable/chunks/0tstzde3qoch8.js","/_next/static/immutable/chunks/3ahn2cs_uexsk.js"],"default"] 2a:I[27201,["/_next/static/immutable/chunks/2corl6wyj4669.js","/_next/static/immutable/chunks/29n5y1fco65mp.js"],"IconMark"] 28:T8ec,

Ah, 2016. A time when Clash of Clans was life, dragons were the ultimate flex, and cyber threats were getting increasingly loud.

Back then, Bangladesh had just initiated biometric SIM verification. It was a massive, highly debated topic with tons of mixed feelings floating around the public. Naturally, opportunistic hacker groups wanted to ride that wave of controversy for clout.

So, when a group managed to breach one of our Corporate VAS (Value-Added Services) servers, they immediately started bragging. Their big, dramatic claim? “We hacked the Biometric Server!”

Yeah... lol. 😉

Here is what actually happened, and how we shut them down:

The Vulnerability

The attackers found an exploit through an old, forgotten service hosted on an Apache server running PHP. This server hosted various critical B2B solutions. Using that outdated service, they managed to upload a PHP web shell script, giving them a directory view and the ability to execute remote code.

The Lockdown

Fortunately, our architecture did its job. The corporate VAS environment was properly isolated inside a DMZ (Demilitarized Zone). Because of this segmentation, the entire core Banglalink network and actual sensitive systems remained completely untouched and safe. There was absolutely zero access to any biometric data.

The Dragon's Counter-Attack

Instead of panicking, I tracked down the entry point and deployed a swift, smart fix. I configured and pushed .htaccess files across the upload directories. This instantly killed their ability to execute scripts in those folders, completely neutralizing the web shell.

But I couldn't just patch it without leaving a little parting gift. Remembering my favorite CoC warrior, I left a custom message coded right into the denial response for the hackers to see:

"You are Messing with the Wrong Dragon!"

The Takeaway

This initiative successfully safeguarded our critical B2B infrastructure and minimized further vulnerability to cyber threats. It was a classic case of hacker theatrics meeting solid network segmentation and a quick, decisive patch.

Deface denied. Threat neutralized. Back to raiding villages!

29:Tacd,

October 6, 2017, started like any other Friday weekend support shift, but nature had other plans. By morning and early afternoon, sudden convective clouds rolled across Dhaka and the central/southeastern districts of Bangladesh, bringing intense thunderstorms and heavy downpours.

For a telecom network, severe weather means immediate trouble—mains power failures, lightning strikes, and site outages. Within hours, the active alarm dashboard was under immense pressure.

The Challenge: Fighting Noise to Find the Signal

When severe weather hits, a Network Operations Center (NOC) is instantly flooded with thousands of raw alarms. The real hurdle isn't just knowing that sites are down; it’s figuring out where to send field engineers first when resources are stretched thin. Management needed immediate, deep insights to prioritize incident handling, minimize downtime, and keep the network afloat.

As the creator and maintainer of our Integrated Network Management System (INMS), I knew the raw data had to be transformed into actionable intelligence immediately. The INMS is built exactly for this—to track critical Base Transceiver Station (BTS) and transmission alarms and turn chaotic data into structured maintenance tickets.

Turning Data Into Strategy

Working from home with a multi-monitor command center setup, I spent the weekend developing custom charts, trend graphs, and live geospatial distributions to map the impact of the storm in real time. By analyzing site-down durations, regional office clusters, and filtering out temporary power fluctuations (using the system's smart thresholding, like masking mains failures under 3 hours), we were able to:

Visualize Down Time Trends: Pinpoint exactly when and where the storm hit the hardest.
Map Regional Impact: Segment site failures by regional boundaries and on-call engineer rosters.
Optimize Operations: Provide management with a clean, prioritized view of critical nodes so field teams could be dispatched efficiently.

A Long Way to Go

The weekend was a stark reminder of why robust, centralized network management platforms are so vital. It’s one thing to build a system that logs errors; it’s another to design an analytics engine capable of guiding an entire operations team through a crisis.

We successfully optimized the restoration workflow and kept downtime to a minimum—but as network footprints grow and weather becomes more unpredictable, there is always a long way to go to make our infrastructure truly resilient.

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There are theories that tell us which love is better, e.g. being first love of a woman or being last love of a man. In my opinion it's more important to get pure love rather than being the first or the last.

\r\n\r\n

Relationships are often romanticized through theories—tales that claim it is best to be a woman's first love or a man's last. But does the true value of a connection really depend on a timeline or a sequence number?

\r\n\r\n

Instead of obsessing over who came first or who stays until the end, we need to focus on what truly matters: the purity of the love we share. True affection isn't about being a milestone or a final destination; it is about honesty, depth, and mutual respect in the present moment. In this post, we explore why genuine, conditional-free love outweighs any relationship order.

","created":null,"published":"2012-05-04T10:10:10.000Z","displayonlyyear":0,"hidedate":0,"pinned":0,"ordering":9999,"displayonlist":1,"active":1},"next":{"id":10,"pid":null,"title":"Weekend Storms & System Pressure: How Custom Analytics Kept the Network Alive","uri":"weekend-storms-and-system-pressure-how-custom-analytics-kept-the-network-alive","author":"Abdullah Ibne Alam","og_images":["images/weekend-storms-and-system-pressure.jpg"],"short":"During a severe thunderstorm on October 6, 2017, sudden heavy downpours and lightning across Bangladesh triggered a massive wave of site outages and active alarms. Working from home, I leveraged the Integrated Network Management System (INMS) I developed to convert this chaotic raw data into real-time trend graphs and prioritized analytics. These custom insights provided management with the critical visibility needed to optimize field engineering workflows and minimize overall network downtime.","content":"$29","created":null,"published":"2017-10-06T10:10:10.000Z","displayonlyyear":0,"hidedate":0,"pinned":0,"ordering":9999,"displayonlist":1,"active":1},"startIndex":"$NaN","startMaximized":"undefined","autoStart":true}] 22:null 26:[["$","title","0",{"children":"Deface Denied! 🛡️🐲 How We Kept the Hackers at Bay (And Called Out Their Biometric Bluff) - by Abdullah Ibne Alam - Blog"}],["$","meta","1",{"name":"description","content":"Deface Denied! 🛡️🐲 How We Kept the Hackers at Bay (And Called Out Their Biometric Bluff) - Successfully dealt with compromised Corporate VAS servers and prevented from further hacking.\r\n[Though they claimed they hacked Biometric Server, lol ;)]\r\nDeface Denied!"}],["$","link","2",{"rel":"author","href":"https://abdullahibnealam.com"}],["$","meta","3",{"name":"author","content":"Abdullah Ibne Alam"}],["$","link","4",{"rel":"author","href":"https://repulsivecoder.pro"}],["$","meta","5",{"name":"author","content":"RepulsiveCoder"}],["$","link","6",{"rel":"canonical","href":"https://abdullahibnealam.com/blog/deface-denied!-how-we-kept-the-hackers-at-bay"}],["$","meta","7",{"property":"og:title","content":"Deface Denied! 🛡️🐲 How We Kept the Hackers at Bay (And Called Out Their Biometric Bluff) - by Abdullah Ibne Alam - Blog"}],["$","meta","8",{"property":"og:description","content":"Deface Denied! 🛡️🐲 How We Kept the Hackers at Bay (And Called Out Their Biometric Bluff) - Successfully dealt with compromised Corporate VAS servers and prevented from further hacking.\r\n[Though they claimed they hacked Biometric Server, lol ;)]\r\nDeface Denied!"}],["$","meta","9",{"property":"og:image","content":"https://abdullahibnealam.com/media/blog/images/coder-home-pc-setup-dark.jpg"}],["$","meta","10",{"property":"og:type","content":"profile"}],["$","meta","11",{"name":"twitter:card","content":"summary_large_image"}],["$","meta","12",{"name":"twitter:title","content":"Deface Denied! 🛡️🐲 How We Kept the Hackers at Bay (And Called Out Their Biometric Bluff) - by Abdullah Ibne Alam - Blog"}],["$","meta","13",{"name":"twitter:description","content":"Deface Denied! 🛡️🐲 How We Kept the Hackers at Bay (And Called Out Their Biometric Bluff) - Successfully dealt with compromised Corporate VAS servers and prevented from further hacking.\r\n[Though they claimed they hacked Biometric Server, lol ;)]\r\nDeface Denied!"}],["$","meta","14",{"name":"twitter:image","content":"https://abdullahibnealam.com/media/blog/images/coder-home-pc-setup-dark.jpg"}],["$","link","15",{"rel":"icon","href":"/favicon.ico?favicon.1s9kz1cy8-vtv.ico","sizes":"64x64","type":"image/x-icon"}],["$","link","16",{"rel":"icon","href":"/favicon.ico"}],["$","link","17",{"rel":"icon","href":"/icon.png","type":"image/png"}],["$","link","18",{"rel":"apple-touch-icon","href":"/apple-icon.png"}],["$","$L2a","19",{}]]