Indian-American mathematician among three selected for inaugural Ciprian Foias Prize
Washington, Dec 4: Eminent Indian-American mathematician Nikhil Srivastava, who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, has been jointly selected for the inaugural Ciprian Foias Prize in Operator Theory by American Mathematical Society (AMS).
Along with Srivastava, the two other awardees are Adam Marcus and Daniel Spielman. Adam Marcus holds the Chair of Combinatorial Analysis at the cole Polytechnique F d rale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. Spielman is Sterling Professor of Computer Science, a professor of statistics and data science, and a professor of mathematics.
The award recognises their highly original work that introduced and developed methods for understanding the characteristic polynomial of matrices, namely the iterative sparsification method (also in collaboration with Batson) and the method of interlacing polynomials, a media release said.
"Together, these ideas provided a powerful toolkit with many applications, notably in the trio's breakthrough paper Interlacing families II: mixed characteristic polynomials and the Kadison Singer problem (Annals of Mathematics, 2015), which solves the famous paving problem'' in operator theory, formulated by Richard Kadison and Isadore Singer in 1959, AMS said.
In a joint statement, the three awardees said they wish to accept it on behalf of the many people whose work contributed to the resolution of the Kadison Singer problem.
"Our involvement was the final chapter of an amazing story we hope will inspire similar solutions to difficult problems in the future, they said.
The prize will be presented to Professor Srivastava and his colleagues on January 5 next year at the 2022 Joint Mathematics Meeting in Seattle, described as "the largest mathematics gathering in the world."
The Ciprian Foias Prize is the third major prize won by Srivastava, who earlier jointly won the George Polya Prize in 2014, and the Held prize in 2021.
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CERT-In warns of ‘ghostpairing’ attack targeting whatsApp users, flags high-risk account takeovers
New Delhi: India’s national cybersecurity agency, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), has issued a high-severity alert warning WhatsApp users of an active account takeover campaign using a new technique known as “GhostPairing," in an advisory released on December 19.
CERT-In said cybercriminals are exploiting WhatsApp’s device-linking feature to gain unauthorised access to user accounts without the need for passwords or SIM card swaps, as reported by The Indian Express. The attackers, the agency warned, deceive users into entering pairing codes, which silently grants control of the account to a malicious device.
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According to CERT-In, the GhostPairing method works by tricking victims into approving an attacker’s browser as a trusted linked device. The advisory said, “The attack manipulates users into granting access through a pairing code that appears legitimate." It further added that once access is granted, attackers can fully operate the account through WhatsApp Web.
Last month, the Department of Telecommunications directed messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram to implement continuous SIM binding which required accounts to remain linked to an active SIM card. As part of this directive, companion web sessions are expected to be logged out periodically and re-authenticated using QR codes.
CERT-In said the GhostPairing campaign typically begins with a message appearing to come from a trusted contact, often reading, “Hi, check this photo”. The message contains a link designed to mimic a Facebook-style preview, and clicking the link leads users to a fake verification page, where they are prompted to enter their phone number and a code. Victims unknowingly allow attackers to link their WhatsApp account to an external device, by completing these steps,.
Once compromised, attackers can access messages, photos, videos and voice notes in real time, and can impersonate the victim to send messages to individual contacts or groups, the agency said.
The advisory also noted that WhatsApp currently allows multiple devices to be linked to a single account, a feature that is being misused in such attacks. In October, the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre under the Ministry of Home Affairs had flagged a related trend involving scammers using social media advertisements to lure users into linking their WhatsApp accounts.
While the government’s SIM-binding push is intended to limit such fraud, it has raised concerns among legal experts and digital rights groups, who argue that constant SIM verification, could affect privacy and disrupt multi-device usage, particularly for professionals.
To reduce risk, CERT-In has urged users to avoid clicking on suspicious links, even if they appear to come from known contacts, and to never enter phone numbers or verification codes on external websites claiming to be linked to WhatsApp or Facebook. Users have also been advised to regularly review the “Linked Devices” section within WhatsApp settings and immediately log out of any unfamiliar sessions.
For organisations relying on WhatsApp for communication, the agency has recommended security awareness training, closer monitoring for phishing attempts, and the establishment of clear response protocols to detect and contain account compromises quickly.
