KEEPING PASSWORDS SAFE

  Some of  us just remember our passwords ,even if they're as ridiculously uncrackable as "gb65endox",and even if  there are many of them to remember.Some of  us are naive enough to use passwords like "azsxdc", and have trouble remembering even  those! If you fall in the second category, forget it-someone's going to steal your data soon enough.No,seriously,what one needs is good, strong passwords,and password management software to keep them safe.
                                          A "strong" password is one that has a sufficient number of  characters-some say  anything over eight will do-and a mix of lower-case,upper-case,and special characters.On top of that,there's the issue of multiple passwords:if you set the same password for everything,there could be a problem.What if your Windows XP and your Gmail password are the same,and a friend of yours want to access your machine?
And then what if you gave him the password to your machine,and he went ahead and tried it on your gmail account as well?Multiple passwords are,therefore,important.And it's tough to remember multiple strong passwords-and that's where password management software come in,like we said.
   These are again a dime a dozen but they're not all bad.Again,i'am making no recommendations,and are just providing an example:for $19095 you can purchase TK8 safe,a relatively simple software,from
   WEBSITE
  With TK8,you can keep all usernames,passwords,secret notes and serial numbers in one secured database file.The file is,naturally.encrypted.
   You can use folders in your files to group information.In addition,you can log into password-protected Webpages automatically,The password file can be locked,and even if you forget to lock the file,the program does this automatically after it's inused for some time

Advanced options include multi-user support,additional  encryption methods,and automatic password backups.You can run the program directly fro removable media like USB stricks.This means you can literally carry all your passwords in your pocket.
                                                         Now, we didn't intend this to be an ad for TKS;our intention here is to tell you all that a password manager can do for you.More advanced software simply have more frills.

                   

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WHAT'S FISHY ABOUT PHISHING???????

Back to your inbox:"get a replica Rolex cheap ."As you scroll through one after the other ridiculous offer,your catches something different.
   "Before i start,i must first apologise for this unsolicited mail to you......My US client,his wife and children were involved in a ghastly motor accident on such-and-such road in Nigeria....My reason for contacting you is to repatriate my client's money back to his home country.We need to transfer money into your bank account..."The mail goes on to explain how there are millions of dollars that this chap needs to transfer to your bank account and how to do this he'll need your account details.You will,of course,be rewarded handsomely for your services.
  Identify theft has figured as a criminal activity since time immemorial.clever thieves have always found that the best way to avoid being caught is to disguise themselves as someone else.and while they are impersonating.No one needs to be told how valuable one's credit card and bank account details are.But with more and more people using the internet for online transactions,there is a lot of personal information being shared with a host of companies.Spammers have found an effective way to cash in on this confidence to disclose one's personal information to legitimate sources-PHISHING
       Phishing is essentially a clever and illegal method used by"phishers"to extract personal information about internet users.This personal information may be in terms of credit card numbers,bank account details,passwords,and such.
   What phishers use is a technique called social engineering.basically,this means phishers know that people trust the word of someone who seems trustworthy.a phisher is thus able to gain the confidence of an individual by posing as someone from a seemingly trustworthy source.then,the phisher makes the person disclose personal information about himself,and then uses it to his benefit.
         However,phishers don't have to be that straightforward and in-your-face to gain the confidence of unsuspecting individuals.many phishers pose as a administrators of websites and request users to send in their passwords.other pose as bank executives and ask for your credit card details so you can reactivate your account,or something of that nature.
    A good example of phishing in recent times has been the paypal phishers.paypal(now under ebay)is an online transaction system.phishers have posted as paypal executives and requested people to disclose vital bank information.

                

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FREE ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

AVIRA ANTIVIR PERSONAL EDITION CLASSIC

Avira antivir personal edition classic is a free antivirus solution for home users.during the installation,the user has the option to install either one or both modules:Antivir guard and sheel Extension.
 The antivir guard is the on-access scanning element of the software.it runs in the background and monitors file during operations such as open,write and copy.when a useroperates on a file,antivir guard automatically scans the file for infection.the shell extension module installs a new menu item to the right click context menu.this way,you can conveniently scan any file or folder by just right-clicking on it.
     

    
 The interface of the software is easy to use and one can feel right at home using it.Interestingly,the main window doesn't show a button to start a scan.you can either trigger a scan by using the right-click menu or by dragging and dropping a file or folder onto the windows.As it is the main window of the program,it only shows buttons to configure the anti-virus program.
 Avira antivir personal edition classic supports scanning files compressed with almost all the major file compression formats.there is also an option to scan only the boot records,this is useful if a boot sector virus has infected your computer.
     The software is light on system resources and increased the boot-up time by just 7 seconds.it also logged the lowest scan times of 231 seconds in our test scan.While scheduled scanning is supported,e-mail scanning is absent.The outbreak response time of this antivirus is between four and six hours,which is somewhat comfortable for the user as it leaves the system vulnerable for not very long.You can upgrade to the premium version for just RS 1,200 and get additional features such as Mailguard,Adware,and spyware detection.

WEBSITE
Minimum system Requirements:Windows 98 or higher,NT or higher(not server),128 MB RAM for WINDOWS 98/ME/NT,196 MB RAM for WINDOWS XP,IE 5.0

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The internet

The internet brings the world to your desktop,no doubt.but that world also includes a sub-world of spyware,worms,phishing attacks,and more.
  The most common of online irritants is spam e-mail.Spam is simply  unsolicited email that urge you to buy herbal concoctions to enlarge certain body parts,promise youthfulness via a pill,say that you've won a rolex watch,and so on.These mails invariably contain a link to a supposed online payment. It is difficult to believe how someone can fall for a trick like this,but apparently,there are a few innocent people out there who get tricked into buying a "herbal" cure or a "collector'c watch".needless to say,you need to just delete these mails.
      The other common annoyance,which can also bring down your PC,is spyware\adware.the source of these is most usually pornographic sites or those with cracks for software.these sites can also be the very links you get in spam mail.once they get installed,they are able to send a list of the web sites you surf,and even your e-mail address.based on your surfing habits,spam is sent to your e-mail ID,advertising products or services that would ostensibly be of interest to you.
  An adware program will open browser windows all by itself and direct you to websites selling products of the same nature.Some of them are so designed that if you close the window that they bring up,they will open two or more instantly!
    If you receive a suspicious looking file in an e-mail{something like"annakournikova nude playing tennis.avi.scr"} even from a known source, do not download the file. It is likely that a virus has hacked into the sender's e-mail client{or even disguised the sending address as something else-yes,that's possible too} and
is sending out spam or offensive mails. The affected person may not even know that spam mails from his ID are being sent. You can be a good friend and call him up to let him know of this so he can take curative measures.

        Some sites even make use of the fact that people occasionally make typographical errors!a recent example is www.ork0t.com(now taken down),which you could have visited if you typed what you thought was"www.orkut.com"and made a typo.when one entered one's user ID and password into that site,it would be used to hack into your account and send our spam to all your contacts!

                                                           
    Phishing is a threat that you can potentially rob you of your money.it's a mean of fooling you into disclosing your login details of any site/service.If you are using an e-banking service, be very careful of mails that you may receive claiming to be from your bank , asking you to fill in your log in details. As a policy, most banks do not send out e-mails asking you to fill in any e-banking details.if you do receive such a mail,it is fake.Before you fill out any details on a site following a link sent via via e-mail,do confirm with your bank's customer care if they have indeed sent out such a mail.visit only your bank's official site for all transactions.

                                   

                             that's all 
have a happy time.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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why security???

As computer became more and more integrated into our lives,we end up leaving a lot of sensitive information on our PCs-from passwords,email ids(even official e-mail IDs)and bank account to personal diaries and notes,buisness plams(or worse still,tender birds),confidential documents,a log of surfing habits(which can be viewed out of context),a backup of phone SMSes,and much more.
  Then there is another risk,especially whenyou are online-viruses and spyware.though viruses and spyware are talked about in the same breath,there is one fundamental difference:a virus is written to cause damage to your operating system,programs or files,usually with no direct benefit to the virus creator.spyware,on the other hand,is written for gain.this could be by tracking the surfing habits of a user on an infected computer and sending this information to someone who would send the user advertisements supposedly targeted at him based on his surfing habits.
        Very strictly speaking,spyware is not intended to cause damage,at least in the traditional sense,but more often than not,they end up doing so on your PC,which is rendered difficult to repair.
  When we speak of computer security,what mean is the ways in which you can prevent people from accessing data on your computer,keep your computer safe from viruses and spyware,and protect yourself from hacking and phishing.

so have a happy time
!!!!!!!!!!!
-#@shir



 

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