Symmetric-key algorithm

Symmetric-key algorithms are algorithms for cryptography that use the same cryptographic keys for both encryption of plaintext and decryption of cipher text. The keys may be identical or there may be a simple transformation to go between the two keys . The keys, in practice, represent a shared secret between two or more parties that can be used to maintain a private information link. This requirement that both parties have access to the secret key is one of the main drawbacks of symmetric key encryption, in comparison to public-key encryption (also known as asymmetric key encryption).

Types of symmetric-key algorithms

Symmetric-key encryption can use either stream ciphers or block ciphers.

·         Stream ciphers encrypt the digits (typically bytes) of a message one at a time.

·         Block ciphers take a number of bits and encrypt them as a single unit, padding the plaintext so that it is a multiple of the block size. Blocks of 64 bits were commonly used. The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm approved by NIST in December 2001, and the GCM block cipher mode of operation use 128-bit blocks.

Implementations

Examples of popular symmetric algorithms include Twofish, Serpent, AES (Rijndael), Blowfish, CAST5, Kuznyechik, RC4, 3DES, Skipjack, Safer+/++ (Bluetooth), and IDEA.

Cryptographic primitives based on symmetric ciphers

Symmetric ciphers are commonly used to achieve other cryptographic primitives than just encryption.

Encrypting a message does not guarantee that this message is not changed while encrypted. Hence often a message authentication code is added to a cipher text to ensure that changes to the cipher text will be noted by the receiver. Message authentication codes can be constructed from symmetric ciphers (e.g. CBC-MAC).

However, symmetric ciphers cannot be used for non-repudiation purposes except by involving additional parties. See the ISO/IEC 13888-2 standard.

Another application is to build hash functions from block ciphers. See one-way compression function for descriptions of several such methods.

Construction of symmetric ciphers

Main article: Feistel cipher

Many modern block ciphers are based on a construction proposed by Horst Feistel. Feistel's construction makes it possible to build invertible functions from other functions that are themselves not invertible.

Key generation

When used with asymmetric ciphers for key transfer, pseudorandom key generators are nearly always used to generate the symmetric cipher session keys. However, lack of randomness in those generators or in their initialization vectors is disastrous and has led to cryptanalytic breaks in the past. Therefore, it is essential that an implementation uses a source of high entropy for its initialization.

Reciprocal cipher

A reciprocal cipher is a cipher where, just as one enters the plaintext into the cryptography system to get the cipher text, one could enter the cipher text into the same place in the system to get the plaintext. A reciprocal cipher is also sometimes referred as self-reciprocal cipher. Examples of reciprocal ciphers include:

·         Beaufort cipher

·         Enigma machine

·         ROT13

·         XOR cipher

·         Vatsyayana cipher

Commercial Bank first to launch NFC-enabled premium credit cards for both Visa & Mastercard

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has become the first bank in Sri Lanka to offer Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled credit cards of both Visa and Mastercard, two of the leading brands in the sphere.

Formally launched in Colombo on Wednesday, 23rd November, Commercial Bank’s Visa Infinite, World Mastercard and Visa Signature branded NFC credit cards are targeted at premium customers, the Bank said.

Near Field communication is a set of communication protocols that enable the chip mounted on the credit card to establish contactless communication with a portable device such as a smartphone or NFC enabled point-of-sale unit, by bringing the two within about 4 centimeters of each other.

NFC enabled credit cards are more secure than those with magnetic strips, and their contactless communication capability means that holders of NFC-enabled cards need not relinquish their cards to third parties when making a payment via a terminal or device with the same technology.

Speaking at the launch of NFC-enabled credit cards from Visa and Mastercard, Commercial Bank’s Managing Director/CEO Mr Jegan Durairatnam said: “Commercial Bank is proud to be the first bank in Sri Lanka to launch NFC enabled credit cards from both Visa and Mastercard brands. These cards are designed to offer the most premium facilities to customers who enjoy the finer things in life.” Mr Durairatnam also remarked that the Bank was particularly proud to bring two competing giants in the cards business on to the same platform at a launch event. 

The first two NFC-enabled credit cards issued by Commercial Bank were presented to Mr Indra Silva and Mrs Nisreen Jafferjee at the launch event.

Holders of Commercial Bank’s NFC-enabled credit cards will be eligible for numerous exclusive benefits local and internationally, including upgrades at premium hotels, access to premium airport lounges, premium travel experiences, offers at gourmet restaurants, special shopping offers and concierge services, the Bank said.

NFC technology evolved from radio-frequency identification or RFID, the technology used by shipping companies, in large warehouses, and in superstores to keep track of goods. It uses electromagnetic induction in order to transmit information over a short space so that by simply scanning a container, a staff member can know what it contains.

The NFC standard has three modes of operation: the peer-to-peer mode that lets two smartphones swap data, a read/write mode in which one active device picks up info from a passive one, and card emulation, in which an NFC device such as a smartphone can be used like a contactless credit card.

The only Sri Lankan bank to be ranked among the Top 1000 banks of the world for six years consecutively, Commercial Bank operates a network of 251 branches and 650 ATMs in Sri Lanka. The Bank has won multiple awards as Sri Lanka’s Best Bank, Best Trade Bank, Strongest Bank, Most Respected Bank from a number of local and international institutions and publications over several years and has also been adjudged one of Sri Lanka’s 10 best corporate citizens by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce for several years.

Commercial Bank’s overseas operations encompass Bangladesh, where the Bank operates 18 outlets, Myanmar, where it has a Representative Office in Yangon, the Maldives, where the Bank opened a fully-fledged Tier I Bank in September 2016 and Italy, where the Bank launched its own money transfer service in November 2016.

what your web browser is telling websites about you

Interested in knowing what information a website has access to about you as soon as you visit a page? Here are a couple of websites that will show you what information you are leaking as you browse the internet.

Your web browser holds a lot of information about you, and this information is available to websites who want it. Want a peek at the sort of information that a website has access to? Read on!

If you are interested in the sort of information that your browser can offer, there are two websites that you can visit.

The first site is called " Click."

Not only does this site show you the information that your browser is leaking about you and your computer, it also watches what you do. I won't spoil things for you, but I encourage you to turn up the volume (there is a little mild profanity so perhaps headphones is a good idea), and explore the page.

How many of the achievements can you unlock while on Click? Let me know!

The other site you can visit is Webkay.

This site is less playful than Click, but it presents the data that it gathers about you in a much clearer manner, going as far as explaining what is being collected, and also offering some advice to help you prevent some of the data leaks from happening in the first place.

If you're not used to maintaining your privacy while browsing the web, you might be surprised just how much information websites have access to. If you're already switched on in terms of privacy, bask in the glory of being able to tour around the web without leaving too many footprints.

ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE WORK

One of the most important and essential pieces of software on Windows computers nowadays is antivirus software to protect you against malware, exploits and hackers. With new advanced malware being released every day used to compromise privacy, blackmail the owners of infected machines and send spam, antivirus software is more important than ever. Most malware is designed and spread with a financial motive, ransom ware for instance which encrypts all files on your computer and demands a payment in Bitcoin for the decryption key.

Malware is often spread through infected websites that contain malicious software, phishing e-mails and online downloads. In many occasions users are infected by their own actions, for example opening a malicious attachment in the mail or downloading a file from the internet. But sometimes there isn’t a single thing you can do to prevent infection, for example by visiting a mainstream news website which is infected with malicious software. On these occasions your antivirus software becomes really important. Antivirus protects your privacy, your precious and priceless files and business processes for a price from Rs1,551.3,- to Rs6,205.21. But how does Antivirus work? What does a full system scan and a quick scan do? How does antivirus detect a virus? Why does it update all the time? In this article we will be answering these questions and more.

HOW DOES ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE SEARCH FOR MALWARE?

Antivirus software uses multiple ways to detect malicious software. Antivirus scan uses full system scans, quick scans and on-access scans to search for malware. We will have a look at the different scans available, what they do and how to use them.

FULL SYSTEM SCAN

The full systems can may run for a long time and scans all the files on your hard drive, network, system memory and other storage devices for malicious software. Modern systems often contain a lot of files and therefore a full system scan may run for a very long time. A full system scan is very useful when you’ve just installed antivirus software and you want to check if your computer contains any malicious software. Another reason to run a full system scan is when you suspect an infection which has gone unnoticed until than or if you want to check the system for dormant malware with the latest virus definitions. For the purpose of dormant virus detection most antivirus software schedule a full system scan weekly after the virus definitions have been updated.

QUICK SCAN

Most antivirus software offers a function called a quick scan to check the start-up items, system memory and boot sectors for malware. Depending on the used antivirus software the quick scan also checks for malware on locations which are often used by malware, for persistence mechanisms for example. The quick scan uses only a fraction of the time and resources a full system scan uses. Therefor you can run a quick scan anytime you like without having the anti malware software slowing down your computer.

ON-ACCESS SCANNING

The on-access scan or real time protection is probably the most important scanning mechanism used by antivirus software. An on-access scan is run every time an executable is executed and a file is opened or downloaded, regardless of the file type. The antivirus software will run the on-access scan before the application interface or file is presented to the user. A great benefit of on-access scans is that security flaws in applications are also being caught by the antivirus software. For example it will detect malicious flash files when vulnerabilities in flash are being exploited. For this reason it is advised to never turn off on-access scanning on your antivirus even if it impacts your computer performance. A lot of malware infections have great impact on your system and it might cost a lot of time, effort and sometimes money to remove the malware and make sure it has been completely removed.

HOW DOES ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE DETECT VIRUSES?

But what mechanisms does antivirus software uses to detect a virus and distinct them from non-malicious files? This is done by using virus definitions for known viruses and by employing heuristics to detect new or modified viruses. Read on to know what virus definitions are, how antivirus uses them to detect malware and how antivirus employs heuristics.

VIRUS DEFINITIONS

Antivirus software relies heavily on virus definitions to detect malware on your system and this is the most traditional way of detecting malware on your system. Virus definitions contain signatures which are used to determine the kind of malware. New malware is released every day and so are virus definitions. The bigger antivirus software vendors have dedicated antivirus labs where new malware is researched to develop new definitions and signatures for them. This is a costly process because millions of new malicious software is released every year. Without the latest virus definitions it may be impossible for your antivirus software to detect the latest malware. Most antivirus software vendors update malware definitions multiple times a day for this reason. Another method for antivirus software is heuristic based detection which we will explain in more detail.

HEURISTICS

Heuristic bases detection is used in combination with virus definitions to detect malware which is based on known and modified malware. Even without virus definitions for the modified malware the antivirus software is able to recognize variations of malware and put it in quarantine. Antivirus uses generic signature detection for this purpose and can be explained as malware with different fingerprints but exactly the same malicious code. Another method for antivirus software is file analysis for example to see if an executable has instructions to alter or delete certain files. Regular software does not try to modify or delete important system software and therefore this action could be considered malicious behavior and should therefore be considered malware.

FALSE-POSITIVES

One big downside of heuristic based virus detection are false positives. False positives is when antivirus flags files or programs as malicious or marks them as a threat when they are not, it is just a false alarm. In normal daily use of your computer you should rarely encounter false positives. But with so much software around it may be possible to run into a false positive. In general it is advised that if your antivirus software claims a file to be malicious, consider it malicious too. If you want to be 100% sure if you’re facing a false positive, you can upload the file to Virus Total for analysis. Virus Total will scan the file for you and show you how other antivirus software think about its contents.

WHICH ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE SHOULD I BUY?

There are a lot of antivirus software vendors who offer even more antivirus software. It is advised to go with proprietary antivirus software instead of free software. The paid antivirus software offers better protection to infections, exploits and hackers than free virus scanners. Currently the award winning antivirus vendors are Bit defender, ESET, Norton, F-Secure and Kaspersky.

Facebook buys Pittsburgh-based facial analysis

Facebook has bought a facial analysis software firm linked to Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University, a move that will help the social media giant boost its artificial intelligence-powered facial recognition technology.

Details of the deal weren't revealed by Menlo Park, California-based Facebook or FacioMetrics, the Carnegie Mellon spinoff.

Facebook says FacioMetrics's software can be used to monitor the emotions of medical patients, assess audience reaction to a public speaker, or even detect drowsy drivers.

It also will enable Facebook users to express themselves through special effects that can manipulate photos and videos with facial images. This is something rival Snapchat already does to some extent—it has special filters users can add on to selfie "snaps" they take of themselves. The filters change depending on your facial expressions. For example, a dog filter will not just add on dog ears but show a giant panting tongue instead of your own when you stick out your tongue.

FacioMetrics has developed software called IntraFace, which can be downloaded onto mobile phones and enables users to do real-time facial image analysis. The company's CEO is Fernando De la Torre, an associate research professor at the school's Robotics Institute.

Microsoft joins the Linux Foundation

Fifteen years ago, Steve Ballmer memorably declared Linux was a cancer. Now, Microsoft announced it was joining the Linux Foundation. That’s not a completely unprecedented move, given that Microsoft has been getting steadily chummier with open source software over the last few years. There’s a Linux Bash shell integrated into Windows 10’s Anniversary Update, after all. But joining the organization responsible for maintaining Linux and for funding various open source projects? That’s a true 180 from where the company used to be.

Microsoft also launched a beta of SQL Server for Linux, while Google just joined the .NET Foundation, PC World reports. Microsoft is releasing a version of Visual Studio for the Mac, although this is based on Xamarin, not a straight port of Visual Studio. Samsung has a preview version of Visual Studio for Tizen, which will allow .NET applications to be built for Samsung’s non-Android hardware. If you wanted to blow someone’s mind from 2010, try telling them that Microsoft will help build Linux, Samsung wants VS support for Tizen, and Google has added .NET after spending so much time and effort investing in Java.

Microsoft’s move to embrace Linux is undoubtedly driven by changing macroeconomic conditions around the PC business. For decades, as the dominant server and consumer operating system, Microsoft had very little reason to play nice with others or work to emphasize invulnerability. The explosion of the mobile market and the company’s complete failure to penetrate it has left it little option but to seek other types of collaboration and cross-platform support. Building products that work seamlessly across both Linux and Windows is one way for Redmond to ensure it remains relevant across the data center and server markets.

“Microsoft is hitting all the right notes in terms of aligning its developer business with an ecosystem much broader than Windows,” IDC Program Director Al Hilwa told PC World. “Joining the Linux Foundation is a natural progression of this strategy and one that might still generate a double take if it wasn’t for all the actions the company has already taken in terms of supporting Linux in Azure and with SQL Server.”

SQL Server should be available on Linux by the middle of next year. Those of you hoping for a suite of consumer-friendly cross-platform announcements may need to wait a little longer — there’s no indication that general application compatibility at the consumer level is coming to either operating system, and certainly no known plans to make APIs like DirectX 11 or 12 cross-compatible. Of course, some would argue that Vulkan supersedes the need for such support in any case, but we’ve heard similar arguments about OpenGL versus DirectX (pre-DX12) for over a decade. Even after Valve’s work to bring Steam to Linux, Linux gaming lags behind its Windows counterpart.

Hide Your Ip Address And Protect Yourself Against Spyware And Hackers

Your computer's Ip is it's unique identification online. Once your computer conveys with another computer it shares it's Ip. Frequently your pc maintains exactly the same Ip next day of day, for several weeks at any given time. A large amount of your activity becomes simple for other computer systems to log and monitor.

Identity thieves may use your Ip to watch that which you do on the internet. They even intercept financial information, including logon IDs and passwords. Since id theft is among the quickest growing crimes, it is just prudent to do something to avoid online monitoring of the activities. Hiding your Ip is an excellent method to thwart identity thieves, spy ware and cyber-terrorist.

The normal method to hide your Ip using their company sites is by using proxy servers. Proxy servers are, basically, intermediate servers which exist involving the computer and also the computer in the receiving finish individuals message. That computer in the receiving finish of the message sees your message from the proxy server, not your pc. Thus, your computer's Ip is hidden.

In addition to assisting to thwart identity thieves, proxy servers also hide your real Ip from forums, blogs or any other services that track your Ip. If you've been blocked by one of these simple services, hiding your Ip using a proxy server may be the only method for you to restore access.

You will find free proxy servers and along with compensated proxy servers. You will find several software packages will search free of charge proxy servers. These programs will test the proxy servers to find out if they're presently functioning and just how rapidly they are able to retransmit your communications. However, you need to know that some free proxy servers might be run by identity thieves who're really monitoring your activities while pretending to become carrying out a helpful service.

It is almost always far better to choose a recognized and reliable service that's been running a business for several years. A few of these services will help you to see the Internet free of charge, while some charge for browsing.

The majority of the free websites may have difficulty dealing with some or many software. So, should you communicate for your bank or any other lender with an application that runs on your computer or use every other computer software that accesses the web, you might want to make use of a compensated service. These types of services usually charge a regular monthly fee to assist support numerous fast servers rich in bandwidth connections to the web.

Most compensated services permit you improve your Ip periodically. Some permit you to log out and log in for their service to modify your Ip. Other services supply you just one Ip for a whole day.

Regardless of the preferred method you utilize to cover your Ip, you'll be online more safely with less anxiety about identity thieves, spy ware and cyber-terrorist. Happy, safe and sound surfing

Edge is ‘safer’ that Windows 10 informs Chrome and Firefox users

Microsoft has turned on a new set of Windows Tips that inform Chrome and Firefox users on Windows 10 that Edge is a “safer” browser. We reached out to Microsoft to find out how long this latest recommendation has been active. “This wave of Windows Tips for Windows 10 users began in early November,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Venture Beat.

If this sounds familiar, that’s because Microsoft turned on similar Windows 10 tips back in July, warning Chrome/Firefox users about battery drain and then recommending Edge instead. Those notifications were on the battery icon in the operating system, while this new one is on the Edge icon

Reddit user by “illCodeYouABrain” noted the prompt happened when launching Firefox, although not every time. We confirmed with Microsoft that the same “tip” was active for Chrome as well.

In July, a Microsoft spokesperson told us that “these Windows Tips notifications were created to provide people with quick, easy information that can help them enhance their Windows 10 experience.” This time, the spokesperson added that Windows 10 users can always change default settings and preferences, including turning off these notifications in their system’s settings (for those interested, open the Settings app => System => Notifications => Disable “Get tips, tricks and suggestions as you use Windows”).

The battery drain “tip” was timed with Microsoft’s battery-savings campaign for Edge, and this security one is no different. NSS Labs compared the security of the three major Windows browsers and unsurprisingly — Microsoft has a long history of asking NSS Labs to do a study in which its browser comes out on top, though it claims this one wasn’t commissioned — Edge won in a particular metric. That’s where the “It blocks 21% more socially engineered malware” part from the notification comes from.

Security is of utmost importance in browsers, and Edge is actually quite secure. For a long time now, Microsoft has been pushing the envelope in security, and it’s understandable the company wants to highlight that. But as we noted last time, leveraging notifications within Windows 10 to promote cherry-picked results could be seen as poor practice. Google and Mozilla don’t have the option to do the same in Windows 10 if they want to highlight the strengths of Chrome or Firefox, respectively.

We’re already used to Google’s search engine pushing Chrome, Yahoo linking to Firefox, and Bing recommending Edge. This year, Microsoft has upped the ante in the browser war with Windows 10.

Google Introduced New Website, Lets You Play With Its Experimental AI Projects

Get ready to get your hands on your first ever interaction with Artificial Intelligence. In a bid to make AI more accessible to people who don’t like to parse academic papers, Google has opened a new website this Tuesday called A.I. Experiments. The website will entail many artificial intelligence research cases done by Google through easy to use web apps which will help everyone get a sense of what the technology is.

So you can visit the website and use a software that guesses what you are drawing, a camera app that can tell what you are putting in front of it, and a music app which can play “duets” with you just like a human.

One of the projects called “Quick, Draw!” is a game where you are told to draw a certain thing at first, like a ceiling fan or a bat or a bicycle, and then the software tries to guess what you are drawing.

Another experiment titled A.I. Duet, tries to mimic some musical notes that you played using your keyboard to play a few of its own and try to create some sensible music.

Giorgio Cam shows off Google’s AI vision technology, as it aims to identify the object you place in front of your camera, and then turns them into some lyrics of a song.

Another AI software called the Thing Translator utilizes the Google Translate tech translates objects you point to in different languages.

And if you are interested in understanding how the magic happens, you can go and dig into Google’s posted code for nearly all of the AI projects A.I. on GitHub. They are also taking submissions from talented developers who used Google’s tech to create similar applications.

Now, Googling yourself that leads to personal privacy controls

All you'll need to do is Google yourself if you're wondering how deeply Google has been digging into your digital life.

 A shortcut to personal account information will appear at the top of Google's search results whenever logged-in users enter their own names in the query box.

The feature is part of an update to the "My Account" hub that Google introduced a year ago to make it easier for people to manage the privacy and security controls on the internet company's services. While Google isn't making any additional information available, it is making it easier to find.

The link to personal accounts will appear at the top right of the listings for searches done on personal computers and at the top of requests entered on smartphones.

Google is making the change because it learned that many users doing a "vanity search" under their name wanted a quicker way to find out what the company knew about them, as well as to see how they are depicted on various sites across the internet, said Guemmy Kim, a Google product manager.

A new feature on Google's mobile app will also quickly take users to their account information with a spoken request. All that will be required are the words: "OK Google, show me my Google account." This option initially will only be available in English.

People have become more interested in managing their digital profiles as a confluence of search engines, smartphones and online social networks makes it easier to track where they are, what they're doing and what they're thinking. Revelations about government agencies' online surveillance programs also has heightened interest in privacy protection.

Google uses the data collected by its search engine, Gmail and other services to analyze people's interests and habits to show them ads about products most likely to appeal to them. Those ads generated Rs10,357.55 billion in revenue last year, providing most of the money that fuels Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc.

In addition to providing quicker ways to get to personal account information, Google also is introducing a "Find Your Phone" tool that's designed to protect data stored on a device, as well as help locate it if it's lost or stolen. The tool will work on Apple's iPhone, as well as devices running on Google's Android software. It's meant to supplement the device-tracking and security features already built into the iPhone and the Android operating system.

"Teams" -Microsoft adds new chat-based service for workers

Taking a cue from competing online services like Slack, which let workers chat and share information on the job, Microsoft is adding a new program called "Teams" to its Office 365 suite of internet productivity software.

Analysts say Microsoft is catching up to a trend in which a host of tech companies—even Facebook—are competing to offer specialized online networks for organizations, as workers increasingly find that email and simple document-sharing services are too limited for communicating and collaborating.

Like competing services, Microsoft's new "Teams" product provides a central place online for workplace groups to chat, share files and perform other tasks. But unlike competitors, Microsoft is offering the ability to easily transition into other widely used Microsoft programs, such as Outlook for email and calendars and Skype for voice and video conferences. "Teams" can also incorporate artificially intelligent "bots" and other software programs created by outside developers.

Workplace software is a big business for Microsoft. While the giant tech company is best known for making the Windows operating system for PCs, it racked up more than Rs4,047.67 billion in revenue last year from workplace "productivity" programs like Office, which includes software for email, calendars, word-processing and other functions. Although other divisions bring in more revenue, Microsoft's "productivity" division is its most lucrative, with Rs1,901.18 billion in operating profit.

But the company has been threatened by new offerings from big competitors like Google, as well as upstarts like Slack, which provide a central meeting place online where teams of workers can hold running conversations and share files that are easily accessible.

Microsoft bought the workplace social networking service Yammer for more than Rs153.32 billion in 2012 and will continue that service, which some companies use as an interactive bulletin board. Analysts say newer, competing services have more functions. And new companies like Slack have entered the market by making their services easily available to individual departments or groups.

But Microsoft has the advantage that its email and other programs are already widely used by companies, which could make it easier to add Teams. It's also touting that Teams offers encryption and other security measures, along with the ability to integrate with software from outside developers.

How hackers reach your Social accounts

A decade ago, it was simply our personal computers that we wanted to protect when it came to computing. However, nowadays the stakes are much higher and the things we have to worry about in much greater numbers. For instance, the banking accounts that we use online or even social media can be the target of attacks. That’s why Facebook more or less recently launched partnership with Kaspersky in order to make their whole experience more secure. Along with that, were launched some pages and exclusive content explaining how exactly the dynamics of security really worked when it came to social media.

Did you know your social media content and activity could be at risk? Most of the time, we don’t think about it, since the antivirus on our computers is already doing its job, but the web holds much more information now, and it’s possible for hackers to get to your information. Not only Facebook but also Twitter can be the target of such attacks or traps by hackers. What should you watch for? Check out this quick rundown of what you could be up against when you use social media. You can then be more aware of what’s going on no matter where you click.

Trojans on Facebook

Many Hackers want to slip a virus on your computer. This virus can record everything you type and send it back to the hacker. To do this, the hackers disguise the virus as something harmless. This is called Trojan. Trojans can, unfortunately, be part of the mix when it comes to clicking in the wrong place on Facebook, be especially careful with your emails concerning this one.

Phishing on Facebook

Phishing can appear ridiculous when we read the definition and examples, but there are also fake things that you can stumble upon at the wrong moment without notice. Use common sense before reacting to any notification online. Scams rely on making you act quickly. When you receive notification on Facebook, question if it’s legitimate.

Identity Theft on Facebook

Identity theft can happen on social media as well. Be careful with what you do when it comes to your financial transactions on there and never disclose it on Facebook. Keep track of your Facebook transactions to make sure that they are correct and that your information is kept safe.

Malware on Facebook

Malware is more of a daily thing, but there are solutions for it. Kaspersky takes care of that on Facebook with a free scan you can launch. Make a little effort required to run this and you might catch more threats before they do any damage. Also, keep in the check on different pages of security experts that might warn you or protect you from such threats in the future. Malware isn’t always a simple thing to understand, and it’s constantly evolving, so make some of these pages your “friends” so that you’re always informed on the topic. You might thank yourself later when you come across news of threats you would’ve typically fallen for. Security can also be a fun topic to learn about, depending on how it’s presented.

Scams on Facebook (Free Stuff, etc.)

It can be tempting to click on the free stuff that’s often offered on Facebook, but you’re most likely to land on a scam this way. Keep your clicks for the offers that look real and reasonable. Also, don’t be afraid to research on the web concerning an offer you’ve seen on Facebook.

People Asking for Money on Facebook 

Accounts on social media represent people, and the attack might come through directly from their keyboard. Fake people could ask you for some money or create a false story of an emergency. Be careful. This kind of trap is transferring from our email inboxes to our Facebook accounts since it appears we’re now checking them more often, so be careful around what you open on there from now on.

Suspicious Logins on Twitter

Try to use the most recent security methods to avoid suspicious login, and try to check on the location logins depending on the platform that you use.

Third Party Apps on Twitter

Third party apps can make interesting claims on Twitter, but they could also be trapped. Don’t give out your information easily.

Spams on Twitter

On Twitter, you could also see some people promising wonderful results when it comes to

getting rich on the web. Anything could be used to convince you – screenshots, money back guarantees, etc. – but at the end of the day, if the reputation just isn’t there for the link, people or organization you’re about to click on, don’t do it. If you’re really looking to make money on the web, make the appropriate research beforehand

Worms and Others on Twitter

All sorts of other threats can be found on a site like Twitter, but among the essential things you can do to get rid of them, you can reboot your account, use the page to notify Twitter itself of your problem or simply follow the accounts that typically advise users of those kinds of threats. Remember that if you get some problem with social media, you might not be alone, and with the size of the networks nowadays, chances are the news will spread pretty quickly. Thankfully, there’s no better place than social media to become aware of potential threats and current ones that are spreading, so that’s already about half of the problem solved.

Don’t take things lightly on the social networks. There might be jokes and quick links thrown all over the place, but overall you want to take your time and enjoy things one at a time. Opening multiple tabs and getting excited too much about the things you see can generally lead to bad adventures. Take it step and step, travel through the links and people you know, and generally you will end up at the right place. Also, take notice if some of your friends have some of these bad habits on social networks. The things they click on are most likely to end up in front of your eyes, as well as their suggestions, so you will want to take notice before you end up falling into the same traps.

Save your data from getting corrupted

Data loss - whether from hardware failure, digital corruption, or even accidental deletion - is a hard, yet inevitable truth in this age of computers. But you can take simple precautions to protect important documents and e-mails, photographs, music files and videos. Your Windows OS comes with tools that will help you take a backup; your external hard drive comes with backup software. Yet, despite best intentions we fail to create copies of our files. It's probably because the process might seem daunting. Well, it’s not...

Local storage

The quickest place to save a backup of your data is on the hard disk in your PC. Here, however, you will first need to ensure that your copies are stored on a separate physical drive in your machine. A note of caution: different partitions do not mean different drives. In the event of a hard drive failure, you will lose all your data if your files were stored on the same disk, even though it might show as a different drive letter on your system.

Now, given current drive capacities, most PCs come with just a single hard drive. In this case, it would be best to invest in an external hard disk. As mentioned earlier, each brand comes with its own backup utility. Follow the simple steps to back up your files at regular intervals. Tip: Till you get into an 'automatic' habit, create a reminder on your phone that will prompt you to back up every weekend.

Personal cloud storage

While a local backup is a good idea, an online repository for your documents, music and pictures will give you the freedom to access them from any web-enabled device. Besides, many cloud services come with mobile apps, allowing you to access, synchronize and share files on the go.

Dropbox (www.dropbox.com)

This service gives you 2GB of free storage. If you suggest it to friends, you can earn up to 18GB of space. Dropbox also has software for Windows, Mac and Linux PCs, and apps for Android, BlackBerry, and iOS devices. To back up a file, place it in the local Dropbox folder on your PC and it will be pushed online, showing up on your smartphone as well.

Google Drive (drive.google.com)

Google Drive offers up to 15GB of free space which is shared across Gmail and Google+ services. While Drive is not ideal for multimedia file storage, it is perfect for documents, with support for over thirty formats that can be opened within the mobile app - available for Android and iOS - or the web browser.

 Box (www.box.com)

With 10GB of storage space, you will have more than enough room for backing up personal and work-related documents. If you are not into taking your photographs public on Flickr and Picasa, you can store them on Box. Entire folders can be shared with friends and family, turning the backup process into an advantage. Just make sure you don't give write access to those with whom you share the folder. Besides mobile apps for Android and iOS devices, Box also works on Windows Phone.

SkyDrive (skydrive.live.com)

With SkyDrive, you get 7GB of free space and the ability to work on documents within a web browser or its app that's available for Android, iOS and Windows Phone. This service works well with photos too: it comes with a slideshow function and supports sharing on social networks.

Mega (mega.co.nz)

Mega tops ours charts with a whopping 50GB of free storage space. It is a pure-bred digital locker with AES-128 encryption for all your data. As of now, the service can be accessed via your PC and through an app for Android. iOS and Windows Phone offerings are in the works.

Backing up with Windows

You can also use the built-in backup and restore utility in Windows. The best part is that you can schedule and automate the entire process with the help of a simple wizard.

In Windows 7

Click Start > Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Backup and Restore. Here, you are presented with two options 1 Make a full backup of the system: In the left pane, click Create new, full backup. 2 Customize the archival: Click Set up backup and then follow the wizard to configure what you want to make a copy of. After that first time, whenever you bring up Back and Restore, just click Back up now. To restore your data, double-click the backup file to start the process. Alternatively, open Backup and Restore > Restore my files. Browse through the backup and choose the files and folders you want to restore; select the destination and click Restore.

  

In Windows 8.1

Connect an external hard drive to your PC. Then, using your cursor, point to the upper right corner of the screen. In the 'charms' bar that appears, click on the Search option and type File History to access it. Enable the File History option and follow the instructions to select the folders you want to backup. You can restore files from earlier copies with the same utility.