Tag: Tips & Hacks

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News

The Most Dangerous Keywords Searched Online

McAfee recently released a report on The Web’s Most Dangerous Search Terms. The report describes how cybercriminals are making the most of the popular search terms online, and entice searchers to download files carrying malicious software, as a result, exposing their personal and financial data.

The reports also indicate that with the economic slowdown, malicious search results have risen, as the number of hits on free products, work from home options, etc. have increased.

Topping the list of some of the most high-risk searches on the Web today is “Screensavers” with a maximum risk of 59.1%. “Lyrics” and anything that includes “free” has the highest risk percentage of exposing the users to fraudulent websites and malicious software.

Statistics

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McAfee searched for more than 2,600 popular keywords and more than 413,000 unique URLs (web addresses). Here are some highlights of the report:

  • The categories with the worst maximum risk profile were lyrics keywords (26.3%) and phrases that include the word “free” (21.3%). If a consumer landed at the riskiest search page for a typical lyrics search, one of four results would be risky.
  • The categories with the safest risk profile were health-related search terms and searches concerning the recent economic crisis.
  • The riskiest set of keyword variations was “screensavers” with a maximum risk of 59.1% and an average risk of 34.4%.
  • Surprisingly, searches using the keyword “Viagra,” a popular keyword that is a frequent “visitor” in our spam filters, yielded the fewest risky sites.
  • Keywords popular in non-US countries were significantly riskier than those popular in the United States. 14 countries had keyword lists that exposed users to a higher maximum risk than average, including the Czech Republic (14.2%) and Brazil (12.1%). And 12 countries were overall riskier than the average, including Mexico (1.9%) and India (1.8%).

Work from home scams

The chance to make good money while you “work from home” lures many people. And with the economic slowdown, and with many people losing their jobs, people end up giving these scams a try, which is a huge gamble. Work from home searches can be as much as four times more risky than the average for all popular terms. And on average, these searches are 50% more risky than other popular terms.

So what have you been searching for online lately? Unfortunately, today, mere reliance on intuition or knowledge of past risks is not enough to stay safe on the web. Even technically sophisticated users are at risk. It is very important to have security suite installed on your PC and use safe search tools. Let’s be extra careful!

Link: McAfee report

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News

Printed Documents Can Be Used To Track Printer Owners

If you’re using Laser printers for printing documents, then here is an important post for you. While printing pages, some Laser printers print tracking dots that are invisible but contains crucial data in it, and these dots can be used to track the Serial Number of the printer and the owner can be easily traced.

The US government has succeeded in persuading some color laser printer manufacturers to encode each page with identifying information. That means that without your knowledge or consent, an act you assume is private could become public. These tracking dots include :

  • date
  • time
  • printer serial number of a laser printed sheet

You can read the whole list of printers which do or do not display Tracking Dots here.

Now, every time you print a document, it will automatically include a secret code that will be used to find the printer owner.

Categories
Tips

The easiest way to check NoFollow attribute in Hyperlinks

If you are a webmaster, then here is an important Firefox add-on for you. If I ask what method you use to check no follow tag in a hyperlink, then most of you will reply saying that we check it by viewing the source code. This method takes a lot of time. Here is a great add-on for Mozilla Firefox called Knofollo that enables you to check no follow attribute in hyperlinks with just a right click of a mouse button. With this add-on, you can quickly check your own links.

Installation Instructions : Click here to install this add-on.

How to use it:

First, install Knofollo from the above link and then restart your browser. Now, to check no follow link, simply right click on the page and select Knofollo. The no follow links will be highlighted with pink color.

Have a look :


Link : Knofollo

Categories
Tips

Are your deleted-photos from social networking sites really gone?

After having deleted some of your “embarrassing” photos from social networking sites, you’d probably be thinking – “Well, that was the end of it… it’s all gone and buried”.

Well… don’t be too sure…

Researchers at the Cambridge University say that user photographs can still be found on many social networking sites even after people have deleted them.

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Using the direct addresses to the deleted photographs, the team of researchers were able to detect almost seven such sites out of 16 most popular websites that still showed the deleted photos. The seven sites also include Facebook.

To this, Facebook said that the images are removed from its servers immediately, however, the URLs to photographs may continue to exist on the Content Delivery Network until they are overwritten.

How was the experiment conducted?

  • Photos were uploaded to different sites.
  • The photos were then deleted, however, the researches kept a note of direct URLs to the photos from the sites’ content delivery networks.
  • 30 days later, these links continued to work for seven of the sites even though a typical user might think the photos had been removed.

This just goes to show how lax some social networking sites can get about the users privacy.

So remember, before uploading a potentially “embarrassing” photograph on any of the social networking sites, be 100% sure that you wouldn’t want to remove it later. You don’t want to take any chances, especially now that you know you can never be too sure when it comes to your “privacy” on the internet!

Categories
Tips

3-months FREE Panda Internet Security 2009 for Windows!

Panda Security has recently collaborated with Microsoft’s IT security campaign “Protect Your PC”. In this campaign Panda Security is giving out an exclusive gift for all the Windows users which is a 3-months FREE Panda Internet Security 2009 with no obligations.

Key Features of Panda Internet Security 2009

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  1. Anti-Malware Engine
  2. Advanced Proactive Protection
  3. Personal Firewall
  4. Anti-Phishing Filter
  5. Anti-Banking Trojan Engine [New]
  6. Anti-Rootkit Technology [New]
  7. Anti-Spam Filter [New]
  8. Parental Control
  9. Web Filter [New]
  10. Personal Information Filter [New]
  11. Backup & Restore

That’s not it… the best part about Panda Internet Security is that it can be installed on 3 computers under one license copies.

So, quickly grab this offer before it expires Download Panda Internet Security 2009 for FREE!

Link: Panda Security

[Editor’s Note: This post is submitted by our guest blogger Rayan.

If you, too would like to write for Devils Workshop, please check this. Details about our revenue sharing programs are here.]

Categories
News

Social networking sites fight the Koobface worm

According to the Panda Labs, the 56th variant of the Koobface worm has been found. Since May 2008, the worm has been spreading across Facebook, MySpace, Tagged, Friendster, MyYearBook, Fubar.com, Hi5 and Bebo.

The Growth of Koobface infections:

Microsoft’s Malware Protection Center reports that

  • The growth of such infections is as high as 1,200% since last year
  • 40 % of the infections are based in the US
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My Space, however has declared their victory in the war on spam and phishing. Apparently they believe to have put in a lot of features on the site that would cleanse infections like Koobface. MySpace claims that their users are experiencing an overall 73% reduction in spam compared to a year ago.

In spite of what is being said and done, Koobface continues to spread quite persistently. The users of Facebook, MySpace and other social networking communities should be on guard against the Koobface worm, which spreads by tricking users into responding to a message apparently sent from one of their friends.

As always, be very careful about clicking on links in unsolicited messages, even if they appear to have been sent by a friend.

(Source: zdnet)

Categories
News

Beware! The Phishing Scam on Facebook is back!

Facebook users are being attacked yet again. Hackers launched their latest phishing drive yesterday and successfully gathered a number of passwords from different people from its 200 million user base. The site fought against a similar phishing scam a couple of weeks ago.

Hackers managed to break into the accounts of many Facebook members and sent emails to the user’s friends list recommending them to click on links to fake websites.

The Fake Facebook Website

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  1. These fake websites were designed to look like the Facebook home page.
  2. The victims were asked to login to the fake site, that actually took them to the malicious site controlled by the hackers
  3. The result – users unknowingly gave away their passwords.
  4. The fake domains include:

    Last year, hackers spread a malicious virus called Koobface. This was sent to the user as a link in an email that looked as if it had been sent by a friend on Facebook. When the user clicked on the link, the virus was downloaded on the user’s computer.

    The Motive

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    The main motive for such attacks has been identified mainly as:

    1. Identify theft
    2. To spread spam hawking fake pharmaceuticals and other goods to Facebook members

    Damage Control

    Barry Schnitt, Facebook’s spokesman said that the site was in the process of cleaning up damage from the attack. Facebook was blocking compromised accounts, however, he did not say how many accounts had been compromised.
    Facebook has deleted all references to the fake domains that have been identified.

    Careful!

    So please be extra careful. Make sure you go to the main Facebook Homepage to login to your account. It is very important that we remember NOT TO log into a page that claims to be “Facebook” unless the URL is www.facebook.com.

    Categories
    Reviews

    Avsim: The largest flight simulation site destroyed by hackers!

    A very sad moment for the flight sim community and one of the largest flight simulation sites – Avsim, which has been effectively destroyed by malicious hackers. The site was launched in 1996 and covered all aspects of flight simulation, focusing mainly on Microsoft’s Flight Simulator.

    The shocking attack took down the site’s two servers, that had the library, email and web site, and the forum. Unfortunately, there was no external backup system established. The site had a very heavy participation with forums. The entire user generated content and tweets, etc. are all gone. This incident just goes to highlight the importance and critical need to take regular external back-ups for your data.

    Tom Allensworth, the site’s founder said:

    “Some have asked whether or not we had back ups. Yes, we dutifully backed up our servers every day. Unfortunately, we backed up the servers between our two servers. The hacker took out both servers, destroying our ability to use one or the other back up to remedy the situation.”

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    The flight sim community remains shocked, like everyone who has heard about this. A temporary forum has been set by Tom Allensworth till the time they get to know how the future of the site will shape up to be.

    Allensworth added:

    “The method of the hack makes recovery difficult, if not impossible, to recover from… AVSIM is totally offline at this time and we expect to be so for some time to come. We are not able to predict when we will be back online, if we can come back at all.”

    One of the users on website said that “there’s a special place in hell for hackers who pull stunts like this”. Some others believe that they will we see the rise of Avsim like a phoenix from the ashes, into something bigger and better than ever before. Let’s hope they rebound.

    Lesson to learn: Let us religiously start taking regular backups of our important personal data. To know about a free online back up tool, read this post.

    (Source: bbc)

    Categories
    Tips

    3 Free Antivirus for Windows

    Now a days, online threats have increased significantly. Hackers are trying hack your bank account passwords, email passwords and other valuable data from your system in search of something valuable. Unknown programs and websites shoot serious threats and definitely better Antivirus with an updated definition will control online threats. Here is the list of free Antivirus that have millions of users.

    1. AVG

    Avg has more 80 millions users and most popular downloaded Antivirus software in the world. Avg have real time safe browsing toolbar and installation is really easy. Avg compatible with windows XP and VISTA. This Antivius is only for home use not for commercial purpose.

    Link: Free AVG

    2. Avira

    Another most famous award winning best free Antivirus program, for home users not for commercial program. New Avira Antivirus is launched with new self repair option. This is seriously faster than previous version and more safer and more faster updates.

    Link: Free Avira

    3. Avast Home Edition

    Avast is also free to use but you need to register to get one year free key for avast. next year you can renew your key again. Avast provided definitely another better option for free users. One cool thing is you can get new skin for avast there are many themes available.

    Link: Avast Home Edition

    [Editor’s Note: This article is submitted by Rahul. This is his first blog post on Devils Workshop.

    If you, too would like to write for Devils Workshop, please check this. Details about our revenue sharing programs are here.]

    Categories
    Reviews

    Free Online Backup for home users by Mozy

    A friend of mine always preached about the importance of taking backups. He regularly used to take backups of his data on an external hard disk, only to find out that one day it too crashed! Since then, he has been burning CDs every weekend to accomplish the back up tasks. Oh well… someone as lazy as I am would never have done that.

    I tried to browse through to search for any cheap and reliable online solution that could help solve the problem. To my delight, I came across this cool service by Mozy. I read about the user reviews and pretty much liked it. Here is brief note on what this service is all about and how it can help you sleep peacefully.

    About Mozy

    With more than 750,000 users and 20,000 business customers, Mozy is one of the leaders in online data backup for consumers and businesses. It offers a simple, automatic and secure service for backing up your photos, music, outlook files and other important data safely backed up at a secured, remote location over the Internet. For home users, the service provides a free 2GB back up space.

    Features

    • Simple to set up
    • Supports open/locked files
    • Schedules automatic backups
    • Performs backups automatically in the background, thus not effecting your work
    • Supports version control for your data
    • Encrypts all your data before transferring them to storage
    • Supports backs up of your Outlook files, thus protecting even your emails
    • Only backs up files that have been added or changed in subsequent backups, making the entire process take very less time
    • Restoring the backup files is easy. Though home users are limited to only one restore in the queue at a time.
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    Security

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    The most important feature for any online backup provider has to be its security. Mozy wins it here too. Mozi uses 128-bit SSL encryption for your data during the transmission and for storage at their servers. This means the moment any data leaves your computer, it will be encrypted by Mozy so that sniffers can not read your data. The data is then stored at Mozy using 448-bit Blowfish encryption. Which means, even if it is hacked it will not be readable. So it’s well protected when it’s stored as well as, when the data is being transferred from your computer.

    How does it work?

    1. Sign up for MozyHome free account. Click here
    2. Download and install the software
    3. Follow the step-by-step instructions guide for the installation process
    4. Select the types of files or selected folders you want to back up

    Support

    For home users, Mozy currently supports Windows 2000, XP (32 and 64 bit), and Vista (32 and 64 bit), as well as Mac OS X 10.4 and higher.

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    For Windows Server 2000, 2003, 2008, Windows Home Server, and Mac OS Server 10.4 and higher, business users need to upgrade to the paid MozyPro version.

    Other online backup services

    • Backblaze
    • Carbonite
    • Elephant Drive
    • IBackup
    • IDrive
    • Box.net
    • HP Upline

    I think Mozy is great for lazy people like me and also for friends who keep preaching about backups!

    What are you doing for your backups? Burning DVDs or CDs? Or taking backups on an external hard disk? In case you are already using Mozy or any of the other online backup service, do share your experience.

    Links: MozyHome, Registration for Free MozyHome