Monday, November 28, 2016

Kajal Majhi

How to Securely Erase data from USB drive

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What is Secure Delete?
When you delete a file in Windows only the reference of from the file system table is removed but the actual file is still present in the drive and the reference can be restored and the data can be recover by using various data recovery tools out there.

Why Secure Delete?
Are you planning to sell your smartphone, tablet, laptop? Then you
 should be aware about few important things about privacy and protection of your data. What normally people do is “Factory reset” or “Format” by plugging into the computer .But beware, if you are going to hand over your device the it may not be the correct way to securely wipe your every data.  Anyone who have partial knowledge about data recovery can easily recover your deleted data by using freely available data recovery tools like windows kernel and recuva until you overwrites the data randomly. So, don’t fall in the prey of blackmailing, your privacy is in your hand .

How to Securely Erase data from your USB drive.
For tool I use CCleaner . There are many tools out there such as ERASER, FILE SHREDDER etc but CCleaner is my favorite because it is easier to use as well as I get all the system tuning tools at a single place.  You will get a portable version which you don’t have to install , just click and run.

Open CCleaner  and goto TOOLS section

Go to DRIVE WIPER

In the WIPE section Select “ENTIRE DRIVE” to  erase the entire drive else select “FREE SPACE ONLY”

Next in the security panel choose the 2nd option “Advance Overwrite”

Now from the list of drives choose your USB Drive and click on “WIPE”

Now wait for some time it make take longer depends upon the size of the USB drive as well as the configuration of your system.


I have illustrated all the steps in the video below. Check it out.

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Sunday, July 10, 2016

Kajal Majhi

How to stay safe online

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We are living in a world of technology where data is most precious than money and we are relay on them for most of our regular activities.

Just imagine how you spend your single day normally, you begin your day by texting with a lovely selfie on the social messaging app to your loved ones. Paying bills and dues with your credit card and internet banking service. At office you collaborate with your colleagues on live projects as well as supports the clients with the help of internet , you like to surprise your loved one by gifting her / him something  through online shopping , and at the end of the day you spend hours on social networking websites to chat with your friends and family. From morning to evening we are dependent upon the internet and communications gadgets like smartphone, computer ,tablets etc. to make use of the cyberspace for an easy way to life. Apparently there is a dark part of the cyberspace where malicious people are always trying to steal your confidential information that you use yourself regularly over the internet such as IDs and passwords, banking credentials, credit card details, documents and so on.

Now you might be thinking “ what will they do with all my confidential stuffs? My bank account don’t have much money to steal, my credit card has expired, I don’t have much to hide from social networking activities” and blah! Well  honestly these malicious people can do lot of things that you can have never be imagined and in between them you will be liable for all those activities that has been done by them. It is tough to write almost every things  that these malicious people can do with your confidential data but I have tried to dictate most of the common phenomenon on the present days and you can be a victim of any of these given below.  

  • Data Theft
  • Identity Theft
  • Account Takeover
  • Illegal / Unauthorized transfer of money
  • Invading Privacy
  • Stalking
  • Use your computer as virus /bots server
  • Disrupting critical infrastructure (Cyber Terrorism)
  • Data Modification
  • Cyber Pornography
  • Financial Fraud..and much more


How to stay safe on internet?
Now the question is how to stay safe online? But before this you should know how criminals and malicious persons get their dirty hands over your data and confidentiality. There are several ways by which a person can hack into your system and most of the common reasons are …

  • Low investment
  • Freely available of hacking and forensic tools
  • Lack of user awareness
  • Using of infected tools and software
  • Using of outdated / unpatched OS and software
  • Lack of basic understanding of IT security
  • Low security configuration and so on.


Let me give you a real life example, suppose someone has paid be to collect your internet banking credentials and credit card details without physically meeting you face to face then what  will I do? First of all I will go near the dumpster of your house and search if you have left any old , tampered , Xerox copy of any of government documents that resemble you identity and address proof, as well as try to collect information as much as I can. I will visit your profile in website like  facebook or twitter and collect your photo of front face . With this photo and information collected before I will make a fake identity card as well as residential proof documents. After this I will break the wifi security of your house and sniff in your network and will collect every credentials you will type during loggin. In this way I will capture your card and banking details while you will try to make online payments. Now I have your credit card and banking details but to complete any transaction  online we have to give OTP(one time password) which will be received in your cellphone.  So to receive otp I have to get access to your cellphone and for that I will lodge a FIR in local police station with the fake id I made that I have lost this SIM card. Then I will submit the copy of FIR to the telecom operator to give me a new SIM card with that number and your sim card will be deactivated. What now? Now I will receive all the SMSs and calls in the new SIM card and can do any transaction smoothly. Its your dooms day now.

How to stay safe online?
  • Use a good antivirus program and keep the database of antivirus updated to detect the signature of newly created virus quickly. Also check the firewall configuration that what is allowed and what is denied. If you don’t know how to configure firewall properly then have a quick look here 

  • Use a keyscrambler software in your system. It is very necessary because whenever anyone will try to sniff within your network he will  get the scrambled text not any plain text.

  • Do not download software from un-trusted sources and tools like cracks which may be infected with worms and malwares binded with it which it tough for any antivirus program to detect.
  • Do not put much information in social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter etc.

  • Always try to keep your Operating system updated and install the security patch-up which is release by OS manufacturer occasionally .
  • Avoid emails related to Online lottery, Nigerian refugees , RBI etc. It’s a huge email and financial scam.

  • Bank and other company will never call you and ask for your credit card details , banking credentials or one time password to tell. Malicious people will call you  by pretending themselves like a banking officers and try to lure you by various way. Don’t get lured by them and avoid such calls.

  • While surfing the internet understand the difference between a fake website and a legit website as the look alike. These legit websites are trying their best to keep their customers safe by using different methodologies such as captcha , OTP,  SSL Layer and many more. Google about  “PHISING DETECTION”

  • Use a strong combination of password with upper letters, lower letters, numbers and special characters. Make such type of password that cannot be found in any dictionary .


As the technology is getting updated , the Hacker and criminals are also finding and developing new ways to steal the confidential data.  It is better to always have present of mind while you are online. Join the boot camps and meet up organized by government and other organizations on awareness of cyber security , you will learn a lot of things. These tips are not enough to defend yourself completely but will help you with common issues faced by people every day.



You can download the PDF version of this article from here 


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Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Kajal Majhi

5 reasons why ASUS Zenfone 2 could redefine the smartphone experience

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pic credit : www.asus.com

No doubt that the new Asus ZenFone 2 is truly unbeatable by it’s powerful features, high class design and very user friendly architecture.  Asus again proved that we don’t have to spend much to buy a highly specified smartphone, because Asus ZenFone 2 is very affordable to our pocket and it has hold a standard as the most affordable smartphone in the market. I am going to state five reasons below, that why Asus ZenFone 2 will redefine the smartphone experience.

Beautiful
Asus ZenFone 2 is designed very elegantly which not only amaze our eyes with the beauty but we can also feel it’s beauty when we hold the Zenfone 2 in our hand . The body is made with high quality plastic with faux metallic coating which gives an elegant shine. It has rounded corner and the back has a curve which makes so comfortable to hold in hand and good grip. The back cover is removable by which we can access micro SD card and SIM card slots. ZenFone 2 is a mid-range smartphone but doesn't seem like, but when it comes on our hand we feel a rich experience by its’ class. In simple word the stylish design and solid built in quality express the ZenFone 2 at extreme high in class.

Powerful Performance
ZenFone 2 is fully equipped with the giant Intel Atom 64bit processor which has the processing speed of 2.3 GHz , it is heavily made for hyper threading performance which will run big programs very smoothly . It is supported with 6430 PowerVr  533MHz GPU which makes the work done very efficiently . Oh! Don’t forget ZenFone is the first smartphone which is equipped with the RAM of 4GB. The combination of 64bit 2.3ghz Intel Atom processor , 6430 PowerVr  533MHz GPU and 4GB RAM represent multi tasking and hyper threading performance . The animations, videos can be run very smoothly as well we can feel the rich gaming experience.

Capture more
Asus ZenFone 2 comes with 13mp primary camera in rear with the aperture of f/2.0 and dual tone LED flash . It is supported by Asus pixel master technology  which takes better pictures and videos even in low light conditions . The aperture of  f/2.0 helps to take more depth of the  field and with the combination of pixel Asus master technology helps to take very decent shots and represent very high quality images .  It has unrivaled low light mode which is capable of reducing the noise up to four times , and the pixel merging technology joints the adjacent pixels to form new pixels which also increase the light sensitivity up to 400% and take clear shots even without any flash. ZenFone 2 is truly great for photography as it is a handy tool for the photography addicted .

Large Display
Asus ZenFone 2 has IPS LCD display of 5.5 inch with the pixel density of 403 pixels per inch.  It is bright and sharp enough that we can see it under sunlight. The display is also protected with gorilla glass 3 to protect the screen from unwanted scratches . The touch sensitivity is incredibly fast as it is  powered with the 6430 PowerVR GPU which gives better performance while gaming and 
playing videos.

Charging and Backup
The biggest problem of an smartphone user is power backup because android drains the battery so quickly and takes hours to recharge again. But Asus ZenFone 2 is equipped with 3000 mAh   battery which will give the power backup for an entire day and never makes you down . It has quick boost technology which catalyze during recharge of the battery . The quick boost technology recharge the battery within 39 minutes , isn't is quick power backup?


 This post has been written for Asus India 
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Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Kajal Majhi

Digital India : A dream for better tomorrow

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Ten years back I use to get excited by seeing mobile phones on people’s hand and I wondered that wow! What a device that connects people to another staying at a distance without any wire and It was my dream that someday I will also own a mobile phone. But today I have a  smartphone which is much more than a simple mobile phone with which I can make calls, video calls, browse the internet , click pictures, videos and I can do much more stuffs on it. Remember the day when we use to stand in queue the entire day just to pay bills, buy tickets or to fill any government’s form but now we can do all these stuffs from our home using internet. We can now compare that how e-governance and technologies has made our life better, easier and much transparency on accountability  .
The main motive of the e-governance is to provide it’s service and make people to have access to government at each and every part of the nation so that none of us would left behind from getting the government’ service .
Bellow here are my few opinions to spread e-governance more effectively and efficiently.

IT EDUCATION
As we improve our technologies, infrastructure and we implement more with technologies such as computers and internet then it becomes necessary to spread IT education among the people of the nation . Government should focus more on IT education starting from primary schools to higher secondary and it is also necessary to organize local IT education camps within panchyat and remote areas to provide basic knowledge of computer and internet among the people who are not aware of these things so that each and every people in nation will understand how to use the services of e-governance from their home and they will not get cheated by fraud and private agencies who tend to provide government’s services by taking some fees .

AVAILABILITY OF CONNECTIVITY  
E-governance is worthless without the availability of connectivity and transmission media at every corner of the nation .There are so many villages and remote areas in India who has not seen the faces of Internet yet . The government should lay broadband cables and other media to make available of internet services among these areas so that the people can access to the government’s services from those area.  India have big problem of poor connectivity and price hikes by the privates MNC’s on internet accessibility which becomes tougher for middle class people to afford it’s costs. People believe more on government’s organization than these private companies who charges extra for these services .  If government can provide better services on accessibility the people will not rely on the private companies anymore .

GOVERNMENT IT SECTORS
Yet the day, the e-governance are working fine but sometime these services becomes poor because the government’s technical and IT sectors are poorly managed as they lacks technical staffs hence the government hand over the portals to private organization to manage the services. So it is necessary that as the government will provide e-governance then it having some specialized staffs to manages those portals so the services will never go down as well as it will also increase the employment in government  .IT sectors .

CYBER SECURITY
The e-governance is completely dependent on the internet  which includes online financial transactions, transfer of high sensitive personal and corporate data , highly valued database etc and much more, so it is more important to secure the cyber spaces and protect the public’s as well as government’s data. People enters their personal data as well as monetary information by keeping faith in the services of e-governance , If the security is breached then the people will lose trust on e-governance’s services. The government need to hire ethical hacker and security professionals who will think like the malicious hackers to safeguard the precious data and improve online security .

DEVELOPMENT OF APPS
Now a days smartphones are being widely used more than computers to get accessibility and stay in touch with each other via internet  and it is said that India has more smartphones than computers , so no doubt that each and every people have not their own computers to access the services of e-governance but they have smartphones on almost every house and people are so familiar using the apps , so the government needs to implement e-governance via mobile phone’s apps so that each and every common people can get the services of e-governance .

ALL IDENTITY WITH ONE NUMBER
Mobile phones has become most necessary in our daily life , a mobile number is indeed an identity of a person but we can use this number as more than identity to bring portability and flexibility in our daily life activities . Suppose we go at some places where we need a bunch of identity cards and other documents to prove who we are where do we stay which becomes very rigid process at some moment and situations . So let the government use our mobile number with a unique code which will retrieve all our details , so whenever we need to verify our identity then we just need to enter our mobile phone number with an unique code . We can use this method at many places such as at banking transactions where we will not need any card, in purchase or sales and at many other places where we need to prove ourselves in a quick .

INFRASTRUCTURE
Infrastructure is the root of nation’s development , and a nation cannot be said as developed or improved without an improved infrastructure. Let it be the development of information technology , then the nation need some of the required resources to carry out the activities for the aimed target of development . It is 2015 but  there are many places in India where there is no electricity and required transport which are the basic needs for development of any sectors of a nation. People need to draw government’s attention towards these places where people are very needy for these  basic amenities and when they will see the flexible services of e-governance then no one would leave behind from using the services of e-governance .


Final words…
Every people in this country need the services of government but it becomes hard to reach all government’s service up to them because  of many reasons behind it but e-governance is one unique platform which can make the reach of government’s service  to public and vice verse smoothly efficiently and effectively . But for this the government need to aware people  and make them familiar about  the e-governance , how does it works via different mean and methods .  It should be not only to provide the pre-implemented services but it should have a great option to interact with general public to get their opinions , feedback and their requests to make a better governance that will build a developed nation.

This post has been written for Digital India campaign held by Intel India at Indiblogger.in  
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Friday, February 27, 2015

Kajal Majhi

What is Virus

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You know what is antivirus , you know to scan your pen drive and you feel safe with it isn't it? But do you know what is virus actually?

In simple definition, virus is a computer program which has been created by using malicious codes to infect other computer . Let’s make it more simple, a virus  is a harmful computer which has been written with programming languages in motive to harm other computer and data.

How viruses are created
As I told above , viruses are created by using malicious programming codes.  Lets take an example of a simple virus which can infect a system and open/close the disk tray randomly . It’s a simple virus just to irritate other . see the batch codes below.


So generally viruses are normally written computer programming languages  but these programs are written for unethical purpose . Suppose you have written a program to delete all your pdf files in a one go and latter you planned to do a little prank with your friends and you told them to use this program it will help them to speed up the internet, when they will click  they will lost all the pdf files, then it can also be called as virus .

Why viruses are created ?
Its an important question that why people create virus or virus are created ?  there are many reasons behind it.  Suppose if you have a business then your competitors might create virus and infect your systems to disturb your services.  Some people create virus and sell them in black market for financial benefits. Some create to spread some messages or cyber terrorism . Some people also create virus are their research and people like me create virus just to play pranks (Just Kidding)

How to prevent virus and other malicious program

Do not download software from unknown sources , because most of the software present there are pirated and may contain malicious program binded along with them.

Don’t use unusual apps and games on social networking sites

Do check the options correctly before installing any software .
Get  updates for your Operating System periodically to receive patches for bugs

Be sure your antivirus is getting updates periodically because everyday people create millions of virus and if the database of your antivirus is not updated then it will not recognize any newly created malicious program .





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Sunday, February 15, 2015

Kajal Majhi

Asus Zenphone a perfect valentine

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In this period of valentine there is a sweet fragrance of love spreading all around us , and this valentine I would like to gift a perfect token of love to myself , which will be full of love, experiencing  and perfect partner , so I would like to gift myself a asus zenphone which is my unconditional love, and a perfect partner of this valentine season .

My five reasons why Asus Zenphone is my ideal valentine

The power of Intel
Asus Zenphone is powered with Intel Atom powerful processor for hyper threading performance. I am in love with its fast incredible performance specially when I do big activities on phone such as gaming, playing video etc. It is supported by intelligent user interface to make the complex task easy and work smartly. The intelligent user interface exempt the user from complexity to easy and organized life style .  The processor is designed in such way that it will work efficiently, effectively without compromising the battery.

Perfect Camera
Asus Zenphone comes with incredibly smart five element optical formula lenses supported by Intel Atom processor which can click high quality pictures. The processor is smartly designed with Intel inside for compelling smart performance,  gaming and high graphics. It is also supported by pixel master technology which will give photographs of professional quality  Photography is one of my hobby as well as a blogger I need a camera always to express my creativity and things that I see randomly in the view of photographer,  but it is not possible to carry a camera everywhere but I can carry a phone everywhere and Asus Zenphone will fulfill my this needs with its’ optical formula lens.

Elegant Design
Its’ stylish design express the class with high , light weight and extremely slim which is easy to carry inside my pockets . I am really fan of Asus Zenphone’s cool look .

Powerful battery
A smart device needs a smart and enough power to run, Asus Zenphone comes with giant 2110mAH  battery gives uninterrupted power to the phone by which I can use the internet, play movies , games music for entire day. Earlier I was frustrated with my previous phone when I had to carry a power bank and charge it after every 3 hours , but Asus Zenphone is truly incredible with its battery which never let me feel down with my entertainment as well as in the situation when I have call my dear ones in emergency .

Internal memory
It comes with internal memory  of 16GB at this affordable price and It can be extended up to 64gb via memory card . When it comes for storing my documents, videos, photos and my favorite tracks  then the space is enough for me to carry my world in my pocket.
This is why Asus Zenphone is an ideal valentine for me, it gives me all that I need to rejoice and celebrate this season of love, so why not I gift myself this perfect combination of valentine ?

Don't wait, Grab a Asus Zenphone from flipkart 

This post has been written for Happy Hours held at Indiblogger . 


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Sunday, February 1, 2015

Kajal Majhi

Three reason why Live Chat is better than phone calls

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The way how we are using the social media where we engage our self-more in online chat than phone call. Now a days we prefer more on texts , online chat over phone call to connect with each other , even now a days we prefer online chat when we try to contact with customer care as consumer , because chat is more convenience  and disturbance free .

We lead a very busy life where phone call can be a disturbance sometime, as we are not always in the situation to call someone or the person whom we are calling is free to receive our call, we may be at office , meeting,  hospital or any other place where phone calls are strictly not allowed  or we may not be in the mood to talk with anyone so at that time online chat can be much beneficial .
Below I have mentioned my opinion why chat is better option than phone calls…

It Reduce The Cost
Phone calls can be expensive mode of communication specially for a talk of long duration such as customer care support , discussion on any matter and more if we contact between two nations then it will really hurt our pocket. But online chat is inexpensive we can connect with people whether from our locality or people from another nation with the same cost .

Company who do telemarketing or sales and services over phone can bring which volume to its operation costs if the volume of the calls is so much , the same company can minimize the cost by using online chat support which is also more preferable by the consumers .

Disturbance Free
As told above ,  chat is a disturbance-free mode of interaction, we don’t know the person what he is doing, where he is whom we are calling , our call can be a disturbance for him/her at the moment or someone who is trying to call us may don’t know what we are doing right now, we may be at our work place , talking with boss on some serious topic or whatever at that time phone call can be a disturbance .  But If we seek a better interactive option then there is nothing better than online chat . we can interact with the people without any disturbance , chat is more expressive and people are more comfortable with chat than phone call .

People love live chat
If you ask me both as consumer or seller which option do I prefer to connect with consumer or seller? I will say its live chat , as a consumer I prefer live chat to connect with seller or customer care because I cannot be much expressive over phone call as I can be on live chat , as well as I can use live chat from any place anytime without disturbing other. As a seller I prefer live chat because to keep my number private as well as it is more convincible than phone calls .


This post has been written for Happy Hours  at indiblogger held by www.quikr.com
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Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Kajal Majhi

Micromax Canvas Tab P666

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Yesterday I was at Kolkata and thought to spend some time at E MALL ,  hopefully I passed by a corner where a demo model of Micromax Canvas P666 was there for display . Thanks to that boy whom I told that I will not buy now but he still didn’t felt bad to show me the handset . For tablet I always tend for something looks elegant , durable,  equipped to give power performance and features to play the multimedia applications and that’s what Micromax Canvas P666 does it.  Its first look was so attractive for me, If I say honestly that if I had that much of money I would have brought it yesterday. 

 Well, here is why this Micromax Canvas P666 meets my expectation and how it will help me to archive my needs.
The real thing of every tablet or smartphone is it’s processor , and with the trust of Intel, Micromax has put the splendid Intel Atom processor with the processing speed of 1.2GHz which is also featured with Hyper Thread technology for multitasking . What I need is a fast hyper processor and Intel Atom suits my requirement . Wait, only a fast processor is not enough, I need enough RAM to run highly threaded apps , and yes Micromax Canvas P666 is married with 1 GB RAM which combines with 1.2 GHz processor and Android Kitkat OS to give lightning performance . It also have 8GB storage space which is enough for me to keep my data and also have storage expandable option via micro SD card.

Well I am a gaming addict , I watch a lot of movies , for gaming first I need good support of graphics, yes as It is powered by Intel, it has Intel Graphics Media Accelerator for superior graphics. The 8 inch width screen with 800 * 1280 pixel resolution and 16m color depth combines to give graphics performance much better. No doubt I can play my favorite games and movies much better .
Hold on, high performance processor and a huge screen needs enough power to run I need a battery with well equipped mAh, and yes Micromax P666 doesn’t let me down as it is equipped with 4400mAh battery which gives 325hrs standby and runs up to 6 to 8rs on playing high end games which really suits my expectation.

One of my hobby is photography and when I don’t carry my camera I need something simple that won’t disappoint my hobby . Yes it is equipped with 5MP primary rear camera with which I can click some great snaps , it has 1080P HD recording that won’t disappoint me. Oh yes it is also equipped with 2MP front camera that is great for video chat and when its time for selfie just click and share .

Connectivity is the one of the important thing in todays’ life .  I am a cyber-security personnel and I need of connectivity at any time  and it does support multiple connectivity option. It is enabled with WIFI connectivity , it also supports 3G connectivity and voice calling which is a great option. It is also featured with Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS. It also has micro USB port to connect with my pc.

Oh yes the design , because of which I was attracted towards this device. It has glass finished slim body which looks elegant in class and cool in hand.


This post has been written for Happy hours campaign held at Indiblogger for more details please follow the link  Micromax Canvas Tab P666
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Monday, November 10, 2014

Kajal Majhi

Careto the most sophisticated malware

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Get yourself introduced with the world’s yet most advance and sophisticated malware that has been discovered by Kaspersky  and It has infected many systems in more than 31 countries .  Instead of attacking the common users or consumers, it targets the government institutions , oil and gas companies , embassies and research companies and because of this behavior sometimes it is assumed as a sponsored attack or campaign to run a new form of surveillance or to collect foreign data.  Careto was live for many years until it was unmasked and then it’s centralized server went offline , but still there are many possibilities of Careto that can be run privately for any planned attack .

Careto was written by highly professional people which consist of a sophisticated malware, a rootkit, a boot kit , MacOS X, some version of Linux as well as mobile platform of iOS and android . Which mean it can act according to the victims’ system architecture.

CARETO STRING

How does Careto work?
It consists of phishing email with a link to malicious website ,  the malicious website contains many exploits which inject according to the victim’s OS architecture as the malware has been already designed for dynamic platform. When an user click on the link  , then the malcious website inject the exploits into the user’s system and after successfully injecting , it redirect the user to the original website that was stated in the phished email.

It capture nearly 50 file types including doc , pdf, encryption key, server SSH key and RDP files which are used to identify the users and build remote desktop connection , and many more file types .
This malware is highly modular that it can interact with almost all communication channels , it support plugins as well as it can also intercept with flash players .

The game of malware, virus and other threats will never end as each and every hacker and criminals builds new and new type of threats and many people will be victims  till it is discovered by the security researcher  . So  it is better to protect you system and device from day to day cyber threats .

It is very important to Install a security software in your system .

Avoid attachment from unknown senders

Download music, videos, apps, eBooks from only official and trusted sources .

Check the link sent by anyone and think twice before you click .

Stay updated with cyber threats , virus, malware by subscribing to security blogs .

If you find any unknown weird activates in your system or in someone system then report it to security researcher , it may help them to discover new threats .



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Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Kajal Majhi

If you are a celebrity, you are vulnerable to hack

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celebrity, celebrity logo, celebrity account compromised
No doubt that celebrities are more talented , good looking and intelligent than us but they are damn vulnerable to hack.For example, lets take the Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence , recently whose’ extremely private photos were leaked by hackers from the Apple’s cloud storage service. Celebrities are being targeted because their private data are extremely valuable in the underground markets as well as many hackers try to show their skills to the world.

Why Celebrities are vulnerable to hack?That’s what this topic is about. When we forget our password of some websites we try to recover them from the ‘forget Password’ option, and there we have two or three option two reset or retrieve our password , first by receiving a password rest link in our email id, secondly we have to enter the ‘one time password’ received on our cellphone else we have to answer the security questions.Skip the first two options and lets try to answer the security questions.  Most of the account’s security questions based on the followings :

  • The place where you were`
  • In which year you were born?
  • Your childhood nickname ?
  • Which High school did you attend?
  • Your Childhood best friend name?
  • Your birth year?




If you are a celebrity or a popular person then all the answers of the security questions are already out there around the internet . Turn on the Wikipedia pages you will get all the biographical information from the birth year to yearly life story.A celebrity has to face different questions which belongs to their personal life, likes dislikes, hobbies as well as career . Hit the search engines and it will retrieve all the information published on the online portal of news and entertainment channels .   Their social profiles also yells various internal information about their daily life activities which can be the key of the security questions.

Well, nothing is secured in internet but one should adopt latest security features which are availe by their service provider such as Dual authentication systems , fingerprint recognition system etc so that a hacker have to access the celebrity’s device or have to plant malware to see the one time password which is not impossible but a difficult task.
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Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Kajal Majhi

Story of cloud storage security

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keyhole, digital keyhole, internet security wallpaper

The recent phenomenon of compromising the cloud account of Hollywood stars and leaking their private pictures around the internet , has been the hottest topic from last few days. As this incident has tickled the medulla of website moderators , security analytics and cloud service provider  that what to do. Really it is a million dollar question “What to do? “   Because it is the matter about security and privacy of the users.

Yes we can do a lot of things , but there is an one strong point which everyone should know. “Nothing is 100% secured in the internet”  Not mine, not yours and nor even the geeks who designs security protocols .  Internet is the game of codes, hardware, connectivity and we users . The things we human knows to build , does also know to break it, If it is not possible by punctual manner then there are lots of hammering and destructive way to break it.

Understanding the cloud storage

Cloud storage service has been built to bring flexibility of data sharing and migration anytime and anywhere. Once you upload your data then you can retrieve it from anywhere in the world. You don’t have to carry your own storage device , you just need an computing device with an internet connectivity .

So, here I have a question, where does you upload your files?
Sorry, don’t get me wrong,  but I have to say this.  Point to the line above “you don’t have to carry your own storage device” . So you are uploading your data to someone else’ storage media isn’t it? Where you don’t have any idea and control other than accessing your files and configuring your account’s digital security.  You don’t know where the storage media is,  about the physical security in the data warehouse of cloud service provider and so on. Its like handing over your important things to someone else.

Is your cloud account secured?

cloud storage service, cloud security

Keeping the point in mind “Nothing is secured in the internet” . But there are lots of way by which we can prevent or extend the duration to crack the security . Almost every cloud service provider has multiple security option some of them are by default and few of them have to configure by the user itself.

Two step authentication is one of the most important security measures that should be adopted by everyone , for not only your could account but also for your email and social accounts. In dual step authentication , first you have to enter your primary password and then the server will send you a text with a code, that’s your secondary password.

Authenticate by generating code using your smartphones cloud apps.

Pincode : It is generally generated once during enabling this feature. You will need to remember this incase you have enabled dual step authentication but you don’t have your cellphone with you.

Security question : Never choose an security question and answer which are know by anyone other than you.

Enable the SSL encryption.  Many cloud service has SSL by default and few have to configure by the user itself that he wants SSL encryption or not.

Secure your computer first

computer security, localhost security, hacker eye

What is your primary computing device? Your laptop, desktop, tablet, iPad, or smartphone?  Do a proper maintenance of your device on a regular basis. Don’t keep the unusual applications and programs as it may bring security flaws.  Use a total security program consist of anti virus, anti malware, firewall , spam/phishing detection system etc. Do the updates of your operating system once in a month to get security patches .
Apart from these, spend your little more precious time over internet to learn about worms, malware, virus and information security threats . It will help you to deal with daily life phenomenon.

How is your smartphone?

Smartphone is one of the most important daily life gadgets , without it we feel like we are out of this living world isn’t it?
 Yes it is,  it has more secret information than your social id does and can be the target for your competitors and malicious hackers.  Never Jailbreak or root your smartphone if you want to keep it safe. Root and Jailbreak can break the security level of your smartphone and becomes vulnerable to information security threats.  Keep a security program in your smartphone , by which you can wife the storage remotely if you ever lose it.


Few lines from my opinion.
Cloud storage is great innovation and technology for this developing IT infrastructure of this world. You can backup your data for emergency purpose, you can share work and office documents with clients and workmates , and much more. But I don’t recommend it keep your extreme private data on cloud storage as cloud storage device are not managed by yourself . If it’s the matter for your extreme privacy and security then there is no safer storage device  in the world other than your own isolated hard drive.




Did you get bored? Sorry about this :)  please express your anger by dropping your comment below :) 
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Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Kajal Majhi

How to remove RAMNIT malware

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Ramnit is one of the most dangerous threat which is active today, it is a form of malware which is integrated with social engineering and because of which an user can be victim of this malware very easily. Usually it infects the .exe , .dill , .html files and also steals banking and financial information.

It is a multi component malware which spreads through removal devices such as USB Flash drive and stays stable until an user logged into his account.
It opens a backdoor which becomes easy for remote attackers to access your system remotely and make sudden changes as per their wish.

It makes some terrify changes in your computer , due to which it becomes difficult to make any changes such as OS updates, install security software or any anti malware programs.

Its steals browser cookies

Its steals login data and saved FTP and financial credentials.


How RAMNIT infect and work in a windows system?
When an user logged in into his Online bank account , then RAMNIT inject into a page where the user has to configure a phone number for one time password (OTP) or any other page to “set transfer processing system”  where it execute a temporary phone number. Then it connect to the command server designed by the attacker where it dispatch the details . Then the user receive a temporary number via RAMNIT and a OTP from the bank’s server. When the user enter the both his is right in the traps because he has authorized a money transfer to the attacker’s account unknowingly .
How to detect RAMNIT in your system?
You can diagonanis your system by various system diagonis tools and can see the infected output below:

REG:system.ini: UserInit=c:\windows\system32\userinit.exe,,c:\program files\microsoft\desktoplayer.exe”


How to get ride of RAMNIT malware?
Its is not easy to get ride of such type of malware which makes difficult to install security suit , but we have many options  to try.
Microsoft has many free tools which can detect and remove such threats .

Windows Defender  for Windows 8 and Windows8.1
Microsoft security Essentials for  Windows 7 and Windows Vista

Option two:
Download eScan antivirus toolkit.
Start your PC in safe mode  ( You can get the Safe mode option in BIOS under Boot settings )
Lunch the Toolkit and scan the complete hard drive.

Advice for user :
Always use a strong password
Use a good Firewall software
Always scan the removal storage media
Perform system updates at least once in a month.


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Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Kajal Majhi

How to know your location history using Google Map

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Google location history, Google location map, google map

Do you remember Google latitude from the past? Where we could share our location data with our friends , we could ping our friends at place on map to gather all together there. Google location and Location history was evolved with Google latitude and now its is much devolved with new features .

Yes Google knows it all, If you ever have used Android or any Other Google apps then Google knows you location . Not only android and apps. But if you use any Google products such as Gmail, Adsense etc then Google has been constantly tracking your approximate location. You can find your location history from Google server by using your phone's browser here https://maps.google.com/locationhistory/b/0   . You can see a map with red dotted points and lines with few timelines at the bottom. The dotted points are the places where your device has been tracked .


Deleting the location history 
If you want to delete some or specific location history data, you can do it from dashboard , click on the date and select “Delete history from this time period”


Enable/disable Google location history
If you are highly concerned about the privacy of your personal life and tech life then you can turn off this features , simple by change its settings from dashboard. Android devices comes with integrated location access setting under the personal panel settings.

Android location access settings, google location acees settings, android snapshot
Screenshot of Google location settings




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Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Kajal Majhi

How to identify scam emails

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What you are going to do with $1 or $2 ? May be you will buy a bubble gum, candy or donate it in the temple, isn’t it? But this is the enough money for a hacker/spammer to create a fake email and send it to millions of email ids around the world and may be one will drop in your inbox , then how you will identify it as a scam email?
You may also receive emails about unusual advertisement and promotion of products and services even if you have not subscribed to their newsletters , so how do they get your email ids?  It is hard to believe anyone , as some greedy website owners sell their customers’  email database for a huge sum of money and the spammers and advertisers take advantages of this email marketing .
Here are some sample fake/scam email that you may have or you may receive in your inbox. 

LOTTERY  SCAMS
You may receive bulk email with subject “YOU WON A GRAND LOTTERY PRIZE” . They will inform you that “You have won a grand cash prizes of 250,000,000 Pounds for British Lottery Associations, and they need your personal details such as email id, bank account numbers, phone no address etc. so the association can contact you” first they will greed you by telling that huge sum of money , then they will ask you to pay some service charges, if you pay they will claim money again pretending with different charges .  So ignore such emails and mark it as spam as it will help the email server to protect other users from such fake emails.


REFUGEE SCAMS
You may receive bulk emails from a girl , she claims that her parents has died at civil war in some country and she is residing at a refugee camp as she have no home.   First she will contact with such emotional emails, if you give response to her emails she will act like a pen pal , she will share her self created emotional story with you as well as her father has left some huge amount of money in his  bank   account and that can only be withdrawn with a foreign partner , then she will ask your details such as personal email id, bank account number, address etc.  She is not she, it’s the spammers who try to fool people to steal money.



FOREIGN TRANSFER SCAM
You may receive a spam email the person will claim that he/she is from Reserve Bank/ Central Bank of the nation, and you are lucky one to be chosen as foreign exchange beneficiary of 500,000 pounds for outstanding incurred by foreign government  and as a rule of your central bank you have to pay about 19,000/ as handling and service fees to proceed the official transactions . If you pay the fees then they will claim some different fees as the Lottery scams and by the time its too late.



FAKE PAYMENT GATEWAY
Hackers and spammers are always trying new ideas to take down users and their information. As online education and online purchase are being more popular among people, so hackers found this a fair way to attract users, they send bulk email claiming that it’s a invitation  from a reputed foreign university for a higher degree or they send advertisement of personal medecines like pills for enlargement of organs , loose weight and fat etc. When a user is attracted toward this and he is willing to pay, then he got redirect to the spoofed payment gateway and if they enter their credit card number, cvv number, email id, billing address etc, Oh man! You are in trap!
We can identify such scam email by various things , but now a days most of the email servers has their own email detection system by which such emails directly goes to your spam folder, but if still it is in your inbox then you can detect by the followings:


Incorrect Spellings:
Spammers usually do mistakes while typing , but they try their most of the efforts to express originality and take down users but still their quality of language used will be very poor.

Plain Text
Most of the scam and phished emails are poorly written in plain text with weird unusual logos and  commonly used fonts. But if you receive emails from legitimate company you can see its written on HTML, images and high end font which looks like almost a banner.

Sender’s email id:
Hackers/spammers usually use free based email service or unusual email server to attempt such things. You can detect the email id in a weird form such as aghs-327@axnbe@com .


Website URL & Security:
Most of the spoofed webpages has weird url which is weird to read as well as to stare at them. They claims that their website is ssl secured, geo trust, certified by MasterCard/visa but actually it’s the only copied logo , if you hover your mouse and click on those logo it will show nothing, but a legitimate website and payment gateway is SSL secured which you can see it a secured logo with green colour at the address bar of your browser. If you click on the logo of visa/MasterCard , geo trust it will open a new popup secured window and display the website’s licence status.




USE YOUR COMMON SENSE
This is going to be the rude paragraph from my side , Ok if you don’t understand all of the above then use your common sense.  If you have to pick a lottery then go to the local lottery agency and pick any one and test your fortune. Why those gain company will give you such huge amount of money and that is in pounds ?  if you have to purchase medicine online for your extremely personal use then Google it you will get a lots of legit website that have some 
legit review about those medicines.  If you want to study abroad then first search details about the university online, no university is will to charge you to view their details and course structure in a first go. And Your central bank  much more work to do than informing you individually about the foreign beneficiary .


 




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