Three Simple Steps You Can Do Today to Enhance Your Information Security

There are two types of users. Those who say they have nothing to hide and conceal, and those who use all possible methods of data protection to keep their personal information secure.
This article is for the first type of people or for those who are somewhere in between. People of the second type are aware of these techniques and apply them in practice almost every day.
So what should you do today to ensure information security?

1. Make a backup copy of important data.
2. Replace simple passwords by stronger ones.
3. Make a copy of information stored in the cloud.

Why should you make a backup copy of important data?
Let's start with a question whether there is a need to save a copy of your hard disk on other media. The improvement of software goes side by side with the improvement of malware. Ransomware viruses became especially active. Getting on your computer, ransomware virus blocks the access to your data and requires a payment for decoding them. But often even the transfer of the required sum of money does not solve the issue with the encrypted data. In such a case these data may be considered as lost forever.
Unfortunately, such cases are common. You can get a malicious code even via a simple JavaScript in your browser. Thus, if you copy important personal data to removable data carriers at least sometimes, you will have a chance to recover at least a part of the lost information and protect it against fraud.
Why should you change your passwords?
In the fall of 2015 was published a list of the most popular passwords of Ashley Madison website. And at the end of 2015 year, we got an opportunity to see a list of the worst passwords used in 2015. According to these lists, which coincide in the majority of points, people do not like to complicate their lives and choose simple passwords. They keep using such easy combinations as 123456, password, password1, qwerty, etc. Coming up with a new password, try to make it very complicated for it not to be brute forced.
But still, even this is not enough. Unfortunately, online fraudsters are constantly improving their skills, and soon there will be not a single password they would be unable to get. Then how to protect your personal data? In fact, you cannot rely only on passwords, thus the best way to protect your data is to use at least two-factor authentication where it is possible.
2-factor authentication presupposes the use of two different factors of authentication when logging in the account. The first factor is something you know (usually it is login and password), and the second factor is something you have (usually it is one-time password generated with the help of OTP token or application on the smartphone, also it can be delivered via SMS or the voice call).
Thus, even if a fraudster hacks your main password, he won't manage to go through the next authentication step. And vice versa, even having the one-time password generator (token) or your phone, the fraudster will not be able to log in without knowing a static password. Two-factor authentication is especially important for bank accounts or corporate e-mails.
But even using 2FA you shouldn't forget that static passwords play an important role in two-factor authentication as they are one of two factors - a knowledge factor.
Why should you make a copy of the information from the cloud?
How many times we have already seen the faces of users who suddenly couldn't find important documents, which they stored in cloud services. And this may happen to anyone. So next time when you think of leaving the important information in your account in Gmail, Dropbox, or any other service, think twice and make a copy on your hard disk.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9505477

How to Perform Android Battery Testing

The rapid battery discharge is one of the most widespread problem of today's reality. Modern smartphones or tablets contain advanced features and they are full of diverse capabilities. But all this is the reason why software testing company should work harder than ever.
Frequently, users make some manipulations with their devices: switch off cellular data or select low power mode which reduces power consumption. For these reasons, QA specialists should execute thorough testing of battery to understand how much power is consumed by a certain application.
Usually, special testing tools are used to check battery consumption. Let us make an example how to check Android battery, using Battery Historian testing tool. Before proceeding directly to test process, one should consider the operation peculiarities of battery historian tool itself.
Battery Historian Tool Peculiarities:

• it is a Google tool;
• requires knowing of programming (at least command line);
• it is an open-source Python script;
• works on Android (starting from 5.0 version and later);
• analyze battery on the basis of Android bug report files;
• operates on Mac OS, Windows, and Linux.

The list above proves that this tool is rather effective. All you need to execute battery testing is to meet some requirements:

• activate USB debugging on Android device;
• install Python in the system;
• Android Debug Bridge (adb) presence.

Only after all requirements are met, QA team may start test process. Usually, the test procedure, using Battery Historian tool consists of five stages.

5 Stages of Android App Testing via Battery Historian Tool:

1. Removing all previous stats - first of all, to execute accurate testing, a tester should clear all stats in order to achieve relevant data (Adb command will look this way: "adb shell dumpsys batterystats --reset").
2. After the statistics is cleared, the specialist should disconnect device from the system.
3. Execute diverse test scenarios in order to define what consumes the most of power. It is important to behave like the user to better realize the impact of user experience on battery lifecycle.
4. Connect device to the system again and create a bug report (Adb command will look this way: adb bugreport > batterydata.txt). On the base of this log file, the tool may get statistics of the device battery.
5. Download Battery historian tool to be able to generate HTML report, using Android log file (Use this command: python historian.py batterydata.txt > batteryinfo.HTML).

Therefore, mobile testing, integration checking, multi-platform testing, load control, usability testing, and other standard types of QA activity may be added with such kind of checking as battery testing.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9614379

How to Stay Safe Online - General Advice and Tips

Viruses, ransomware, scams, identity theft and loss of digital information are becoming more and more common as we move towards a digital age.
With digital security becoming more apparent, it is very important to adopt a good habit in keeping yourself and your family safe online. Below are some basic tips and hints to protect your identity, files and your personal device.
Keep your computer, smartphone and tablet clean

• Keep your device up to date with the latest software
  Software updates provide enhancements and security updates.
• Keep your security software (anti-virus) up to date
  Security software needs latest virus definitions to identify new and emerging virus/malware. Yes, even Mac's and smartphones needs security software.
• Scan external devices (USB)
  USB and external devices can carry virus from infected devices onto yours. Make sure you enable external device scanning to ensure it doesn't get onto your computer

Be very web savvy online

• Watch out for dangerous links and attachmentsWhen there is doubt, delete it. Links/attachments in emails, tweets, SMS, posts and advertising are way cyber criminals can compromise your device. If its suspicious or too good to be true, delete it, block or mark it as junk.
• Check for trusted websites
  When banking online or shopping, ensure they have SSL (secure socket layer) security. SSL protects passwords and your banking information securely.
• Beware of Phishing
  Phishing is a way for cyber criminals to mask legitimate website with their own to steal your confidential login. Do not click on any requests to verify your password unless you requested it.
• Risks with public Wi-Fi Hotspots
  Adjust your security level on your device when accessing public networks. Your device firewall and anti-virus can detect and adjust automatically when connecting to different networks. Turn off your Wi-Fi to public networks when you don't need to use it anymore.

Protect your personal information

• Keep your password complex
  Don't use generic password. Keep it complex with the combination of upper case/lower case characters, numbers and symbols. If it's too hard to remember, use a secure password manager to keep track.
• Use Two Step Verification
  Two step verification will make it more difficult to access you online presence. If a cyber criminal has your password, they will be stopped if they don't have access to your other devices and accounts.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9418828

Sharing Data With International Security Organizations and Spy Agencies - Slippery Slope

Maybe we do need a rather substantial push back from globalism, maybe the global elite have pushed a bridge too far. Did you know that we are sharing data about our citizens with international security organizations and they with us? It's true. One could say this global safety net is for our protection, and yet, I wonder. You see, as a business person whose done business internationally, I hate to think all my communication data is being shared with others in other governments, who can use that data, sell it to my competitors or interfere in my business efforts. Whose idea was this?
"Oh, we need it for global security against terrorists" they say. Well, if we were not busy having wars for oil resources, or stirring up the hornet's nest in the middle east, there would be a lot less terrorism in the world. Do we really need to collect data at this level on all of our citizens? No. Likewise, do we really need to share all our data with the rest of the world, remember we can trust them even less than our own government insider corrupted scoundrels?
Now then, another troubling thing is that we give foreign surveillance teams access to our public's information; Britain, Vatican (to protect the Pope during travels), Germany, France, EU, etc. All this sharing means too many people have access to all this information. Many nations in the EU are pretending to protect their public from us prying, but the reality is we have reciprocal agreements for data sharing, especially cloud data now.
Having the voting records for everyone is problematic, as it can be accessed by anyone, foreign spies can find sympathizers, or know who their major opponents are for media feed manipulation, just as Google and Facebook tailor the news to what you most likely want to hear, thus, clouding your judgement pro or con a particular party, candidate, or thoughts on a specific issue, just like CNN, MSNBC, or FOX News might, or the NYTs, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe or Miami Herald, see that challenge too?
If you really believe all this data collection, privacy intrusion, and surveillance is good for you, our society, or our future, it is evident to me that you don't study your own history, or understand the Machiavellian world we live in. We all agree information is power, so why would you turn over all your information to your government, a foreign government or foreign spies and hackers? Think on this.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9596694

Protecting Your Business Website From Malwares

With ecommerce sites on the rise and over a million new stains of malware developed every day, protecting your business site from attacks from viruses and malware has become a priority now. Hackers are continually creating various new means to gather credit card details and other personal information from their online transactions. Adopting the best security practices has now become very crucial for merchants. It has become essential to install the proper website protection to stop various attacks and today, there are several programs that can be used to protect your computer from such malware attacks.
It is seen that attackers are not actually developing new means to penetrate sites, but they are taking the advantage of poor passwords, unpatched vulnerabilities, weak permission settings and ownership in the file system. Small to medium sized enterprises are the largest targets of cyber-attacks and about 30,000 SMEs are targeted every day. Don't allow your business to be the victim of expensive cyber-attack damages, instead, be proactive and take essential steps to prevent security threats. So, to ensure the highest levels of security, here are some means to protect your site from malwares.
Patches and updates: If your website is running on a Content management system like WordPress, then make sure that your website security is tight. Though a CMS is an easy and cost effective means to update your website content, but they are also to a large extent large target of cyber-crimes. There are many CMS platforms and extensions or plugins that are easy targets for the hackers and often allow access to your server and personal or vital data. Ensure that your plugins, themes and systems are always up to date. There are CMS solutions that automatically update the files for your site.
Firewalls: Continuously removing the existing website threats is a good idea, but it is also important to stop them from coming back again and again. With over 1 million fresh malwares created, your business site has a chance to get infected by a new virus every day. Using a web application firewall can help to prevent cyber criminals from attacking your site. The firewall will act as a filter and will only allow legitimate traffic to access your site while blocking malicious traffic.
Comply with PCI standards: The PCI or the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is a security standard that online businesses should adhere to if they are involved in online payment transactions and accept major credit cards. This will help to ensure that your customers are protected from any cyber threats and frauds. Businesses that fail to comply with the standards can result in financial damages, government fines and also ruin brand reputation.
Create a strong password: Good and strong passwords always help to protect your files. Your password should always contain over 8 characters, a mixture of uppercase and lowercase letters, include digits and special characters and etc. Unfortunately, most people are not careful while choosing their passwords and this allows brute force hacking techniques to access website easily and gather private data. Since hackers use various decoding programs to attack your site, the more unique your password is, the more protected is your site from cyber criminals.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9579555

Easiest Ways to Beat Ransomware

Ransomware threats are not new to the online community today. Unlike early days when ransomware attacked users once in a while, now it is bombarding users with various versions and updates almost every day. This is important to understand that ransomware threats are the real threat of today's time. Attackers are causing real damage to the users with their malicious codes and practices. Thus in present situation users are also practicing some smart tactics to prevent ransomware threats. Let's discuss few steps to avert ransomware attacks.
Take preventive measures: As a foremost step take preventive measures to stop ransomware attacking you. These steps can help you safeguard your system at first place. These preventive measures include below-mentioned steps:
Install a reputable security suite: Most of the ransomware attacks happen through malicious links in emails and through infected websites. The anti-malware program can scan and detect such spam emails and malicious websites to stop them at the initial stage. Use software firewall protection along with a good anti-malware program to make the second line of defense against any virus attack. This way you can secure your system without getting into trouble.
Change browsing behavior: This is the known fact that most virus attacks happen via malicious links and infected websites. Thus by changing browsing behavior can save your system from any unseen trouble. Do not ever open links or emails which have an unknown source as a sender. Do not open any lucrative ad or another link to prevent your system from possible ransomware attack.
Set system restore point: This is an effective step to keep your system safe against any possible data loss due to ransomware attack. System restore point virtually takes the backup of all your important files so that you can access that data in future eventualities.
Backup data: Take this preventive measure to avert any data loss in case of ransomware attack. Take data backup at regular intervals. Take this backup on external drives or on cloud servers so that you can access and restore this data anytime anywhere you want.
Keep your system updated: Many ransomware attackers target those systems which are not updated as these old systems remain prone to virus attacks. This is important to know that every update comes with certain bug fix and security updates against such malware attacks. Thus it becomes important to keep your system up to date with latest OS updates. Another important step to follow is to avert downloading pirated software as they can contain malicious content. Always verify the source of the software you are downloading. As most of the operating software developers require to register and digitally sign all their software. If your OS warns you about the unsigned program than it is better to cancel such installation.
Beat ransomware: After practicing all preventive measures in case your system gets affected with ransomware threat apply below mentioned steps to beat ransomware.
Disconnect from the network immediately: Once ransomware or any other malware attacks your system it further tries to connect to its Command & Control servers for further instruction. To avoid this situation, disconnect your system from the network once you get to know about the infection. This way you can break the link between the infected system and the ransomware servers. This way you can save other machines from getting infected too. Generally, ransomware takes a time to infect and encrypt all your files thus you can save your certain data from getting infected.
Ask the experts: Some evident symptoms of ransomware attack include very slow system speed, unwanted messages pop up, system hang and others. When you see such symptoms don't wait to ask for experts help to prevent further damage to your system. You can do your own research as well to keep your system safe and secure.
When we know the damage ransomware attacks can cause it becomes important to take certain measures to prevent such attacks. In fact, practicing preventive measures proves better option when it comes to ransomware attacks. There are very few methods available to decrypt files encrypted by ransomware attacks.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9550519

Finding Employment in the Video Game Industry

In another article, we described a great number of educational opportunities that lay hidden in video gaming. This time, we're going to introduce a few employment opportunities as well.

1. Working as a Video Game Clerk. Working at video game store or rental place - either permanently or temporarily - has got to be a teen gamer's dream. In a single place, employees have access to the first games and game systems hot off the market and they're privy to peek inside magazines hot off the press before anyone else. If that wasn't enough, gaming clerks get a discount on what would otherwise be too expensive (games, game systems, and game accessories) to even think about buying. Sweet!

2. Working as a Game Tester. Before a game hits the market, it has to go through extensive testing and if you think the programmers behind the game test their own material, think again. The gaming industry is extremely sensitive about what it puts out into the public. In an effort to remain competitive, it must make absolutely sure that the games it produces work as intended. This is where testers enter the picture. But it isn't easy to become a game tester. Becoming a game tester requires a little inside help but once you're in there, you'll not only have access to games that no one else knows about, you'll also have an opportunity to shape the game into an experience that you and your comrades prefer.

3. Working as a Game Designer. Do you have good artistic skills? Can you whip out a character faster than you can say, "I drew that"? If so, you may be able to get a career designing video games. Today's video games exude some of the most beautiful graphics ever seen and if you have a good imagination, are able to use some of the most advanced graphics software programs available, and can follow instructions, you could see your own artwork in the next popular video game.

4. Working as a Game Critic. The gaming industry is always looking for good content and if you have a flair for writing combined with a love for games, you could write for game magazines like Game Informer or you could write content for a highly popular gaming website.

5. Working as a Game Programmer. Not a career for everyone, a good game programmer is always in demand. As player preferences change and new technology is developed, someone with the right programming skills has to be there to fill the gap between what players want, and what the gaming industry can supply. Becoming a game programmer requires extensive training in several different development languages - so if you don't have a clue as to what we just said, skip this profession and look into some of the others.

The great news about all of this is that the gaming industry shows no sign of disappearing any time soon. Even colleges are getting in on the gaming craze as they fill their course books with game programming classes and game design curriculums. There will always be an opportunity for you to blend your love for games with a steady paycheck as long as you remain dedicated to looking for these opportunities, and you make an effort to stay abreast of what's happening in the gaming world.

Check the employment section of your local paper for more, or visit the nearest college to find out what classes and training are available.

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