Computer Security

Alternate ways to use Google’s 2 Step verification while travelling internationally

June 2, 2016 by computerera

Google 2 step verification is very powerful feature to protect our google services (Gmail, Picasa etc) from hackers. More that 90% of users use SMS to get OTP (One Time Password) but this will be very problematic when someone travel internationally where you cannot use your home country sim because of high roaming charges.

In this case to avoid these login problems there are several alternatives which i am going to explain you now in detail.

1. PreLogin Google Services before travel.

If you login your google account in particular devices by checking the option “Do not ask for OTP on this device” google will never ask for OTP until and unless you clear the browser cookies. Google sets a browser cookie states that particular browser is already verified by OTP. Please do remember that this is purely a browser dependent, If you login with different browser or a device it will prompt for OTP.

2. Migrate to Google Authenticator App.

If you are a Android or iOS user, to avoid SMS service usage there is a smart option with small configuration. There is a option to bypass SMS service and Google Authenticator generates OTP at an interval of 20 seconds and is valid only for that duration.

But there is a drawback with this app, if your smart phone is lost you might be in trouble. There is another option which can be used as backup which is described below.

3. Generate Verification codes Backup.

The Verification codes backup is a txt file which contains a set of 10 codes. You should use this codes carefully because each code will be used only once. If you used all the 10 codes, you can again generate unique 10 set of codes.
You should make a note of these codes separately, but not in your email account. The set of codes looks something like i shown below.. (Those are just examples don’t try them, they will never work.)

4. Configuring a secondary mobile number.

The last but not the least option is you can add secondary mobile device to your google account. This can be of another country which you are travelling to.

Passphrases instead of Passwords

June 1, 2016 by computerera

These days each and everyone will use passwords and PIN’s to unlock several accounts like mail accounts, internet banking, especially smartphones etc.,
Now just think once, is your password secure ? Definitely we should check whether its safe or not. But for some people will use different validation processes, here is the tips why we recommend Passcodes and Passphrases.
What are Passcodes?

Passcodes are just a combination of characters and digits, which are generally longer that a normal password. So if your password is ComputerEra this you can translate into C0mput#rEr@2007!

ComputerEra is easy to guess. So changing the vowels and inserting numbers and special characters, adding the year this website was launched, finishing with punctuation is much more hard to guess. Make sure the word you choose is a difficult word, not the name of your spouse or name of your pet.
PINs

We depend on PINs (Personal Identification Numbers) while paying by credit or debit card. It is a four digit code which we have to set for contact less payments. Many of us set PIN to unlock the smartphones.

It consists of the numbers from 0 to 9. Possibility if guessing your password is true if your password is 1234 or 0000 or any other similar popular number.
Hackers can easily guess the normal person password, your date of birth is one of the first thing. Hackers will try our four digit password with the help of a program runs through a multi digit system which might start with 0001, 0002 and continues similarly.

Normal Passwords

You will set a password with containing names of your pets, best friends, children, or your favorite bike and you might think that no one will ever guess right?

If a hacker knows enough details about you thy can guess what words you might use. Now your question is how a hacker will steal our details right? They could be stolen with the help of key-loggers.

If a hacker gains access to your email account, they can know all other accounts which you have by clicking “Forgot password”. So its very important to use a different and unique password to your email address.

Fingerprint
It is a intellectual way to secure your devices because finger prints are unique. It looks like impossible to copy someones fingerprints, but they can. Yes they can copy fingerprints too.
Where ever we go we leave a rich fingerprint marks on nay devices which we use. What if absolutely its a usable fingerprint ? A brilliant thief might easily examine those fingerprints and make use of to access your secrets.

So finally How to make Passphrases to secure your accounts.

Collapse a sentence by taking first letters of each word. For example lets say your Favorite Website Is ComputerERA by Sridhar Nallamothu, it can be converted into FWICESN. You may change ‘S’ to ‘$’ ‘O’ to ‘0’ ‘I’ to ‘!’ you may add launch year of website, 2007.

Finally your passphrase would be FWICESN2007. This looks strange and cannot be guess easily to others, but you can remember if you know the sentence.

You can insert some special characters too. Most of the people use ! or @, so why not we use a different special character in our passphrase ? I bet most of the people never uses a back-slash, so that’s always a better option.
Also you can mix upper and lower case characters. But make sure you start with first letter capitalized and rest lower-case for ease of remembrance. Why not add your name first letter and some special number to the phrase? So we take Vassanth as an example, add V to the phrase.

At last you will finally en up with an strong passphrase like…
FW!CE$N2OO7\v

How to Recover Lost Office Files on Computer

May 24, 2016 by computerera

It would be very much frustrating if you lose any office files that you have been working on from the days or hours. If the corrupted or lost files are not recovered, it would waste a lot of your time working on the same files for the next few hours. It is now easy to recover lost office files on your computer without taking much efforts.

Is you are using the Microsoft Office to prepare your office documents, you an recover the files for some extent without using any other third party software. I’ll also be covering the recovery of office documents using the third party software and ultimate safe technique.

MS Office 2013 and 2016 have a magical recovery feature that recover the recent changes in the documents. MS 2013 cannot recover the unsaved files but the 2016 version comes with that featured added.

1 Document Recovery

You can recover lost office files using the document recovery option in the MS Office 2016. Microsoft has added a feature that saves the unsaved documents in a temporary location as a backup. This backup can be accessed by going to Files > Manage Document > Recover Unsaved Documents.

2. Recover lost office files from temporary files

Go to file options and set the hidden files and folders option to show hidden files, folders and drives. This will show up the temporary files of the files that were not saved or lost with an extension .tmp. Find them and rename them to .Docx or .Doc based on the version of MS Office you have on your computer. When you are sure about the recovered files, revert back the setting to hie the hidden files or else your computer will look like a trash can all unneeded information.

3. Use the Recycle bin

You might have checked the Recycle bin but might have overlooked in tension. Check the recycle bin clearly for the deleted office document files. Recycle bin can be your easy life saver.

4. Data Recovery Suite

7 Data Recovery Suite is a data recovery software that recovers the office documents, images, audio files and other type of files with a few clicks and option selections.

Watch the video tutorial of how to use the 7 Data Recovery Suite from here:

5. Always take backups

It is always take backups of the important files to the external drives. Because, Windows is not a stable operating system and it might not work the next time you boot the computer. There exist different factors for its instability but the bottom line is better not to depend on the computer to start up every time as good as last time.

If you are planning to buy an external hard disk after reading this post, consider WD Passport Ultra External Harddisk.

Hope this article helped you recover lost office files on your computer. Share this article to your friends if you like it.

Security Issues Found in Lenovo PCs

May 21, 2016 by computerera

Bloatware is what companies are adding to the devices unpacked. Though it may promote the company’s useless applications that are purposelessly installed by default. The bloatware not only eat the memory on the device but also brings vulnerabilities along with them as per the observation kept on Lenovo PCs causing security issues.

The Lenovo computers that are shipped in between the years 2014 and 2015 have exposed a log of non-identifiable Pc information to the Lenovo resulting in the installing of OneKey Optimizer bloatware on the laptops in their first connection to the internet itself. There also found some other vulnerabilities that tend PC to clean install the OS with their malware activity.

The online security of Lenovo laptops has remained a question with the inclusion of unnecessary software on the computers. Many security issues of such behaviours that are found later didn’t follow the guidelines of anti-theft software.

Since the security systems are expelling the Lenovo’s bloatware and other suspicious behaviours of the computer, the company have stopped producing the machines like Service Engines for enterprises.

We have already seen a malware called Superfish Visual Discovery, a browser extension that recommends the cheaper alternatives to the product images on the webpage. it might sound useful but annoying when it overtakes the browser expereince.

Windows 8 operating system is some what constant in resisting these malware behaviours with its built-in Platform Binary Table feature.

However, if you using the Windows operating system that is lower than Windows 8, you should be aware of the unknown activity on the system. Think a while before buying the Lenovo computers.

Is Fingerprint Scanner Making Us More Vulnerable?

May 13, 2016 by computerera

The security of the smartphones has been taken to biological with the fingerprint scanner. The Apple iPhone started to have this feature but they are more secured than we could think. The recent rivalry of Apple with the FBI regarding the unlocking the phone to reveal the customer’s privacy in a case is well known for its consequences. That at least assures customer information privacy.

What about fingerprint scanner in Android smartphones?

I once happen to see a meme of a person boasting about his new phone’s fingerprint security feature and NSA recording his information for future criminal record verification purposes. It is obviously true that the national security agencies of the countries might be spying on the fingerprint scanner impressions of the smartphone users.

This spying might help us provide us more security but, what if it is taken into the hands of hackers. The hacker groups like Anonymous are known to be having the powerful hacking mechanisms including the super hardware and software that could trace any digital device connected to the internet in no time.

Android phones, as we know about of today’s are more feature rich and are grown powerful. The hardware improvement like the OIS cameras and fingerprint sensors, eyerish scanners are making them more lucrative at affordable prices.

The technology is a sword with two sided sharp edges. Those who use it wisely for good sake will be benefited and those who use it for bad sake will be more benefited hurting the good ones privacy and disturbing their lives. Be wise and be safe while using smartphones. Do not install unnecessary and unverified publisher applications on the device.

This article is not to scare you but to warn you once before using the extremities of today’s handful technologies. All the best and happy using fingerprint sensors safely on your smartphones.