Getting tired of deleting all those unwanted emails from your inbox? Well, if you are, then instead of cursing those spammers and doing nothing, you should start acting proactively.
What can you do about spam?
Below, I give some important steps you should take if you want to save your time.
Malware, Spyware, Adware…
Internet was already threatened by these bits and bytes terrorists, now comes Bin Laden - Ransomware!
Ransomware is a malware used for an extortion crime. An innocent looking email, your favorite playmate sites and torrent sites are some of the doors through which these malware enter your PC. Some of the popular Trojans detected by now are; Sinowal.FY, Gpcode.ai, Ransom.A.
According to the PandaLabs and Kaspersky Lab these Trojans will first encrypt all your important files (mainly office documents) and leave a ransom note within readme.txt file on that particular folder.
The ransom note then tells the user in broken English that the files have been encrypted using RSA-4096 and that unless cold, hard cash is forked over within a period of time, the content of the files will be shared with the world and then deleted. The note demands $300 in order to decrypt the files.
As its said prevention is better than cure, so instead of shedding away 300 bucks, its much better to stop such malwares to enter into your PC. The sad news so far is that none of the AntiVirus makers (Symantec, Panda, KasperSky, Mcafee) have yet claimed to have decrypted of those encrypted files. So there is almost nil chance of recovery of your encrypted files.
Though it may sound clichéd but best way to protect you is to have strong and up-to-date antivirus software along with good antispyware tools. According to PandaLabs it is not just those email attachments that let malwares to plant those ransom notes. One of the major route for these attackers to spread these malwares are open ports. Attackers attacks those compromised machines and make them as sever and further spread those malwares throughout the network. One of the way to prevent your PC from such hazard is to secure your ports [read how to secure your ports in post by Niraj Shrestha - Watch out for those open ports! ].
We couldn’t prevent 9/11 terrorist attack, but we can stop these ransomware.
You are back from a long vacation. You turn on your computer and when you try to log on with your administrator account; Windows XP gives you an error message saying that the password is invalid.
Yours is the only user account in the operating system so you cannot log on with any other user account and reset administrator account’s password. There is a lot of urgent and confidential data on your computer. What should you do to log on again and access your data?
WARNING!!!!!
If this CD is used on computers with users that have EFS encrypted files, and the system is XP or Vista, all encrypted files for that user will be UNREADABLE! and cannot be recovered unless the old password is retrieved.
Now,
1. Insert the CD and boot from it.
2. The following screen lists the partitions on your computer’s hard disk with their corresponding sizes and numbers.
3. First determine the drive in which has your windows installation and type the appropriate drive number and press enter.
4. In the following screen, if the default path of the registry directory is correct, press enter or if it is not, type the correct path and press enter.
5. Press 1 to choose the option to reset the password and press enter.
6. In order to edit user data and passwords, press 1 and then press enter.
7. By default the administrator account is selected so press enter.
8. In the following screen, press * to blank the password and then press enter.
9. Press y to accept the changes and press enter.
10. Press ! and enter to quit
11. Press q to quit.
12. In the writing back changes screen press y and then press enter
13. In the new run screen, press n and enter.
Now remove the bootable CD and restart your computer by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL.
If you have blanked the password, then you won’t be asked for any password and Windows loads the user’s profile.
That’s it!!!!
Note that, the trick works for Windows XP Professional/Home/SP1/SP2 or even on Windows 2003 Server. So next time when you return from your vaction, you know how you can recover your administrator password !
Laptops are no more privileged businessmen’s gadgets. Today every second university guy carries one, and if you are studying Information Technology and don’t posses one then you might be living under rocks.
Despite its huge cost over desktop, people still prefer laptop for its portability and elegance. iPod age demands such gadgets, so does it’s security.
In this post we provide some basic tips to secure your Laptop.
2. Use strong passwords for your operating system’s user accounts.
3. Use the Encrypting File System (EFS) feature of your operating system to secure your data. Even if your laptop is stolen, nobody will be able to read your confidential files.
4. Lock your laptop in a metal cabinet when not in use.
5. Regularly back up the data in your laptop, so that even if it is stolen you still have access to your data.
6. Do not leave your laptop unattended.
7. Do not use flashy, expensive laptop bags as they are likely to attract the attention of the laptop thieves.
8. Make a record of your laptop’s serial number, make and model information so that if it is stolen, you can provide the information to the Police which are likely to speed up its recovery.
9. Exercise extreme caution in the airports. Do not be distracted by thugs who work in groups to divert your attention and steal your laptop.
10. Put a tamper resistant metal asset tag on your laptop. This will help police find the legal owner.
As for the thursday thunder video, we present you a real life incident of Laptop Theft during daylight.
Ever been late for the meetings because of lousy elevator stopping on every floor, when you need to go to the top floor [for e.g. 70th]. Haven’t you felt, you have been living almost large part of your office life within an elevator. Would that be great if you could go directly to your desired floor, without being interrupted. Here is a video clip showing, how you can go to your desired floor without stopping on any floor, despite any request.
Give a try on monday morning !
I just received a package from my good long friend Joseph (Thanks !). I have been nagging him for a Wireless router for more than a week and finally he sent me DLink Wireless Router. At last, even in my room I can now surf wireless !
Well, I spoke too soon !
As soon as I started to ‘Plug-n-Play’ the router, the first thing I was asked during configuration was the ‘username’ & ‘password’ to configure it. Now, as I had just unpacked the system from the box and all those manuals were in Deustch, I was completely puzzled now. So, after surfing bit on the net for default password for my router, I was finally able to hit bullseye.
Username: admin, Password: ”
It was simply BLANK.
Incase if you too face similar problem then click the link below for the default passwords for almost all of the popular routers.
I love working in my Office, UITS, though I don’t have to. I can work from my home using our office VPN, but its always better working in an office environment. You feel the moral obligation to work, not just plug in your iPod and surf the net. Apart from that you have James and Sarah, always eager to blow your mind off with their superb website layouts. Well, it’s more interactive as well as productive while working in a community than on your lazy chair.
Last week, Sarah was showing me some of her best wordpress themes in Photoshop. Once again, she proved that she has got best graphics taste in our team. While chatting with her regarding the design, we moved into the coffee room to further discuss about the color scheme. Meanwhile James dropped in, he is a fresh college graduate and pretty notorious for playing pranks. While we were busy chatting, James on the other hand was busy changing the color scheme on the design made by Sarah without our knowledge. When he saw the design shining on Sarah’s PC, he got excited as usual and thought of playing some nasty joke.
When we returned to Sarah’s workstation, Sarah was shocked to find her wordpress theme was completely changed. On the other end of table there was James with an innocent face. He looked busy with his work. Sarah got so agitated and shouted out loud to James, for a minute even I got scared. Maybe she was high on caffeine 
Well, it was fun for a while. But think what if she did not have backup?
What if, your colleague in your office isn’t as innocent as James ?
Her two days hard work would have gone in vain.
Here where our title hit my mind!
Always lock your PC before leaving anywhere. Locking the PC, wont allow any user (even you without proper authentication) to enter see or work on that computer.
It’s bit troublesome to shutdown your PC at the middle of some work. And it’s not even feasible to shutdown your PC every time when you go for short coffee breaks or refresh room.
By good nature, lots of us used to love to walk over to each other’s workstations and talk, hang out, and mess around. By the time we came back, many things could have been altered, some of which might be irreversible.
That’s why we have to Lock Windows
Hold down the 'windows' button, and push 'L'. This will lock your computer and protect your work.
Windows Button + L
Your workstation will be locked. Your work can be protected from some prying evil eyes, who want to demean your work and screw you in your office. It even protects from some innocent prankster like James !
For this to work, you must have a password set on your account. If your account is not password-protected, here is how to make it so:
(All instructions assume that the user has full administrative access rights)
For Windows XP:
1) Click on the ‘Start’ menu
2) Click on ‘Control Panel’
3) Double-Click on ‘User Accounts’
4) Click on your user account name
5) Click on ‘Create a Password’
6) Follow the on-screen instructions
So thought for a day, need a coffee break!
Lock your workstation first!!