Immunization Schedule followed in India

Immunization Schedule followed in India

S.No.	Age	Vaccine	Dosage
1.	New Born	BCG	One dose
2.	15 days	Oral polio	First dose
3.	6th Week	DPT and Polio	First dose
4.	10th Week	DPT and Polio	Second dose
5.	14th Week	DPT and Polio	Third dose
6.	9-12 Months	Measles	One dose
7.	18-24 Months	DPT and Polio	First booster
8.	15 Months – 2 years	MMR vaccine	One dose
9.	2-3 years	Typhoid vaccine	Two doses at one month gap
10.	4-6 years	DT and Polio	Second booster
11.	10th year	TT and Typhoid	——
12.	16th year	TT and Typhoid	Second booster

• BCG – Tuberculosis vaccine
• DPT – Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus vaccine (Trible antigen)
• MMR – Mumps, Measles, Rubella
• DT – Diphtheria, Tetanus (Dual antigen)
• TT – Tetanus Toxoid

Source : http://tnpsc.wordpress.com

Configuring Password Policy Settings in an Active Directory

Implementing Password Policy Settings Step-by-Step

• Credentials: You must be logged on as a member of the Domain Admins group.
• Tools: Active Directory Users and Computers.
• To implement password policy on computer systems that belong to an Active Directory domain
  1. Click Start, click Control Panel, double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Active Directory Users and Computers.
  2. Right-click the root container for the domain:
     
     
     
     
     Note: Screen shots in this document reflect a test environment and the information might differ from the information displayed on your screen.
  3. Select Properties from the menu that appears:
     
  4. In the properties dialog box for your domain, click the Group Policy tab, and then click New to create a new Group Policy object in the root container. Type "Domain Policy" for the name of the new policy and then click Close.
     Note: Microsoft recommends that you create a new Group Policy object rather than editing the built-in one called Default Domain Policy because doing so makes it much easier to recover from serious problems with security settings. If the new security settings create problems, you can temporarily disable the new Group Policy object until you isolate the settings that caused the problems.
  5. Right-click the root container for the domain, and then click Properties.
  6. In the properties dialog box, click the Group Policy tab, and then select Domain Policy.
  7. Click Up to move the new GPO to the top of the list, and then click Edit to open the Group Policy Object Editor for the GPO you just created.
  8. Under Computer Configuration, navigate to the Windows Settings\Security Settings\Account Policies\Password Policy folder.
     
  9. In the details pane, double-click Enforce password history, select the Define this policy setting check box, set the value of Keep password history to 24, and then click OK.
     
  10. In the details pane, double-click Maximum password age, select the Define this policy setting check box, set the value of Password will expire in to 42, clickOK, and then click OK to close the Suggested Value Changes window that appears.
      
  11. In the details pane, double-click Minimum Password Age, select the Define this policy setting check box, set the value of Password can be changed after to 2, and then click OK.
      
  12. In the details pane, double-click Minimum Password Length, select the Define this policy setting check box, set the value of Password must be at least to 8, and then click OK.
      
  13. In the details pane, double-click Password must meet complexity requirements, select the Define this policy setting in the template check box, selectEnabled, and then click OK.
      
  14. Close the Group Policy Object Editor, click OK to close your domain's properties dialog box, and then exit Active Directory Users and Computers.

Verifying New Settings

Use the following procedure to verify that the appropriate password policy settings are applied and effective in the Domain Policy GPO. Verifying the settings and their operation ensures that the correct password policies will be applied to all users in the domain.

Requirements

• Credentials: You must be logged on as a member of the Domain Admins group.
• Tools: Active Directory Users and Computers.

• To verify password policy settings for an Active Directory domain
  1. Open Active Directory Users and Computers, right-click your domain, and then click Properties.
  2. In your properties dialog box for your domain, click the Group Policy tab, select the Domain Policy GPO, and then click Edit to open the Group Policy Object Editor.
  3. Under Computer Configuration, go to the Windows Settings\Security Settings\Account Policies\Password Policy folder, and verify that your settings match the settings shown here:
     
  4. Close the Group Policy Object Editor, click OK to close the properties dialog box for your domain, and then exit Active Directory Users and Computers.
  5. Verify that users cannot specify passwords that are shorter than 8 characters, that they cannot create non-complex passwords, and that they cannot immediately change their new passwords.

Courtesy :  http://potools.blogspot.in/

TIPS FOR SAFE EMAIL

•  Guard Yourself against Phishing.
• Change your password on regular basis as per the password policy.
• Do not share your password with anyone.
• Always remember to sign out properly after using your mail account.
• Do not save or remember your password anywhere.
• Use Anti-Virus software & update it on regular basis.
• Update the operating system and application patches.
• Use automatic reply only when needed.
• Never open / respond any mail / attachment from unknown sender.
• Never subscribe your email ID on unsafe locations (over internet).

   

1. Guard yourself against Phishing

Common email scams employ email messages and even websites that look official, but are in fact attempts to steal your identity to commit fraud. This is the activity commonly known as ‘Phishing’.

Make sure that the address in your browser is genuine and does belong to the website you need to access. Don't ever copy URLs from e-mails. Type out the URL in a new window.

Never click on a link within an email requesting that you enter your username, password, etc. The link can also be malicious.

Do not open any 'fishy' emails. Delete immediately. Emails that have misspellings, poor graphics, or include a long cc list of other email addresses can be suspicious. 

Install a web reputation filter on your desktop that alerts users to phishing websites.

Make sure that you have unique username and passwords for each account/website you regularly visit. 

Never give out sensitive personal or account information to someone that asks via email unless you have verified the message's authenticity.

2. Change your password on regular basis as per the password policy. 

It is recommended to change passwords on a regular basis .

3. Do not share your password with anyone. 

Don't share your password. Do not be duped by malicious e-mails asking you for your password. This is a well-known, trick designed to fool you into sharing your password. As a rule, never share it with anyone.

4. Always remember to sign out properly after using your mail account. 

Always log out of your email when finished, whether you are using web mail or POP mail. It is also recommended to log out whenever you have to leave your computer unattended for a considerable period of time.

5. Do not save or remember your password anywhere.

Do not “save / remember” your password anywhere (say your browser, POP Client).

6. Use Anti-Virus software & update it on regular basis.

It is also highly recommended to install and maintain a anti-virus software on your computer to prevent infection from USB drives, CDs or DVDs and so on. Make sure it is updated regularly. Scan all attachments with a virus program before downloading/executing any, even if they come from someone you know.

Computers that are infected with spyware/key loggers record every word that users are typing, hence a daily scan is recommended.

7. Update the operating system and application patches

Users need to ensure that their desktop/laptop has the latest operating system and application patches. If the patch levels are not updated, updated anti-virus software will not be able to prevent an infection. Both anti-virus and operating system patches need to work together.

8. Use automatic reply only when needed.

It is savvy to turn off any automatic replies in your email client saying that an email has been read or received, because this confirms that the email address is a good one. Spammers will then target your email as a priority and flood your inbox with even more unnecessary and potentially harmful mails.

9. Never open / respond any mail / attachment from unknown sender.

If it happens that a few spam mails do manage to sneak through, make it a must to delete all them. Replying / Opening such emails / attachments typically only informs the sender that they have found an active email address to send more spam emails or They may contain what are known as "letterbombs" or "viruses," which can damage your PC.

10. Never subscribe your email ID on unsafe locations (over internet).

Never subscribe your email address on any unsafe / fake website, they may try to flood your inbox or spammers will try to send bulk spam mails (which may contain virus).

Source : https://mail.nic.in/docs/nic1.html via : http://foreignpostmumbai.blogspot.in/

Protect your Password

Password protection is a priority.

Today advanced hardware makes it easy to crack passwords. In such a scenario, what should users do to prevent hackers? Geeta Padmanabhan has the lowdown

If you thought your clever password was something no one could hack, well, you are in denial. Consultancy firm Deloitte reports that 90 per cent of user-generated passwords are vulnerable to hacking. What, even my traditional (clever) combo of eight characters complicated by numbers, letters and symbols? Yes.

Last year, Zappos.com lost names, email-IDs, phone numbers and partial credit card numbers of 24 million customers. LinkedIn admitted its user passwords were “compromised”. Some 400,000 Yahoo email-ID passwords were hacked last July. In 2011, 77 million passwords were stolen from Sony’s PlayStation Network. GoDaddy's passwords were breached. FBI, NBC-sites, 112 Indian government sites found their “secure” passwords “exposed”. If it's any consolation, Taliban sites were successfully attacked too. Just check out what services like “iFramers” do to hacked websites.

RE-USING PASSWORDS

How did our passwords get so susceptible? Longer passwords infused with @, *, % symbols are difficult to remember, so we pick a small subset from them — and they get cracked. We slip-up by re-using passwords. Credit-checking firm Experian found that the average user has 26 password-protected online accounts but uses only five different passwords. Deloitte says 10,000 most common passwords access 98 per cent of all accounts. When you key in the same password for online banking and Warhammer, a security breach at the gaming site compromises the bank account password.

Even long passwords aren't safe, says Ashwini Rao, researcher at Carnegie Mellon University. Sentence-like/phrase-like passwords such as “abiggerbetterpassword” and “thecommunistfairy”, postal addresses, email IDs and URLs also make for less secure passwords now, she says.

Blame it on advances in password-cracking hardware. “It's called a brute-force attack,” says techie Mahesh, explaining its nuances. “Powerful computers/laptops try every possible permutation-combination to find the “right” one, no intelligence involved.” Creep! Our eight-character password, created from the 94-character keyboard is one of 6.1 quadrillion possible combinations. “A dedicated password-cracking machine employing virtualisation software and high-powered graphics-processing units can crack any eight-character password in 5.5 hours,” the Deloitte report said. Nefarious, says Mahesh. “A computer working alone may not be able to dig, say, military networks. So a zombie machine, could be yours, is roped in for the hack job. It's a small percentage of your CPU; you pay for unlimited time, so how will you know? Hey! “Wait,” he says. “There is also crowd hacking, where hackers share the power of thousands of machines to infiltrate the target. At no cost.”

Help! Twitter and Adobe re-set thousands of passwords after “embarrassing” goof-ups. Google alerts you on unusual mob-phone activity. It also wants you to insert Yubikey, a smart-chip embedded tiny key that goes into the USB drive, unlocks and automatically logs onto all your accounts without asking for a password. Yubikey works on Windows/Mac/Linux/iPad/Firefox/Chrome, and is waterproof, crush-safe, needs no battery or clients software/drivers. With a simple touch the YubiKey sends a one-time-password (OTP) as if typed. The unique passcode is verified by a YubiKey compliant app. Fine. “Things like YubiKey are definitely more secure as they support random passwords and provide two-factor authentication,” says Mahesh. “Corporates use them on a day-to-day basis because they are mandatory, but you will use it a lot less since it's optional.” You could lose it, you need to insert it, and always type in a master password to access websites. Too much!

“Multi-layer authentication” is possible. You log onto your credit card issuer’s site, type in your username/password, send another code/password to smartphone, and go online. Not terribly convenient! Password vaults or password safes (paid tools) offer you a central place to store all your passwords, encrypted and protected by — you guessed it — a password or token. These, presumably, are not easily cracked. Firefox can save user names and passwords for online services like banking.

Go for poor grammar and spelling, says Ashwini Rao. Hurray! Since “brute” searches for proper combo-words and grammar, you hoodwink it by staying outside the dictionary. She suggests phrases such as “Pineapplesi$nise”, “Exitingplan$isafoot”, that is, if you can memorise the deliberate mistakes. Try “eat cake at 8!” or “car_park_city?” (Idontnohowtospal.com). The high-tech crowd touts a biometric solution, but it has its hiccups. Smartphones ask you to connect nine dots — easy, many combos, visual/tactile (touch to remember). Connecting fewer dots generates more combinations.

FOLLOW GOOD PASSWORD PRACTICES

Never share your password. Avoid using non-secure networks at public places to send private information. Change password after using a non-secure network, change it frequently. Never store your password in a program. “I use Lastpass — a password manager and form-filler,” says Mahesh. “and a secure operating system like Linux. All codes are out in the open, so it is easier to review.” Mmmm... will you consider becoming a hacktivist? If you do, let me know.

Source : the Hindu

How to manage frauds that go mobile?

Since the release of the original iPhone, one billion smartphone activations and 700 million downloads ofAngry Birds later, mobile devices have proliferated.

Financial service organizations are tapping into this market by moving products and services to mobiles, delivering specialized small-screen adaptations for browsing, and developing apps that supply mobile functionality and services that enable customers anywhere-anytime access to account information.

Mobile banking alone is expected to grow to nearly 900 million users by 2015. 

While a majority of fraud attempts are still targeted at users in the online channel, as banking services go mobile, so are the attacks that target banking customers. Here are some of the most common attack methods being used by cyber-criminals to target mobile banking users today.

Smishing, or SMS phishing, sends a text message to a user's mobile phone in an attempt to get her to divulge personal information. As is the case with phishing, a smishing attack usually has a call to action for the intended victim that requires an immediate response.

Smishing has become easier to do and is becoming an attractive alternative with higher success compared tophishing as consumers are not conditioned to receiving spam on their mobile phone, so are more likely to believe the communication is legitimate.

Furthermore, whereas a majority of phishing emails get stopped by spam filters and often never reach their intended targets, there is no mainstream mechanism for weeding out 'spam' text messages.

Some mobile malware is programmed to conduct man-in-the-middle attacks, capable of forwarding SMS messages with a user's Mobile Transaction Numbers (mTANs) to an attacker. These mTANs are often used as a way for banking customers to confirm that they initiated a transaction.

By intercepting the code, cyber-criminals can initiate a transaction and then use the unique code to verify the transaction as though they were the legitimate user. Examples of man-in-the-mobile threats have been most commonly found within well known banking Trojans such as Zeus and SpyEye.

Rogue applications are becoming plentiful in most online app stores. Today, Android is the most common platform being exploited by cyber-criminals. Recently, a new Android Trojan was discovered that displays a video downloaded from the net — only if some sensitive information is previously sent to a remote server.

Today, RSA's Anti-Fraud Command Center is witnessing an average of about 3 per cent of all fraudulent transactions originating in mobile channels or devices. While this hardly compares to the percentage of fraud in the online channel, mobile threats continue to emerge and, in time, that number will rise.

Here are some expected mobile threats and developments in the coming year.

Smishing will continue to increase. Many financial institutions have been successful in getting standard phishing attacks under control. However, smishing presents a whole new series of challenges.

Phone flooding services increase in popularity. Out-of-band authentication via SMS or phone call is being used across the financial industry as a step-up authentication method for high-risk transactions.

To overcome this additional security, cyber-criminals flood an intended victim's phone with calls, ultimately rendering the phone useless and interfering with bank's attempt to alert a user to a high risk transaction.

Banking Trojans continue to be developed for mobiles. There have been several attempts at coding SpyEye variants for mobile platforms (mainly Android). These custom codes are designed to attempt intercepting SMS codes sent during transaction authentication by forwarding the content of the text message to the attacker's server.

The code is still young and its presence on mobile phones is limited. However, cyber-criminals are focusing their efforts on the mobile platform.

New Trojan plug-ins are targeting the mobile phone. Many banking Trojans available for sale in the black market offer plug-ins that enable HTML injection. When an infected user attempts to access her online bankingsite, the Trojan automatically injects extra fields in the login page. Most often, the extra details cyber-criminals attempt to obtain are credit card numbers and ATM PIN codes.

Portable nature of mobile devices — and information that is stored or accessed on them — is what makes them so vulnerable (when was the last time you misplaced your desktop?).

Also, if a mobile device is lost or stolen, it is typical for consumers to call their mobile provider to report it, but they don't usually call their bank to report it. If the user engages in mobile banking, all financial information stored on the device could be easily accessed.

Attacks are evolving in the mobile channel and as the popularity of mobile banking grows, financial institutions are challenged with how to translate the success they have had in managing fraud risk in the online channel and applying those same best practices to the mobile channel.

Understanding how to secure your customers against mobile attacks is the first step in turning the tide on fraud — and taking full advantage of the opportunities that this channel presents. 

Source : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com
Via : http://aipeup3bbsr.blogspot.in/

Working On Your Computer In Healthy Way

Follow some basic tips to work in a better way on your computer.

• Do not work in total darkness where the computer screen is the only source of light, especially if you have to type or copy from a printed document.
• Ensure that the keyboard and the document you are typing from are adequately lit up. The keys and letters should be visible and they should appear in focus when you look at them. If you are looking at a sheet of paper while typing, keep a paper holder adjacent to the monitor and ensure the letters are visible. Contrast also affects visibility. Black letters on a white background are the easiest to read as opposed to light lettering on a dark background.
• Set the contrast correctly for your monitor, too. Outrageous colours such as red letters on a gray background are painful to even stare at. Set your desktop screen to a subtle colour and avoid pictures and graphics with fluorescent colours.
• Make sure the light you use does not cause a glare on the screen. Continuously staring at a monitor with a glare on it can cause a lot of stress to your eyes. Also, ensure that there are no harsh shadows falling on a part of your screen. Adjust your monitor brightness to a level where you can look at it comfortably and see letters on it without straining your eyes.
• If you have a CRT monitor (the fat ones that look like television sets), use a flicker filter because these screens flicker a lot. Since your pupils are really wide open while working in the dark or staring very hard at the screen, the constant flicker makes things worse.
• Mind your position if you are sitting in your room and working the night away. It is very tempting to recline and work with the laptop on your lap, but that is a bad ergonomic choice. After a while, you will realise that your back is hurting. Use a bedside table where you can keep your monitor at eye level and use a lamp to illuminate the keyboard.
• More importantly, take frequent breaks. Practice a focus pull: focus on an object close to you and then move your gaze to an object at a greater distance. Scanning across the various objects in the room also helps. Blink very frequently and use artificial tears if your eyes feel very dry. A few head rolls, too, will help keep the neck free of pain.
• Remember, taking frequent breaks and exercising your eyes is not unique to working in the dark. Try and practice these even during the day if you have to work for long periods continuously.
• Courtesy: http://www.investmentkit.com/

How to disable USB Storage Device Write Protect

In most of our computers we store our personal or secret information. But due to introduction of USB devices it is very easy to copy any information from any ones computer. In a company environment any one can copy the secret files in the company with a small pen drive or something. And pen drives cause virus threat also. Increasing popularity of pen drives the problem in increased. In windows vista system there is a option to write protect the USB drives without using a software. By a simple registry trick we can easily make the USB storage device read only

To make USB storage device as read only

• Click Start button select run and then type regedit (To open registry editor)
• Navigate through HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
• Right Click on Control and select New and then Key. Name the Key as StorageDevicePolicies
• Right Click on StorageDevicePolicies and select new and then DWORD and name the dword as WriteProtect
• Right Click on WriteProtect and select Properties
• Set the value to 1 and click OK

The computer is now configured to disable writing to USB storage devices.

Courtesy : saparavur.blogspot.in

Hacking of Websites

Preliminary discussions have been held on establishment of a multi stakeholder Cyber Coordination Centre which will detect malicious cyber activities in the Indian Cyber space and issue early warning alerts. 

The Minister of State For Communications and Information Technology ,Shri Sachin Pilot informed the Lok Sabha yesterday that such alerts will facilitate mitigation of cyber attacks with coordinated efforts of all stakeholders in Government, academia and Industry.

Shri Pilot said, according to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), 133 Government websites were hacked during January to March this year. A total of 92, 204 and 248 Government websites were hacked in 2009,2010 and 2011 respectively. 

He further informed that according to the Norton Cyber Crime Report published in 2011, US $ 4 billion were lost due to cyber crime in India compared to US $ 114 billion world-wide. The Report further noted that 80% of the people surveyed experienced cyber crime. The data is not validated but the report is based on a survey involving over 19,000 people across 24 countries including 600 from India. 

 The Minister informed that according to Reserve Bank of India, 2232 Internet fraud cases involving nearly Rs 1234.94 lakh were registered in the year 2010. CBI registered 2 cyber crime cases involving Rs. 17 Lakhs in 2010.

Shri Pilot informed that the Government has taken the following measures to tackle cyber crimes:

(i) Legal Framework in the form of Information Technology Act, 2000. The Act provides legal framework to address the issues connected with cyber crime, cyber attacks and security breaches of information technology infrastructure.

ii) Setting up of Early Warning and Response to cyber security incidents through the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and collaboration at national and international level for information sharing and mitigation of cyber attacks.

iii) CERT-In regularly publishes Security Guidelines and advisories for safeguarding computer systems from hacking and these are widely circulated. CERT-In also conducts security mock drills, workshops & training programs on regular basis to enhance security posture of infrastructure and awareness.

iv) The organizations operating critical information infrastructure have been advised to implement information security management practices based on International Standard ISO 27001. Ministries and Departments have been advised to carry out security audit of their information technology infrastructure regularly to ensure robustness of their systems.

v) The Government has circulated Cyber Security Policies and Guidelines for implementation in all Ministries/ Departments.

vi) Government is facilitating skill & competence development in the area of cyber security by providing domain specific trainings on Cyber Forensics, Network & System Security Administration. Labs for training in collection and analysis of digital evidence for Law Enforcement & Judiciary have been setup.

vii) The Government has formulated Crisis Management Plan for countering cyber attacks and cyber terrorism. This is being implemented by all Ministries/ Departments of Central Government, State Governments and their organizations and critical sectors.

Source : PIB  (Release ID :82665)