ATM Security Tips:

ATM Security Tips:

Get rid of ‘dangers’ during ATM transactions…

8 Golden Rules to keep your ATM transactions safe and secure

1. Keep your ATM-cum-DEBIT card in a secure place

2. Cover keypad when entering PIN.

3. Change your PIN first time and regularly thereafter

4. If you lose your card, block it immediately

5. Do not handover your ATM-cum-DEBIT card to any person

6. Do not keep any record of your PIN – memorise it instead

7. Do not ask for help from strangers

8. Do not leave ATM till your transaction is complete.

When you should not use your Credit card!

Credit card is one of the most important financial inventions in modern times. However, this much-sought after boon can be a real bane to your finances if not used with care. Here are a few instances when you should restrict the use of credit cards in order to keep your finances in order.

Using credit cards for everyday expenses: This is one of the most common instances when people use credit cards - to buy their day to day items. While using credit cards to purchase groceries and household items is not always bad, using it regularly may result in your overspending and crossing your monthly budget. Always draw up your budget for such purchases and use your credit cards within this limit. Beyond this, it is better to use cash or debit cards. 

Using credit cards for cash advances: Drawing money from an ATM through your credit card to meet emergencies is an easy way to combat cash shortage; but have you realised the impact it will cause on your finances? Not only is the interest rate charged on the advanced amount exorbitant at 2.5%-3.5% per month, but this also gets charged from day one itself. Besides you will also have to pay a flat transaction charge as well. 

During the months you have restricted cash inflows: Credit cards come with a free credit period of 20-50 days. If you do not pay your bills within the due date, you will be charged a hefty late payment fee, high interest of 2.5%-3.5% per month and also taxes on these charges. Hence if you think you will not be able to generate cash flows to make payment on your credit card within the due date, it is best to refrain from using it. 

Using credit cards when you travel abroad: When you use your credit card for transactions in a foreign country, you are usually required to pay a charge on foreign currency transactions. Also, do not forget the exchange rate fluctuations, which determine the amount you will have to pay. If you instead opt for a prepaid currency card, it will help you better. 

Using credit cards only to accumulate reward points: In order to attract customers, credit card companies offer various offers and high reward points on purchases made. While accumulating reward points is good, spending on your card only for this reason is not very healthy. You will soon realise that even though you have high reward points on your card, you will have to pay hefty bills, sometimes even on unnecessary purchases made without forethought. 

When you shop at unsecure websites: Online shopping has off late become very popular. While it is a convenient way of shopping, you must refrain from using your credit card and sharing confidential information on websites which are not secure. Always check for security levels before making credit card payments in such cases

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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

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 to Protect Your Email Account from Hackers

In the world of technology, there is always the danger of a security breach. The most common of this instance is when a hacker is able to access your email account to your demise and it generally makes your vital files, documents and perhaps important project portfolios and other essential documents with respect to your work highly vulnerable to a third party. Who knows, the hacker just might be a competitor who wants to take a peek of your valuable exchange of business correspondence with your clients or to completely pirate your active clients away from you. There is a high chance however that it could be any hacker who is just waiting for their prey at any opportunity that they can find to victimize.

Because many professionals are using their emails for their officials business, an email account becomes your valuable property and perhaps an asset that allows you to keep in touch and connect with your clients. Because of this reason, protecting your email account at all costs should always be a priority. If you are one among these professionals who find it a priority in keeping your email safe and protected against hackers, here are some useful tips to keep your email correspondence and files safe.

Here’s how you can protect your email From hackers:-

1. Before you create an email account you will be prompted to provide your own password. Maintaining a strong password for your email account is your first line of defense against hackers. A strong password attribute is one in combination of letters, numbers, lower and upper cases which makes it difficult to hack.

2. Make your password more difficult by adding punctuation marks and other symbols when your email service provider allows them to form part of your password.

3. Do not be tempted to use your birthday, nickname, pet name, family name or anything closely related to you that can be easily thought of by anyone as your password. If you are unsure whether you are creating a good password, make use of free sites that offer a tool for generating strong passwords like the PC Tool by Semantics.

4. When creating accounts to different websites that use your email address for log in, be sure that you have secured for yourself a difficult password to break on each account but make sure to have your own password manager to easily remember all your different passwords.

5. Never use the same password as your email account when signing up on various online sites.

6. Be wary about cell phone spyware that could be monitoring your device each time you get access to your email using your mobile phone. They can run stealth which quietly monitors your email correspondence without you knowing it. You should constantly update your operating system, launch a malware scan periodically on your phone and always audit your program file to check for suspicious programs that are installed on your mobile device.

7. Creating an alternative email account will give you another contingency plan on how to access your hacked email account or prevent hackers from gaining access to it. In case someone else managed to hack your email, you have an opportunity to access it again through your secondary email and change the account password.

8. When providing for an answer to a security question, make sure to provide an answer that can’t be easily guessed.   Look for a more unexpected answer, more so a memorable event in your life, which can take a hacker an eternity to find out. A complicated answer to these questions as long as you can fully remember or memorize it can drive away a hacker.  Unless he has the leniency of time, he’ll definitely leave your account alone immediately to find other accounts who can be hacked easily.

9. It is not impossible to find yourself needing to access a public computer in order to access your email in case of emergency. Internet café is the most common place where you can have an easy access to a public computer. When you do so, make sure that you have the automatic log in box unchecked before you start accessing your email account.

10. Ensure that you have successfully logged out of your account before leaving the public computer otherwise you are simply giving just anyone an instant access to your email account to your misfortune. 

Source: http://www.techtricksworld.com/

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/

Backup your Blogger Blog

Anytime you might loose your blogger account. After hacking your blogger account along with your blog the hacker can do anything. He can either delete, export or use your blog in his own name! Maybe you have spent thousand hours to establish the site. And you lose everything. Isn't it very terrible? So why don't you back up your site before it's too late? 

Blogger has an option to back up the whole blog with comments! So, if you have the backup copy of your site, anytime you can open a new blog and restore your previous blog with comments. 

Even you can restore your backup copy of blogger blog in WordPress Site. WordPress is capable of restoring blogger sites from the .xml file.

 You can read that post or have a look at the steps below:

1. Sign in to your blogger account.
2. Go to Settings from Design or Dashboard.
3. Hit on the Other options from Settings tab.
4. Look at the Blog Tools: Import Blog - Export Blog - Delete Blog.
5. Hit on the Export Blog.
6. Now click Download Blog.
7. Save the .xml file in your hard disk.

If you wanna restore your blog from a previously saved copy then follow the above steps again. Just in the Blog Tools- Choose Import Blog. Then choose and upload the .xml file that you've already in your hard disk. 

If you're using a premium blogger template or if you've modified your template in your own way, then you should also back up the template. I also discussed about how to back up blogger template earlier. You can read that post or just have a look at the below steps:

1. Go to the Template option from the Settings.
2. Hit on Backup/ Restore button from the top right corner.
3. Hit on Download Full Template button to download the template.
4. Or Choose File to select and upload your desired template. 

Screenshots of the tasks are not given in this post. If you wanna see the related images then go to the above links. 

Source  : http://munnamark.blogspot.com/

How To Create A Good Password That You Will Not Forget

Passwords can be a key to many things, for example your emails, your Facebook profile, or your bank account. Did you know that some people still use passwords like “password” or “123456″? Needless to say, it’s dangerous to use one and the same simple password for all of your online accounts. Imagine a hacker cracked that one password? To be safe, you should create unique and difficult to crack passwords.

So do you know how to create a good password? And how can you remember more than one of them? Here are some tips and tricks to maintain individual strong passwords for all of your online accounts.

Know The Characteristics Of A Safe Password

• it cannot be found in a dictionary.
• it contains special characters and numbers.
• it contains a mix of upper and lower case letters.
• it has a minimum length of 10 characters.
• it cannot be guessed easily based on user information (birthdate, postal code, phone number etc.)

Create An Easy To Remember Base Password

You can use several techniques how to create a good password that you will not forget. Here are some suggestions.

• Randomly replace letters with numbers, e.g. flirt becomes fl1r7.
• Pick a sentence, i.e. your passphrase, and reduce it to first letters of each word only, e.g. “Everything I Do I Do It For You” becomes EIDIDIFY.
• Take a word and reverse spell it, e.g. neighborhood becomes doohrobhgien.

These examples are not very safe. While none of the words can be found in a dictionary, they are still failing other characteristics of a safe password. Try to find a combination that allows you to incorporate all characteristics.

The base password I’m going to use for this password is “E1d_1D!4Y:)“.

Note that my base password meets all of the above criteria. It cannot be found in a dictionary, it contains special characters, a mix of upper and lower case letters, it is 11 characters long, and cannot be guessed based on my personal information (unless you suspect that I like Bryan Adams).

Be Creative & Think Out Of The Box!

A computer may calculate faster than you can recognize patterns a lot quicker than any human brain, but one thing it cannot do is be creative. That is your great advantage over hacker tools!

As you see, in my password I replaced some letters with numbers or special characters. However, I didn’t use a stiff set of rules. I replaced the “I” with a “1″ or a “!”. Using rules for replacing characters, i.e. always replacing an “a” with the “@” symbol will weaken your password.

Here are some ideas how you can make it even harder for a hacker to crack your password:

• Don’t use common substitutions, e.g. @ for A/a.
• When you have recurring letters within your password, mix your substitutions, e.g. 8 or ( for B/b.
• Have a word and touch type it with your fingers in the etpmh (wrong) location. Keep in mind that you may switch keyboard types.
• Pick a pattern on your keyboard and type it with alternating use of the SHIFT key, e.g. Xdr%6tfCvgz/

Create Individual Passwords For Every Account

Once you have a strong base password, you can use it to create individual passwords for each of your online accounts. Simply add the first three letters of the service, e.g. “E1d_1D!4Y:)GMa” for your GMail account or “E1d_1D!4Y:)eBa” for eBay.

Be Super Safe

To be super safe, you should have TWO base passwords. They will be used to keep important and not so important accounts separate. You would use one password for sites which hold personal information or credit card details, such PayPal or GMail. The second password would be used for forums and similar sites that would not be of great harm if hacked. However, the passwords should be equally strong.

Update Passwords Regularly

This is the toughest part. To maintain safety with a strong password, you have to update your password every few weeks or months. The more often, the better. You can do this in several different ways. Here are some ideas that will keep it simple.

Change your base password only:

• Change the special character substitutions you’re using.
• Reverse use of upper and lower case letters.
• Type the password with SHIFT lock turned on.

Change entire password:

• Change how you identify the account you’re using, e.g. use the last three rather than the first three letters (GMa would become ail or eBa would become Bay).
• Change the position of the letters identifying the account, e.g. put them to the front or in the middle of your base password.
• Add the date of when you last changed the password at the back and mark it in your calendar.

In other words, use your human advantage: be creative and think out of the box.

Courtesy : http://bnjho.blogspot.in/