Google is now planning to throw another Android operating system on the market, likely to be called Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie. It has not yet been confirmed that this will be the number and the name of the Android new operating system. There are many rumors and grapevine circulating in the town about which device will be the first one to have Android 5.0 Key Lime as the basic operating system. Samsung Galaxy S3, Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy Note 8.0 and Galaxy Note 10.1 have been updated to the latest operating system. Some people are suggesting that Google Nexus 5 will be the first device to use the latest operating system as the basic operating system. And another group of people is proposing that Google Nexus will be the first device to be supported by Android 5.0. The both devices are competitive devices to introduce Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie. There are also rumors suggesting Motorola X phone and Google Nexus 5 will be the same device. The phone may be the Google phone but it would be called Google Nexus X, it can be the same hit as Nexus 4 of Google. There is also a fair chance that a phone being produced by the collaboration of two giants i.e. Google and Samsung. Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich was first functioned in the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

Google has not yet launched Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie, and there are news circulating about Android 6.0 Milkshake. Google names android version in alphabetical sequence after sweets. Android 1.0 was named as Apple Pie, Android 1.1 was Banana Bread, Android 1.5 was Cupcake, Android 1.6 called Donut, Android 2.0 known as Eclairs, Android 2.2 was Froyo and the last three versions were Ginger Bread, Honey Comb, Ice Cream Sandwich and the last one was Jelly Bean. Android 5.0 is likely to be called as Key Lime Pie and the version 6.0 has rumor of being named as Milkshake. The question is after K how can they jump to M, some experts say that Key Lime also includes K and L in it. However the version numbers of Android versions have no uniformity in it, no one can be sure that the latest Android version will be 6.0.

It is interesting to know that iTunes has the biggest music and video directory among all its competitors with more than 28 million songs, 45,000 purchased movies and 85,000 of TV episodes. Google play is far behind as far as media catalog is concerned; Google only claims that it has millions of songs and videos. The prices of new movies on both stores were almost the same, new movies available to rent with standard definition can run for $3.99 and high definition movies cost $4.99, purchase price of standard definition costs 13.99 and high definition can run from $ 19.99 and up. However, rates of old movies vary in both the stores.

If you rent a movie from iTunes, you get a month to watch it, but once you started watching it, you have to finish it in a day. But if you rent a movie from Google Play, the same time is given to you to watch the movie i.e. a month, but to finish that movie, Google Play allows you a time frame of 48 hours. These limits are not rigid; they vary from movie to movie. Moreover, even though you can stream videos from iTunes purchases on Apple TV; keep in mind, you cannot stream them on the other iOS devices such as; iPhone, iPad or iPod. This means you have to download the purchased content first and then you can enjoy it. Whereas, Google play allows the purchased content to stream right away to all the supported devices. You do not need to wait for the content to download in order to enjoy it.

Apple iTunes only supports iOS devices like: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or Apple TV. On the other hand, Google Play supports all devices that are Android supported. iTunes has a quality that Google play lacks; all the videos available on iTunes are available in SD (Standard Definition) as well in HD (High Definition). The reason for the availability of qualities in every video is that iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Apple TV have the capacity to run HD videos. On the other hand Android devices usually are not able to run HD videos.

Apple iTunes has a relatively larger app market than Google Play. iTunes apps are available in 157 countries of the world; on the other hand Google play is offering app service in just 134 countries. Citizens of 51 countries can purchase books from iTunes. This service of Google play is available in just 14 countries. Service of movie rentals and purchases is offered by iTunes in 109 countries, and Google play has this service available in no more than 13 countries. The iTunes music facility is available in 122 countries and Google Play’s music service is available merely in 12 countries. TV purchases of iTunes are present in 6 countries, whereas only 1 country is served by Google play regarding this service. These statistics give a clear indication that Apple iTunes has the clear upper hand over Google Play.

The cyber criminals do not target a particular person. They get hundreds of email IDs from internet and send the scam email in bulk. Then they sit behind and wait for their prey to fall in their trap. When a person replies to the email, they act as highly qualified professionals who hold a major position in the hierarchy of a reputed company. They coax their victim to provide his personal information and may insist to submit a sum of money to start the procedure for sending the prize money. They may ask for a direct fee or ask their victim to open a bank account in a bank which actually does not really exist. They convince their victim to visit the fake website of the bank. The fake bank asks the person to make some initial deposit in order to open a bank account. If a person initiates the payment, they keep asking for further payments in the name of expenses until their prey realizes that he has just been fooled by some devilish geniuses.

The scammers may mention the names of multinational companies and even claim to be government officials. If their victim asks them for their identity, they do not hesitate to provide a scanned copy of an identity card of a government official. These criminals are extremely organized –they plan all their steps and work accordingly. The innocent victim usually has no idea of what they are up to, until it’s too late.
What’s more, these e-crooks actively seek out lost USB flash drives, hoping they may find some sensitive information stored within those drives. Therefore, it’s recommended that you password protect USB drives.

As the gang who are setting such plots are professional criminals, so they can be violent. It is advisable not to respond to the emails just for fun. It may become a threat to you, your family and your assets. If you get any such email, my humble advice is report it the relevant authorities.

For more information Visit:

http://www.newsoftwares.net/usb-secure/

The myth that’s widely held to be true is that, a good credit-score means your identity is safe. Sadly, this couldn’t be further than the truth. While it’s true that a good credit-score indicates your identity is safe for the time being; nonetheless, identity thieves can strike without warning, and by the time you discover any inconsistencies in your credit-report, the damage has already been done.

So, why is identity theft such a big deal? Well, identity fraud, is a fairly easy crime to commit, those who actually commit the crime may be located anywhere in the world. According to e-crime statistics, less than 5 percent of criminals get caught and convicted in the United States. Law enforcement agencies neither have the capability nor the technology to capture these clever-crooks.

You may think that by simply shredding your documents, your identity is safe. However, you my friend – are mistaken and naïve. The truth of the matter is, if you pay with your credit cards at the restaurant, pay for purchases with your credit card over the internet, then you are likely providing someone your personal details – details that are needed to steal your identity.

Identity fraud can impact you in five different ways: financial fraud, crime or character fraud, medical fraud, and social security fraud. Financial fraud is self-explanatory, criminals steal your identity to steal money from your credit card, or perhaps even take up personal loans. Criminal and character fraud is perhaps the most sinister of all forms of identity theft, in this form of identity theft; criminals steal your identity to conduct crimes in your name, such as transferring money made through conducting criminal activities and then transferring those funds to offshore accounts, consequently, in the end, it’s the victim who ends up going to jail. In medical identity theft, the fraudsters often steal medical related information on the victim; he or she then uses the victims’ information for receiving free health care, such as prescription drugs and medical treatment.

Identity theft through cybercrime is now a leading cause of concerns for ordinary folks. People who lack knowledge about the various threats on the internet – especially the elderly, are now hot targets for e-crooks. Scams such as Phishing are fast becoming a popular means to fool the elderly into revealing their online banking credentials. Moreover, e-crooks often target unsuspecting elderly folks by lurking around their homes, connecting to their Wifi modems, and then attempting to steal their electronic tax returns, or credit card statements. There is software that can prevent these crooks from stealing personal information; this software can lock folder(s). Moreover, a simple act of investing a few dollars on an antivirus could make a significant difference in how well you are protected from such scams.

Reacting to the news, Microsoft was swift to launch patches for older PCs which are most likely to be infected. According to Microsoft, the virus is likely to spread through systems that didn’t install these patches. Other various mediums that can spread this virus are social media sites and sharing of files and folders.Sophos, McAfee, and Symantec are actively monitoring the spread of this virus. Security experts are appalled at the actions of e-criminals, as to why now they would exploit a four year bug.

However, some security experts believe that this is a sign of desperation, there are fewer loopholes to exploit on newer operating systems, and as a result e-criminals are looking at older more vulnerable PC’s running older versions of Windows OS.This virus can spread through a number of mediums, including but not limited to, USB flash drives, and other portable data storage devices used on infected computers. Moreover, the virus is cable of infecting other PCs through an active network connection, which is a concern for most corporations, what’s more is that it’s already spreading fear and anxiety amongst businesses still using older Windows operating systems. Rumors have it that Facebook is also another medium that’s responsible for spreading this virus.
E-terrorists have also invented newer tactics to entice people to download these malware. Naming infected files such ‘porn’, ‘sexy’, or ‘passwords’ tend to entice folks, and they end up downloading this malware. The malware’s primary method of action is that it adds a registry key, springing into action as soon as the PC is booted. Some more sophisticated variants of this malware will also disable Windows update, in essence, preventing Windows from downloading a patch to counteract the virus’s effects.

Once a computer is infected, the malware then contacts a server, which instructs it what to do, and enables the PC to download other malware such as Trojans, Zeus, and supplementary malware capable of stealing e-credentials such as online banking login usernames and passwords.

If your computer happens to be infected with this virus or perhaps you are running windows vista or older, experts recommend you disable auto run manually on all associated programs on windows OS, as well as restrict files sharing. The malware doesn’t have a single name but goes by many names, the following list of names are associated with this type of malware, VOBFUS, Changeup and WORM_ W32/VBNA-X, and W32/Autorun.worm.aaeb. Moreover, experts also urge that in order to stay safe, start by updating your anti-malware software, and in order to protect critical data, employ the use of data security software.

According to Microsoft, the malware is losing its steam; back 2011, infection rates from this malware has declined 59% on PC’s running windows XP, 74% down for visa.

If you help her retrieve her money by sending her a few hundred dollars which would cover the legal and administrative fees needed to release her inheritance. Using powerful persuasion techniques and emotions, most people are easily overwhelmed by greed and believe this is the real-deal. This is just one variation of the scam, there are many others using just as powerful persuasive stories to win over your trust. Once you end up wiring the money, don’t be surprised if you never received the promised million dollars. You my friend have been duped!

Preapproved Home Loan Scam:

Despite your horrible credit history, you receive an email stating you are preapproved for $500,000 mortgage loan. All that is required is that you pay an upfront annual fee before the loan could be issued to you. Just think about it, why would any bank be foolish enough to loan you half a million dollars despite your bad credit? Sadly, it’s a scam. Once you pay the so called “up front annual fee” you won’t hear back from them. While most people can easily come to know about the scam just by dubious request for an upfront annual or service fee, some, unlucky folks are stupefied into paying the upfront fee.

You Won the Lottery Scam:

Do you know a person who doesn’t want to be rich? Probably not, the reality is that every human being desires to be wealthy. Scammers have used this human weakness to their advantage. Perhaps this format of scam is the most common, and it’s likely you’ve received a similar email in the past. You receive an email message stating you have won 2 million dollars in state lottery. Whether you have participated or not, the mere concept of you winning 2 million dollars is enough to cloud your judgment, and that’s where you end up sending fixed amount of money to scam artists.

Public Wifi Hazards:

Avoid using public Wifi services, they may be free, but you may end up paying by having your identity stolen. Always use Wifi encryption software to mask your identity and encrypt your data using data security software.

Phishing and Fake Links:

Perhaps it’s very easy for anyone to fall victim to phishing scams. This type of scam is perhaps the most sinister and damaging. E-crooks usually send you a fake link instructing you to click on that link and to login to your e-banking account. As you enter your username and password in their respective fields, your credentials are being recorded in the background by a key logging software. These fake bank sites seem extremely convincing as the real deal, however, they are not. How can you distinguish fake from the real deal? Simple, make sure the website starts with HTTPS instead of HTTP. If you have any doubts about the validity of the website, contact your bank immediately.

You are most likely unknowingly sharing personal details such as, profession, marital status; cellular phone numbers, email address and personal photographs, as well as videos which are all considered bits of information that can be pieced together by professional e-criminals.

A study conducted by Massachusetts Institute of technology (MIT), students Carter Jernigan and Behram Mistree revealed that how easily they were able to predict significant details on people’s sexual orientation on facebook. The study was based on analyzing 4,000 profiles of men; the purpose of the experiment was to figure out how many profiles belonged to gay men. The study managed to yield results with nearly 78% accuracy predicting their sexual orientation.
The federal trade commission is also worried about the rapid growth of social media technology and its failure to keep up with user-privacy. Although, social media sites allow users to customize their privacy setting, experts say it’s not enough to keep e-fraudsters away.

Even if you have strict security setting on your social media profiles, chances are others users such as friends, relatives, and co-workers on social media sites may end up revealing critical personal details on you, and that’s usually enough for a determined identity thief to figure out your social security number – it’s like putting pieces of puzzle to form the big picture sort of speak.

Simply by analyzing twitter and flickr accounts, researchers were able to predict the patterns of users by the links they posted and their email addresses. Such small bits of info can then be combined with other related information which can be useful in figuring out vital personal information such as social security numbers, say experts.
Personal computers aside, even smartphones and tablet computers are part of the problem experts say. Many social media sites now have mobile applications, when users download these applications they often give users the option to find their friends. Most users, without any reluctance click the “ok” button, and it makes you wonder how easy it is to find your friends on social media sites. Moreover, some apps can fetch contact information, such as phone numbers, email addresses and other personal information.

Experts warn that people need to be very vigilant about their privacy. Users should avoid sharing any information about themselves on social media sites. Moreover, data security experts highly recommend that people should avoid connecting to unsecured networks in public places, most identity thieves use sophisticated software to skim through your hard-drive on unsecured networks. Moreover, if you like many others have stored confidential data on your laptop/desktop, such as e-statements, copies of driver’s licenses, passport copies or tax related documents that contain your social security number, then it’s imperative that you have such data encrypted with data security software such as
Folder Lock.

By Googling the term ‘Firefox 7’, the first Google result appeared in the search result is a link from the website firefox7.org. Makes any sense? No, let’s give you a bit more information about Firefox and its original creators.

Mozilla is the name of the organization that develops Firefox web browser. So, naturally any major update for such a product would be enlisted under the website of the original organization. This means that, if Firefox 7 is the latest update of the web browser, it should be shown under the website of Mozilla and not in a website made solely under its name.

Hence, the search result shown by Google misleads the user to enter into an illegitimate website that doesn’t have anything to do with the original creator.  All you’ll find in that fake website is a bulk of promotional stuff about Firefox 7. While, at the bottom of the main page, you’ll find what appears like some legitimate Firefox 7 download links for MAC, Windows and Linux, but clicking on those links takes you, not to the legitimate Mozilla website but to a weblog created with the domain of mozilla.blogspot.com.

Before finding out exactly where these download links were directed to, we were of the opinion that this person is a fervent fan of Firfox 7 and dedicated a whole page in its name.  But, the discovery that those download links direct the user to a misleading Mozilla blogspot, it was clear that the creator of such a thing is either trying to earn some revenue over the good name of Mozilla and its browsers or he is trying to gain traffic to the website so that later on he can upload some malicious stuff to the server to be infused into the systems of every person coming to download Firefox 7.

Ironically, the site is appearing on first position in the Google search results for Firefox 7 and the person who is behind all this scam is certainly trying to gain some advantage over it. It is, however, pretty silly on the part of Mozilla team that they have not yet reported Google to block this site or pull down its page ranking for the reason of copyright or misleading content. For a web browser as popular as Firefox, it’s quite a big slip up on the part of Mozilla team for not having this domain registered already in their name so as to avoid any such thing from happening.

But, never too late for our readers as we are always here to keep you aware of everything that can compromise the security of your online as wells offline existence.

It is, therefore, advised to all of those people who want to upgrade their older Firefox browsers to the newer version to download the new update from the legitimate website of Mozilla only. All it requires is a bit of analytics and some of the awareness we spread, to spot the difference between the original and the fake one.   Always avoid falling into the traps of any fake third party website that might have some unfair motives attached with their smart moves. Beware and stay security aware!

 

 

Well, it most definitely is. So what can be done to avoid such an attack? Or at the very least, what exactly can be done to limit or minimize the potential for damage?
So, if you are a victim of a potential data breach or if you fear such an incident, do read the following guidelines to avoid such happening and stay safe from information theft.

Eye-out for phishing scams and malicious emails.

In case of getting your email address leaked in a data breach incidence, watch-out for scammers, spammers and malware authors that may attempt to populate your email inbox with misleading malicious emails containing fraudulent content masked as the one that comes from an authentic source. Refrain from downloading attachments from the emails that contain money refund offers, or a courier reaching your address asking for you to confirm your details or credits card updates. Always remember to back check the authentic sources by either calling them or visiting their website. Be on a lookout for any suspicious looking link in those emails or even those links that pops up when you visit any unknown website. Avoid any sort of drive by download on your way of surfing the internet. And never, ever click on ANYTHING that gives you a nagging feeling or appears suspicious or anonymous to you.

Always create a strong and hard-to-crack password

The second most important thing to be taken into consideration is the setting of your personal passwords. Whenever it comes to create a password for any account over internet, always create a password that makes a combination of alphanumeric characters. Do not use the same password for multiple accounts over internet. You can expose your online existence to more risks if you practice the use of same passwords for all of your accounts online. And this may be a good time to change your approach to passwords – check out our comprehensive tutorial on how to create a password that can be easy for you to remember but impossible for others to get even near to it.
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Use of a strong and reliable security program

Even if you have taken all the above preventive measures in due time, there is still a chance that hackers and other cyber criminals manage to break into your privacy walls and can attack directly at the sensitive information that you save on your systems. A good way to curb even the remotest chance of such an intrusion is to keep your files and folders locked and encrypted. Check out our security products that aim to serve you for the same purpose.

You may not be able to put a full stop to data breaches, but you can still have a way around them. Do something to protect your online existence and the information you store on your system. Be on your guard, and keep an eye out for anything suspicious at all times. Stay Safe.

Why was such sensitive data posted on a public forum without encryption and who would do such a thing are the questions to be raised now.

Firstly, HIPPA and HITECH acts in US require medical organizations to protect confidential data, but they outsource it to third parties, but it still can be kept safe by simply inserting a few more clauses in the contract that require them to keep the data well protected.
Secondly, our laws and attitudes need adjustment regarding protection of such data. You should treat data in the same manner even if it’s inside or outside.

Confidential information should not be considered “inside” or “outside”.

If your data requires protection when you are using it inside of your organization like while transferring it through USB flash drives, laptops and other gadgets then you should make sure that its safe when it’s on your (or your partner’s) servers and databases as well.

Rather than going after who got the data leaked, getting them fined and punished, it’s better to take precautionary measures and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Now is the high time to stop taking online and system based security of your data for granted and start giving firewalls, antivirus software programs and security applications a serious consideration.

Stay with us and get to know about how to separate least important data from the most critical one so that you identify which data is confidential and shouldn’t get leaked. Take all the steps needed in ensuring that you control that data and it remains safe.