7 Simple Ways to Protect Your Gmail Account

Despite the rise of social networks , email is still the way many of us communicate, according to Mike Rothman, analyst and president of Phoenix-based security research firm Securosis.
The problem is that email is also the communication channel that's most often left unprotected and, as such, vulnerable to attack. Here are 7 ways to protect your Gmail Account

1. Keep Your Account Recovery Options Up to DateP

Mobile telephone number: If you forget your password, or if there is unusual activity on your account, Google can send you a security code via SMS for you to prove you are who you say you are. If someone has your account password it's quite unlikely they've also got your mobile phone. Google will only use your number for security purposes. Important: Keep this up to date! This won't be of much use if Google sends security codes to a phone number you no longer use.P

Recovery email address: Similar to the mobile phone number, this is a different email address where Google will send security codes and other important security messages, like when you've forgotten your username and/or your password. If you don't have a second email address, you can always use the email address of someone you trust (like a spouse).P

Alternative email address: This is different from the recovery email address in that this is a second address that you can use to sign in to your Google account. It also cannot be a Gmail account or an address that's associated with a different Google account.P

2. Use Two-Step Verification

This may be the single best way to protect your account. When you log in from an untrusted device, you'll be prompted not only for your password but also for a six-digit code sent to you that's unique for your device. Even if someone has your password, if they don't have access to your secondary device where your code is sent, then they can't complete the login.P

In case of emergency (if you've lost your phone or its battery dies), you can also generate a list of ten one-use codes that you can print out and keep in a safe place to use when accessing Gmail from a previously untrusted device. Notice, that "two-step verification" is not necessarily the same as "two-factor authentication," which can be even tougher to crack.P

3. Use a Strong, Unique PasswordP

There are lots of places to get advice on how to create a strong password online, so I won't belabor it again here. Just as important, however, is to never use the password for your Google account anywhere else. Every month it seems there's news of a site that has had user credentials stolen. While you may not care about the data that was on that site, since so many people re-use passwords that's where the value lies for the bad guys.P

Think about it: If you forget the password to your bank account, where does the reset password link get sent? Your email address. The password for your email should be the strongest of all.P

4. Set Gmail to Always Use HTTPS (SSL)P

Unless there is a technical reason not to, you should have Gmail set to always use a secure connection (HTTPS). This setting is found under Settings > General > Browser Connection.P

5. When Using a Shared/Public Computer...P

Use "private" or "incognito" mode in the browser: These modes (available in most modern browsers) prevent the storage of web history, form data, or cookies. If you can't use this mode, be sure to clear history and cookies after you log out.P

Log out from your account when you're done: This should go without saying, but people forget.P

6. Don't Fall for Phishing AttemptsP

No site should be asking you for your Google Account password except Google. Don't enter your password on any page you reach after following a link, even from someone you trust. Go straight to https://www.gmail.com or https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin instead.P

7. Keep Your System Secure and Up-to-DateP

Keep up with OS and browser updates. Make sure you use a trustworthy malware/virus scanner and keep it up to date as well.

By: thecodewhiz On 7:11 AM

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How to Draft Eye-catching Social Media bios

Drafting eye-catching social media bios may be one of the few things you have ignored in your product or service marketing strategy. Of course you already have accounts on a bunch of different social media, and you are using them to your advantage! Your bios on social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Google Plus is important part of how you’re represented on the Internet.

A great bio displays your personality and professionalism year-round, and it’s also a quick and easy way for you to garner interest from potential clients.Here are the most important things you need to know when writing different types of professional bios.

Draft Eye-catching Social Media bios #1

 Show, don’t tell: “What have I done” > “Who I am”  Lots of us are fans, enthusiasts, thinkers and gurus on our social media profiles. But might it be more powerful if we talked instead about harnessing ideas, wrangling revenue, obsessing over culture and shepherding our teams?

The “show, don’t tell” principle of writing means focusing on what you do, not who you are – and that means action verbs. Try this list of action verbs for resumes and see if any of them add a little power to your profile.

LinkedIn senior manager for corporate communications Krista Canfield says the more details, the better to add some show to your tell.

“Don’t just say you’re creative. Make sure you reference specific projects you worked on that demonstrate your creativity,” she says.

Draft Eye-catching Social Media bios #2

 Tailor your keywords specifically to your audience. “Your Twitter bio should position you as an expert in your field who serves a specific audience,”says Dan Schawbel, author of Promote Yourself.

According to a PayScale Inc. study Schwabel was involved in, 65% of managers want to hire and promote subject matter experts.

Skip the generalist route and focus on what you’re an expert at. Those areas of focus are your keywords, and they should be front and center in any professional bio. All social media profiles are searchable to some degree, so being specific positions you to be able to be found easily for what you’re best at.

Draft Eye-catching Social Media bios #3

Keep language fresh and avoid buzzwords like the following: It happens – a once loved and useful word stops being so useful when it’s overtaxed. In your professional bio, think over the language and make sure it feels fresh, not overused.

Draft Eye-catching Social Media bios #4

 Answer one question for the reader: “What’s in it for me?” No matter what feats you’ve accomplished, potential followers mostly want to know one thing about you: What’s in it for me?

In marketing, that’s known as a value proposition – the promise of value to be delivered. What can followers expect from you? What value do you bring?

Draft Eye-catching Social Media bios #5

 Get personal and hire a stand-up comedian to write your bio: That last little tidbit of the bio – usually where a funny quip or a more personal fact goes – often trips us up the most. Being funny is tough – that’s why social media agency owner Gary Vaynerchuk often hires stand-up comedians to write social media posts. And it’s tough to pick one element of a fully rounded personality to focus on.

The key again, is specificity. Lots of us love social media, coffee and bacon. But if you love llamas, jelly donuts and spelunking, you just might stand out and connect with some interesting new people. Tell a one-of-a-kind story. What hobbies and passions are uniquely yours?

Draft Eye-catching Social Media bios #6

Revisit often: As your skills, areas of interest and expertise evolve, so should your bio. Check it every quarter or so to make sure it still reflects you the best it can.“The very best practitioners of short writing on blogs, on social networks, are people who are working over their prose. They’re revising it, with the same care they would if they were putting it on paper,” says Clark.

Source: bufferappblog

By: thecodewhiz On 6:34 AM

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Monetize your blog or website with Ads: Top Adsense alternatives.

Looking for ways to make some money online, but don’t have approval for Adsense to your blog or site? Or, has your Google banned your Adsense account?  Don't  you worry, there are a couple of alternatives to Google Adsense. However always remember that earning money online really depends on many other factors but nothing beats quality and original content. Well, someone may say it depends its traffic...yes that is right but your blog or website can not get traffic minus quality product, service or content. Listed below are some Google Adsense alternatives worth exploring.Try them and find out which one will work for you.
1. Clicksor
Clicksor is reliable alternate of Google Adsense but good enough, it offers banner, text and pop up ads. Clicksor is very easy to approve, there is no such requirements to get approve you can just sign up and you can get account here,  clicksor CPC Range is 0.01$ – 0.5$, $2+ per 1000 views of pop-ups (CPM), you can receive payment via. Payout if you have account balance more then 50$.
 2. Yahoo! Bing Network
There is no doubt that YBN is a very good contextual Adsense alternative but it’s also so hard to approve, they give you two payment options Paypal and Wire Transfer. The minimum payout threshold is $100 and it’s very simple to achieve if you have got an honest traffic. YBN CPC Range is 0.05$ – 1$.
3.Tribal Fusion
Very good alternate of Google Adsense, Tribal fusion is one of the popular CPM Ad network but so difficult to get approve, there are some requirement such as more then 50,0000 page preview per month, you need top-level domain URL, A professional and attractive site design and few more, if you have good enough traffic then you can get account here, you can receive Tribal Fusion payment via. Paypal, CPM Rates of Tribal Fusion is $0.20 to $ 1.
 4. Chitika
Chitika, Inc. is a search-targeted advertising company. Chitika is a PPC ads network, I personally used Chitika few years on my blogs, if you have good amount of traffic on your blog, and you can get really good CPC clicks. Approval on Chitika is very easy, need of specific page view or traffic, Chitika CPC Range is 0.01$ – 1$, you can receive payment via  PayPal when your balance crosses $10 or you can receive payments via check (minimum balance must be greater than $50).
 5.  Infolinks
I am also using infolinks on my other two blogs, this is also best alternate of Google Adsense, for infolinks approval you need a textual website or blog, if you have 15-20 textual post then you will approved by infolinks, there is no need of any other things, Infolinks will pay you according to PPC, Infolinks CPC Range is 0.001$ – 0.30$ and payment method also very easy, if you have 100$ you can receive payment via. Western Union, Wire Transfer, you can receive by Payoneer pre-paid debit card.
6. BuySellAds
I think second largest ad network in the world after Adsense, they will not pay you like Google Adsense or PPC, they will pay you for Ad space sold, mean to say that you have no need to search best advertiser, they will give to advertiser, advertiser will buy space on your website, about payment they will pay you 75% of payment and 25% they will keep.
7. Media.net
Bing Network Contextual Ads program enables web publishers to easily and earn advertising revenue. Media.net is providing its user the best rates for ads as well as the best ads. You can receive payment via through Paypal if you cross 100$.
8. Bidvertiser
I think one or two time I use this program but I was not really impressed by it but you can try it, approval of Bidvertiser is so easy but it has very low CPC, I think CPC Range is 0.01$ – 0.2$ which is very low cost, you can receive pay via Paypal if you cross balance limit 10$.
9. Kontera
Not too impressive ad network is but good enough, it is in-text ad service like Infolinks that only works well if you have US/Canada and other European traffic, it’s is a good alternate of Google Adsense but it’s not for world wide, it is very easy to approve, CPC Range of Kontera is 0.001$ – 0.4$, you can receive payment via Paypal if you have minimum balance $50.
10. Exit Junction
Another alternate of Google Adsense is Exit junction, if you have good amount of traffic on your website then you can earn more effectively by this program, it work different ways, it will show relevant Ad as a pop up window to a visitors, so you can get easily account here, Exit Junction has a fairly good CTR, You can receive payment if you have minimum amount $50.
Other include;
Adversal
Undoubtedly it is an excellent Ad network and a newer as well. The users looking for a good alternative to Google Adsense would definitely prefer it. It provides Pop Ups and full page banners. The users having Western World’s traffic would be able to get benefits from it.
iSocket
It is quite similar to BSA (Buy Sell Ads) in its functions, but somehow it is better than BSA according to my point of view. The users cannot get approval for their site in iSocket. It facilitates you the direct Ad Sale and also in various best sites online. It requires your site having at least 1000,000 unique visitors/month. So visit and apply for approval quickly.
Finally, you can too try affiliate marketing.
See also: Facts About Making Money Online: hundreds Of Ways To Earn From The Internet

By: thecodewhiz On 11:48 PM

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25 smart keyboard shortcuts that can improve your twitter experience

It is generally acknowledged by  that you can increase your productivity and accomplish more tasks by using the keyboard shortcuts. In other words, it’s easier and gets your job done faster.However, there are tasks that are much easier done with the mouse, take the example of browsing the web pages and clicking links but at the same time you can use the keyboard to navigate within the page or between tabs.Modern web have be designed in a manner that incorporates use of keyboard shortcuts.Twitter is a web app used by millions of individuals all over the world and following below are some cool and smart keyboard shortcuts that will improve your experience while using the app.


B = Block User


F = Favorite


J = Next Tweet


K = Previous Tweet


L = Close Open Tweets


M = New Direct MessageImage courtesy of Kristel Hayes

N = New Tweet


R = Reply


T = Retweet


U = Unblock User


GA = Activity Page


GC = Connect Page


GD = Discover Page


GF = Favorites


GH = Home


GL = Lists


GM = Messages


GP = Profile


GR = Mentions


GS = Settings


GU = Go to a Profile


Space = Page Down


Forward Slash = Search


Period = Load New Tweets


Question Mark = Load Shortcut Menu

By: thecodewhiz On 11:29 AM

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How to Block irritating Friends and Apps on Your Timeline

Your friends are having a fun time with some trendy new Facebook app and you don't want to be the cranky curmudgeon that complains, but you also don't want to see their posts. What do you do? Block the app of course.

While this feature isn't particularly new, it can prove very handy if you're one of the growing number of people who don't like to see certain apps. To permanently end the flood of posts from a particular app, here's what you need to do:

• Click the drop down menu attached to the post itself.
• Select "Hide all from [app name]." (Note: if you're using the new interface, you may have to select "Hide" and then choose to block all from that app.)
• Have fun.

 If you ever need to unblock the app for whatever reason, you can undo it by going to your Facebook Settings and, under Blocking, removing the block on the app. Though, in certain cases, you may never even want to.This trick works for people too, as we've mentioned before, but we thought this was worth revisiting with the rise in certain apps.

Source: Lifehacker

By: thecodewhiz On 10:18 PM

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30 incredible tactics to promote your website content

We've all been there. We wrote a blog post and are very excited to share it with everyone else. You are thinking this could even been your best blog post yet.
You post the blog and just sit there waiting for it to go viral; constantly refreshing the browser in hopes of an explosion of traffic.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but this probably won't happen. You need to promote your blog post on various platforms in order to see a big increase in traffic.
The infographic below goes over 30 ways you can promote each blog post. Plus, most of them are free (wahoo!).

source: savvypanda.com

By: thecodewhiz On 11:16 PM

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How To Turn Your Smartphone Into a Digital Microscope!

Now you can do science at home with a $10 DIY smartphone microscope stand. Like pretty much everything else they touch, smartphones make microscopes better by making them less expensive, more portable, and granting you the ability to take photos and video of your subjects. It’s great to live in the future.

If you’ve got the required tools handy, it should only take about 20 minutes to build the microscope stand. Considering how much a real microscope costs and the built-in photographic capabilities of the smartphone one, it’s well worth the time and effort. You can find step-by-step instructions here.

By: thecodewhiz On 1:48 PM

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7 incredible uses of Facebook Graph Search

Facebook has just given its Graph Search another boost, and those who have been upgraded are now able to search post history as well as photo history. This has made many people wonder just what sort of uses they might put this to in everyday life. We’ve previously covered some cool Facebook Graph searches, but what sorts of searches might be useful or interesting to a regular Facebook user on a more daily basis? Let’s take a look.

Chat About Your Favourite Topic
Try a search like “Posts about Breaking Bad by my friends” and you’ll be presented with all sorts of opinionated comments by your friends. It doesn’t matter if they wrote them a few weeks ago or just yesterday. If you comment and add your voice to the conversation, it will revive the thread, no matter how old it is.

Find That Old Post
So, you made a comment the other day on some link a friend of yours shared. Now you want to share the link for some reason, but you can’t seem to find it in their timeline. You may not even be searching the right friend’s timeline. Sound familiar? This is where a Graph Search comes in really handy. Search for “Posts by my friends about xyz” or “Posts I commented on” and you’ll find it.

Revive Memories
If you are procrastinating on Facebook and want a trip down memory lane, try checking out “My posts from last year” or “My photos from last year”. This will allow you to mull over your own posts. Or if you just want to get all nostalgic, try the infallible “Photos of my friends I like” or “Photos of my friends and me”. Those will keep you going for days. Memories…

Catch Up With Your Friends
If you’re more interested in your friends and family, check out things like “Photos of my family”, “Photos of my friends from the last month”, or even “Posts by my friends from last month”. Checking out “Photos of my friends from my hometown” will also lead you into a nostalgia-filled haze.
If you want to find out who has been doing interesting things, try a search like “Posts written at The White House”, or limit it to your friends and something that interests you, like a recent festival. For example, “Posts by my friends written at PukkelPop”.

Destination Ideas
If you want to see who’s been holidaying, try something like “Photos of my friends taken in London”, “Hotels in Berlin visited by my friends” or whatever other destination you want to check out. Since you can search public check-ins, Facebook suggests you can also do sneaky searches like “Restaurants in New York liked by graduates of the Culinary Institute of America” or “Cafes in Paris, France, visited by people who live in Paris, France”. If you know your local culinary school name you could probably find the upcoming new restaurants in your area before they get big.
You could even try to find your kind of hangout place by cross-referencing places people go with movies they like. So, if you are looking for a hipster hangout, try searching for something like “Cafes in New York, New York visited by people who like The Perks of Being a Wallflower”. If you’re more into geek culture, try something like “Restaurants in London, United Kingdom visited by people who like The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”.

Meeting Local People For Fun
Don’t forget that Facebook can be easily used to connect with people who like the same things as yourself. I’m sure that was the whole point of Facebook, once.
If you want people to hang out with for the weekend, try searches like “My friends who live in my city”, “Friends in my city who like camping”, “Friends of friends who live nearby and like playing tennis”. If you want to find hyper local Facebook groups, try a search like “Groups people who live in my city are in”.

Find Media Recommendations
If you need a new TV series to get sucked into, here’s a great search for you. Try “TV shows liked by people who like the TV shows that I like”, or even better, try “TV shows liked by friends who like the TV shows that I like”. Thanks to this search, I’ve just added “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries” to my Amazon wishlist.
Finding new things to check out just keeps getting easier and easier. Don’t forget, this same search is extremely useful to find music, movies, books and apps. You can even mix it up a little. If you’re not much of a reader, search for books liked by people who like the same movies you like, or TV shows, or whatever.

Facebook Graph Search Privacy
Don’t forget that what you see (and what others see) in Graph Search is only what is visible according to the privacy settings of the individuals. If you want to ensure your privacy settings are sufficiently locked down, check out our guide to Facebook Graph Search privacy. Also, check out how people might use Facebook as an interpersonal weapon and how you can see and hide all of your “likes”. You especially want to do this if you’re looking for a job at the moment!
Source: Makeuseof

Have any cool Graph Search ideas to share? Tell us in the comments.

By: thecodewhiz On 12:26 PM

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Latest online scams you need to know about

We’ve improved at spotting online scams over the last few years. We know we’ve not won the World Wide Super Lottery. 

We’ve come to accept that an exiled Nigerian princess who begins her email with ‘Beloved!’ probably doesn’t want to transfer $32 million into our bank accounts. We’ve even, mostly, accepted that we haven’t won a super yacht.

But as we get smarter at spotting scams, the scammers get smarter too. And with the scammers as desperate to get hold of our money as we are to protect our savings, it’s an arms race of ingenuity.

Here are some of the tricks and deceptions currently being used to try to steal from you. Forewarned really is forearmed. 

The false police detective

If I hadn’t read about this scam, I know I would easily have fallen for it. Someone pretending to be a police officer phones your home and says your bank cards have been compromised. 

They ask for your card details so they can freeze them – and get you to type your PIN into the phone, which they can record.

If you become suspicious, they ask you to hang up and call 999 to check they are who they say. However, because they stay on the line, they are still connected when you dial another number. They can pretend to be the 999 operative and verify the call is genuine. That’s the genius of this scam.

So you are connected back through to the fake police officer, ready to hand over your details.

According to some victims, the scammers even send a courier around to collect their bank cards and then kept them on the phone until their accounts were emptied and their credit cards maxed out.

The fake bank official

The phoney police officer is a particularly compelling version of this scam, but crooks use this phone trick often. It’s very common for them to pretend to be calling from your bank. 

What to do
If you’re verifying a call is from the police, a service provider or your bank then don’t just hang up and call back immediately. Call a number you already know, like a friend or the talking clock – just to check the line really is clear.

The call from ‘Windows Tech Support’

My mother is not a stupid woman; she’s a GP and she uses computers every day. But she fell for a scam where a concerned caller claimed to be from ‘Windows Tech Support’ to check that her computer was virus free.

The persuasive caller talked her through ‘checking’ her machine was virus free, by looking at her Event Viewer, which logs any error reports. It is perfectly normal for errors and warnings to be listed here, but my mother didn’t know and believed the caller when they said these were dangerous viruses.

She allowed the caller remote access to her PC and gave him her card details. Fortunately, her credit card company phoned her to check the enormous payment the scammers were trying to steal and then froze her cards. Making sure her computer was virus and spyware free took a full week.

And it's not just 'Windows Tech Support' that try to get into your computer - I know examples of people pretending to be from BT or offering free "security" scans of your computer.

What to do
Be aware of this clever scam, and don’t be afraid to run an internet search if you get a call that you’re not sure about. Most scams will have already been outed online.

Fictional tax rebates or demands 

Unfortunately, the taxman has really played into scammers hands. There has been a lot of press recently about the fact that so many Brits are on the wrong tax code, meaning rebates or tax demands.

Scammers really play on this by sending fraudulent emails pretending to be from HMRC demanding payment or promising to make a payment if you just provide your bank details.

Hyperlinks within these emails take you to official-looking pages, where the criminals will relieve you of enough information to empty your bank account. Sometimes these emails pretend to be from your bank and they can look startlingly genuine.
 
What to do
A good habit to keep you safe is to never follow links, and to navigate to the official page by using a search engine instead.

The illegal pornography scam

This is really awful, because it frightens people and stops them thinking clearly. You receive a fraudulent email purporting to be from PayPal. It claims that your account has been implicated in an illegal pornography transaction and blocked.

It demands your financial details so it can lift the block and let you avoid a police investigation – and you may be so scared that you comply. 

Perhaps you’re frightened you’ve accidentally accessed illegal material while downloading legal content; perhaps you think your PC has been hacked and used for nefarious purposes; perhaps you’re so upset that you don’t think that clearly at all. Instead, you hand over your account details to thieves.

What to do
If you really were in trouble, be it justified or not, handing over your bank details would do nothing to help you get out of it. Don’t let them intimidate you.

Source yahoo finace

By: thecodewhiz On 9:23 AM

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The cloud: Mistaken opinions

Almost everybody knows about cloud computing at this point, and most of us use it to some degree. But there are a lot of misconceptions about what the cloud is and is not. Let’s clear up a few misconceptions that keep businesses from fully embracing the cloud.
First, there is not just one cloud; cloud computing is about virtualization and moving infrastructure to data centers off-site, not necessarily just the public cloud that captures headlines.
The cloud is not always the cheapest IT solution, either—the low cost of the cloud has been its main selling point in general, but when factoring in security and reliability it can make the cloud just as expensive as on-site infrastructure. It isn’t always the cheapest, and it certainly isn’t free.
“In an enterprise environment, even free services aren't free, since you have to worry about security and compliance. The free mindset has trickled into the data center, where the perception is that virtualizing infrastructures and shifting to private cloud architectures will pay for themselves almost instantly,” wrote Jeff Vance on the Datamation blog. They may over time, but it's not that simple. And vendors aren't helping matters.”
Another misconception is that enterprises control the adoption cycle. Unlike a massive infrastructure project that enterprises can adopt or avoid, the cloud sneaks into the budget in small ways that management doesn’t even notice.
 “It's kind of like kudzu growing alongside southern highways. You don't notice it at first, and then, bam, it's everywhere, and there's not much you can do about it,” wrote Vance.
On the other side, there’s the misconception that baby steps are the only way to move to the cloud. Really it can, and maybe should be, done all at once.
“The real transformation comes when organizations fully embrace cloud computing,” according to a recent blog post for the Times of Malta. “Building even a private cloud brings tremendous benefits such as reducing IT complexity, significantly lowering IT costs, and enabling a more flexible and agile service delivery.”
A misconception that stunts cloud adoption is that using the cloud means giving up control of IT resources. This is partially true inasmuch as some of the technology is physically off-site. The critical aspect of the technology is software-based, however, and that can still be controlled by the enterprise. Companies don’t worry about generating their own power, and likewise losing control of the hardware is now starting to matter less because all the real action is on the software side.
Finally, there’s the misconception that all cloud security is created equal, and critical applications do not belong in the cloud as a result. The truth is that cloud security can vary widely, though—both for the bad but also for the good.
“One must start off with a comprehensive risk understanding and analysis,” noted the Times of Malta piece. “A high-level security architecture for the cloud-based services must also be laid out. One should define additional security controls required to protect information assets in different types of cloud environments.”
Source mcnet

By: thecodewhiz On 11:15 AM

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Download apps from Google Play directly to your PC

Downloading Apps is not only time consuming, but also painfully slow at times when the Internet connection is down or weak. In order to get things in the fast lane, we use an app to back up the apps and save them on the PC. On the other hand, as we all know, most apps keep being updated by their developers and tracking the updates is not possible if we do not have the Google account setup on the Android device. This means doing the same thing all over again and hitting the 'Update App' button every time we have to test a new device. Read full article here

By: thecodewhiz On 10:35 AM

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Wordpress and Hackers: How Secure is Your Wordpress Site?

WordPress is easy. That’s why people like it. It’s quick to set up a simple site. It’s easy to manage large amounts of content. It’s easy to add functionality without having to know how to code php because there is such a large developer community that makes tons of free plugins.

It’s also pretty easy to hack. When things are easy, we are less vigilant and we do stupid things like using obvious passwords (remember what trouble that caused on LinkedIn?) Less obvious is the use of the default “admin” username and the failure to keep the site software updated.

All of these security weaknesses, it turns out, could allow an unidentified group of hackers to use “brute force” attacks on WordPress installations and form a huge “botnet” of infected servers. A report by Dan Goodin in Ars Technica details the threat. Unnamed attackers “are using more than 90,000 IP addresses to brute-force crack administrative credentials of vulnerable WordPress systems, researchers from at least three Web hosting services reported. At least one company warned that the attackers may be in the process of building a “botnet” of infected computers that’s vastly stronger and more destructive than those available today.”

A lot of cyber crimes are perpetrated by hackers that use “worms” to infect individual computers and use them to create “spoof addresses” for various types of fraud as well as to execute DDoS [distributed denial-of-service] attacks. Tying together servers with the large amount of network connections possessed by a popular WordPress site would up the ante by an order of magnitude or two.

If you or your company have sites that use WordPress, there are two things to consider. First is to avoid having your own site hijacked and second is to avoid becoming part of a larger problem. Think childhood immunizations. Fortunately, there are some simple recommendations that can lower the liklihood of being part of the problem:

1. Avoid Obvious Passwords: A simple check of the security requirements recommended by WordPress will make brute force attacks much more difficult. As Mike Isaac points out in All Things D, “Hackers go after the low-hanging fruit, which is most often found in the novice Web users who don’t take the time to switch from their default login information.” A secure password is a mix of at least eight upper and lowercase letters, numbers and the kinds of ‘special’ characters used to depict curse-words (^%$#@*)!
2. Ditch The Admin Username: The attackers are in possession of 90,000 IP addresses from which they are trying to crack the default “admin” accounts on WordPress installations. So if you are still using “admin,” create a new user with admin privileges (you will need to use a different email address than the one attached to the current admin) and give it a strong password as defined above. Then log back in as the new user and delete the old admin account and assign all of the posts in that account to the new user. Five minutes, tops.
3. Use Two Factor Authentication on WP.com: If you have a WP.com account, take advantage of their two-step authentication which assures that you are a human logging in, not a bot.
4. Update WordPress: Many hackers exploit holes that have ben identified in older versions of WordPress, so keeping your install up to date is another easy way to avoid trouble, though this is not as immediately relevant as the above two action items. WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg advises that if you do these first three “you’ll be ahead of 99% of sites out there and probably never have a problem.”
5. Install A Security Plugin: Using something like the Better WP Security plugin is probably agood idea in general, it won’t do anywhere as much in this case as the suggestions higher up the list. Mullenweg writes, “Most other advice isn’t great—supposedly this botnet has over 90,000 IP addresses, so an IP limiting or login throttling plugin [like Better WP Security] isn’t going to be great (they could try from a different IP a second for 24 hours).”
6. Consider A Service Like CloudFlare: The Ars Technica article recommends, “operators can sign up for a free plan from CloudFlare that automatically blocks login attempts that bear the signature of the brute-force attack.” Just remember that, as Mike Isaac points out, CloudFalre itself has been “ringing the alarm bells (while simultaneously pimping the company’s own security services.)” See this post from the CloudFlare blog that raised this issue to the awareness of Goodin and Isaac, and make your own judgement.

A current estimate figures that one in every six sites on the web runs on WordPress. That’s a lot of fodder to make a botnet out of! Don’t let yours be one of the trampled. Make this five-minute fix today.

By: thecodewhiz On 3:17 AM

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What is the best backup software?

Hard drives fail. Files become corrupted. Viruses hit. Laptops get dropped or stolen. And occasionally you just want to see an earlier version of a file you're working on. If you'd rather keep, not lose, your photos, music, videos, documents, letters, and e-mail, then you need a backup program. You have several choices for this.
Local file-and-folder backup programs create copies on local drives or media, disk imaging software creates a snapshot of your entire drive, and online backup services automate uploading your data to secure off-site storage. In fact, you may want to use a combination of these. In this roundup, we present the two local software backup options—file and folder backup, and disk imaging utilities. For the third option, read Disaster-Proof Your Data with Online Backup...Read More

By: thecodewhiz On 11:11 PM

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Simple SEO improvements for your website

These are tips lifted from Interactive Schools blog on how to improve SEO for school websites.These tips can still work for any website and the most essential part of it all is that you don't have to be SEO guru to implement them!.

Listed below are the  simple and quick things to do to improve your site’s SEO:

Research
Review your brand on Google, Bing and Yahoo! Type your school name into search engines. Review the copy - does it fit your brand?
Research non-branded searches for your school/organization. E.g. “boarding school in Watford”.
Search for your most popular keywords “harrow school term dates”, “bedford girl’s school fees” etc. What comes up?

Build Relationships
Connect with your local influencers on social media.
Who are the most influential bloggers for schools? Connect with them.

Content
Brainstorm content ideas for a blog.
Create a Google Calendar to map out your content plan.
Launch a contest.
Organise a Google+ Hangout.

Local
Make sure you’re on local directories such as Thomson Local, Yelp, Yell etc.
Make sure you’re on all relevant school based directories, including your local council’s.

On-Page Optimization
Update your homepage’s title tag and description.
Submit an XML Sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools.
Check your ‘Health’ on Google Webmaster Tools
Change the description for your most popular pages - think about click through rates.

Competitor Analysis
Review your competitors on search engines. Perform a branded search.
Navigate through your competitor’s websites as if you were a prospect.

Technical SEO
Build an a creative 404 error page. Users love these, and will often share them. Great link building technique
Sign up to Google Webmaster Tools
How does your website display on mobile and tablet? Not great? Look into responsive web design.
Can you access your site using www. and non-www?
Does your website have both www. or non-www? Or does it redirect? If it doesn’t redirect, it needs to.

Analytics 
Identify your most popular posts and keywords.
Take a look at the highest bouncing pages on your website. Make them more attractive and sticky.
This should act as a good starting point for you and hopefully you will realise how broad SEO actually is. It is not always necessarily about tags, HTML, links or optimising primarily for search engines.

Have you tried these tips? Do you have any more to share? Share your experiences in the comments section.

By: thecodewhiz On 11:42 AM

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Boost your e-commerce security:tips

With the spreading of the internet into every sphere of human life web space became a powerful tool for business. Sometimes it even seems real stores will be interchanged by virtual e-commerce markets. And I’m not kidding, statistic of 2012 researches states $255,600,000,000 were spent on online sales in United States (source). Impressive number, isn’t it? Going further we need to take into consideration the intensity of web trading: the world’s internet sales income reached $961 billion mark in 2011 and increased up to $1.25 trillion by 2013 (source). Sure, everyone may suppose the active growth, but, honestly, before I’ve seen this info, I wouldn’t imagine the tempo is so insane. As you can see scope of e-commerce shouldn’t be underestimated.
Nevertheless, every phenomenon has its dark side. In our case the true face of evil are hackers who strive to feather e-commerce customers’ nest. And the methods of these internet robbers are improving with every passed year. The problems of e-commerce security occur with more annoyance nowadays if remembering the sum of money, which are in the internet business. The importance of serious approach to security measures is obvious, so I decided to present main point that would be useful for that. Either you are one of the brave e-commerce pioneers or simply and ambitious novice, few simple tips would advise how to increase the security

Password
The first and the axiomatic recommendation – put a strong password. I mean the random complex of different letters and numbers. You may be surprising about this obvious advice, but practice shows most people choose passwords like “1234″, “abcd”, “1111″, “qwerty” etc., or sometimes they prefer to include some personal information, which is easy to be identified: for example the birth date. Nuff said.
* * *
Email
Email address is needed everywhere to login to administrate the website. And if a cunning hacker finds a way to access, he actually would have your website in full possession simply by reseting the password. A great solution here is using special non-public email address for registration and further access managing. How can they break you email, if they don’t know it?
By the way, back to the previous point: passwords to the admin panel and to the email should be totally different.
* * *
Factor Authentication
This tip is about the direct proportionality. One factor authentication on back office is default and it’s good. However it’s not good enough, because you have a possibility to run a plugin with 2 step factor authentication. The profit is obvious: the hacking of the system would appear to be twice harder.
* * *
Meta Generator
Software vendors use Meta Generator tag as a calling card of their companies. Well, that can disappoint only haters of free advertising, because this element doesn’t carry any utility. The main issue is this tag represents the name and the version of the product: in fact you give all the info about the shopping cart tool, the website exploits, to hackers by yourself. Please, don’t dig your own grave.
* * *
PCI Tests
Hackers are like highbred bloodhounds, if talking about the obstinacy when they looking for the bugs in your website. These craftsmen can develop a small system error into the black hole that draws out the valuable data from your website, the commercial information in particular. So make hackers cry – test your server with PCI and eliminate all vulnerabilities.

By: thecodewhiz On 8:47 AM

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A new way of cracking your password

Crafting the perfect password isn't easy. Some things, like pet's names, birthdays and ascending number sequences, should definitely be avoided. (The word "password" is strongly discouraged, too.)

But what about good grammar? According to a new study, you should probably steer clear of that as well.

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have created an algorithm that they say can crack long passwords that make grammatical sense. The algorithm combines words and phrases from password-cracking databases into grammatically correct sentences — so passwords arranged as phrases, like "thispasswordrules" or "mynameisjudge," are becoming more crackable, they say.
Source: Mashable

By: thecodewhiz On 8:53 PM

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How to optimize your Facebook business Page for Graph Search

With Facebook’s introduction of Graph Search on Tuesday, businesses are naturally curious to find out how they can take advantage of the tool, even though it’s currently only in limited preview for English audiences. Facebook has naturally made it a point to explain what businesses should be doing.
Facebook says Graph Search will make it easier for people to discover your Page and learn more about your business. Whether that will indeed be the case remains to be seen, but if you want to stay ahead of the game then you should take the new feature seriously.

Aside from doing the usual maintenance to ensure your Page is complete and up-to-date, Facebook recommends the following:

The name, category, vanity URL, and information you share in the “About” section all help people find your business and should be shared on Facebook.
    If you have a location or a local place Page, update your address to make sure you can appear as a result when someone is searching for a specific location.
    Focus on attracting the right fans to your Page and on giving your fans a reason to interact with your content on an ongoing basis.

The first two points are pretty straightforward: the more information, and the more accurate information you put on Facebook, the more likely your Page will show up in a search. The third one shows that Facebook will be taking growth into account when surfacing Pages, not just current popularity.

Facebook gives a few examples of queries it expects its members to use with Graph Search: “sushi restaurants that my friends have been to in Los Angeles,” “hotels near the Eiffel Tower,” or “TV shows my friends like.” The second one is your typical Google search, but the first and third are clearly meant for Facebook, and that’s an important thing to remember here.

There’s SEO and then there’s Facebook SEO. If Graph Search takes off, the latter will become a big business.
Source: WSD blog

By: thecodewhiz On 1:10 AM

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Top cloud services for your online backup

Having a copy of your data stored offsite can make all the difference in a disaster, and your data becomes accessible from anywhere, too, without the hassle of maintaining local storage hardware.

The ability to back up your data and store it in the cloud, then also automatically sync it across multiple devices, has radically changed the way we use computers, mobile phones, and other electronic devices for both personal and business use.
If you don't have a cloud storage service in place, you need one—or maybe more than one.
Many of the best cloud storage solutions do something specific, like backup and make accessible your music library, or help you not only save copies of files, but also collaborate on them. The services you choose should each do the job that needs to be done.
There isn't one magic bullet service in my mind, but that's not a bad thing, as it allows for compartmentalization among your data, which in turn may let you take advantage of the free space allotments that most service providers offer. Separate your music from your photos from your office files, and each set might weigh in under the free account limit with three different services.
Sometimes, however, it's worth paying for a service. Perks often include increased access to file version history, more security, or more features for collaboration and working with teams.
Not every service on this list doubles as a file-syncing service, but many do. File-syncing has become an integral part of online backup. For tips on how to use a file-syncing service and deeper explanation of how some people use them, see Get Organized: File Syncing Services to the Rescue.
While I've included a short chart here (click to open a larger version), it only skims the surface, focusing mainly on price. Different services can offer vastly different features and perks, and many of them are not directly comparable. If you want the utmost in comparisons, take a look at the insane chart of cloud backup services on Wikipedia.

Source PCmag

By: thecodewhiz On 4:13 AM

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