How to Avoid Phishing Attacks and Protect your Passwords Online

Many times we receive an email saying" you have won 10000$!" or you receive a text message on your phone which says " your number won in the lucky draw contest!" Many of us believe it and so we do everything they ask us to do, like giving away passwords and bank account numbers. But by the time we get to know that our passwords have been hacked, it is too late. This serious problem is termed as "phishing" which cyber criminals use to attack common  users.

What is Phishing?
Phishing is a technique used by the cyber criminals who try to steal your important and private information by pretending to be someone or something you trust. For example, you get an email which seems to have been sent by your bank  asking for your account details, but in fact it is indeed sent by a phishing expert. Though the email seems very real, it is actually sent by a cyber criminal to steal your account passwords. Phishing techniques have become extremely dangerous and sophisticated these days, since they accurately replicate the legitimate trusted source. For example, they will have a real logo, will use the same font and will seem to come from a real email address.

There are a few simple things you can keep in mind in order to avoid the phishing attacks:


Your bank or credit card company shall never ask for your password under any circumstances.
 If the email you have received contains a link, do not blindly click on it. It can be a fake link which may lead you to a fake log-in screen or executes some other phishing attack. Before you click on the link, you can find out where it is going to take you by holding your mouse over it for a few seconds and looking at the status bar of your browser.Below one is example of phishing.

You may receive an email with a link which looks real. Even if you hover your mouse over it, it replicates a trusted website. For example, Look at the following web address- https://www.facebook.com@www.abs123.com . At first glance this may look like the facebook link, but in reality it will direct you to a completely different address which begins separately after the @sign.

Always check for "https" in the url address bar of your browser, before you enter any confidential information on website. Typically, only trust worthy websites use "https" and phishing websites use "http".
Make sure that you read the url adress properly. Watch out for websites with spellings that are similar to the actual website. "online.citibenk.com" instead of "online.citybank.com". Cyber criminals are known to register website domain names with a spelling similar to a trusted website.
A simple way to detect a phishing email is, you can carefully look for your full name mentioned in the email. Usually, the cyber criminal doesn't know your full name and may contact you by referring you with Sir, or your email address.
Most popular browsers like google chrome, mozilla firefox maintain a list of known phishing webistes and warn you when you are about to visit any phishing website that appears in their database.

Always check for "https" in the url address bar of your browser, before you enter any confidential information on website. Typically, only trust worthy websites use "https" and phishing websites use "http".
Make sure that you read the url adress properly. Watch out for websites with spellings that are similar to the actual website. "online.citibenk.com" instead of "online.citybank.com". Cyber criminals are known to register website domain names with a spelling similar to a trusted website.
A simple way to detect a phishing email is, you can carefully look for your full name mentioned in the email. Usually, the cyber criminal doesn't know your full name and may contact you by referring you with Sir, or your email address.
Most popular browsers like google chrome, mozilla firefox maintain a list of known phishing webistes and warn you when you are about to visit any phishing website that appears in their database.

the webpage of Phish Tank provides a bar, to specify any suspected link in it and checks for it. If you sign in or register with the website, you can submit any phishing link to the website and soon it updates the fake link.

Other solutions:

There are commercial anti-phishing software tools available that provides you protection against phishing attacks. For example McAfee's SiteAdvisor Live is a product that allows you to identify and protect yourself from risky websites. You can buy it online from its website.

Most importantly, if you have never opened an account with a particular bank and they email you, then it probably is a phishing attack. No matter how tempting their offer might be, do not click on any of their links.

Just keep these simple steps in mind and so you can avoid phishing attacks.

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How to Protect Your Phone from Virus Attack

Technology is moving fast on day by day. With the moving technology virus attack to phone & its applications is a common thing. Previously, Windows platform attacked by virus but Now Android OS also be infected by Virus Sometimes. Now Android OS is a popular OS used by most of the people in the world. So there is more virus for Android too & also there is more chances for your Android OS phone to get infected by virus. To protect your Android or any other OS phone from virus attack keep attention to the following points. These points will help you to prevent phone virus related activities It will also protect your phone from being hacked by someone.

Always remember these to Protect Your Phone from Virus Attack

·         Every time when you are going to open an email attachment in your mobile phone, check that from where it’s arrived. If it is from an unknown sender, don’t open it. May be it contains a virus that steal your phone information and send the information to the virus sender. Also don’t open suspicious link that you find in your email.

·         Before connecting your mobile to PC check the antivirus status of your PC. Is the antivirus is running or not? If it is not running Run it and scan your mobile before exchanging the data.

·         Download every phone application for your mobile from a registered application store. Like Android Market, Apple Store, Windows app store & Nokia Store. Because these stores check the applications before they are going to available for download. Do not install any third party application software directly to your Phone.

·         Switch off your phone Bluetooth when it is not in use or make it hidden.

·         Don’t connect your phone to public Wi-Fi devices for internet surfing. It may be steal your information over Wi-Fi.

·         Use a good antivirus for your Phone. Many companies launch their mobile version antivirus in the market.

These are some common things that Protect Your Phone from Virus Attack.

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How to secure your Facebook accounts from being hacked?

Today i will tell you how to secure your facebook account. Most of us are worrried about
their facebook account’s privacy. becz now a days facebook has become a part of our daily life. So, we also need
to secure this part of life so that our life don’t be disturbed 

1. First and very important step to secure account is set a very diffficult answer of your security
question so that any of your friend doesn’t guess it easily. As i have also cracked the security
questions of my friends so, be careful!!:-)

2. Second is when facebook asks to confirm phone numbr always give your own phone numbr.
Never give your friend’s numbr or those numbr which don’t exists like we do when our
principal or professor asks for our parents 

3. Never click on any untrusted link. These link may be phishing or spam. If you click on such
links,a facbook page opens and it says “login  to continue” then, plz never do login
becz it is a fake facebook login called phishing.

4. Whenever you login from cyber cafe, always check if there is plugined any chip or
pendrive becz it may be hardware keylogger which can record your username and password before login.

5. Always use a primary name.90% peoples don’t use primary name.

6. Always use a strong password like “thu812%@”. Becz that kind of password can’t be cracked

by bruteforce attack. some people use mobile numbr which is poor one and can be easily guessed.
(step 4 is for every login page like internet banking,membership login etc.).
so hope that it will be help full to you 

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10 Tips for Total Online Security.

With the sudden rise in the Internet usage across the globe over the past few years, there has also been a rise in the amount of online scams and frauds. Today most of the Internet users are unaware of the most prevailing online threats which pose a real challenge for their safe Internet usage. As a result, Online Security has become a questionable factor for the most Internet users. However it is still possible to effectively combat online insecurity provided that the users are well aware of the common scams and frauds and know how to protect themselves. A study shows that over 91% of the Internet users are unaware of the online scams and are worried about their security. Well if you are one among those 91% then here is a list of 10 tips to ensure your total online security.

1. Always install a good antivirus software and keep it up-to-date. Also install a good anti-spyware to keep your PC away from spywares.

2. Always visit known and trusted websites. If you are about to visit an unknown website,ensure that you do not click on suspect able links and banners.

3. Perform a virus scan on the files/email attachments that you download before executing them.

4. Regularly update your operating system and browser software. For a better security it is recommended that you surf the Internet through the latest version of your browser program.

5. Never share your password (email, bank logins etc.) with any one for any reason. Choose a strong password (A blend of alphanumeric special symbols) and change it regularly, eg. Every 3 months. Avoid using easy-to-guess passwords. (ex. pet’s name or kid’s name)

6. Always type the URL of the website in your browser’s address bar to enter the login pages. For e.g. to login to your yahoo mail account type http://mail.yahoo.com/


7. Before you enter your password on any login page, ensure that you see https instead of http. ex. https://mail.google.com/ instead of http://mail.google.com/
. HTTPS protocol implements SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and provide better security than a normal HTTP.For more information on HTTPS and SSL see Know More about Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).

8. Beware of phishing emails! Do not respond to any email that request you to update your login details by clicking on a link in the body of the email. Such links can lead to Fake Login Pages (Spoofed Pages). For more information on phishing refer what is Phishing?

9. Always hit the logout button to close your login session rather than abruptly terminating the browser window. Also clear your web browser caches after every session to remove the temporary files stored in the memory and hard disk of
your PC.

10. Avoid (Stop) using any public computers or computers in the Internet cafes to access any sensitive/confidential information. Also avoid such computers to login to your email/bank accounts. You cannot be sure if any spyware, keystroke-logger, password- sniffer and other malicious programs have not been installed on such a PC
.

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