Protect Your Android Phone from Malware

Recently Android Market was effected with some malware applications which will steal the data of the phone automatically when installed. Some hackers have made these apps and released in the android market. so whenever you will try to install them, it will install few other apps in your phone and steal all the data from your phones and pass over to the hacker easily. Recently many android users were warned about these malicious apps and were requested to install a android security tool which will remove all malicious apps automatically when installed.

The malicious infecting application will install in your android phone and will steal the important data like IMEI number, Phone number, important contacts and files and will upload to a website database which were created by hackers.The users who have been affected by this malicious software’s will receive a message from android that “Your Android Phone is effected and we will send a email notification and the update will be automatically pushed to there devices.The application will be automatically removed from your device when it has completed its work. If you were not received any notification from the android, then you can download the software from this link and install in your device : Click Here

and install in your device : Click Here

 

Many users who are affected with this malware didn’t received the notifications from the android team. In that case you can download this software from the android market. First after installing the software you can observe that the apps which were not uninstalling earlier will be removed automatically and will no longer be able to effect your devices. Before downloading some thing in your android phones, make sure that you follow some basic rules and tips so that you can be safe from intruders.

1. Make sure that what ever you are installing are certified by Google android team. I mean search for Google Inc. as the publisher.
2. Try to install apps like Lookout Mobile Security, this will scan your device for malware and also allow you to transfer important data online. If you phone is lost somewhere, you can easily find out with this application.
3. Try installing a free antivirus application’s like AVG Free and NetQin Antivirus
4. Its always a better choice to put a good password for your android mobile. So try it.
5. Download apps from trusted android market and site only which are verified.
6. Try not to access your phone on a public wifi.
7. When a update is available for any apps try to install it as early as possible. Even the OS should be updated regularly.

People who are already effected with malware apps and are unable to uninstall the apps must download the Android Market Security Tool and Clear all the malware stuff from your device. Visit Android Market Security Tool and install in you android mobile. Do not worry if you cannot see the app in your mobile, because it will automatically uninstalled when it has cleared all malware from your device. You can also take a look at the official article released by Google : March 2011 Security Issue

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Top Antiviruses to Protect Your Computer

Security suites are probably the most essential software you will need for you computers, no matter old or new. There are a host of security suites available at various price ranges and licenses, what matters is how good the suite is at protecting you from the different types of malware. A few suites might be strong at protection from a certain type of malware and not so strong with others. The trick is to find an all round suite that fits your budget as well as offers the best protection. Often, security suites come bundled with a PC optimization program, cloud storage and some other extras as well. Before we go through the most popular suites on offer, let’s recap on the different types of malware:

Viruses: Basically, any malicious computer program that replicates itself to harm a computer system is called a computer virus. It is the sub category of malware, it includes trojan horses, worms and rootkits. Contrary to popular belief, spyware and adware come under malware but not under viruses as they are not self replicating, nor do they actually infect files.

Trojan Horses: Named after the Trojan Horse in Greek mythology, Trojan horses or simply trojans are malicious programs that replicate themselves and steal information or harm the host computer system. They usually masquerade as helpful or harmless programs and begin to steal private data, delete files, log keystrokes or provide an opening for further malware to get installed. For example, trojans claim to detect hundreds of viruses and remove them while actually harming the computer.  The term trojan horse was adapted from the Trojan Horse in  Greek mythology where the Greek army hid in a hollow horse made of wood that was given as a gift to the City of Troy. Upon nightfall, the army burst out of the horse and conquered Troy. Similarly, the malicious code is hidden in an apparently helpful program and finally causes harm.

Computer worms: Worms are another type of malicious software that exploit a vulnerability in the computer system to cause harm. They usually corrupt or delete critical files, consume excess bandwidth and often put the computer under control of the worm author. Once infected, computer systems are used to send spam mails and perform many such unwanted functions. They also usually create a backdoor where security can be bypassed to further infect the system. These backdoors allow remote access to the infected system and files and are usually undetected. Furthermore, worms do not need to attach themselves to another program and can be spread individually over networks.

Rootkit: Rootkits are a type of malware that mask malicious processes and software in the infected systems to ensure privileged remote access. They are usually installed after a vulnerability has been found and detected so that the infected computer continues to be under the control of the malware author. Rootkit detection is quite difficult as they are designed to stay hidden from the very software used to detect them. But, behavior patterns or memory analysis can reveal the presence of one. Removal of rootkits is extremely difficult and sometimes even impossible, depending on the extent of infection. Nevertheless, modern security suites can remove a few classes of rootkits.

Spyware: As the name suggests, spyware are programs that spy on the users. They steal user logins and passwords, document sites visited, log keystrokes and even redirect browsers to unwanted sites. They can result identity theft and sensitive bank information can be compromised as well. While some spyware just document sites visited or the like, more dangerous spyware can steal very important information.

Adware: Adware as such are quite harmless, although they are annoying. They generate ads in the form of popups and interrupt other programs. Usually shareware come with such popup ads. However, adware can come bundles with spyware which can cause further complications. But adware as such is not that difficult to remove.

So now that we have a basic idea of the types of malware and what they can do, here’s the top security suites to protect against them:

AVG Internet Security 2012:

AVG always has been the go-to antivirus software as it provides very good protection for free. However, does the full security match up? Unfortunately not. The antivirus bundled up with the Internet Security is the exact same one you can get for free and no doubt, it is good. The other components like the firewall don’t quite match up though. The firewall displays vulnerabilities and anti-spam filter doesn’t block much spam. The phishing protection isn’t up to the mark either. But, the PC tuneup, online backup and AVG accelerator work well and speed up few areas of the PC. The core antivirus program that can be obtained for free and performs well in real world situations, but the rest of the suite isn’t all that. Overall system performance impact is small as well. This suite retails for 55$ for a single license.

 

Avira Internet Security 2012:

Similar to AVG, Avira also offers a free antivirus that is really quite good. Again, the same antivirus turns out to be one of the best components of this Internet Security suite. While it doesn’t offer much by way of extras, Avira performs well in malware detection and removal and has a robust firewall. Again, the phishing filter and anti-spam filter don’t perform particularly well. Furthermore, Avira is weak with rootkit detection and removal. On the bright side, the best feature, the antivirus,  is available for free and the suite as a whole doesn’t slow down system performance. Avira Internet Security costs 60$ for a single license.

Bitdefender Total Security 2012:

Bitdefender is one of the best suites available on the market. Along with essential components like antivirus, firewall and anti-spam, Bitdefender offers PC tuneup, Facebook protection, online backup and more. This suite offers fairly good malware protection, although not the best. The firewall is efficient, strong and silent as well. The extra features like PC tuneup and online backup perform well too. Phishing protection and anti-spam is decent and in general the suite offers good protection. However, it does slow down the system a bit and malware removal is good, but not great. Overall a good suite, retails at 80$ for 3 licenses.

 

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How To Make Your Own Run Commands

Before moving further I feel a need to tell you what are Run Commands. As we know that when we will type IEXPLORE.EXE in the RUN, Internet Explorer will execute, in the same way when we will type pinball.exe and hit enter, Pinball game will execute. In the above two examples IEXPLORE.EXE and pinball.exe are the Run Commands that we use as a shortcut to execute desired programs.

Today I am going to tell you that how you can create your own Run Commands to open any program you want.

Let's start :

Below is a step by step procedure :

1) Open Start Menu and click on RUN.

2) Now type regedit and hit Enter. (regedit means Registry Editor)

3) Now navigate to the following path :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE >> SOFTWARE >> Microsoft >> Windows >> CurrentVersion >> App Paths

Note : To explain you clearly, I take an example to make a Run Command to open Adobe Photoshop.

4) Now right click on App Paths and select New >> Key and name is as Gagan.exe



5) Now highlight Gagan.exe and have a look at the right hand side panel. You will see a String Value named default. Double click on it and in the value data field enter the path of the program that you want you want to execute. As an example I entered C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS3\Photoshop.exe as I want to open Adobe Photoshop.



You can enter the path of any executable file you want.

6) Now right click on right hand side panel and select New >> String Value and name is as Path.

7) Double click on Path and enter the path of the folder where the executable file is and put a semicolon at the end of the path. In my case it is C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS3;


8) Now click OK and close Registry Editor.

Restart your PC and in the RUN type Gagan.exe and hit enter. Hitting enter will result in opening in Adobe Photoshop.

In this way you can create your own Run Commands by naming key from Gagan.exe to any text you want.

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Transparent Mobiles

Transparent cell phones are a new cell phone concept but it is kind of awkward to assume it’s existence in reality when we begin to wonder about the speaker, camera, internal battery accommodation
Keeping the real benefits of making an cell phone concept behind, let’s look into some of the best and beautiful transparent cell phones concept.

Windows Transparent Cellphone

Window Phone - concept phone On one hand, clear conceptual phones already,so this is not just the first, but on the other, the so-called Window Phonehas one impressive feature – its transparent housing varies depending on the weather! Thus, in the sunny days, the screen will be completely transparent, on a rainy day it will appear «virtual» drop, but it is covered with frost frost. Ie translucent screen will look like as well as present a window into a variety of weather. I do not know how it will be practical, but at least, very original!

Transparent Mobile Phone by Mac

An excellent concept from Mac Funamizu of Tokyo who designed this cell phone concept that has been quite popular online. This glass concept transparent phone is a flip open phone made out of fragile glass. Pretty cool! Hope it’s unbreakable as well.

LG Electronics unveiled the world’s first transparent design phone, the LG-GD900, at the Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona, Spain

Having introduced a selection of highly acclaimed and stylish phones, LG makes a bold step in the design category by introducing yet another innovative aesthetic concept, transparency. Once imagined but never seen before, the LG-GD900 is expected to make a new fashion statement.

When opened, GD900′s sliding, translucent keypad illuminates a cool glow that reflects the phone’s sleek and polished silver body. But first-rate design was not the only thing in mind when creating the LG-GD900. It also lives up to the highest level of technical features expected in a premium calibre handset, including its dedicated Bluetooth headset.

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Now Use your Facebook on any Mobile Without Having Internet

Do you have an old mobile phone, like the Nokia 1100, that has no browser and can do little more than make phone calls? Or are you stuck in some remote place where there’s no Internet or no other form of data (EGDE/GPRS/3G) connectivity is available?

Not a problem. You can still use your Facebook account in India by dialing *325# (or *fbk#) from your mobile phone – this service requires no data plan or Internet and it will even work on phones of the Stone Age. Here’s a quick tour:

        

Use Facebook without the Data Plan

Facebook India has partnered with Fonetwish to bring Facebook on every mobile phone without requiring any apps or even the Internet.

You dial the *325# number, then enter your Facebook username and password and you are in. You can then send number based commands to access various features of Facebook, chat with friends who are online, add new people to your friends list, and more.

I played with the service for some time and it was a nice experience overall. If there were a Unix-like shell interface for Facebook, it would be much similar. Fonetwish says that this service is currently available for Airtel, Aircel, Idea and Tata Docomo users in India.

It may be too much work to read your Facebook news feed stories one by one but this is a good option to quickly update your Facebook status or for chatting with friends who are online. The price is reasonable too – you just have pay a subscription fee of 1.00 per day for unlimited usage.

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Tools for Taking Wikipedia Offline

Would you like to download the entire Wikipedia on your computer or mobile phone for offline reading? Well, here are some good options to consider.

Download Wikipedia Articles for Offline Reading

Wikipedia, the world’s largest encyclopedia, offers downloadable copies (or database dumps) of all its wikis that one can download and thus access the entire Wikipedia content on computers that are not connected to the Internet.

The database dumps are frequently updated and include every single article that’s available on the main Wikipedia website. The dumps are available as .xml.bz2 files that you can easily open on your computer using the free and portable WikiTaxi software.

WikiTaxi ships with an importer that will first uncompress the Wikipedia database files (.bz2) and then converts them into a .taxi file format. Now you open these .taxi files inside WikiTaxi just like the way you open .doc files inside Microsoft Word and, if you are running low on space, the original Wikipedia dumps may be safely discarded.

A good alternative to WikiTaxi is Kiwix – this is also free software and available for Mac, Windows and Linux systems. You first install the Kiwix software on your computer and then download one of the Wikipedia editions – the articles are packaged as .zim files that’ll open directly inside Kiwix without requiring any conversion.

Kiwix is definitely easier to use than WikiTaxi and that packaged .zim files can read across all popular platforms but the downside is that, unlike the database dumps used by WikiTaxi, the .zim files aren’t very frequently updated. Also, the zim package for English Wikipedia doesn’t include every article though the packages for other languages are complete.

If you have an iOS device – like the iPhone, iPad or iPad Touch – you may grab the excellent Wiki Offline app and carry all the Wikipedia articles in your pocket. The app renders Wikipedia articles in a beautiful interface and supports tabbed browsing so you can open multiple articles side by side. Wiki Offline is also available in the Mac App Store for your Mac OS X.

The other option for using Wikipedia offline is WikiReader – this is a 3.5” monochrome device with a capacitive touch screen and contains over 3 million Wikipedia articles. The  updates to Wikipedia articles are released every quarter – you can update the device by connecting it to your computer – or you opt to receive updates on SD cards.

The WikiReader device costs  $99 and though I haven’t tried it myself, it did get a huge thumbs-up from Ars Technica. You definitely don’t need this if you carry a smart phone that is always connected to the Internet but could be a good reference tool for the rest of us with an impressive battery life – much like the Kindle.

Finally, if all you want to do is download a handful of Wikipedia articles for offline reading, use the built-in book creator that turns multiple pages from Wikipedia into a PDF book.

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How To Control Two Computers with a Single Keyboard and Mouse

Let’s say you have two computers on your desk and, in an effort to save space, you want to operate them all using a single pair of keyboard and mouse.

There are two solutions here. If the computers are connected to the same network, you can use software programs like Input Director or Synergy to operate them with a common keyboard and mouse. In the other scenario where the machines aren’t connected, you can get a KVM switch to share one keyboard and mouse between them.

A Better Alternative – Mouse without Borders

My work setup is quite similar to what you see in the illustration above and I have been using the Input Director software all this while to control the two Windows PCs with one keyboard and mouse. Input Director is reliable and (mostly) works without problems though it does require some understanding of the Master and Slave concept.

Last week, I switched to a new Windows utility called Mouse without Borders and find it so much better than my previous solution. Wondering why?

The best part about Mouse without Borders is how easy it is to set up. You install the utility on all your Windows computers, enter the security code provided by the software and your computers will get linked. This is almost as simple as pairing a set of Bluetooth devices.

Installing Mouse without Borders – Step by Step

     

Once installed, you can not only use the same keyboard and mouse across your computers in a seamless manner but you can also drag and drop files between them. This is so convenient. Earlier, I had to create shared network folders or had to use Dropbox to transfer files but now I can simple drag them from desktop A to desktop B as if they were on the same computer.

With the Mouse without Borders utility installed, you can also send screen capture of one desktop to another by pressing a hotkey or from the system tray menu. After having used the tool for about a week, I never experienced a crash though I did have problems sharing clipboard especially when the copy operation was done inside a Flash application.

Mouse without Borders can only be used to control Windows based computers. If your work environment involves a mix of Windows, Linux or Mac computers, Synergy could still be the only good choice for you.

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