How to Protect an Email Account from being Hacked

Today in this post I’ll teach you how to protect your email account from being hacked. Nowadays I get a lot of emails where most of the people say “My Email account is hacked please help…”. Now one question which arises in our mind is: “Is it so easy to hack an email account? OR Is it so difficult to protect an email account from being hacked?”. The single answer to these two questions is “Absolutely NOT!”. It is neither easy to hack an email nor difficult to protect an email account from bieng hacked.

If this is the case, then what is the reason for many people to lose their accounts?

The answer is very simple. They don’t know how to protect themselves from being hacked! In fact most of the people who lose their email accounts are not the victims of hacking but the victims of Trapping. They lose their passwords not because they are hacked by some expert hackers but they are fooled to such an extent that they themselves give away their password.

Are you confused? If so continue reading and you’ll come to know…

Now I’ll mention some of the most commonly used online scams which fool people and make them lose their passwords. I’ll also mention how to protect your email account from these scams.

1. WEBSITE SPOOFING

Website spoofing is the act of creating a website, with the intention of misleading the readers. The website will be created by a different person or organisation (Other than the original) especially for the purposes of cheating. Normally, the website will adopt the design of the target website and sometimes has a similar URL.

For example a Spoofed Website of Yahoo.com appears exactly same as Yahoo Website. So most of the people believe that it is the original site and lose their passwords. The main intention of spoofed websites is to fool users and take away their passwords. For this,the spoofed sites offer fake login pages. These fake login pages resemble the original login pages of sites like Yahoo,Gmail,Orkut etc. Since it resemble’s the original login page people beleive that it is true and give away their username and passwordsby trying to login to their accounts.

Solution:

• Never try to login/access your email account from the sites other than the original site.
• Always type the URL of the site in the address bar to get into the site. Never click on the hyperlink to enter the site.

2. BY USING KEYLOGGERS

The other commonly used method to steal password is by using a Keylogger. A Keylogger is nothing but a spyware. The detailed description of keylogger and it’s usage is discussed in the post Hacking an email account. If you read this post you’ll come to know that it is too easy to steal the password using a keylogger program. If you just access your email account from a computer installed with keylogger, you definitely lose your password. This is because the keylogger records each and every keystroke that you type.

Solution:

Protecting yourselves from a keylogger scam is very easy.Just install a good anti-spyware program and update it regularly. This keeps your PC secure from a keylogger. Also there is a program called Anti-keylogger which is specially designed to detect and remove keyloggers. You can use this program to detect some stealth keyloggers which remain undetected by many anti-spyware programs.

3. ACCESSING YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT FROM CYBER CAFES

Do you access your email from cyber cafes?  Then definitely you are under the risk of loosing your password.In fact many people lose their email account in cyber cafes. For the owner of the cyber cafe it’s just a cakewalk to steal your password. For this he just need’s to install a keylogger on his computers. So when you login to your email account from this PC, you give away your password to the cafe owner. Also there are many Remote Administration Tools (RATs) which can be used to monitor your browsing activities in real time.

This doesn’t mean that you should never use cyber cafes for browsing the internet. I know, not all the cyber cafe owners will be so wicked but it is recommended not to use cafes for accessing confidential information. If it comes to the matter of security never trust anyone, not even your friend. I always use my own PC to login to my accounts to ensure safety.

So with this I conclude my post and assume that I have helped my readers to protect their email accounts from being hacked. Please pass your comments…

How To Updating the ROM in Your Mobile Device

Remember This: The phone or tablet you purchased is yours. It does not belong to the carrier that you bought it from despite the fact that the device is emblazoned with its corporate identity, logo or splash screen.

This outright ownership you have in the device means that you can do whatever you like with it once you've walked out of the store, assuming you don't mess with the radio hardware and cause interference to your fellow users.

This state-of-play lends itself to the question: What to do with the corporate logo-dripping thing? How can you really make it your own? Customize it? Theme it? Move the soft buttons around? That all goes only so far.

The real mark of ownership in the device is to replace the ROM (Read Only Memory) with one that suits you more than the carrier or manufacturer.

What Is ROM?

The ROM is the memory within the phone or tablet that's used to run the base device. It consists of the code that boots the device and runs it as it relates to its hardware.

For example, the ROM will contain code that tells the phone's GPS or WiFi chip how to behave. ROM is distinct from Apps, which aren't hard-coded into the phone's operating system.

Although Apps also tell the chips what to do, they're less rigid in their approach and can be customized more easily by the end-user through UIs. ROM is also distinct from RAM (Random Access Memory) that can be written to.

ROMs are loosely related to one or more of four areas: Speed enhancement; customizing the look and feel; bug fixes not supplied by the phone company or manufacturer; and pre-official ports of operating systems, just for the hell of it.

When to Look for a New ROM

If there's something that your device doesn't seem to be doing properly, there's a chance fellow owners have identified the issue and created a fix. The nature of the passionate developer community means this fix can be released significantly faster than one approved by a manufacturer, which may not even bother to fix it, and may even be focused on the next hardware incarnation -- you a long-forgotten blip in its revenue stream.

The developer-created fix will often be provided as a patch, initially, and then incorporated into an updated ROM.

A good example of this is a common issue whereby some Honeycomb tablets don't support ad hoc WiFi tethering that's necessary for some phones. Toshiba's Thrive's Honeycomb 3.2 operating system, for example, doesn't. So Dalepi, a member of the Toshiba Thrive Forum, coded a fix. Dalepi then incorporated that fix into a ROM that he made available at the Forum's website.

Owners run his code on their tablets rather than the factory-supplied code, because it's the owner's tablet and not Toshiba's, and Dalepi's code in this case suits the owner better than Toshiba's code.

How to Look for a ROM

Perform a Web-based search for your device maker and model, and add the word "forum." Browse the resulting pages for good leads.

In the case of the Toshiba, for example, the Toshiba Thrive Forums website holds all ROMs available, and is the definitive source. You'll often find one Web-based location that's definitive.

Another good source is XDA Developers -- likely the largest Android developer community. XDA members have been responsible for, or active in, any ROM I've used. Look for releases labeled "Stable" or "Beta," rather than "Nightly" or "Experimental" for best results to start.

Some Prerequisites

Any replacement ROM must be loaded onto a rooted device. The phone you purchase isn't rooted, but the sources in the previous step will tell you how to perform the root.

You'll also need a PC and a USB cable. Sometimes you'll also need a memory card.

The Process

Ensure that the device can communicate with the PC you're going to be using. This involves installing the correct drivers. Then root the device following the instructions provided by the developer specific to your device and revision.

Often the developer will have written all of the commands into a batch file that you can simply run with one click from a connected PC. This can include the root, drivers, recovery software and ROM.

Follow the instructions provided by the ROM developer to load new recovery software after a simple root. Once the recovery software is loaded, any new appropriate ROM can be installed.

Further toying can include restoring the ROM back to its original condition. If you get the opportunity to make a backup -- say from within the recover software step, always do so.

Thank the developer, or donate money to his or her listed Paypal account if you get good results or have otherwise enjoyed the process. It's considered good form.

A Few Warnings

Follow the forum instructions carefully, because it's possible to brick the device. Often, the first release day of any community-released code will be athwart with danger -- the experimenters that day know it and like the thrill. We don't. The first day of a recent Google TV upgrade bricked numerous devices.

As a beginner, wait a few days after a release for the kinks to get ironed out, and always reads the forums carefully. Always match release-for-release. For example, if the hack (ROM, root tool or other) is for a version labeled 3.1.01.5.0029, don't use it on 3.1.01.5.0002. Be aware that sending a bricked, hacked device in for warranty repair might be problematic. You may be on your own.