Tips for more secure password and account

Security is very important. Password is the key to access your accounts on the net, so in this tutorial, im going to share how to enforce your security of your accounts online.

 

1. Use a strong password.

How to distinguish between a strong and weak password?

A strong password must be more than 6 letter, and combined with symbols and numeric.

NOT basic info about yourself such as birthday, IC number, or any other numbers that can be easily guessed.

It’s not necessary long password but it mustn't be guessed by anyone.

You can check out your password strength here : http://howsecureismypassword.net/ , don’t worry, they don’t store any of your password as you typed in.

 

2. Use different password for special sites or accounts

Registering multiple accounts and sites with a single password can be dangerous, if one site is hacked, the hacker might use the same login information to gain access to your other accounts.

Make sure that you use different password for your Emails accounts and online banking accounts. These are very important accounts because if hacker can get into your email, they can virtually get every accounts you ever registered using that email by requesting password change. As for online banking, your money is in there, so it’s important to keep it safe.

 

3. Use two-step authentication or verification

Services like Dropbox, and Google uses this verification. People with your password but without your phone, is not able to access the site. This is really great service google provide.

 

4. Be careful when you’re browsing public PC or PC that you don’t trust

Sometimes computers are installed with keylogger (Check the video below). Sometimes history of browsing sessions are saved or you forgot to log out from the site.

Try to avoid using banking services on public PCs.

If you ever want to use banking service or browse some money-related sites, do use Incognito mode(or sometimes called Private Browsing mode) of the browser. Learn how to use incognito mode here : http://specialagentmarco.blogspot.com/2013/03/use-google-chrome-like-boss.html

What is keylogger?

 

5. Install an antivirus

Installing an antivirus is not enough, MAKE SURE YOU KEEP THE VIRUS DATABASE UPDATED. Outdated virus database is useless. Remember to scan your computer frequently.

There’re many antivirus available for free, such as Avast , AVG and Avira

Here are the links:

http://www.avast.com/index

http://free.avg.com/my-ms/homepage

http://www.avira.com/en/avira-free-antivirus

For people who does a lot of banking stuff, it is recommended to use Antivirus with Internet Security.

 

6. Change your password

Do change your password for important accounts often.

 

7. Don’t write down your password or tell anyone your password

That’s the best way to keep your password secure.

 

You have a better idea to share? Comment below

[How to] Make an invisible folder on your desktop

Sometimes you wanna keep some private stuff on your desktop, or wanna make your desktop looks tidy without icons on it.

 

Here’s a tutorial of how to make an invisible folder on your desktop.

1. Create a folder (Right Click anywhere on desktop, hover to “New” and select “Folder” as shown in screenshot below)

2. Ok, now your folder is on your desktop, now right click on it and select “Properties”

Now you can see a window pops up like screenshot below, go to “Customize” tab and select “Change Icon…”

 

3. After clicking on “Change Icon…” button, you should see another small window pops up, look for these three empty icon shown in screenshot below. Click Ok, and Ok.

 

4. Now you should see a folder with no icon on your desktop like image below.

 

5. Now Right Click on your folder without icon, and select “Rename”

6. Now it’s time you type in the name of your folder

Hold ALT and type 0160, hit enter after you typed this.

 

NOTE: REMEMBER, the number 0160 is typed using the keypad on the right hand side of your keyboard.

 

7. Now you will see an transparent folder on your desktop. In case you cant find them, just randomly highlight your desktop.

Now hide your stuff inside this folder.

 

Enjoy

Use Google Chrome like a boss.

Today im gonna share some tips that will save you time and trouble.

 

The address bar:

I regularly seeing people typing google into the address bar when they wanted to search for something.

Facts about address bar :

1. If you don’t have http:// or www before word you typed. It will treat it as a search. So if you typed in google in address bar, you’re googleing Google. Which somehow make you look silly.

2. When you wanna go to a site where you frequently go, just type first few letters of the site, and you can see a drop-down list and you just use the down arrow and hit enter. BAM! there you are in the site.

 

Addon/Extension

Screwads

Youtube, a place where most people upload and watch videos over there, but the problem is the advertisement.

The popup ad is less annoying nowadays because you can simply click to close them.

 

But now there are ads before video starts, some you can skip them after a few seconds, some just required you to watch the whole 30 seconds ads.

Which for a people who subscribe their internet with data cap/internet quota is a waste of money and time. There is an chrome extension named ScrewAds. It works on the background quietly bypass the ads and straight away let you enjoy watching the video, not even a single click is required.

Link for ScrewAds : https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/screwads-block-skip-remov/mmbnjoljpgkhiaicaejkdcjbfjknipnc

 

Photo Zoom for Facebook

Facebook, im pretty sure you have a facebook account too, but sometimes when you sees someone’s picture and you wanna view them, but too lazy to open a new tab, don’t want to leave the page you’re in.

 

Here comes Photo Zoom for Facebook. With this addon, you simply just hover your mouse pointer over the picture, and it will zoom the picture on the side of you screen for you. Saving you time to click to view or open them into new tabs. Easy as that.

Link for Photo Zoom for Facebook : https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/photo-zoom-for-facebook/elioihkkcdgakfbahdoddophfngopipi

 

Google Dictionary

We browse web, and sometimes we encounter some new words (especially people whose native language isnt english like me). Too lazy to open dictionary, but still want to know the meaning? Google came out with dictionary addon of itself called Google Dictionary. Here’s how it works. encounter a new word? Double click on the word and you should get a popup like image below, if you notice there’s a speaker icon at the right hand side of the word, you can listen to the pronunciation of the word when you click it.

It also works on acronym like LOL, too.

How to close this small popup? Just click randomly on the page or click on the small close button on the top right corner will do the trick.

Link to Google Dictionary : https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-dictionary-by-goog/mgijmajocgfcbeboacabfgobmjgjcoja

 

Better Pop Up Blocker

Popup. Well this is a most annoying thing human ever invented. Sometimes you visit a blog or some download websites, popups are coming out every second, at the end of your browsing session, you’ll have a few thousands of popup to close. It’s even worse when the popup make sounds or musics, you don’t even know which one it comes from.

Simple solution, you need a better popup blocker, yea I mean Better Pop Up Blocker.

Once you install it, you’ll have a small blue lego-a-like icon on the right of your address bar.

By default, it’s set to be blue, which means any popup will be blocked.

 

You can also allow a website like facebook by clicking it and select   Allow  http://www.[website domain].com

And of course you certainly can revoke the access of popup you gave to the site.

 

Link to Better Pop Up Blocker : https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/better-pop-up-blocker/nmpeeekfhbmikbdhlpjbfmnpgcbeggic

 

Shortcuts:

There are many keyboard shortcuts available but here im going to discuss just some frequently used and useful ones.

 

Ctrl + Shift + N

This one is to activate incognito mode

What’s incognito mode?

It’s a mode where the browser won’t store any history, download history and cookies of your browsing sessions.

How to distinguish between normal and incognito mode of chrome?

In incognito mode, you’ll notice there’s a secretive man on the top left corner of your browser. Which a normal browsing session don’t.

Why incognito?

Some people use this for por… I mean entertainment. But it’s far more useful than that. Especially when you’re a guess and you want to browse sites like facebook on your friends’ computer. Normally people would log out from the account in order to log in to their own account.

In this case, just simply activate incognito mode, you can log in to your account, without logging out your friend’s. Plus the browsing sessions wont be stored into your friend’s laptop or computer. It’s safer doing this.

 

Ctrl + Click on a link

This will open the link into a new tab without interfering the current browsing tab.

 

Ctrl + W

Close currently viewing tab.

 

Mouse wheel click on tab

Closes the specific tab without hands on keyboard.

 

Ctrl + Shift + T

Open recently closed tabs

Sometimes people work with multiple tabs

With multiple tabs open, it’s very easy to accidentally close a tab which you wanted to use. Far worse when you don’t remember which tab it is, and what’s the address to the page.

Using this shortcut can open recently closed tabs, Chrome remembers up to 10 tabs you recently closed.

NOTE: This will not work if you close the whole browsing window away. (Accidentally clicked the RED close button on the top right corner)

 

These are common shortcut while navigating through pages. There are more available, if you wish to check them out, here’s the link  : https://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=157179

 

If you think this is helpful, please do share this post with your friends

Enjoy.

[How to] Leaving your computer unattended

 

Sometimes you have a naughty friend or roommate who takes the chance to post random stuff on your social network when you leave your laptop/computer unattended even just for a second.

Statuses like “im gay” are very common prank from friends. So in this post, im gonna share how I avoid my laptop being used when im away.

There is a small piece of software called ClearLock out there for free. It’s very simple to use.

So im gonna walk you through the whole process of getting, installing and using ClearLock.

 

1. Go here (http://www.snapfiles.com/get/clearlock.html)  and click on the blue Download Now button.

 

 

2. You should get the file named clearlock.zip in no time.

 

3. Now, open your computer, go to C:\Program Files and make a new folder called ClearLock.

 

4. Open clearlock.zip you just downloaded. You should see 3 files: x86, x64, Readme.txt'

NOTE: Check your System type by go to Start, and right click on Computer and select Properties.

 

 

5.  For 32-bit copy content in x86’s file into C:\Program Files\ClearLock you just created.

For 64-bit copy content in x64’s file into C:\Program Files\ClearLock you just created.

 

6. Now you should have what I have here.

 

7. Now run ClearLock.exe.

You might be shown this dialog box, and for easier usage in the future, DO uncheck “Always ask before opening this file”

 

8. Setting up your password.

 

9. Now, all is set. But to make your life easier, go to C:\Program Files\ClearLock again

Right Click on ClearLock.exe and select “Create Shortcut”.

Then drag the shortcut to your task bar.

 

10. Now you should have icon of ClearLock on your taskbar.

 

So everytime you wanna leave your computer for a while, just click it, it’s protect your computer

 

What is the benefits of using ClearLock?

1. Protect your computer from snooped around by friends

2. Unlike Sleep function, this app adds a protection on screen, disabling people using it, but still, downloads antivirus scanning, and all other features are fully functional.

3. Instant access, you can get back to where you left instantly. Sleep mode requires some time to startup background applications. ClearLock, everything is there already.

 

 

Optional features (For Advance User)

If you notice, there's a README.txt file in the zip file.

There are some customization allowed to your clearlock. You can see a file called “ClearLock.ini” in your C:\Program Files\ClearLock once you set the password.

Open them and you can do some customization there.

DO NOT MESS WITH Password=

 

Here are the content from ReadMe.txt

[ClearLock]
;Password hash generated by clearlock.exe /setpassword or /config
Password=

;Change message displayed on the lock screen
DispMsg=

;Change color of solid lock screen or tint of transparent lock screen [RGB hex color in the form of 0x000000 (default)]
Color=

; set to 0 to allow screen saver [default 1]
DisableScreenSaver=

;Adjust transparency Value:0-255; 255 = Solid, 0 = Invisible [default is 100]
Opacity=

;set to 1 to show a background image set with BackgroundImage parameter. [default 0]
ShowBackgroundImage=

;full path to background image to be displayed if ShowBackgroundImage=1 You may use environment variables (ex. %SystemRoot%\myImage.bmp)
BackgroundImage=

;number of invalid password attempts before lockout [default 3]
LockoutTrys=

;duration in minutes for lockout [default 5]
LockoutDuration=

;Turn sound effects on/off [default 1]
Sound=

If you ever messed up with the configuration, just remove the ini file.

 

 

 

Share this post to your friends if you feel this is helpful.

Enjoy.