Protecting your password in cyber cafe and on public computers - Also an anti - hacking software

December 13, 2006

Dear Brothers and sisters, Privacy being under attack these days from all and sundry places and people (what with surreptitiosly placed webcams, keylogging software, computer hacking, its almost as if ones whole life is now on show for whoever is ready to pay the big bucks for perverted voyeuristic pursuits and pleasures... But many times, it is we ourselves who do not take even the most basic precautions ... sometimes out of ignorance .. at other times due to laziness .. I can do nothing about the latter, but so far as ignorance is concerned, we can all chip in with whatever awareness can make

our lives better and more in tune with the will of God. In the light of the above, this week, I am offering the following .. A way to protect your passwords in cyber cafes and other public computers and an anti-hacking software to secure your PC from unwanted attacks .. Here goes with the first part .. Protect your password in cyber cafe and on public computers Some time or the other, you must have used cyber dafe or public computers to access internet or mail. Public computers are most prone to password hacking. Anyone can simply install a keylogger software to hack your password. Keylogging is one of the most insidious threats to a user's personal information. Passwords, credit card numbers etc.

It is now very easy for the keylogger to harvest passwords. Each and every keystroke (whatever you type on the keyboard) gets recorded in the keylogger software and the person installing it can easily view what you have typd in. For example, if you go to hotmail.com and check your mails. Say your ID is sarahj7 (AT) hotmail (DOT) com and password is "snoopy2", the keylogger

software records your usename and password in its log file as Microsoft Internet Explorer : www.hotmail. comsarahj7@ hotmail.comsnoop y2 Or in the case of Firefox: www.hotmail. comsarahj7@ hotmail.comsnoop y2 Risky isnt it???!!! There's solution to this problem and you can easily fool the hacker. The keylogger software sees and records everything,but it doesn't understand what it sees. It does not know what to do with keys that are typed anywhere other than the password or user name fields. So, in

between successive keys of the password if you enter random keys, the keylogger software won't ever come to know where you typed in what.. In the process of recording the keys, the string that the keylogger receives will contain the password, but embedded in so much random junk that discovering it is infeasible. So... e.g. 1.Go to hotmail.com or or any of the site where you need to insert a password or PIN. 2.Type in your user ID. 3. Type in the first character of the password. 4. Click on the address bar in the internet explorer or Firefox. Type in some 3/4 random characters. 5. Again go to password field and type in the second character of the password. And probably third too. 6. Again go to the addressbar and type in a few mroe random character. 7. Back to the password field and the next characters of the password. Keep on repeatin the process till you type in the full password in the password field. Instead of the password snoopy2 the keylogger now gets: hotmail.comspqmlainsdgsosdg fsodgfdpuouuyhdg 2 Here a total of 26 random characters have been inserted among the 7 characters of the actual

password!!! No doubt it takes a little bit of more time than the usual process, but you're safe and secure that way!!! Never hurts to be a little more secure eh? and here's the anti-hacking software I was talking about .. For

those who don't know what is hacking .... Here's a short explanation .. Your computer communicates with the net and cyberworld and other computers in a LAN network through portals (or doorways) known as ports .. There are around 65000 ports .. through which your computer can communicate .. Relax, most of them are system .. and not for you to mess with .. unless you are a pro . Like

port 80 is used to access the internet websites .. Port 25 for SMTP email (outgoing) etc.. etc.. Now a hacker typically enters your computer through a port ... an open port that allows him access .. windows does have a password option .. but there is no limit on the number of tries .. so a hacker can theoretically try all possible combinations until he gains an entry into your system and once He/she does (Yes, hackers can be females too .. .. don't underestimate them) then they pretty much own your computer and can do whatsoever they wish ... create files, delete files,' modify files .. What an anti-hacking software does is prevent exactly that .. and different ones use different ways of doing that ... The one I am telling you about is Zonealarm .. (URL - www.zonelabs.com) Just go to the website and download their free version .. for Home use .. To know more about hacking ... also visit the site www.grisoft.com As an aside, I would also like to add that even with the above software, we still have the age old dilemma of "Who will guard the Guardians?" IN the above context, the anti-hacking software will protect you from hackers ... But

How well can you trust that the company owning the anti-hacking software won't misuse it to gain access to your computer and use it for their own benefit ... good or bad .. eh? See .. security ..? It works ... rather cuts both ways .. By the way, the said software (zonealarm) has been acquired by an Israeli company last I heard .. Just giving you both sides of the picture ... you decide what you wanna work with or around ... You can also search on google for more freeware versions ... But the above problem would remain with any software that you install on your computer ... Happy surfing .. and Be safe, (At least try to) Click here to read more Technical Stuff ============

========= ========= ========= ======== Working for God on earth does not pay much, but His Retirement plan is out of this world. Help someone have a nice day, visit www.thehungersite.com Rahul,

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