5 Ways to protect yourself on Kik Messenger!

Paul

Understanding the Kik Messenger!

The Kik Messenger is just a little app that allows people to chat without the need to share you phone number.   It has several things that help make people want to use Kik, and I am going to share some of them with you and hope that it helps you protect yourself from scammers.  With any messaging app, you will always have bots and scammers who only purpose in life is to steal your money or your identity.   It seems that I found a few that times when I wondered how they figure out my username.   it really wasn’t hard to find me on Kik, I seem to keep Something the same and you could find me to if your really wanted to.  

  • Don’t give out your Phone Number — It seems it is the easiest thing to do but if you give out your phone number to a complete stranger, you are just asking for trouble from people who are going to stalk you or harass you.  
  • Don’t give out specifics — until you really start to be friends it is something that should be in your head at all times.   Don’t tell them your personal stuff like where you actually work, or the exact model of your car.   If you have to answer them, just generalize it to the point that it would make it really hard for them to find you after that.   I wouldn’t say Lie to them but don’t speak the whole truth, until you are sure they are trustworthy.
  • Quick Repliers — If you find yourself getting almost instant replies from the sender, you can bet that it isn’t truely a person because even I can’t type that fast.   It does not mean people who reply with yes or no answer are bots because most people are quick with those.  if it is long text in under a minute, you can bet it is a bot!
  • Don’t share Pictures or Videos —  If you don’t want your friends to see the picture or video, you really shouldn’t share it to some unknown bot or person on the messenger app.   You really do not know who or What they will do with that stuff.   It could cause your embarrassment in the future.
  • Don’t click links — Unsolicited links are just going to probably get your infected and thus you shouldn’t click on any links or go to sites that that the person says unless you know about that site personally.   Just be careful what you do online and you are far better off!

If you use these tips, you are better off than before.   Just remember that you do not really know the person unless you meet them in person.   HOpe this helps!

Several online retailers have weak password security!

Paul

Retailers makes it easy for hackers!

Dashlane releases their top 100 online Retailers and “The Illusion of Personal Data Security in E-Commerce” this makes it easier for the hackers to know the common passwords for sites.   Some of the retailers that are mentioned are:
  • Cafepress (affiliate link) — Although I have been a huge supporter for those really cool shirts and other personable merchandise.   They only require a 3 character password.  If your using a 3 character password, then you are just yelling to the hackers come get my credit card information and personal information!
  • Scholastic Inc — This one seem likes they allow this for kids, I just hope they don’t give out all that valuable information.   They two also only require a 3 character password for an account!
  • 1-800-flowers (1800flowers.com) — Only requrie a 1 character password, which means that you could use Q for your password and you’d be all set for someone to take your credit card information really quickly.

Those are only the few that I found that were really interesting.   I am calling out these retailers to make changes to their password lengths.  You can see the complete list of the 100 retailers with passwords length and various other data.   This link is thanks to Steve Gibson to see all the important stuff!

Password Length

I’ve talked about Lastpass in the past so I will not talk about it anymore.  I do recommend people use the maximum length you can have on sites that are really important to you.   This will prevent hackers from guessing real simple passwords.   Although you should have Higher, Lower, Numbers, and Special characters in your password to make password guessing even harder.  It is up to you to prevent your account from getting hacked or taken over.   No one can help you but yourself!

 

Encrypt your Email with VPN4ALL the Chrome Extension! (Chrome OS Also)

Paul

 

VPN4All does It again!

Since VPN4ALL is a Sponsor, any links in this article supports my efforts in blogging!  They told me about this new product they developed.   At first it was on their website and I liked it but I am glad they made it to where you can use it with any Chrome web browser or even the Chrome Net books!  I installed it on my Chrome OS laptop and it works just as easily on it as on my Windows 7 system.

It was easy and very easy to encrypt your emails to prevent people who don’t know the password.   I had no problems with it encrypting or decrypting emails.   I tested this with two different email addresses and each one sent and receive the email.   I just had to right click and either encrypt it or decrypt it.   

A Simple Test!

I have thought hard and long and here is the easiest way to tell if your extension is working right.  Send an email to a friend or family and see what they see or say.   It seemed to work really well for my purposes.  I used Google mail web site with my this extension and it worked like a charm.   Just highlight what you want to encrypt and it and past the encrypted text in place of the text your are wanting to encrypt.

The Meta Data!

This however will not stop people from getting the meta data as some would say.   This is simply the normal stuff like:

  • Name and Email address
  • IP of where it was sent from and to
  • the Route the email went (Headers show all this stuff)
  • Anything else outside of the encryption such as signatures!

As you can tell VPN4ALL has proven time and time again that they want to protect your privacy.   They even allow you to have your own password to prevent NSA or any others from getting the emails and decrypting them.   The only ones who can decrypt the email is those who have the password and you have to tell those who you are intending to send email to with this encryption the password and a way for them to decrypt it.

Last thought is that you need to remember to have the password pretty strong and a way to commnicate that password through another channel other than email to prevent someone from grabbing that email very easily.

Unable to read SIM Card on the HTC Inspire 4G!

Paul

Reading the SIM card!

I’ve had one reader who says they are having an issue with the SIM card not being able to be read on the HTC Inspire 4G phone.   Some of the things that I have foundto be case are how people insert the card into the Inspire but we are going to give out a quick tip that will help keep that sim from sliding out ever so slightly.   This workd for me and while I do not use the phone anymore.

Best Hack ever!

This is some what a really good way to keep that sim from loosening the connection to the phone.  I found on SIM card that you can make them thicker. 

Use thin tap on the back of the SIM card.   Basically, you keep putting tape on the back until it is snug.   Usually on need to it once or twice but no more than that.   You can not put tape on the side with all the metal but only on the plastic.  It has to be tape that is really smooth so if you use use ruff tape it might not work as well. 

This will help those who have been problem. It might solve your problem but it also might not, it just varies from device to device!

Those really BAD passwords you shouldn’t use! The list is out for 2013!

Paul

Who uses these?

It isn’t everyday that I come across some really interesting passwords.   Among the list of the 25 that Spashdata has released!  The Ones that really stand out for me are: “trustno1” (Gives a new meaning to TNO), Adobe123 and my favorite “photoshop” are on the list of those the top 25 passwords you should NEVER USE.  I don’t know if people are just trying to come up with something no one would think of or if they really want there Facebook Account to be hacked in the first place!

Randomness is everything!

I keep telling people to go check out Lastpass to be safe but it some people will never learn.   I believe in Lastpass so much I pay for the mobile version for a year.   Only 12$ a year but it is for a good cause, and I am really happy with their service!  Lastpass is truely the Last password you will ever have to remember.  

I don’t know about you but I think it is time to go change some passwords!