The official support for Microsoft Windows XP ended one month ago, and if you are still using Windows XP, then you really should either upgrade to Windows 7 or higher, or switch to another OS. You may have been recommended to switch to Linux, but the question is “are you ready to switch to Linux”? Linux is an excellent open source operating system and can replace Windows for sure, but Linux is not for everyone to […]
Different company may have different password requirements, and there is no universal password guideline to follow. However, there are some common best practice for creating strong and complex passwords.For example, the commonly accepted minimum length of password is 8 characters, but more and more companies suggest or require more than 12 characters. Strong passwords should mix lowercase letters with uppercase letters, and contain numbers as well. Another important component of a strong password is to […]
In my previous post, I shared some tips on creating a strong and secure password in an easy way. Let me recap the steps just in case you forgot. 1. Choose a phrase (about 12-14 characters long without space) that is only known to you, for example, “Ilovepancake!”. 2. Capitalize the first letter of each word, in this case, “l”->”L”, “p”->”P”. 3. Replace some letters with numbers or special characters, for example, “o”->”0″(number zero), “a”->”@”, […]
Among all the existing and developing authentication methods, the username/password combination is still the most commonly used and very effective way to authenticate user. You need password to access your email, your social media account, your bank account, your credit card account, etc. Among all the passwords of yours, which password do you think is the most important? In my opinion, the most important password is the password of your primary email account (if you […]
If you are a DropBox customer, you may have noticed your shared link does not work any more. It has nothing to do with you, and it is because DropBox disabled all shared links due to a recently discovered vulnerability that may give other people access to files via shared link without consent. What does it mean? DropBox users can share files or folders in their DropBox, but only those people who know the shared […]
Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides have been part of Google Drive since the launch of Google Drive app, but not any more. On Wednesday, the last day of April, Google announced Google Docs and Sheets will not be bundled in Google Drive (Slides will soon be the same), instead they will be stand-alone apps and users will need to install separately. If you haven’t installed them, when you try to open a document or spreadsheet, […]
The security headline today consists three major companies: 1. Microsoft warns IE users of an Internet Explorer zero-day bug 2. Adobe releases a security patch for Adobe Flash Player 3. AOL investigates a security breach on their network and has determined that “there was unauthorized access to information regarding a significant number of user accounts”. It is truly an eventful Monday today.
Open source software is built on the principle that the source code of the software is available publicly and the developers involved in the software are volunteers and build the software out of love and passion. A claimed advantage of open source software is its high security because the publicly available source code enables developers to discover and fix potential security bugs quickly. But the recent Heartbleed bug showed that it is not always the […]
After using BlogEngine.NET as my blogging application, I decided to abandon it and switch back to WordPress. Here are my reasons and I hope my experience will help you.
Now you can turn your Bing search credits into your airline flyer miles or hotel loyalty points.