21 Oct 09 Secure Your Yahoo Mail

In the last blog post, we talked about how you can secure your Gmail, and in this article, I will show you the way to secure your Yahoo mail. Before we can begin, let me tell you that Yahoo mail cannot be as secure as Gmail because it does not use Https for the entire e-mail. The login process in Yahoo! Accounts (like Mail, Calendar, Flickr, and other Yahoo sites) is secure, as login to any Yahoo services happen on a secure domain (Https), but the rest of the mail feature is not so secure.

Securing Yahoo mail is somewhat manual process. You need to look for Https prefix before you feed your e-mail ID and password in the Yahoo form. If the page doesn’t have Http then you have opened a phishing site (or have been redirected to one). It means, someone out there is trying to trick you.

Along with this, you can also take the following steps to keep your Yahoo mail secure:

Create your personalized Yahoo Sign in Seal. This let you create a custom login page using either text or image of your choice. But there is a limitation to this. The custom login page that you will create will be visible on only the system on which you will create it.
If you use a browser that supports Greasemonkey scripts then install the HTTP-to-HTTPS redirector. Firefox, Opera, Chrome (recent build), and Flock supports Greasemonkey scripts.

This way you will make sure that you are always on the Https page of Yahoo. There is one more way to secure your Yahoo mail, and that is password time out feature of Yahoo. This will protect all your Yahoo accounts. Follow the steps given below to set your password timeout.

Step 1: Login to your Yahoo

Step 2: Go to My Account. You can find a link to my account at the top of the screen.

Step 3: You will be asked to enter the password again, after which you will be taken to account information page.

Step 4: Go to “Member Information” and click “Edit”.

Step 5: Click the drop-down with a label “Prompt for Password” and change the setting. 15 minutes is the shortest duration after which you will be prompted to enter the password again. Set the duration for 1 hour. This will ask for password after a set duration.

Tags: E Mail, Flickr, Flock, Gmail, Greasemonkey Scripts, Information Page, Mail Feature, Mail Id, Mail Password, Mail Yahoo, Page Doesn, Prefix, Secure Mail, Step 1, Step 3, Time Out, Yahoo Accounts, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Services, Yahoo Step

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19 Oct 09 Secure Your Gmail

If web provides us with opportunities, it also provides us with threats, and at times the threats are more dangerous than we suppose. There are many people on the net who earn their livelihood by making our life miserable. People who fall prey to the burglars’ attack are those who are most innocent and do not suspect anyone.

This brief post will help you secure your Gmail account from the burglars who are out there to steal your mail IDs and other information. Securing Gmail is an easy task. Just follow the things written below and your Gmail will become secure.

Forcing Gmail to use https connection

The very first thing you need to do is to force Gmail to open a secure channel for all your online communication by using https instead of http. Using https is free. To use it, all you need to do is make a slight change in the settings. Follow the following steps

Step 1: Log in to your Gmail account as you regularly do.
Step 2: Click on the “settings” that appears at the top of the page.
Step 3: Make sure you are on the General Tab under settings.
Step 4: On fifth position from top, you will find “Browser connection”.
Step 5: Check the Radio button beside “Always use https”.
Step 6: Click save changes at the bottom of the page.
Step 7: Restart your Gmail. Now you will notice that your Gmail has https prefix in place of http.

Sign out all other sessions

How many times did it happen to you that you logged in our office or home PC and forgot to log out when leaving office or home? And how many times we asked our family or colleague to log you from your Gmail? And do you remember where all you logged in: Cell phones, cybercafé, friends’ PC, your bosses’ laptop?

There is no need to panic. There is a way in Gmail to log you out from all the devices you logged in at other places. Follow the following steps and you can easily do that.

Step 1: Log in to your Gmail account.
Step 2: Scroll to the bottom of the page.
Step 3: Find “Last account activity: X minutes ago on this computer. Details” written at the bottom. You may or may not find “This account is open in 1 other location at this IP (122.162.225.247)”this written before the “last login” text.
Step 4: Click the “Details” link.
Step 5: A window will pop up.
Step 6: Go to the window and click “Sign out all other sessions” button.

That’s it. You are done. Your Gmail is secure now.

Tags: 2 Step, Burglars, Cell Phones, Colleague, Fifth Position, Friends, Gmail Account, Laptop, Livelihood, Mail Ids, Miserable People, Prefix, Prey, Radio Button Beside, Secure Channel, Sessions, Step 1, Step 2, Step 6

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15 Feb 09 Security Precautions For Wireless Internet Users

Using a wireless internet network ( Wi-Fi) has many advantages for internet users. It allows you to be able to work in any room of your home and even outside your house and still be able to connect to the internet. Along with the advantages, Wi-Fi also comes with some security issues. If you can pick your Wi-Fi signal from outside your house, that means that others will be able to do the same. Wireless internet users need to take some extra precautions to protect their information from being taken or hacked into by others.

Protecting Yourself At Home

The best way to protect our computer when you have Wi-Fi is to make sure that you have an up-to-date antivirus program installed on your computer. Most anti-virus software will automatically scan your computer to check for any possible threats or viruses. By enabling a WEP or WPA (encryptions on your computer) you can help prevent any intruders from accessing your computer and installing a virus or worm on it. This is very important for wireless internet users as any half-way decent hacker can use your Wi-Fi connection to get into your computer.

When you look for a router for your wireless internet, make sure to get one that has a firewall installed on it. This will greatly reduce the chances that someone will be able to hack into your computer. If you find that your router does not have a firewall installed on it, there are firewall software programs that you can add to your existing router.

Disable the SSID link on your wireless internet. The SSID link is a network that the Wi-Fi uses that regularly broadcast over the air. If you disable the SSID, that means that others can not access your network. This means they won’t have access to your computer either.

Protecting Yourself At Public Wi-Fi Spots

If you have the proper software on your computer, you will be able to go places like local coffee shops, hotels, and airports which are hot spots for wireless internet. This means that you can log onto the computer from these places and share the network. Sharing the network means that you may have a greater chance of someone accessing your computer information or sending a virus into your computer. A good idea when using wireless internet at a public place is to never put any personal identification on your computer at that time. Don’t give your social security number at that time to anybody or order anything online with a credit card while using the public internet.

Tags: Airports, Anti Virus Software, Coffee Shops, Computer Virus, Encryptions, firewall, Firewall Programs, Firewall Software, Hacker, hot spots, Internet, Intruders, Proper Software, router, security, Security Issues, Security Precautions, Software Programs, Virus Scan, Virus Worm, Viruses, Wep, Wi Fi, Wireless Internet Network, Wireless Internet Users, wireless internt, Wpa

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21 Oct 09 Secure Your Yahoo Mail

19 Oct 09 Secure Your Gmail

Forcing Gmail to use https connection

Sign out all other sessions

15 Feb 09 Security Precautions For Wireless Internet Users

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