Google Services - Disruption/Outage - April 17 2013

This is to keep everyone posted of the service disruptions/outage for most of Google services namely Google Mail, Google Drive, Docs and Admin + API control panel.

Google's own service monitor confirms the same. Follow the below link to know more.

http://www.google.com/appsstatus#hl=en&v=status&ts=1366223399000


While Google is up and running again, happy FB'ing! :)

Deb

The Worst Case Scenario: Credit Card Blocked due to fraudulent transactions.

The Worst Case Scenario: Credit Card Blocked due to fraudulent transactions.

First bike, first credit card, first of everything else are always exciting. The anxious wait related to the same and then on the day the innervoice which proudly loops within "Yes, this is finally mine..."

For some its a happy moment and for some the happiest one.

I had the same feeling too on a couple of occasions including the currently discussed topic: Credit Card.

I got myself a CC a year back and since then I had been swiping it often. I would definitely like to assert that a CC indeed helps you understand the value of money and regularize your spending habits. (Well there would be people who will not agree to me on this).

I use the credit card for swiping at physical POS (point-of-sale machines, the ones at the malls/petrol pumps etc) as well as for online purchases.

For online purchases, you need to enter the CC number, Expiry date, CVV number and a password (often referred as Verified-By-Visa code or MasterCard-SecureCode) For more details you can visit: https://www.3dsecure.icicibank.com . This Verified-By-Visa code or MasterCard-SecureCode is an additional protection only for Indian transactions and for not transactions on international sites.

This is where the problem happened. I recently registered a domain name for a friend, but used this international service provider and as the rulebook says, I was not asked the above VBV code (my CC being a VISA card). Post this successful transaction, I noticed my card to be blocked and neither swiping nor online transactions were successful and was shown a "Transaction Declined" error.

Within a couple of hours, the bank customer care called me informing that the CC has been blocked due to repeated fraudulent international transaction attempts of USD3000, USD300 and USD300 respectively.

Hopefully the transactions didnot go through as the bank's security algorithm's were swift enough to deactivate my card right away. The bank issued a new credit card within 10 days and have been swiping it since then.

This has been learning for me and I will be even more careful while transacting on international portals.

I would like to share some cautious  tips hoping such a situation not to happen with you:

1. An InternetSecuritySuite is highly recommended, if not atleast an Antivirus. Do remember that security suites are not "fill-it-forget-it" applications, you need to ensure from time to time that the program license and virus database is updated. (An expired license will deactivate the antivirus and will make your system vulnerable to the WWW). You can download Avast Antivirus (www.avast.com) etc or buy a copy of the same.

2. Do not transact on multiple PC's until its something very urgent. The reason is pretty much like driving someone else's car. You dont know what the existing problems are in it and you might end up paying for any resultant damages because of you. Always try transacting only on your system or mobile phone.

3. If you use a mobile phone for monetary transactions, be sure to install a mobile antivirus. There are a couple of free mobile antiviruses as well as paid ones (Try Kaspersky mobile).

4. Gone are the days when we used only one web browser, currently we are spoilt by options. We have IE, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Safari etc. and almost all of them come with custom addons/extensions to make your online life easier. Though all addons/extensions have disclaimers like they wouldn't peep into your browsing data and behavior, but to stay on a safer side why believe them? Always do digital transactions on only one browser and ensure that you are using the most updated version of the browser with no addons/extensions installed.

5. If you intend to make an international transaction prior to it call the bank's customer care and ensure the protection the bank has implemented so that the transaction is fraud free.

I will update the list as and when I come across any future changes to my secure surfing habits.

Your comments/feedback are welcomed.

Deb

Where you rank socially?

Our parents have friends (well not Facebook ones) but real human ones, some funny, some ever-complaining and some reliable. This same architecture we have in our life too, only difference is in this "tech" age, our friends are electronic from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and so on. For some we are those funny ones, for a couple of friends we are the complaining and then the popular ones.

So where do we rank with our e-reputation or as Klout refers to "influence"? Visit www.klout.com and see for yourself. 

Wikipedia describes Klout as:

Klout is a San Francisco-based company that provides social media analytics to measure a user's influence across his or her social network. The analysis is done on data taken from sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google+, and measures the size of a person's network, the content created, and purports to measure how other people interact with that content. [Source: Wikipedia]

Your Klout number depends on your interactions within your registered social networks. My klout score is shown below. Whats yours?

There are similar tools like, Kred Influence Measurement and PeerIndex, but i liked Klout the most.

Do note: in order to access Klout, you need to register with your FB/Twitter etc logins and also link these accounts for accurate estimation and needless to say all these registrations and linking are over secure connections and nothing is saved with Klout.

Dont hesitate to leave your comments below.

GoodDay!

Satyam CEO's wife email fraud!!!

Hi All, first of all a simple question! How does it feel when a CEO (in this case Ex-CEO) emails you for financial help or asks for your bank account to transfer money?? Feeling blessed!! Sounds similar?? 

Well this post is actually related to such "money transfer" emails with a twist! This has the name of Ramalinga Raju and her wife asking for your bank account! The "money transfer" trick finally percolated to the Indian scenario. WOW.

The email read:

Namaskar,
My name is Radha  Ramalinga,I am the wife of B. Suryanarayana Raju Ramalinga,the younger brother of Byrraju Ramalinga Raju,former chairman,founder and owner of Satyam Computers.

I do have a proposal for you,which would be of immense financial benefits to you and I.

My husband and his brother are currently in big trouble in India,I need your assistance to help me move some funds from Holland to India  or anywhere where it would at least be of some help to our family.

I would give you more details of this proposal if you show yourself willing to take on it,I assure you that you would most certainly be compensated but please I would kindly request you to keep this matter confidential.

I am currently here in the UK where it is a bit safe for me and my kids.
You can reach me on my personal email id which is apdream1@gmail.com

Yours sincerely,
R.Ramalinga

Namaskar, Yours sincerely etc etc are well included to pretend as if it came with a honest intention but the user forgot to take care of the email ID. Poor fellow!

Do find a screenshot of the original mail below!

This is just an precaution to all not to take any action on such mails.

Do visit my other blog The Indian Techdatabase for tech updates and news.

Play songs according to your mood!!

Got a good news, Happy... Under pressure, Instrumentals... something bad happened, Sad... or enjoying the rain, feeling Nostalgic or Romantic.. Whatever may be the mood be there's always songs associated with it.

At times we really feel listening to them, but consider a typical example, You just returned from a cool engaging walk with your mate, feeling like cherishing the moments through soft, silent soothing songs when all of a sudden after the current track ends starts a hip hop fast paced regional song.. Feeling disturbed, even I would be.

Well of late technology has been able to recognize (nearly) songs according to the beats, flow and accordingly predict songs for the mood you select.. Happy, Sad, Romantic.. But again you cant get a proper free stable version of it. (if you are able to find one, lemme know :)

So lets Do-It-Ourselves and that too with your favorite media player.

Idea: Renaming the "Genres" or "Album" ID3 tag name to the desired Mood according to the song.

To do this:

Step 1: we go to http://www.mp3tag.de/en/download.html and download the free utility for tag editing. This can be done through any media player also but for most of the players its limited to tagging one song at a time and this soft allows to tag multiple songs at a time saving your time and lot of anxiety.

Step 2: Its a easy-to-use software. decide on the moods you want like.. Party, Sad, Happy, Romantic, Instrumentals etc. This being done, change the fields ("Genres" or "Album") accordingly and save the file/s (most important).

Step 3: Once set import your music collection to the MP3 Tag and then select-and-tag the songs according to the mood. Tag either "Album" or "Genres" field. Like, Its its a soothing calm romantic one, set it as romantic.

Step 4: Once this is done.. Thats it.. Alls Well. Import the songs according to "Genres" or "Album" you have selected and play them.

Now you will have only music playing according to the mood set.

You can also copy the songs to your portable media player too and hear to them on-the-go.

Queries.. Shoot them to me.