Life

How secure is your mobile phone? Beyond the Android vs iPhone debate, what are your options for providing better smartphone security for yourself or your company? Mobile devices have become both integral and ubiquitous in everyone's lives, and so they have attracted the interest of criminal hackers eager to steal your vital information. Here are a few tips to help you protect yourself. Three Layers of Security As  InfoWorld  notes, all smartphones have three basic elements of security. Your first major task as a mobile user is to become aware of these layers and enable them in your devices: Device Protection: Allowing remote data "wiping" if your device is ever lost or stolen. Data Protection : Preventing corporate data from being transferred to personal apps running on the same device or personal network App-Management Security : Protecting your in-app information from becoming compromised. Smartphone security depends not only on the phones, but also on

If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands. Well, if you did not clap your hands then keep reading this article, else just scroll to the last paragraph. All living beings tend to remain happy if they are healthy and are fed properly – less the human beings. Even a human child is contended with the bare minimum provisions. But as we grow up, our necessities divert from physical requirements towards the psychological needs. Abraham Maslow called it the ‘Hierarchy of needs.’ As our lower level requirements are met, we start feeling deficiency of higher level needs. As we go up, the zest keeps rising. And literally there is no end to it. So what makes us unhappy and why do we keep striving hard to achieve more when already we have so much to survive a life time? Here is my take on it: Social Approval When we start seeing ourselves from other people’s eyes then we are never happy. We keep trying to get central place in a social circle and sometimes we lose the position we

Communication is perhaps the most important of all the skills which distinguishes humans from other forms of life. We can learn from our predecessors, contribute our bits to the existing knowledge, convince or get convinced, establish rapports and enjoy better relationships, share our emotions, and progress through our lives and careers, all with kind courtesy of an efficient human communication system. Communication is however a two way process. It is twenty percent talking and eighty percent listening. It is in fact mastering the art of when to speak and when to listen and remain quiet. The later attains more importance and is a key factor for succeeding in your professional lives. Let’s see few quotes on silence from some great people in the history: Say what is good or remain silent. (Prophet Muhammad saw, Tirmidhi) I have never regretted my silence. (Hazrat Umer) Silence can sometimes be the most powerful reply. (Hazrat Ali) Silence is a true friend who never bet

Good news: An egg a day is good for your brain... Cholesterol is finally officially removed from Naughty List. The US government has accepted that cholesterol is not a nutrient of concern -- doing a U-turn on their warnings to us to stay away from high-cholesterol foods since the 1970s to avoid heart disease and clogged arteries. The US Department of Agriculture, which is responsible for updating the guidelines every five years, stated in its findings for 2015: "Previously, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommended that cholesterol intake be limited to no more than 300 mg/day. "The DGAC will not bring forward this recommendation because available evidence shows no appreciable relationship between consumption of dietary cholesterol and serum (blood) cholesterol, consistent with the AHA/ACC (American Heart Association / American College of Cardiology) The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee will, in response, no longer warn people against eating high-cho

Smartphones  can do so much fun stuff which you might never know. Frankely speaking, I was also unaware of most of these smartphone features untill I researched the hidden things these phones can do. So lets start with the most amazing thing I learnt today. One thing we need to understand is that smartphone or for that matter any computing machine does not understand our language. Neither do we speak the machine language. So to communicate with each other, we need an interpreter. The operating system which not only performs the role of interpreter between humans and machines but also does various other functions like it manages the machine resources, provides a user friendly interface to interact with the machine, manages and runs all other programs etc etc. The most common computer operating systems are WINDOWS, LINUX and MAC. The most common Operating Systems (OS) on smartphones are the Android, Apple OS, BB OS and Windows. Now coming back to smartphone tricks and special fe

Smartphone, the biggest invention of mankind poses a real and a massive threat to its security. In this article, we will see few of the major security issues posed by the smartphones. With regard to hardware issues, the biggest threat to yourself is the phone battery. Make sure you do not talk or use your phone when it is being charged. Secondly, if your phone keeps heating up then get it checked from the service center before it explodes in your hand, pocket or while its pressed against your ear. With regard to software issues, whenever you are downloading an application, a popup will usually appear asking your permission to access various folders in your phone and also access to mic, camera, GPS, contact list etc etc. Did you wonder why this app needs access to these utilities on your smartphone? An alarming proportaion of Android applications can find and open private photos on your phone, track your location, copy all your contacts, and even use mic and camera of y

Human mind works in mysterious ways. There are things we do which are above the threshold of our conscious but there are some things we do, unintentionally.  The Central Nervous System (CNS) of our brain controls our conscious and the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) regulates functions of our various body organs like heart. It is natural that all our emotions deeply impact the functioning of our heart and any change in the normality of our heart effects each and every organ attached to it. Not going in further science behind the body language, we just need to understand that lying creates stress and stress deregulates the functioning of heart. It implies that the person lying will show various reflexive responses and emotions which are beyond his or her conscious control since they are being regulated by ANS. So if you can pick these cues which appear when someone is under stress then you can identify correctly whether a person is trying to deceive you or not. A gist of the

Smartphones are full of brilliant innovations that make our lives easier, from always knowing where you are with GPS to making video calls to anyone in the world from almost any location. Besides making phone calls, most smartphones can perform following common functions: 1. SMS - Short Message Service 2. Taking pictures and making videos and sharing these instantly with family and friends. 3. Use of social media sites 4. Use of web based messaging apps 5. Use of search engines 6. Watching music audios, videos and movies 7. Playing games 8. Clock and alarm functions. 9. Making your schedules, taking notes and posting reminders. 10. Educational and research function 11. Voice recording. 12. Word processing, powerpoint presentations, other office apps. 13. Using maps and GPS function for directions - navigation 14. Online shopping 15. eReader, reading of books, newspapers, magazines etc. 16. Emails 17. Remote control 18. Use of Compass to find Qi

Hacking has evolved from a one-person crime of opportunity to an open market of sophisticated malware backed by crime syndicates and money launderers. Years ago the typical hacking scenario involved a lone attacker and maybe some buddies working late at night on Mountain Dew, looking for public-facing IP addresses.  When they found one, they enumerated the advertising services (Web server, SQL server and so on), broke in using a multitude of vulnerabilities, then explored the compromised company to their heart's content. Often their intent was exploratory. If they did something illegal, it was typically a spur-of-the-moment crime of opportunity. When describing a typical hacking scenario, these days you must begin well before the hack or even the hacker, with the organization behind the attack. Today, hacking is all crime, all the time, complete with bidding markets for malware, crime syndicates, botnets for hire, state actors, and cyber warfare gone amok. Here are the