What is Virtual Private Network (VPN) ?

What is a Virtual Private Network (VPN)?

A VPN or Virtual Private Network is a network connection that enables you to create a secure connection over the public Internet to private networks at a remote location. With a VPN, all network traffic (data, voice, and video) goes through a secure virtual tunnel between the host device (client) and the VPN provider’s servers, and is encrypted. VPN technology uses a combination of features such as encryption, tunneling protocols, data encapsulation, and certified connections to provide you with a secure connection to private networks and to protect your identity.
VPN connections technically give you all the benefits of a Local Area Network (LAN), which is similar to that found in many offices but without requiring a hard-wired connection.
Early VPNs were often set up to give individual employees secure remote access to their company networks, hence the name “virtual private network”. By connecting to the company’s network, an individual employee can access all the company’s resources and services as if the employee were inside the company.
Since then, VPNs have evolved to provide the same level of secure communication between any device on the internet. Today, using VPN is increasingly popular among consumers as a means to protect their privacy online, secure their browsing sessions, and get unrestricted access to content or websites that are otherwise blocked or censored.

Types of VPNs

VPNs differ by architecture, purpose of usage, and accessibility. Two basic types of accessibility are site-to-site VPN and remote access VPN.
Figure 1. Site-to-Site VPN and Remote Access VPN connecting to a Corporate Network
Site-to-site VPNs are used in the corporate environment. A site-to-site VPN ensures the safe encrypted connection of two or more local area networks (LANs) of the same company or of different companies. It means two geographically separated offices are virtually bridged together into a single LAN and users can access data throughout this network.
Remote Access VPNs connect an individual computer to a private network. This type of VPN can be divided again into two groups:

• Corporate VPNs – Corporate VPNs allow business travelers and telecommuters to connect to their company networks and remotely access resources and services on the networks. When a user connects his/her device to the company’s VPN, the VPN thinks that the user’s computer is on the same local network as the VPN.
• Personal VPNs – Personal VPNs provide consumers with the same private and secure connection as the corporate VPNs. However, personal VPNs are not used to connect to private networks to access private resources.

Personal VPN services are especially useful when connecting to a public WiFi network. It is estimated that nearly 90% of public WiFi networks are not secured. By using a VPN service, all your internet communications will be encrypted, making it almost impossible for hackers and snoopers to read and steal your private information.
There are many personal VPN service providers available for consumers to choose from, with many offering VPN services to consumers for free or for a low monthly subscription fee. These services also make it easy and quick for you to install and use a VPN on practically any platform, including mobile and tablet devices.

Benefits of Masking Your IP Address

A VPN masks your IP address, giving you much greater privacy for your online activities. Unshielded, this IP address – the unique address for each device on the internet – can be misused to reveal your identity, location, ISP, and even the specifics of your online activity.
When you use a VPN, your IP address is masked so you can surf the web anonymously. Thus, no one can find out where you connect from or what you do online.
Moreover, by exchanging your IP address with the VPN server’s IP address, you can virtually connect from a geographic location that is different from where you are physically located.
For instance, you may be sitting inside a coffee shop in Dubai, but by connecting to a remote VPN server, you can appear to connect to the Internet from another location (i.e. San Francisco or New York) which hosts the VPN server you’re connecting to.
This enables you to bypass regional internet restrictions and get access to content (i.e. YouTube, Facebook) or internet services (i.e. Skype, Gmail, Viber) that are otherwise restricted or censored in the location you are staying in.

VPN Hardware and Software

VPN is a client-server technology that is made up of hardware and software components on both the client (user) side and the server side. As VPNs have progressed from a corporate tool into today’s personal VPN, the installation requires no additional hardware on the user side other than the computer or device for accessing the internet.

Client (your computer)

• The hardware is the personal computer, smart phone or tablet
• The software is the VPN client app running on your device

VPN Server

• The hardware are server computers and traffic routers
• The software controls the traffic routing and communication between the servers and the client (your computer).

VPN traffic flow

Both inbound and outbound traffic is routed through VPN servers. Depending on the traffic direction, the data is encrypted and decrypted either on the client’s computer or on the VPN server. For example, let’s assume you want to watch video on YouTube. You search for the video on YouTube and play it. Since this is outbound traffic, this data is encrypted on your computer by the VPN client.
Encrypted commands are sent to the closest VPN server, which then forwards the encrypted commands through the network of the servers to the gateway server, where the command is decrypted and sent through the public internet to YouTube.
As the video is played, since it is inbound traffic, the process is repeated in reverse. The video stream goes to the VPN server where it gets encrypted, sent to the closest client server, and forwarded to the client where it is decrypted and played in the client’s internet browser. You, as the user (client), get the IP address of the VPN gateway server so it is difficult to track down your real IP address and pinpoint your geographical location.

Security at the packet level

VPN security begins at the data packet level – the basic building block of online communication. Each data packet is encrypted, packaged in multiple envelopes, and treated as a certified letter. Taken together, these steps ensure data is secure even against deep data packet analysis and potential eavesdropping anywhere between the two connected computers.

Encryption

Full data encryption is a basic element in a VPN. With a VPN, all traffic between the two computers is encrypted and isolated in a secure tunnel, shutting out ISPs from eavesdropping and logging your web activity.
Encryption for devices connected to a VPN goes beyond just web browsing. It includes VOIP communication, Skype, emails – anything that uses an online connection. This gives you more comprehensive protection than a proxy server, which is limited to only shielding your web browsing activity.

Envelope Strategy

VPNs use various tunneling protocols to encapsulate data packets for secure transit. Tunneling protocols essentially place the individual data packets – open postcards with the names of the sender and recipient and the data payload – into new sealed envelopes marked with the IP address of the VPN. Each envelope contains and conceals the earlier message envelopes. In addition to the layered envelopes, the original message within is also encrypted.

Point-to-point Communication

When a VPN tunnel connection is opened up, it authenticates sender identity and the integrity of the sent messages. Similar to a registered letter providing point-to-point communication, it ensures that no unauthorized people can intercept the message and that data packets are not tampered with.

VPN Security Protocols

In the pursuit of creating a virtual private network, with its combination of tunneling, encryption, and data encapsulation, security experts have created three different families of VPNs, each with their own specific characteristics: IPsec, PPTP, and SSL. There is no “one-size-fits-all” list of specs for a VPN. Computer experts primarily divide them by technical details and consumers distinguish them by ease of use and portability.

IPsec Family

• Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) – With IPsec, all application traffic is secured across an IP network. IPsec protocol provides session authentication and data packet encryption between the two connected parties. It is primarily designed for protecting the data flows between networks (network-to-network) and the individual worker’s remote connection to the company network.
• Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) – L2TP is used to make a tunnel between two L2TP control connection endpoints. Because it does not provide any encryption or authentication features by itself, it is usually paired with an encryption protocol such as IPsec.

PPTP family

Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) uses a point-to-point protocol to make a direct connection between two nodes. It was the first VPN protocol to be supported by Microsoft Dial-up Networking and has been bundled into all releases of Microsoft Windows since Windows 95. The Microsoft connection has been an important part of PPTP’s acceptance in the market.
While the PPTP protocol has the advantage of a pre-installed client base on Windows platforms, analysis by cryptography experts have identified several security issues such as its vulnerability to password guessing attacks.

SSL family

• Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) – SSL is commonly used to secure online shopping as a user’s web browsers can almost transparently switch to SSL without requiring additional configuration or extra software. SSL was the industry standard before it evolved into Transport Layer Security. The SSL protocol works at the application level independent of the specific network. The “sockets” part of the term refers to the sockets method of passing data back and forth between a client and a server or program layers in the same computer.
  
  SSL uses the public-and-private key encryption system from RSA, which also includes the use of a digital certificate. TLS and SSL are an integral part of most Web browsers (clients) and Web servers.
• Open VPN – OpenVPN is an open source VPN based on the SSL protocol that is focused on organizations in the SME (Small and Medium Enterprise) and enterprise segment. It provides portability, ease of configuration, and compatibility with NAT (Network Address Translation) and dynamic addresses.

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Virus.

Computer Virus Information.

 

What is a computer virus?

Think of a biological virus – the kind that makes you sick. It’s persistently nasty, keeps you from functioning normally and often requires something powerful to get rid of it. A computer virus is very similar. Designed to relentlessly replicate, computer viruses infect your programs and files, alter the way your computer operates or stop it from working altogether. It’s estimated that the Conficker virus infected more than 10 million computers in 2009. Tens of thousands of computer viruses now operate over the Internet, and new computer viruses are discovered every day.

How does a computer virus find me?

Even if you’re careful you can pick up computer viruses through normal Web activities like:

• Sharing music, files or photos with other users
• Visiting an infected Web site
• Opening spam email or an email attachment
• Downloading free games, toolbars, media players and other system utilities
• Installing mainstream software applications without fully reading license agreements

What does a computer virus do?

Some computer viruses are programmed to harm your computer by damaging programs, deleting files, or reformatting the hard drive. Others simply replicate themselves or flood a network with traffic, making it impossible to perform any internet activity. Even less harmful computer viruses can significantly disrupt your system’s performance, sapping computer memory and causing frequent computer crashes.

What are the symptoms of a computer virus?

Your computer may be infected if you recognize any of these malware symptoms:

• Slow computer performance
• Erratic computer behavior
• Unexplained data loss
• Frequent computer crashes

Computer Virus Help: Arming yourself with the best computer virus protection?

When you arm yourself with information and resources, you’re wiser about computer security threats and less vulnerable to threat tactics. Take these steps to safeguard your PC with the best computer virus protection:

Make sure that you have the best security software products installed on your computer:

• Use antivirus protection and a firewall
• Get antispyware software
• Always keep your antivirus protection and antispyware software up-to-date
• Update your operating system regularly
• Increase your browser security settings
• Avoid questionable Web sites
• Only download software from sites you trust. Carefully evaluate free software and file-sharing applications before downloading them.

 Hope you like this post . You may post your suggestion and queries below in the comment box.

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Download Youtube Videos Without Software.

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Top Five Hackers of all time.

  
  _____________Hackers__________________


That’s right. The term “hacker” originally referred to the second type, which held absolutely no malevolent connotations. Only recently has the term been used to refer primarily to criminal masterminds. There are good hackers and bad hackers. Nowadays, benevolent hackers are often called “white hats” while the more sinister are called “black hats.”

Jonathan James:-

Jonathan James was known as “c0mrade” on the Internet. What is his ticket to fame? He was convicted and sent to prison for hacking in the United States–all while he was still a minor. At only fifteen years of age, he managed to hack into a number of networks, including those belonging to Bell South, Miami-Dade, the U.S. Department of Defense, and NASA.
Yes, James hacked into NASA’s network and downloaded enough source code to learn how the International Space Station worked. The total value of the downloaded assets equaled $1.7 million. To add insult to injury, NASA had to shut down their network for three whole weeks while they investigated the breach, which cost them $41,000.                                                      
                                The story of James has a tragic ending, however. In 2007, a number of high profile companies fell victim to a massive wave of malicious network attacks. Even though James denied any involvement, he was suspected and investigated. In 2008, James committed suicide, believing he would be convicted of crimes that he did not commit.


Kevin Mitnick:-

 Kevin Mitnick’s journey as a computer hacker has been so interesting and compelling that the U.S. Department of Justice called him the “most wanted computer criminal in U.S. history.” His story is so wild that it was the basis for two featured films.
What did he do? After serving a year in prison for hacking into the Digital Equipment Corporation’s network, he was let out for 3 years of supervised release. Near the end of that period, however, he fled and went on a 2.5-year hacking spree that involved breaching the national defense warning system and stealing corporate secrets.
Mitnick was eventually caught and convicted, ending with a 5-year prison sentence. After serving those years fully, he became a consultant and public speaker for computer security. He now runs Mitnick Security Consulting, LLC.

 Albert Gonzalez:-

Albert Gonzalez paved his way to Internet fame when he collected over 170 million credit card and ATM card numbers over a period of 2 years. Yep. That’s equal to a little over half the population of the United States.

Gonzalez started off as the leader of a hacker group known as ShadowCrew. This group would go on to steal 1.5 million credit card numbers and sell them online for profit. ShadowCrew also fabricated fraudulent passports, health insurance cards, and birth certificates for identity theft crimes totaling $4.3 million stolen.
The big bucks wouldn’t come until later, when Gonzalez hacked into the databases of TJX Companies and Heartland Payment Systems for their stored credit card numbers. In 2010, Gonzalez was sentenced to prison for 20 years (2 sentences of 20 years to be served out simultaneously).


Kevin Poulsen:-
     

 Kevin Poulsen, also known as “Dark Dante,” gained his fifteen minutes of fame by utilizing his intricate knowledge of telephone systems. At one point, he hacked a radio station’s phone lines and fixed himself as the winning caller, earning him a brand new Porsche. According to media, he was called the “Hannibal Lecter of computer crime.”
He then earned his way onto the FBI’s wanted list when he hacked into federal systems and stole wiretap information. Funny enough, he was later captured in a supermarket and sentenced to 51 months in prison, as well paying $56,000 in restitution.

Like Kevin Mitnick, Poulsen changed his ways after being released from prison. He began working as a journalist and is now a senior editor for Wired News. At one point, he even helped law enforcement to identify 744 sex offenders on MySpace.

Gary McKinnon :-

    

 

  

Gary McKinnon was known by his Internet handle, “Solo.” Using that name, he coordinated what would become the largest military computer hack of all time. The allegations are that he, over a 13-month period from February 2001 to March 2002, illegally gained access to 97 computers belonging to the U.S. Armed Forces and NASA. McKinnon claimed that he was only searching for information related to free energy suppression and UFO activity cover-ups. But according to U.S. authorities, he deleted a number of critical files, rendering over 300 computers inoperable and resulting in over $700,000 in damages.
Being of Scottish descent and operating out of the United Kingdom, McKinnon was able to dodge the American government for a time. As of today, he continues to fight against extradition to the United States.

       ____________*****_____________

 

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Types of Hackers

                        HACKERS TYPES

1. White hat hacker

2. Gray hat hacker

3. Black hat hacker

White Hat and Grey Hat Hacker & What is the Real Difference?

What is worse, the public is not able to understand terms like grey hat, white hat, Linux OS, or cracker.
However, the truth is that the subculture of the hacker world is more complex than we think. Especially if we consider that, these are very intelligent people.

So, what is ethical hacking white hat and how does it differentiate from grey hackers? The only way to find out is to submerge ourselves in the world of hackers and understand, at least, the most basic concepts.

What Is A White Hat Hacker?

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.

When computers appeared, this people found a new realm where they could exploit their skills. Now they were not limited to the constraints of the physical world, instead, they could travel through the virtual world of computers. Before the internet, they used Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) to communicate and exchange information. However, the real explosion occurred when the Internet appeared.

Today, anyone can become a hacker. Within that denomination, there are three types of hackers. The first one is the black hacker, also known as a cracker, someone who uses his computer knowledge in criminal activities in order to obtain personal benefits. A typical example is a person who exploits the weaknesses of the systems of a financial institution for making some money.

On the other side is the white hat hacker. Although white hat hacking can be considered similar to a black hacker, there is an important difference. A white hacker does it with no criminal intention in mind. Companies around the world, who want to test their systems, contract white hackers. They will test how secure are their systems, and point any faults that they may found. If you want to become a hacker with a white hat, Linux, a PC and an internet connection is all you need.

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Grey Hat Hackers

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.

Every year, DEF CON is celebrated at Las Vegas, Nevada. However, hackers are not the only ones who go to this event. There are also computer journalists, computer security professionals, lawyers, and employees of the federal government. The event is composed by tracks of different kind, all of them related, in some way, to the world of hackers (computer security, worms, viruses, new technologies, coding, etc). Besides the tracks, there are contests that involve hacking computers, l ock picking and even robot related events. Ethical hacking, white hat hacking or whatever names you wish to use, at the end, it has a purpose: to protect the systems of organizations, public or private, around the world. After all, hackers can now be located anywhere, and they can be counted by the millions. Soon, concepts like white hat, linux operating system or grey hat will become common knowledge. A real proof of how much has our society been influenced by technology.

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Black Hat Hackers

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 (or cracker) 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 (or, if you prefer, cracker) 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.

What Is Black Hat Hacking?

A black hat hacker, also known as a cracker or a dark side hacker (this last definition is a direct reference to the Star Wars movies and the dark side of the force), 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.

Some famous cases of black hat hacking include Kevin Mitnick, who used his black hat hackers skills to enter the computers of organizations such as Nokia, Fujitsu, Motorola and Sun Microsystems (it must be mentioned that he is now a white hat hacker); Kevin Poulsen, who took control of all the phone lines in Los Angeles in order to win a radio contest (the prize was a Porsche 944 S2); and Vladimir Levin, which is the handle of the mastermind behind the stealing of $10’000,000 to Citigrou.

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Top Computer Viruses of All Time.

1. Melissa

        

 A macro virus named after a Miami stripper, was so effective in 1999 that the tidal wave of email traffic it generated caused the likes of Intel and Microsoft to shut down their email servers. The virus contained a Word document labeled List.DOC as an attachment to an email allowing access to porn sites.

The email was first distributed to a Usenet group but quickly got out of hand. When a user opened the email a message, the infected Word attachment was sent to the first 50 names in the user's address book. The scheme was particularly successful because the email bore the name of someone the recipient knew and referenced a document they had allegedly requested. I recall spending long hours cleaning up after this one.

2. The Anna Kournikova Virus

This computer virus was attributed to a Dutch programmer Jan de Wit on February 11, 2001. The virus was designed to trick a recipient into opening a message by suggesting that it contained a picture of the lovely Anna Kournikova, instead the recipient triggered a malicious program.

This was another virus that exploited a user’s Microsoft Outlook mail contacts. The email subject read: "Hi: Check This!", with what appeared to be a picture file labeled "AnnaKournikova.jpg.vbs". Clearly, the attachment was not a JPG, but it was a good bit of social engineering and was an effective transmission mechanism.

3. MyDoom

MyDoom began appearing in inboxes in 2004 and soon became the fastest spreading worm ever to hit the web, exceeding previous records set by the Sobig worm and ILOVEYOU. A side note, though I knew people affected by Sobig and ILOVEYOU, I did not see either of these in the wild.

The reason that MyDoom was effective was that the recipient would receive an email warning of delivery failure – a message we have all seen at one time or another. The message prompted the recipient to investigate thus triggering the worm.

Once the attached file was executed, the worm would send itself to email addresses found in the local address book and also put a copy in a shared folder (KaZaA). Like Klez, MyDoom could spoof email but also had the ability to generate traffic through web searches, which placed a significant load on search engines like Yahoo and Google.

MyDoom was also significant for the second payload that it carried, which was a DDoS attack on the SCO group; albeit not the coordinated sort of attack we would now expect to see with modern bot-nets. The origination of the virus is attributed or suggested to be someone in Russia, but no one was ever able to confirm.

Lastly, MyDoom contained the text “andy; I’m just doing my job, nothing personal, sorry,” which led many to believe that the virus was constructed for a fee for a spammer, though this also was not confirmed. Shot in the dark: if you are the Andy in referenced in MyDoom and are reading this, please comment!

4. Sasser & Netsky

Easily one of the most famous and prolific variants of computer worms, famous for effectiveness and the fact that it was authored by an 18 year-old German, Sven Jaschan, who confessed to having written these and other worms.

Netsky sticks in my mind because it was the first time that a virus insulted other virus authors. Here the authors of both the Bagle and Mydoom worm families were dissed and, in some cases, Netsky included code that removed versions of the competing viruses.

The other reason this one sticks with me was that the author was turned in to authorities by a friend who wanted to collect the $250,000 bounty that Microsoft put up for information about the outbreak. Though obviously, not a really good friend!

5. 2007 Storm Worm

Though I did consider the 1988 Morris worm, regarded as the first worm, I had to go with the 2007 Storm worm as the 5th to include. Known by many names the Storm Worm is a backdoor Trojan that affects Microsoft based computers.

Here, again, we see distribution of payload through email, with the subject reading, “230 dead as storm batters Europe”. The Storm Worm was a Trojan horse that would join the infected computer to a bot-net – a network of remotely-controllable computers. Though it was thought to be a bot-net of millions of computers, the exact numbers were never known.

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Hackers VS Crackers

Hackers VS Crackers :-

                           

A Cracker is a person who breaks in to a security system only with a malicious intent. A person who breaks in to a computer system for the purpose of earning profit, finding security loopholes of the system, showing protest or just for the sake of challenge is called a hacker. In recent times the differentiation between the definitions of the two terms has become vague due to the misuse of them by the mass media and the existence of the people belonging to both categories.

What is a Hacker?

A person who breaks in to a computer system for the purpose of finding security loopholes, earning profit, showing protest or just for the sake of challenge is called a hacker. This is the meaning of hacker, which comes up in the computer security. There are several types of hackers identified as white hat hackers, black hat hacker, grey hat hacker, elite hacker, script kiddie, neophyte, blue hat and hactivist. A white hat (ethical) hacker breaks in to systems without any harmful intentions. Their task is to test the security level of a certain system. A black hat hacker is a true computer criminal who has malicious intentions. Their aim is the destruction of data and making the system not accessible to the authorized user of the system. A grey hat hacker has the characteristics of both the white hat hackers and black hat hackers. Elite hackers are the most skilled hackers who usually discover the newest opportunities unknown to the community. Script kiddie is not an expert hacker, but merely breaks in to systems using automated tools developed by others. Neophyte is a novice hacker without any sort of hacking knowledge or experience. A blue hat hacker (who does not belong to a certain security firm) will check for security vulnerabilities before launching a system. Hacktivist is an activist who uses hacking to announce a major event or a cause.

What is a Cracker?

A Cracker is a person who breaks in to a security system only with a malicious intent. They are very similar to black hat hackers. In other words, there cannot be crackers who break in for reasons other than harmful ones (unlike some types of hackers such as white and blue hat hackers). His only intension is to violate the integrity of the system and most probably harm data or make the system inaccessible to the authorized users.

What is the difference between Cracker and Hacker?

Generally, both hackers and crackers are people who break in to computer systems. Those who do it only with malicious intent are identified as crackers or black hat hackers. Other types of hackers such as white hat hackers do not have purely malicious intent. But, there is a long running dispute about the real meanings of these terms (cracker and hacker). According to the general public (thanks to the misuse of terms by mass media for a prolonged period of time) a hacker is known as a person who breaks in to computer system with harmful intentions (almost exactly similar to a cracker). However, this is not true according to the technical community. According to them, a hacker should be identified as a positive persona (who is highly talented in dealing with computers – a very clever programmer), while a cracker is actually the person who always commits criminal acts with regard to computer security. 

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Female Programmers make less than Male Programmers

   This is not the way to get more women in tech.

Not only does Silicon Valley have a notable lack of women, but many of the women who do have job titles like computer programmer and software architect make far less than the men with those jobs, according to a new analysis by career review site Glassdoor.
         
       The analysis, which was based on 505,000 salaries shared by full-time U.S. employees on the site, reveals that the adjusted pay gap for women in tech can range as high as 28.3%, far larger than the average adjusted gender pay gap for all workers, which Glassdoor found to be 5.9%.
         
         The adjusted pay gap is what’s left over after controlling for statistical variables other than gender—including age, education, experience, occupation, industry, location, company, and job title. In other words, even when a woman and a man are pretty much identical in every way except gender, the male worker makes 5.9% more.

         Yet despite the demand, the problem of attracting women to computer science remains.

In 1984, 37% of computer science majors in the U.S. were women. Today, that figure is just 18%. If things continue at the current rate, women will hold only one in five computing jobs in the U.S. by 2025, according to research by Accenture and Girls Who Code.

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Top 5 Programming Contest

1. Google Code Jam contest

Google Code Jam is an annual programming competition sponsored and supported by Google itself. Google Code Jam is an international programming competition hosted and administered by Google.The competition began in 2003 as means to identify top engineering talent for potential employment at Google.
The competition consists of a set of algorithmic problems which must be solved in a fixed amount of time. Competitors may use any programming language and development environment to obtain their solutions.
Here, professional and student programmers provided complex algorithmic challenges to solve using the programming language of their choice in a limited amount of time.

2. CodeChef

CodeChef is a non-commercial organization operated by DirectI, an Indian software company based in Mumbai, India.It is a global programming community which hosts online contests, trainings and events for programmers from around the world.

                                                        

3. Microsoft Imagine Cup

Imagine Cup is an annual competition sponsored and hosted by Microsoft Corp. which brings together young technologists worldwide to help resolve some of the world’s toughest challenges.

The Imagine Cup comprises five major technology competitions, including Software Design, and four challenges (although the challenge number is updated annually).

4. Facebook Puzzles

As the name suggests this small set of programming problems is conducted by Facebook to evaluate potential hires. One can submit their solutions in a variety of languages like C++, C, Haskell, Java, Perl, PHP, Python, or Ruby.

5. ACM-IPC :- International Collegiate Programming Contest

This contest is sponsored by IBM. ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (abbreviated as ACM-ICPC or just ICPC) is an annual multi-tiered competitive programming competition among the universities of the world.

ACM – ICPC is one of the world’s largest programming contest conducted annually.  The contests majorly involves algorithmic programming problems. Regional contests lead to World level Finals. Supports only two languages i.e. C/C++ and Java.

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Bad News Old Cellphones Users.....

In February this year, WhatsApp had announced it will stop supporting older smartphones, which included the earliest versions of Android, iPhone, Nokia, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone 7 by end of 2016. Later it was announced that WhatsApp will extend support for BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 10, Nokia S40 and Nokia Symbian S60 until June 30, 2017. Now as the end of the year approaches, WhatsApp’s support for some of the older devices will be coming to an end.

            For users who are worried, it doesn’t look like too many phones will affected in the Android and iOS universe. WhatsApp support will stop by the end of 2016 for those running on Android 2.1 and Android 2.2, Windows Phone 7, the iPhone 3GS and or any other iPhone still on iOS 6. Technically for Android this means around 0.1 per cent devices running on Android Froyo, if you go by the numbers according to Google’s own dashboard from November 2016. So anyone who still has a phone on Ice-cream sandwich or Jelly Bean need not panic.

      According to Apple’s October 2016 data, there are around 8 per cent devices still on earlier versions of iOS (which includes everything under iOS 9 and below). So if you’re still on iOS 6 for some reason, then you should know that support ends for you this year.

For Windows 7 mobile owners, 2016 will definitely be the end of WhatsApp support. The instant messaging app has given BlackBerry 10, Nokia S40, Symbian S60 and BBOS users a lifeline still June 2017. According to WhatsApp’s older blog, the reason for ending support was that these phones don’t “offer the kind of capabilities” they need to expand the app’s features.

WhatsApp, which has over 1 billion monthly active users, has emerged as the world’s most popular instant messaging app. The app recently got the video calling feature on iOS, Android and Windows Mobile, and will now compete with other apps like Skype, FaceTime, Google Duo, which are centred around video calling.WhatsApp says video calling is end-to-end encrypted on the app, just like the messages, text and regular audio calls. WhatsApp is also slated to be getting some Snapchat like features, which includes a version of Stories.

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Acer Unveils thinnest ever Notebook. Less than 1cm.

Ahead of this year's IFA expo in Berlin, which opens officially September 2 and runs through September 7, computer manufacturer Acer has unveiled a raft of attention-grabbing laptops, from a curved-screen gaming machine to two laptops with 360° hinges.

Among them, the Predator 21 X puts a curved screen and two GTX 1080 graphics cards into a beefy 8kg laptop, as well as an i7 K-series processor, a mechanical keyboard, Tobii eye-tracking, 4 spare RAM slots, and other accoutrements.

At the other end of the scale is the 1.1kg Swift 7, a $999 Windows 10 portable which lays claim to being the first laptop less than 1cm thin -- 9.98cm, to be precise.

The versatile Spin 7's display hinges allow it to rotate through 360°. It has a touch screen and a keyboard that can effectively double as a screen stand or go further and tuck out of the way. It's $1,199 but does run on an i7 in comparison to the Swift 7's i5.

More modestly priced (and specc'd) is the Chromebook R 13, which also totes a touch screen and a 360° hinge, but starts from $399 instead.

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Nubia Z11 with Bezel-Less 5.5″ Display, 6GB RAM & Snapdragon 820 launched.

The device comes with an Aluminum build body with a 2.5D glass on the front. On the rear, there is also a fingerprint sensor that can unlock in just 0.1 seconds. It sports a 5.5-inch bezel-less display with Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) resolution, even the last years Nubia Z9 series also came with the same bezel-less displays. It also includes FiT 2.0 (Frame interactive Technology) with which we can just swipe on the edge for using the device.
    Under the hood is the Snapdragon 820 quad-core processor coupled with Adreno 530 GPU and 6GB of RAM. It has 128GB of internal storage that can be additionally expanded upto 200GB via MicroSD card slot. After Vivo XPlay 5 launched as the first smartphone with 6GB of RAM;ZUK Z2 Pro, LeEco Le Max 2, and OnePlus 3 also joined the league of smartphones with 6 GB of RAM.

There is also another variant with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. It has a 16MP IMX298 rear camera sensor with f/2.0 aperture, OIS, and PDAF for faster focusing. On the front is an 8MP selfie camera with f/2.4 aperture. The device is backed by a 3,000mAh battery and supports NeoPower fast charging technology. It comes with Dolby Atmos support and offers Hi-Fi sound with the AK4376 audio chip.

It runs on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow based Nubia 4.0 UI laid on top. The Nubia Z11 with 6GB RAM is priced at €600 (approx $670 / Rs. 44,800) while the 4GB variant costs €500 (approx $558 / Rs. 37,350). The metal build Nubia Z11 with 4GB RAM will be available in Silver and Grey color, and the 6GB variant comes in Black color.

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First phone to get digital TV by Samsung.

Year after year, we see a bunch of Samsung smartphones. Most of them offer very similar specs more or less, with some exceptions. These exceptions do come with some of the most interesting features. One such offering is the new Galaxy J2 DTV. This device is essentially a variant of the Galaxy J2 (2016)launched previously. And as mentioned, this device comes with a Digital TV Tuner.

But the sadly this device is limited to the Philippines only. We don’t expect this device to make it out to other regions. Anyway, talking about the specs of the device, it features the same specs as that of the Galaxy J2 (2016). It is powered  by a 1.3 GHz quad-core Exynos 3457. The device packs 1GB of RAM and comes with 8GB of internal storage. In terms of the camera, we are looking at a 5-megapixel rear facing camera. On the front, we have a 4.7-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 540 x 960.

The device is kept powered by a 2,000 mAh battery and hence you might be charging it quite often if you are going to use it to watch the TV. Most people might think this is kind of a pointless attempt from Samsung to launch this device. But however, it is reported that places like the Philippines have poor internet connectivity and hence streaming services like NetFlix, Hulu, etc won’t work as intended to. So having a Digital TV Tuner onboard makes a lot of sense if users want to watch TV.

The Galaxy J2 DTV is now on sale in the Philippines at a cost of 6,990 Philippine Pesos ($150). And if you are planning to import this device to use it outside, then do make a note that the Philippines uses a different broadcasting standard and hence it may or may not work for you outside. However, stay tuned for more info.

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Amazing phone launched in 6999/- only.

Lenovo has finally launched the A6600 Smartphone that has been revolving around the Internet as a budget-centric Smartphone. The Phone has been silently launched in the offline markets & this information has been shared by our trusted source who has revealed all the specifications along with the pricing of this phone.

The device comes powered with 1GB of RAM along with a 16GB of internal storage that can be expanded to upto 32GB with an external SD Card. Referring to the display this phone comes with 5″ of IPS HD Display along with a 2300mAh of battery capacity. Overall the specifications clearly hint that this is a basic smartphone considering the other line up from Lenovo ie the A7000, K3 Note or even the K4 Note that were launched in India earlier.

In fact, Lenovo is prepping the launch of the Zuk Z2 Pro Smartphone in India that would be launching in the coming weeks and the A6600 would probably be announced later at that event. Talking about the other hardware components, the phone is powered with a 1Ghz MT6735p Quad-core 64bit Processor & also comes with a 8 MP Rear Camera with led flash. For the selfie lovers, this phone isn’t something that would be impressing them since it comes with just 2MP Front Camera. The Phone is Dual Sim Dual VoLTE compatible connecting on 2G/3G/4G/ & VoLTE which means that if you are already having a JIO SIM Card then you are good to go.

The phone also comes with a bunch of pre-installed Lenovo developed applications like the Sync it, Share it, SEEit Gallery, SNAPit Camera along with the Stock Google UI for a Smooth android experience. Moving to the pricing part the Phone has been launched at a price of Rs 6999, while it is going to be sold at Rs 6600 itself from the day one with the offline retailers.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 7 : Launched in India

Samsung Electronics on Thursday unveiled its ‘most intelligent and most powerful smartphone’ yet, Samsung Galaxy Note7, along with a host of devices as a part of its ecosystem.
The launch entails the introduction of the Gear Fit2 — wearable fitness tracker priced at Rs 13,990 and Gear IconX — cordless earphones with in-ear heart rate monitor priced at Rs 13,490. The Samsung Gear VR — Samsung’s virtual reality device, also forms part of the Note7’s Phone+ Ecosystem.

Priced at Rs 59,900, the Note7 features an upgraded S Pen and irisSZ scanning technology for security and is ready to enter the Indian market on September 2. To improve precision, the tip of the S Pen has been reduced by about 50%, making it only 0.7mm. 

On the iris scanning technology, Samsung India Electronics Vice President - Mobile Business Manu Sharma said: “The Indian financial sector is abuzz with mobile transactions. However, around 70% of mobile users are scared of leakage of information. The iris scanner ensures that security of the phone is personalised, which makes the Note7, the most secure phone in the current generation.” 

The first device in the Note series to be water resistant up to the depth of 1.5 metres for up to 30 minutes, the Note7 features a 5.7 inch Gorilla Glass 5, which makes it 30% stronger and 20% more scratch resistant. However, it features the same camera as the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge. 

The Note7 has been given a 3,500 mAH battery, which is the biggest in the Samsung smartphone portfolio. “Users can choose from HD, FHD and QHD display to optimise battery usage,” said Sharma.

Sharma added, “The success of the Note series in India has been unprecedented. Since the launch of the first Note in 2011, the segment has evolved and gathered loyal support from who we lovingly call ‘Note heads’.” The segment commands 70% to 80% return rates in its customer base in the country. 

Samsung claims a 47.3% share in the smartphone market in India, which it further seeks to consolidate with every launch.

The phone will be launched in three colour options — Gold Platinum, Silver Titanium and Black onyx, and pre-booking is slated from August 22 to August 30.

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New Role For Brain-Computer Interfaces

Eight paraplegics who used their thoughts to operate a robotic exoskeleton regained partial feeling and control over their legs, according to a study that points to a possible new type of rehabilitation therapy.

The study, published today in Scientific Reports, is a follow-up to ahighly publicized spectacle during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil in which a paralyzed patient was shown on television using a brain-controlled robotic exoskeleton to kick a soccer ball.

The Walk Again Project, as it is known, is led by Miguel Nicolelis, a Brazilian-born neuroscientist and longtime professor at Duke University, whose provocative work with brain-computer interfaces has kindled fanfare and skepticism.

A patient moves with the assistance of the brain-controlled robotic exoskeleton.

The eight patients, who all had complete spinal cord injury, meaning they were paralyzed and had no sensation below the lesion, trained twice a week for a year using a brain-computer interface to control either an avatar seen through virtual-reality goggles or a robotic harness.

There’s a growing body of evidence that such biofeedback—like observing an avatar you control—may help people recover from injuries, including strokes. “The approach they are aiming for is enhancing the neurological signals to induce plasticity, the healing of the brain,” says Bolu Ajiboye, a brain-computer interface researcher from Case Western University.

During the study, patients wore caps that recorded their brain waves, or EEG signals, which they used to direct movements of a human figure displayed on an Oculus Rift headset. Patients then graduated to operating a robotic exoskeleton that moved their legs, helping them stand up or walk on a treadmill.

Nicolelis says following the training, patients were able to voluntarily move their legs, however slightly, for the first time in years. They also regained some sensation of feeling in their lower limbs. By the end of the study, half the patients were upgraded from a clinical diagnosis of complete spinal cord injury to “incomplete” paraplegics. In a telephone briefing with journalists, Nicolelis called the results “the first study using long-term brain-machine interface that reports on some kind of partial recovery.”

A patient learns to control an avatar in virtual reality via brain waves.

Exactly why such techniques may help isn’t known. One theory is that when people make repeated efforts to willfully alter their EEG signal, it may help re-establish connections to remaining nerve fibers below the injury area. “We may have rekindled the remaining nerves to be able to send messages from the brain of the patients to the periphery,” says Nicolelis.

Jose Contreras-Vidal, an engineer at the University of Houston who is also researching the use of brain-machine interfaces to power exoskeletons, said it is unclear from Nicolelis’s study which of six different training techniques used might have caused the improvement. That means the technique can’t be applied immediately by rehab centers until it is better understood.

“It is really hard to relate the specific components to the benefits,” said Contreras-Vidal. “Now we need to sit down and tease these effects apart.”

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