Check the usage of your G-Mail account

There are reports people hacking in to e-mail accounts and sends mail, which cause legal actions towards the account owner, who is innocent. 

Best way is to have strong passwords, not sharing passwords, always use log off button, use Incognito, clear the history etc.

If you are using G-Mail, there is a way to check whether your account is hacked.  Follow the below steps :

1.                  Login to your G-Mail account

2.                  Go to the bottom of the screen, where your Inbox is displayed.  You can find a line as “Last account activity: xxx hrs back…..” and a link “Details” (as shown below, marked in Red circle )

 3.  Click on this, and you will get a similar window (IPs of my usage are removed)

4..                  Check for any discrepancy.  ie : if you are accessing your account only thru browser, you should see Account Type “Browser”.  If you see access type is POP3, Mobile etc, you can be sure that some one else is access the account.  Also, check the IP.  If the account is accessed from some unknown IP Address, be on alert and take the necessary actions.

            If  you have found some unknown IP address, use some on-line tools (eg: http://www.arin.net/whois/  or http://aruljohn.com/track.pl or http://www.dnsstuff.com/ )

Some of the best practices :

a)     Always sing out/logout from your session

b)     Clear the history, cache, Passwords, cookies etc, especially  when you are accessing the account from shared computer

c)      Do not click on “Remember Me”, when you are accessing the account from shared computer

d)     Never share your password

e)     Use complex passwords (ie: password and user name should not be similar, use extra characters.)

     eg: Use combination of Cap, Small letter, extra characters.  Butremembering such a password is painful.  So, make your own logic. ie: instead of “a”, always use “@”, or instead of “s” use “$” or always typethe third letter in capital etc

Film Festival - Status Yo!

Status Yo!
Director : Till Hastreiter

It was crazzzzyyyy.....I thought i am not going to understand this film. Lots of different things happening in different places, couldn't find the relation. What the silver train got to do ? Why people are running all around ? Why some one is chasing someone ??? Lots of questions!!!

But in the last 30% of the movie, all the puzzles solved, and it turned out to be a great movie. A new experiment, which i consider as success. It was like “Pulp Fiction”. But in this movie, events happens chronologically.

Visit http://www.goethe.de/ins/in/bag/kue/flm/gfw/spf/en3541710.htm

Film Festival - Distant Lights (Lichter)

Distant Lights (Lichter)
Director : Hans-Christian Schmid

Lot of human lifes, and so lot of stories. But director handled almost 6 different stories with great discipline and presented in a wonderful way.

Visit http://www.goethe.de/ins/in/bag/kue/flm/gfw/spf/en3535384.htm for the story line. But, this has only 10% of the movie

Film Festival - Cherry Blossoms - Hanami

Cherry Blossoms - Hanami
Director :Doris Dörrie

This is one of the BEST love story that I have ever seen. The chemistry between Trudi and Rudi is great. Very touching story, it wetted my eyes. The way husband and wife loves each other, and going to extremes that they take for each other is …don’t have words. You got to watch this classic.

Please visit http://www.goethe.de/ins/in/bag/kue/flm/gfw/spf/en3541545.htm for the story.

Film Festival - Four Minutes (Vier Minuten)

Four Minutes (Vier Minuten)
Director : Chris Kraus

I watched this wonderful movie in yesterday(11th Aug 08). A great movie. The director was able to show the strong human emotions, with wonderful support from the Actors and Camera. I give +10 to camera, a wonderful job. Perfect casting and both ladies do 100% to the character.

The climax shot is a classic one, which I seldom saw. Great brains and touch of a creative genius. The piano is at its best, I never knew piano could talk.

Below is the story line (From http://www.goethe.de/ins/in/bag/kue/flm/gfw/spf/en3541524.htm)

80-year-old former pianist Traude Krüger has been driving to the same women’s prison almost every morning since 1944. She teaches her female students – thieves, frauds and killers – how to play the piano. Seeking out new talent, Ms. Krüger meets lethargic, violent and volatile Jenny von Loeben. As a teenager, she has brutally killed a man, and is therefore considered highly dangerous. However, she used to be a ‘wunderkind’, performing at big concert halls at the age of ten.

When the uncontrollable Jenny beats the living daylights out of a prison officer at her trial piano lesson, she is put into solitary confinement. Still, Traude wins Warden Meyerbeer’s approval for an experiment. Traude is allowed to train Jenny at the piano so that she can participate in a contest for young talents. Little by little, the two vastly different women, Traude and Jenny, form a bond over the struggle with their opponents and the prison’s bureaucracy and approach one another. After another violent incident involving Jenny and a fellow inmate, the warden prohibits Jenny’s participation in the piano contest finals, but Traude smuggles Jenny out of the prison for the final. When she is on stage the police arrive to take her back to the prison.

Jenny doesn’t have much time: four minutes only. But she uses her time wisely, doing something that no one, not even Traude, would have expected.

Fighting with key logger

Key logger can be hardware or a software. Anything a user types in the keyboard will be capture by these tools and will save in a hidden place(which can be retrieved by the hacker later) or send out as e-mail, without the knowledge of the user.

Hardware’s are easy to detect, look at the connection which goes to the key board. Finding a software logger ? A tough job, even a good techi. But little bit of practice will give you better safety

When you are in a cyber café, make sure that the PC has a reputed anti-virus anti Spyware application running, with latest updates

If you need to access your bank account and secure data, try some reputed or branded café. The system at these places will be hardened, and will prevent the users installing the application

If you have accessed any sensitive data, as soon as your back home, change the passwords

Look at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. If the hacker is an amateur, he/she might have installed a trail or free version of logger software, which will show an icon. If you see any unrecognized Icons, ask the café owner what software is that.

After you finish your browsing, clear the history, cookies etc form the browser. (In IE :Go click on “Delete cookies”, “Deleteà “Internet options” àto “Tools” Files”, and “Clear History”. This will not give you a high level of protection, but this will reduce the risk

Use “On Screen Keyboard” to key in the user name and password. This will reduce the chances of a logger capturing your key strokes

Use a USB Memory stick, with portable applications (what I use is portableapps.com). You can have your browser, Anti Virus package and On-Screen Keyboard along with you. So, when you are using a different system, browse from the application in the USB stick. So, that all your browsing history, cookies etc will be in YOUR memory stick, not in that PC’s hard disk. Another advantage is that, you can carry your book marks etc along with you.

Use Microsoft Key Board Layout. (can be downloaded from the site http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/tools/msklc.mspx ). Most of the key logger assume that the user is using QWERT keyboard, and if you swap the keys, what ever is logged will be meaningless. (ie: You press “ABCD” in the modified keyboard, but the logger will record it as “TRIO”, and it will prevent the hacker to get the actual password)

But this software is around 10 MB, and you can’t keep downloading them each time. Either keep it in a thumb drive and take it along with you, or, always use a single cyber café to access your bank account, and ask the café owner to install it for you

Another area of concern : The unknown hardware “engineer” from your computer vender came to your home for instilling new printer (or fixing some issues), this person installed a key logger, which will send all the key storks thru e-mail, without your knowledge !!!So, never leave your computer alone with a stranger, be near to him and watch what is he doing, what is he installing. Once he/she left the place, get the latest anti-Spyware and scan your computer

Also, make a list of all the standard programs running (in the back ground) and keep a similar list of all the programs that are loaded at the time of boot up. Follow the below simple steps for that.

First Step :
• As soon your new system is ready or after a fresh re-installation, press CTRL+ALT+DEL and access the task manager.
• Click on “Process” and make sure that the tick mark is on for “Show process from all users”
• Take a screen shot or make a list of all the names.

Second Step :
“Run” and type “msconfig” and press enterà• Click on “Start”
• Click on the tab “Startup”
• And note down the list of programs that are loaded to memory, when you switch on the PC.
Third Step

• When you are in “msconfig”, click on the tab “Services”
• Note down the list of services, with Status “Running”

If you find anything subspecies or anything that you don’t understand, ask the vendor or the hardware support people. Ask them to give the reply in writing or via e-mail. Again, verify the information by doing little bit of searching in Google. Re-check the information with your friends. Don’t leave any stones unturned

Who is visiting me...till Nov 01