Criminals like Apple iPhones because of encryption: Police

Some criminals have switched to new iPhones as their "device of choice" to commit wrongdoing due to strong encryption Apple Inc has placed on their products, three law enforcement groups said in a court filing.The groups told a judge overseeing Apple's battle with the US Department of Justice on Thursday that, among other things, they were aware of "numerous instances" in which criminals who previously used so-called throwaway burner phones had switched to iPhones. They did not list a specific instance.

The brief by the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association and two others also cited a jailhouse phone call intercepted by New York authorities in 2015, in which an inmate called Apple's encrypted operating system a "gift from God."The government obtained a court order last month requiring Apple to write new software to disable passcode protection and allow access to an iPhone used by one of the shooters in the December killings in San Bernardino, California.Apple asked that the order be vacated, arguing such a move would set a dangerous precedent and threaten customer security.

Tech industry leaders including Google, Facebook and Microsoft and more than two dozen other companies filed legal briefs on Thursday supporting Apple. The Justice Department received support from law enforcement groups and six relatives of San Bernardino victims.The law enforcement groups said in their brief that Apple's stance poses a grave threat to investigations across the country.The FBI says Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, were inspired by Islamist militants when they shot and killed 14 people on Dec. 2 at a holiday party.

 The couple later died in a shootout with police and the FBI said it wants to read the data on Farook's work phone to investigate any links with militant groups.In a filing on Thursday, the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office said at least two 911 calls from the time of the shooting reported three assailants, not two.Even though those reports were "not corroborated," if in fact there were three attackers it would be important to crack open the iPhone "to identify as of yet unknown co-conspirators," the District Attorney's filing stated.

Apple has said it respects the FBI and has cooperated by turning over data in its possession.The latest request is different, Apple says, because it requires them to crack a phone with a software tool that does not currently exist.
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7 biggest battery-saving myths

1. Closing unused apps

There is plenty of inaccurate conventional wisdom about methods to prolong battery life. Let’s start with one of the worst “tips”: Closing (or force-quitting, as it’s commonly called) apps you are not currently using. The theory is that apps running in the background are using your phone’s components, so quitting them will save energy.

2. Don’t assume turning off Wi-Fi will always

    help

A common suggestion for extending battery life is to disable Wi-Fi. However, if you’re in range of a strong Wi-Fi signal, your phone uses less energy to connect to the Internet with a Wi-Fi connection than a cellular one. If you regularly use apps that rely on your location, having Wi-Fi enabled helps your phone determine its location without having to rely solely on power-hungry GPS features, so it actually helps a battery last longer.

3. Avoid disabling all location services.

Many apps that use your location do so only intermittently. Even using the Maps app for short navigation sessions doesn’t use more than a few percent of your battery’s capacity — and having the phone’s screen continually on is a big part of why navigation uses a lot of power. 

4. Don’t always choose Wi-Fi over cellular

Many people, and even smartphone vendors such as Apple, claim that using Wi-Fi for wireless data consumes less power than using a cellular signal, so you should use Wi-Fi whenever you can. However, the Wirecutter’s testing found this isn’t always the case.

5. Let Siri and Google listen for your                       commands

Both iPhones and Android phones include a hands-free feature for summoning their virtual assistants by speaking voice commands. You can just say “Hey Siri” to the iPhone or “OK Google” and then speak your request or command. While convenient, this feature requires your phone to constantly listen for that special phrase, which uses some power.

6. Don’t forgo third-party chargers made by reputable vendors

A common warning around the Internet is that you should use only the charger that came with your phone, otherwise you could damage your phone’s battery. In reality, the phone itself contains all the circuitry responsible for charging its battery. The AC adapter (as it’s more accurately known) simply converts the AC current from a wall outlet into low-voltage, low-amperage DC current that it provides via a USB port. This is why you can also charge your phone using the USB port on a computer, a USB battery pack or a charger in your car — the phone is designed to allow it to charge from a variety of power sources that can produce a wide range of current.

7. Calibrate only occasionally

For many years, devices that used rechargeable batteries required “conditioning” or “calibrating,” a procedure that prevented the battery from forgetting how much capacity it actually had. Today’s smartphone batteries no longer suffer from this issue.  

This content is copied from http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com 

How to improve your USB data security

USB data security

At this year's CES Samsung showed off its 2TB T3 portable SSD drive (following on from the T1). This solid state drive with its massive storage capability, fast read/write speeds and form factor that is smaller than the average business card (weighing just 51 grams), means that mass storage just became even more portable.

Having the ability to store this quantity of data presents a major benefit for all businesses, but also a challenge when it comes to data security. With easy storage and portability comes a responsibility to ensure sensitive business data that can be placed on portable devices like the T3 is safe and secure.

Thankfully the T3 comes with AES 256-bit hardware encryption that is compatible with all major operating systems. Unfortunately, many businesses still fail to have a robust data security management system in place that ensures protocols are followed to protect sensitive information.

As there are a number of USB devices out there with differing levels of protection, the question is which one of these devices should your business trust with its precious data? The main suppliers to pay attention to are:

* Kingston Digital (IronKey Products)
* Verbatim
* SanDisk
* Kanguru

All of these vendors offer a range of USB storage drives with varying levels of storage capacity and data encryption. The latest DataTraveller 2000 drive from Kingston features 256-bit encryption and a keypad for a PIN number (pictured top), which includes technology licensed from ClevX that offers high levels of virus protection.


Protecting data
For businesses there are basically three ways to protect the data that is stored and transported on a USB drive or portable hard drive.

1. Encrypt the data before storage
The first line of defence is to encrypt data before it is saved to the USB device. Systems such as Privacy Drive and Kruptos 2 are desktop services which do this.

This adds a responsibility to use the application to encrypt the data, and of course the application needs to be installed on all devices that the USB drive could be used with in order to decipher the data when it needs to be read. However, this can give your business peace of mind when sensitive data needs to be transported.

2. Encrypt data on the USB drive
The vast majority of the secure USB drives available will have encryption services built in. When the drive is used and data copied to it, the encryption automatically takes place.

This ensures a level of security for your data is always present, but this doesn't protect against malware, for example, which is notorious for using USB drives to spread to other PCs. Your business should have scanning software which automatically checks any external devices that connect to your business network for viruses or malware.

3. Encryption with hardware
Using a hardware solution to protect the data stored on the USB drive is also possible. In the past fingerprint scanning devices have been built into the drives, but today these have largely disappeared in favour of a keypad for a PIN number. As already mentioned, the leader here is the DataTraveller 2000 from Kingston.

Smartphones and tablets
Portable data also means smartphones and tablets. As these devices have become essential business machines, they are increasingly being used with sensitive data. USB drives are now available that use the micro-USB port of Android phones and there's the JetDrive Go 300 for iOS devices that offers 32GB and 64GB of storage.

With these devices, it is important to ensure sensitive documents are stored securely before they are transferred to the drives, with applications such as USB Guardian or USB Immunizer.

The level of encryption that can be used with a USB drive varies depending on the level of protection your business needs. You will see encryption stated as using AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) which is the industry standard. Along with AES a number will be quoted. This is usually either 128 or 256, although 256 is now pretty much the default with current USB drives. The number is how many bits the key has to encrypt and unlock the data. The higher the number, the more difficult it becomes to crack the key.

Your security policy
Businesses still use USB drives and other portable data devices for a number of their core operations. These continue to be the potential source of a major security breach, as the security company ESET discovered when they asked 500 dry cleaners across the UK how many USB drives they find. On average they found four USB drives, which of course could all have contained highly sensitive information.

Mark James, security specialist at ESET, said: "The number of USB sticks and mobile devices that are left in dry cleaners each year is staggering and clearly highlights the need for people to pay closer attention to protecting their data. In the wake of recent security breaches against high profile organisations it is time for people to start taking their own security more seriously.

"Data is of high value on the dark net and cybercriminals will always be on the lookout for anything they can find. Out of the 10,004 USBs that never got returned, one can assume that a high percentage of them would have contained sensitive corporate data. This therefore creates a potential risk for UK businesses because there is a high chance these devices have ended up in the hands of cybercriminals."

The first move your business should make is to include USB drives in your business-wide data security policy. This policy should be communicated to all members of staff to ensure they fully understand their responsibilities.

Six key stepsWhere USB drives are concerned, your security policy should include the following steps:

1. That no personal drives should be connected to any of your business computer systems or network, as this could infect your systems with viruses or malware.

2. Only USB drives secured from your IT department should be used. These should all be tracked to ensure your business knows at any given time who is using which drive and for what purpose.

3. All data that is transferred to a USB drive should be encrypted to 256-bit AES standards. Ensure that the encryption process is automatic to avoid this being forgotten and the copied data becoming vulnerable. Also, use hardware encryption and not just software encryption to give maximum protection.

4. Data that is transferred to a USB drive should be backed up to ensure that if lost or damaged, the copied data can be recovered.


5. Drives should have the ability to be remotely terminated. This allows your IT department to disable a USB drive that is, for instance, still in the possession of an ex-employee. Data can also be time-expired to ensure it can't be copied back to your network storage.


6. If a large number of USB drives will be in use, look for a vendor that offers a central control panel. This allows your IT department to update encryption, passwords and other authorisations remotely.
For business users the USB device in all its forms has provided a cheap and convenient way to store and transport data. However, in a world where cyber-security should be on every company's agenda, ensuring these devices are used securely and are protected from infection from viruses and other malicious code is vital to your business.

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7 ways Windows 10 pushes ads at you, and how to stop them

Windows 10 may be “free,” but there’s a price to pay for claiming your no-cost upgrade from Windows 7 or 8: The operating system’s brimming with ads designed to coax you into buying this app or using that Microsoft service.
Some of the ads are pretty unobtrusive, to be fair. Several get right up in your face, however—an unfortunate experience in any case, but one that hurts even more if you’ve already dropped $100-plus on a Windows 10 license rather than snagging a free upgrade. Fortunately, most of Windows 10’s ad pushing can be disabled with a few simple menu tweaks, and it’s worth making the effort to do so, since Windows 10 is the best Windows yet once you get rid of irritating crap like this.
Roll up your sleeves, folks. It’s time to start silencing those annoying Windows 10 ads.

Lock screen ads

Let’s start with the inspiration for this article. In February, Microsoft began displaying ads on Windows 10’s lock screen, after promising to roll out lock screen ad units nearly a year ago. And while the Rise of the Tomb Raider ads looked gorgeous, well, they’re still ads. And they’re only the beginning, unless you disable lock screens ads now.

The option to disable Windows 10 lock screen ads.
To do so, simply head to Settings > Personalization > Lock Screen and turn off the box that reads “Get fun facts, tips, tricks, and more on your lock screen.” That option only appears if you have a Picture or Slideshow selected as the Background option, though. If you’re pulling in Bing images from the Windows Spotlight setting, you won’t be able to disable that setting.

Start menu ads

I never thought I’d be writing “How to turn off ads in the Windows Start menu,” but here we are.
As you’re scrolling through your Start menu, you’ll occasionally see “Suggested” listings for Windows Store apps that you don’t actually own. They’re not technically ads, as the developers aren’t paying for inclusion in your Start menu; rather, it’s a program created by Microsoft to suggest further app installations based on your Windows Store history. Either way, you might not want to see them.

The option to disable Windows 10’s Start menu ads... er, suggested apps.
The easiest way to disable Start menu ads is to right-click one when you see it, then select “Turn off all suggestions” from the options that appear. If you want to be more proactive, head to Settings > Personalization > Start and disable “Occasionally show suggestions in Start.”

Get Office and Skype

Some of the most annoying native Windows ads are the pop-up notifications cajoling your to get Office or Skype, even if you already have Office and Skype. It’s an irritating takeover of the otherwise useful Windows 10 Action Center.

Nooooooooooooo.
There are a couple of ways to eradicate the ads. You could open the Start menu and head to Settings > System > Notifications & actions, then slide the Get Office app’s slider to off in the “Show notifications from these apps” section.
But why only silence the notifications? If you’re never going to accept Microsoft’s offer, just delete the Get Skype and Get Office apps completely. The simplest way to do so is to open the All Apps section of the Start menu, then right-clicking and selecting Uninstall for each of the offenders.

Cortana loves Bing

This isn’t really an ad, but by default, all of the web searches conducted by Windows 10’s Cortana digital assistant send you to Bing, and there’s no way to ask it to ping other search engines instead. It makes sense—Microsoft makes Bing, and Bing serves as the cloud-based backend for Cortana’s brains—but diehard users of other search engines will be disappointed. Unless you hack your way around it, that is.

Chrometana’s search engine options. Pick DuckDuckGo for maximum privacy, if you’d like.
Firefox users have it the best. By default, that browser will show the results for any web searches you launch from Cortana in the taskbar in the search engine of your choice. High-five, Mozilla! Chrome users will want to install the Chrometana extension to perform the same switcheroo. In our tests, it’s not quite as bullet-proof at redirecting Cortana as Firefox is, but it’ll get the job done the vast majority of the time.

Branded

Finally, why you’re clearing house, consider turning off the unique advertising ID that Microsoft assigns you so it can track your movement across Windows Store apps, and then serve you targeted ads. This is enabled by default during a stock Windows installation unless you explicitly choose to hand-pick your settings options and disable it.

The option that lets you disable your unique ad identifier in Windows apps.
First, open the Start menu and head to Settings > Privacy > General and slide “Let apps use my advertising ID for experience across apps (turning this off will reset your ID)” to off.
Disabling in-browser ad tracking tied to your Microsoft account is another beast entirely, and takes another step. Open your primary browser and navigate to https://choice.microsoft.com/en-us/opt-out, then slide the “Personalized ads in this browser” setting to off.

This content copied from http://www.computerworld.in

Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus will launch on 15 March in India

 Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus

 

Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus smartphone was launched in February 2016. This Smartphnone comes with a 5.00-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 1080 pixels by 1920 pixels. The Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus runs Android 5.1 and is powered by a 2750mAh non removable battery.

Lenovo is expected to put up the Vibe K5 Plus on sale for Rs 10,200 starting this March. It will be available in Platinum Silver or Champagne Gold options.

Specifications:-

• - 1.5GHz Snapdragon 616 Octa Core Processor
• - 2 GB RAM With 16GB ROM
• - Dual Micro SIM
• - 5 Inch Full HD Touchscreen Display With 441PPI
• - 13 MP Camera With LED Flash
• - 5 MP Fixed Focus Front Camera
• - Dual Rear Speakers
• - 4G/WiFi/Bluetooth
• - 2750 MAh Battery.

 

HDFC Life launches digital platform Memories For Life

                                                                                   
HDFC Life (HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company) is the largest leading private life insurance company in India offering various insurance policies that best suits your need.
HDFC has recently launched a digital plateform which is called a #MemoriesForLife. In this plateform the house of the person records the video messages for their love once and share them with anybody at an exact date and time of your choice. It's like a scrapbook of memories that allow you to record the video messages and save up to 10 years for their love once. Memories For Life has also given you the features to choose the background template, sound-track etc.

Acording HDFC Life senior EVP, head marketing, products, digital & e-commerce Sanjay Tripathy said, “We at HDFC Life believe that today’s hard-to replace individuals are far more important to their families than just their financial legacy. With #MemoriesForLife, we have made a strategic move to shift life insurance from a transactional space to a more emotional one in the form of a time capsule. Also, this bolsters our position as a leader in the digital space improving the online end-to-end customer experience. Most of all, #Memories ForLife’ is a new opportunity for us to reinforce our brand promise of ‘Sar Utha Ke Jiyo’ in our customers’ lives where they can record life’s little and big lessons to help their loved ones lead a life of pride forever.”

How it works:- By giving the name to your love once and record your message with videos or pictures on the #MemoriesForLife platform, and schedule the date and time you want.
Memories For Life was launched and it will be designed for both offline and online media. To start your #MemoriesForLife , just go to this website https://memories.hdfclife.com and click on the create message after that a message will appear like this "Two simple ways to create your special message"  first one is Record a Video and the second one is Create a Scrapbook. If you selected the first one then you may ask
For whom do you want to leave a message? and their relationship with you and then click on the proceed button after that you write the message and record the video and for the second one you select the pictures and write the message. After that you can check the video/ message and send to their love once by selecting date and time.

The role of parents is not only to protect money for future but also giving the right advice in right time. This Memories For Life will become a great huge in customers.