Devoted to hardware, software, IT issues, and information technology management

SoxFirst.com has the heads-up on a disturbing report in the Wall Street Journal last week that revealed banks, Internet-service providers and other companies that possess large amounts of data on their customers were now being approached by law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

Scary indeed. Just wondering when the USA Big Brother agencies are going global on this initiative.

Today you need to remember tons of passwords. You need a password for your office Windows/Linux network logon, your e-mail account, your homepage's ftp password, online passwords (like CodeProject member account), etc. etc. etc. The list is endless like the Great Wall of China. Also, you should use different passwords for each account. Because if you use only one password everywhere and someone gets this password you have a problem... A serious problem. The thief would have access to your e-mail account, homepage, etc. Unimaginable. You might want to get a Biometric thumbprint reader but figure the price is not affordable enough.

KeePass Password Safe is a free/open-source password safe or manager which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key-disk. So you only have to remember one single master password or insert the key-disk to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish).

Download KeePass Password Safe 1.05 site

Keygloo 1.0.17 is an interesting authentication software.

This is a public key based authentication model that works by verifying whether the user is in posession of his private key. The user should have Keygloo installed in his system for authenticating himself into any Keygloo enabled web application.

During login time, the user will be thrown a challenge password encrypted using his public key. The user can decrypt the password by clicking a 'Decrypt' button which appears in his toolbar after installing Keygloo. The decrypted password is submitted to the Keygloo enabled application by clicking a 'submit' button on the page. The Keygloo enabled applcation then authenticates the user into the system by comparing the decrypted password with the original challenge password.

I received an email just now, supposedly from Paypal and at first sight, it looked darn real. I was almost tempted to click on it and login to delete that john22@aol.com email address from the system. But I was wondering how on earth could that email have been added since I did not do it. So basically the best way to determine the authenticity of the email is by mousing over the URL links (see pic).

Now why would Paypal make their URL links like http://61.218.57.116 ? Now that's a dead giveaway and I am an experienced email user since 1997. Seriously. This phishers are getting really sophisticated.

Protect yourselves by reading how to detect fake phishing emails here. It will be worth your time. Or you could also get SpoofStick - a simple browser extension that helps users detect spoofed (fake) websites.

Itechtip : Do more research before spending a cent online

Finally, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has started proceedings against Charis Johnson, 33, of Charlotte, N.C. and her companies, 12dailypro and LifeClicks, LLC. I used to join paid surfing programs for free and hardly paid out any money to become full time members. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

According to the Commission's complaint, the 12daily Pro website, recently ranked as the 352nd most heavily trafficked website, solicited investors to become "upgraded members" by buying "units" for a "fee" of $6 per unit, with a maximum of 1,000 units. 12daily Pro promised to pay each upgraded member 12% of his or her membership fee per day for 12 days.