Have you ever wondered how to test your Antivirus software to ensure it’s proper working? Well here is a quick and easy way to test your antivirus. The process is called EICAR test which will work on any antivirus and was developed by European Institute of Computer Antivirus Research. This process can be used by people, companies and antivirus programmers to test the proper functioning of the antivirus/antimalware software without having to deal with the real computer virus which can cause damage to the computer. Here is a step-by-step procedure to test your antivirus.
1. Open a notepad (New Text Document.TXT) and copy the following code exactly onto it, and save the notepad.

EICAR Test code
X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

2. Rename the file from New Text Document.TXT to myfile.com
3. Now run the antivirus scan on this myfile.com file.
If the antivirus is functioning properly on your computer, then it should generate a warning and immediately delete the file upon scanning. Otherwise you may have to re-install your antivirus.

NOTE: Most antivirus will pop-out a warning message in the Step-1 itself

You can also place the myfile.com file in a ZIP or RAR file and run a scan on it so as to ensure whether your antivirus can detect the test string in the compressed archive. Any antivirus when scanning this file will respond exactly as it will do for a genuine virus/malicious code. This test will cause no damage to your computer even though the antivirus will flag it as a malicious script. Hence it is the safest method to test the proper functioning of any antivirus

How to Install Windows 7 From a USB Drive

Installing Windows from a USB flash drive has several advantages – First of all, the overall speed of the installation process will increase significantly, carrying a USB stick is much more convenient than a DVD, and finally it becomes possible to install the OS even on those systems that do not have a DVD drive, such as a netbook.

In this post, I will show you how to load the Windows installation on to your USB flash drive and make it bootable just like the DVD.

Tools Required:

1. USB flash drive with a minimum capacity of 4 GB.

2. Windows 7 set-up DVD.

 

Step-1: Plug-in your USB flash drive and backup all the existing data in it.

 

Step-2: Open the command prompt. If you are using Windows 7/Vista then open it with administrator rights*.

* Goto Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Right-click on “Command Prompt” and select “Run as Administrator”.

 

Step 3: In the command prompt, type in the following command:

DISKPART

This will start the Microsoft DiskPart utility as shown below:


Now issue the following command:

LIST DISK

This will show you a list of  available disks on your system. Disk 0 is usually the hard disk. In my case, Disk 5 is the USB drive (this can be a different one in your case). Now issue the command as shown below:

SELECT DISK 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOTE: In the above command, 5 is the USB drive number on my system. If you have a different number on your system, then you need to replace 5 with that number.

 

Step-4: Now issue the following list of commands one by one as shown below:

CLEAN

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

SELECT PARTITION 1

ACTIVE

FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK

ASSIGN

EXIT

Minimize the command prompt and proceed to the next step.

 

Step 5: Insert the Windows 7/Vista installation disc and note down the “drive letter” of your DVD drive. In my case, it is “H:”. Now type the following list of commands as shown below:

H: CD BOOT
CD BOOT
BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 M:(NOTE: M: is your USB drive letter)
EXIT

Step-6: Copy the contents of your Windows 7/Vista installation disk into the USB flash drive.

That’s it! Your USB stick is now ready to boot and install the OS for you. Don’t forget to enable the “USB Boot” option and change the “boot priority to USB device from hard disk” in your BIOS settings.

I hope you like this post. Pass your comments to express your opinion.

How Firewalls works

If you have been using Internet on a regular basis or working in a large company and surf the Internet while you are at work, you must have surely come across the term firewall. You might have also heard of people saying “firewalls protect their computer from web attacks and hackers” or “a certain website has been blocked by firewall in their work place”. If you have ever wondered to know what exactly is this firewall and how it works, here we go. In this post I will try to explain “How firewalls work” in a layman’s terms.

How Firewalls Work

 

Firewalls are basically a barrier between your computer (or a network) and the Internet (outside world). A firewall can be simply compared to a security guard who stands at the entrance of your house and filters the visitors coming to your place. He may allow some visitors to enter while denying others whom he suspects of being intruders. Similarly a firewall is a software program or a hardware device that filters the information (packets) coming through the Internet to your personal computer or a computer network.

Firewalls may decide to allow or block network traffic between devices based on the rules that are pre-configured or set by the firewall administrator. Most personal firewalls such as Windows firewall operate on a set of pre-configured rules that are most suitable under normal circumstances so that the user need not worry much about configuring the firewall.

Personal firewalls are easy to install and use and hence preferred by end-users for use on their personal computers.  However large networks and companies prefer those firewalls that have plenty of options to configure so as to meet their customized needs. For example, a company may set up different firewall rules for FTP servers, Telnet servers and Web servers. In addition the company can even control how the employees connect to the Internet by blocking access to certain websites or restricting the transfer of files to other networks. Thus in addition to security, a firewall can give the company a tremendous control over how people use the network.

Firewalls use one or more of the following methods to control the incoming and outgoing traffic in a network:

1. Packet Filtering: In this method packets (small chunks of data) are analyzed against a set of filters. Packet filters has a set of rules that come with accept and deny actions which are pre-configured or can be configured manually by the firewall administrator. If the packet manages to make it through these filters then it is allowed to reach the destination; otherwise it is discarded.

2. Stateful Inspection: This is a newer method that doesn’t analyze the contents of the packets. Instead it compares certain key aspects of each packet to a database of trusted source. Both incoming and outgoing packets are compared against this database and if the comparison yields a reasonable match, then the packets are allowed to travel further. Otherwise they are discarded.

 

Firewall Configuration

 

Firewalls can be configured by adding one or more filters based on several conditions as mentioned below:

1. IP addresses: In any case if an IP address outside the network is said to be unfavorable, then it is possible to set  filter to block all the traffic to and from that IP address. For example, if a cetain IP address is found to be making too many connections to a server, the administrator may decide to block traffic from this IP using the firewall.

2. Domain names: Since it is difficult to remember the IP addresses, it is an easier and smarter way to configure the firewalls by adding filters based on domain names. By setting up a domain filter, a company may decide to block all access to certain domain names, or may provide access only to a list of selected domain names.

3. Ports/Protocols: Every service running on a server is made available to the Internet using numbered ports, one for each service. In simple words, ports can be compared to virtual doors of the server through which services are made available. For example, if a server is running a Web (HTTP) service then it will be typically available on port 80. In order to avail this service, the client needs to connect to the server via port 80. Similarly different services such as Telnet (Port 23), FTP (port 21) and SMTP (port 25) services may be running on the server. If the services are intended for the public, they are usually kept open. Otherwise they are blocked using the firewall so as to prevent intruders from using the open ports for making unauthorized connections.

4. Specific words or phrases: A firewall can be configured to filter one or more specific words or phrases so that, both the incoming and outgoing packets are scanned for the words in the filter. For example, you may set up a firewall rule to filter any packet that contains an offensive term or a phrase that you may decide to block from entering or leaving your network.

 

Hardware vs. Software Firewall

 

Hardware firewalls provide higher level of security and hence preferred for servers where security has the top most priority whereas, the software firewalls are less expensive and are most preferred in home computers and laptops. Hardware firewalls usually come as an in-built unit of a router and provide maximum security as it filters each packet in the hardware level itself even before it manages to enter your computer. A good example is the Linksys Cable/DSL router.

 

Why Firewall?

 

Firewalls provide security over a number of online threats such as Remote login, Trojan backdoors, Session hijacking, DOS & DDOS attacks, viruses, cookie stealing and many more. The effectiveness of the security depends on the way you configure the firewall and how you set up the filter rules. However major threats such as DOS and DDOS attacks may sometimes manage to bypass the firewalls and do the damage to the server. Even though firewall is not a complete answer to online threats, it can most effectively handle the attacks and provide security to the computer up to the maximum possible extent.

12 ways to Maintain a Virus Free Computer

Is your computer infected with virus? Do you often get mysterious error messages? Well this is a common problem faced by almost all the computer users across the globe. There are many viruses and worms out there that could infect your computer. Some are harmless, but, they do have the capacity to do any number of nasty things, up to and including, erasing all data from your computer. However there are ways to keep viruses away from your PC. Here are the 12 tips to maintain a virus free computer.

 

1. Email is one of the common ways by which your computer can catch a virus. So it is always recommended to stay away from SPAM. Open only those emails that has it’s origin from a trusted source such as those which comes from your contact list. If you are using your own private email host (other than gmail, yahoo, hotmail etc.) then it is highly recommended that you use a good anti-spam software. And finally NEVER click on any links in the emails that comes from untrusted sources.

 

2. USB thumb/pen drives is another common way by which viruses spread rapidly. So it is always a good habit to perform a virus scan before copying any data onto your computer. NEVER double-click the pen drive to open it. Instead right-click on it and select the option “open”. This is a safe way to open a pen drive. 

 

3. Be careful about using MS Outlook. Outlook is more susceptible to worms than other e-mail programs, unless you have efficient Anti-Virus programs running. Use Pegasus or Thunderbird (by Mozilla), or a web-based program such as Hotmail or Yahoo (In Firefox).

 

4. As we all know, Internet is the main source of all the malicious programs including viruses, worms, trojans etc. In fact Internet contributes to virus infection by up to 80%. So here are the tips for safe surfing habits so that you can ward off virus infection up to the maximum extent.

• Don’t click on pop-up windows that announce a sudden disaster in your city or announce that you’ve won an hourly prize. They are the ways to mislead Internet users and you should never trust them.
• You can also use a pop-up blocker to automatically block those pop-ups.

 

5. Most of us use search engines like Google to find what we are looking for. It is quite obvious for a malicious website to get listed in the search results. So to avoid visiting those untrusted malicious websites, you can download and install the AVG LinkScanner which is a freeware. This tool can become very handy and will help you to stay away from malicious websites.

 

6. Install a good antivirus software and keep it updated. Also perform full system scan periodically. It is highly recommended that you turn on the automatic update feature. This is the most essential task to protect your PC from virues. If PC security is your first option then it is recommended that you go for a shareware antivirus software over the free ones. Most of the antivirus supports the Auto-Protect feature that provides realtime security for your PC. Make sure that this feature is turned on.

 

7. Install a good Antispyware program, that operates against Internet malware and spyware.

 

8. Never open any email attachments that come from untrusted sources. If it is a picture, text or sound file (these attachments end in the extensions .txt, .jpeg, .gif, .bmp, .tif, .mp3, .htm, .html, and .avi), you are probably safe, but still do a scan before opening.

 

9. Do not use disks that other people gave you, even from work. The disk could be infected with a virus. Of course, you can run a virus scan on it first to check it out.

 

10. Set up your Windows Update to automatically download patches and upgrades. This will allow your computer to automatically download any updates to both the operating system and Internet Explorer. These updates fix security holes in both pieces of software.

 

11. While you download files from untrusted websites/sources such as torrents, warez etc. make sure that you run a virus scan before executing them.

 

12. And finally it is recommended not to visit the websites that feature illegal/unwanted stuffs such as cracks, serials, warez etc. since they contribute much in spreading of viruses and other malicious programs.

How to Hide Your IP Address

Every time your computer is connected to the Internet, it is assigned a public IP address which is used to uniquely identify your computer. Wherever you visit websites or use Internet services, your public IP is also transmetted and recorded in the logs kept on those servers. Thus, your IP address makes it possible to trace all your web activities back to you.

 

So, How do I Hide my IP Address?

 

The best and the easiest way to hide your IP address is by using a proxy server (anonymous proxy server) in one form or the other. A proxy server is a special type of server which acts as an intermediary between your home computer (or network) and rest of the Internet. This proxy server makes requests for Internet services/information on behalf of your computer using it’s own IP address instead of yours. The obtained information is then passed on to your computer. Thus, your computer is indirectly connected to the Internet via a proxy server where the IP address of the proxy server is exposed and your actual IP address remains concealed. Web proxies are identified by a combination of URL and TCP port number which is similar to something as below:

http://207.133.133.205:35

In the above example, http://207.133.133.205 is the URL of the proxy server and 35 is the port number. There are a variety of these proxy servers available:

 

Transparent Proxy Server
This type of proxy server identifies itself as a proxy server and also makes the original IP address available through the http headers. These are generally used to speed-up the web browsing since thay have a very good ability to cache websites. But they do not conceal the IP of it’s users. It is widely known as transparent proxy because it will expose your real IP address to the outside world. This type of proxy server will not hide your IP address.

 

Anonymous Proxy Server
This type of proxy server identifies itself as a proxy server, but does not make the original IP address available. Anonymous proxy server is detectable, but provides reasonable anonymity for most users. This type of proxy server will hide your IP address.

 

Distorting Proxy Server
A Distorting proxy server identifies itself as a proxy server, but make an incorrect original IP address available through the http headers. This type of proxy server will hide your IP address.

 

High Anonymity Proxy Server (Elite Proxy)
An Elite proxy server does not identify itself as a proxy server and will not make the original IP address available to the outside world. This type of proxy server will hide your IP address.

 

Which Proxy is the Best?

 

Clearly High Anonymity Proxy (Elite Proxy) is the best to hide your IP address. Because of it’s nature, the elite proxy neither identifies itself as a proxy server nor will expose your real IP address to the Internet. Hence, it provides maximum privacy for your Internet activities.

You can obtain a long list of proxy server URLs on Google and configure your browser settings so as to make them working for you. However, most of the free proxy servers you get on the Internet will not be effective in concealing your IP address. Even if some of them work they will be too slow and may take several minutes for a single webpage to load.

So, in order to connect to a blazing fast elite proxy server, I recommend you to use the following IP Hiding software:

Hide the IP (Tested)

 

Hide the IP will put you behind a blazing fast Elite Proxy Server(High Anonymous Proxy) with just a click of a button. With this program, you need not worry about configuring your browser settings.

All you have to do is just install the program and select the proxy server you want to be behind. It offers a list of countries from which you can decide which country to be indicated as your origin.

 

How to ensure that the IP is hidden?

 

Before you hide your IP address, you can check your real IP by visiting the following website:

WhatIsMyIPAddress.Com

Once you get your real IP, switch on your IP hiding software. Now once again visit the above site and check your IP address. If you see a new IP then this means that your software is doing the right job.

Also, the above site (Whatismyipaddress.com) is capable of detecting many proxies. If you see the words such as “suspected proxy server or network sharing device” or similar words then, it means that the proxy you are using is not an Elite Proxy.

Download Hide the IP now and see the difference for yourself. For more information on this product, visit Hide the IP homepage from the following link:

Hide the IP (Download Link)

Changing Windows XP Product Key without Re-Installation

This trick will show you how to change Windows XP product key without re-installing the operating system. This makes it possible to install a new genuine key without the need to format and re-install your Windows XP.

 

 

1. Goto start menu, run, type regedit

2. In registry editor goto

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS NT\CURRENT VERSION\WPA EVENTS

3. In the right panel open OOBE Timer

4. Edit/Change atleast one entry there, press OK and close registry editor.

5. In run type the following command

%systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe /a

and press enter

6. Activation wizard appears

7. Select activation by phone and in the next screen select the option CHANGE PRODUCT KEY, enter a valid corporate product key, press OK and close the wizard

8. Reboot the computer and type the same command in the Run

9. Activation wizard appears again and it shows the message WINDOWS IS ALREADY ACTIVATED

How to use Google for Hacking

Google serves almost 80 percent of all search queries on the Internet, proving itself as the most popular search engine. However Google makes it possible to reach not only the publicly available information resources, but also gives access to some of the most confidential information that should never have been revealed. In this post I will show how to use Google for exploiting security vulnerabilities within websites. The following are some of the hacks that can be accomplished using Google.

 

1. Hacking Security Cameras

 

There exists many security cameras used for monitoring places like parking lots, college campus, road traffic etc. which can be hacked using Google so that you can view the images captured by those cameras in real time. All you have to do is use the following search query in Google. Type in Google search box exactly as follows and hit enter

inurl:”viewerframe?mode=motion”

Click on any of the search results (Top 5 recommended) and you will gain access to the live camera which has full controls. You will see something as follows

As you can see in the above screenshot, you now have access to the Live cameras which work in real-time. You can also move the cameras in all the four directions, perform actions such as zoom in and zoom out. This camera has really a less refresh rate. But there are other search queries through which you can gain access to other cameras which have faster refresh rates. So to access them just use the following search query.

intitle:”Live View / – AXIS”

Click on any of the search results to access a different set of live cameras. Thus you have hacked Security Cameras using Google.

 

2. Hacking Personal and Confidential Documents

 

Using Google it is possible to gain access to an email repository containing CV of hundreds of people which were created when applying for their jobs. The documents containing their Address, Phone, DOB, Education, Work experience etc. can be found just in seconds.

intitle:”curriculum vitae” “phone * * *” “address *” “e-mail”

You can gain access to a list of .xls (excel documents) which contain contact details including email addresses of large group of people. To do so type the following search query and hit enter.

filetype:xls inurl:”email.xls”

Also it’s possible to gain access to documents potentially containing information on bank accounts, financial summaries and credit card numbers using the following search query

intitle:index.of finances.xls

 

3. Hacking Google to gain access to Free Stuffs

 

Ever wondered how to hack Google for free music or ebooks. Well here is a way to do that. To download free music just enter the following query on google search box and hit enter.

“?intitle:index.of?mp3 eminem“

Now you’ll gain access to the whole index of eminem album where in you can download the songs of your choice. Instead of eminem you can subtitute the name of your favorite album. To search for the ebooks all you have to do is replace “eminem” with your favorite book name. Also replace “mp3″ with “pdf” or “zip” or “rar”.

I hope you enjoy this post. Pass your comments. Cheers!