How to avoid juice jacking! September 4, 2014 What do you do when your smartphone needs to be charged but your charger is not at hand? A handy solution is to turn to a public charging kiosk. But what you might not be aware of is the fact that this can lead to juice jacking of your smartphone. To avoid this security threat, it s time to get a comprehensive view of what juice jacking is and how you can protect your smartphone from it. What s juice jacking? Regardless of the kind of smartphone you have, whether it s an Android, iphone or BlackBerry, there is one common feature across all phones: the power supply and the data stream pass over the same cable. This setup allows for juice jacking during the charging process whereby user access is gained on your phone by leveraging the USB data/power cable to illegitimately access your phone s data and/or inject malicious code onto the device. The attack can be as simple as an invasion of privacy, wherein your phone pairs with a computer concealed within the charging kiosk and information such as private photos and contact information are transferred to a malicious device. However, on the other hand, it can also be as invasive as an injection of malicious code directly into your phone. According to security researchers at this year s Black Hat security conference, your iphone can be compromised within one minute of being plugged into a harmful charger. Exposure to a malicious kiosk can also create a lingering security problem even without the immediate injection of malicious code. Once a device is paired to a computer, it can access a host of personal information on the device, including your address book, notes, photos, music, sms database, typing cache, and even initiate a full backup of your phone, all of which can be accessed wirelessly at anytime. How do I avoid it? The most effective precaution is to simply not charge your phone by using a third-party system. Here are some tips to help you avoid using a public kiosk charger: Keep your devices topped off: Make it a habit to charge your phone at your home and office when you re not actively using it or are just sitting at your desk working. Carry a personal charger: Chargers have become very small and portable, from USB cables to power banks. Get one and throw it in your bag so you can charge your phone anytime you re at the office or while on-the-go if you use a power bank. Carry a backup battery: If you re not keen on bringing a spare charger or power bank, you can opt to carry a full spare battery if your device has a removable battery.
Lock your phone: When your phone is truly locked as in inaccessible without the input of a pin or equivalent passcode, your phone should not be able to be paired with the device it s connected to. Power the phone down: This technique only works on certain phones. It is worth noting that some phones will, despite being powered down, still power on the entire USB circuit and allow access to the flash storage in the device. We recommend checking with your phone provider to see if this technique will work on your phone model. Use power only USB cables: These cables are missing the two wires necessary for data transmission and have only the two wires for power transmission remaining. They will charge your device, but data transfer is made impossible. Even the tiniest detail like charging your phone from a kiosk charger could affect the security of your device. While there are many substitutes to using a third-party system, ultimately the best defense against a compromised mobile device is awareness. Looking to learn more about today s security and threats? Contact us today and see how we can help. Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Computer monitor categories September 4, 2014 Businesses today rely heavily on technology. Regardless of the industry you re involved in, an essential piece of hardware is the computer monitor, whether used at work or in the home. While computer monitors come in a variety of shapes, designs, and colors, did you know that they can also be categorized broadly into three different types based on the technology used to make them? CRT (cathode ray tube) monitors These monitors employ CRT technology, which was used most commonly in the manufacturing of television screens. With these monitors, streams of intense high energy electrons are used to form images on a fluorescent screen. A cathode ray tube is basically a vacuum tube containing an electron gun at one end and a fluorescent screen at another end. While CRT monitors can still be found in some organizations, many offices have stopped using them largely because they are heavy, bulky, and costly to replace should they break. While they are still in use, it would be a good idea to phase these monitors out for cheaper, lighter, and more reliable monitors. LCD (liquid crystal display) monitors The LCD monitor incorporates one of the most advanced technologies available today. Typically, it consists of a layer of color or monochrome pixels arranged schematically between a
couple of transparent electrodes and two polarizing filters. Optical effect is made possible by polarizing the light in varied amounts and making it pass through the liquid crystal layer. The two types of LCD technology available are the active matrix of TFT and a passive matrix technology. TFT generates better picture quality and is more secure and reliable. Passive matrix, on the other hand, has a slow response time and is slowly becoming outdated. The advantages of LCD monitors include their compact size which makes them lightweight. They also don't consume as much electricity as CRT monitors, and can be run off of batteries which makes them ideal for laptops. Images transmitted by these monitors don t get geometrically distorted and have little flicker. However, this type of monitor does have disadvantages, such as its relatively high price, an image quality which is not constant when viewed from different angles, and a monitor resolution that is not always constant, meaning any alterations can result in reduced performance. LED (light-emitting diodes) monitors LED monitors are the latest types of monitors sold on the market today. These are flat panel, or slightly curved displays which make use of light-emitting diodes for back-lighting, instead of cold cathode fluorescent (CCFL) back-lighting used in LCDs. LED monitors are said to use much less power than CRT and LCD monitors and are considered far more environmentally friendly. The advantages of LED monitors are that they produce images with higher contrast, have less negative environmental impact when disposed, are more durable than CRT or LCD monitors, and feature a very thin design. They also don t produce much heat while running. The only downside is that they can be more expensive, especially for the high-end monitors like the new curved displays that are being released. Being aware of the different types of computer monitors available should help you choose one that s most suited to your needs. Looking to learn more about hardware in today s world? Contact us and see how we can help. Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org Getting digital camera pics on Instagram August 27, 2014 Businesses in many industries rely on visuals to sell their products. From that small bicycle shop on the corner to the large corporation downtown, having high quality images in the advertising of your products will help attract customers.
What many business owners would like to know is how businesses create such appealing images and how they are able to add these quality visuals on platforms such as Instagram. The truth behind some of Instagram's best images Those awesome Instagram photos we see aren't always taken using mobile phones. Instead, many users use digital cameras which offer much better image quality. You can capture some amazing shots with higher end DSLR cameras using multiple lenses. If you have one of these cameras and are looking to create high-quality images for Instagram, or any other social media site, you may be slightly confused as to how to get the images onto the platform - especially since many of us use this via the mobile app. To make uploading a little easier, here is a brief guide detailing how to get images from your digital camera onto Instagram. 1. Transfer and process images Once you have taken photos with your camera, you will need to get them off of your camera's memory and onto your computer's hard drive. Most camera's have apps that allow you to do this, so be sure to follow the instructions in the app that came with it. When your images have been transferred to your computer, you are likely going to want to process or tweak them a little. This is especially true if you have a DSLR or other high-end point-and-shoot which takes RAW images. These can be quite large and are not compatible with Instagram. Most images taken with a camera are quite large in size, so you are going to need to use an image editing program like Adobe Photoshop, or free tools like Pixlr to process them. What you are looking to do is to crop your images so that they are square. If you are used to using the advanced photo editing features, then do your edits before cropping. When you crop your images you should crop or resize them so that they are 640X640 pixels. This is the size of all images taken using Instagram's camera app. Also, be sure to save the images as JPEGs, as this is the image format used by most smartphone cameras. 2. Save processed images in their own folder It helps to create a folder somewhere on your hard drive (we recommend in the same folder where you save all of your other folders) that is specifically for images you want to post on Instagram.
When you have processed and edited the images to your liking, save the images here. Try using an easy to use file name like the date and a letter or note so you can easily tell which images are which, so you know which to use. 3. Move the images to your device You can move images using the cloud or by manually transferring the images to your phone. If you decide to manually transfer your files, you will need to plug your device into your computer. For users with iphones, you can open itunes and click on your device followed by Photos. Then select the box beside Sync photos from. Select the file you created in the step above and then Sync to transfer the images over. For users with Android devices, plug your phone into the computer and drag the folder you created in the step above into the Photos folder of your Android device. For Windows Phone users, plug your device into your computer and open My Computer on your desktop. You should see your device listed in the window that opens. Open the file system for your device and drag the image files you created above into the Photos folder of your phone. If you choose to use the cloud to transfer your files, use the operating system's cloud (e.g., icloud, Google Drive, or OneDrive) to upload the files. Just be sure to use the same account as the one on your phone. 4. Add images to Instagram Once the photos are either on your device, or in the cloud, you can now upload them to Instagram. This can be done by: 1. Opening the app and tapping on the camera icon. 2. Tapping on the button in the bottom left of the screen. 3. Selecting where the image is located on your device. (e.g., the Gallery app if you placed the photos in your phone's hard drive or the cloud service you used.) 4. Edit them as you see fit. Once this is complete, you should be able to post your images as you usually do with any other Instagram image on your phone. Take the time to add filters, and hashtags as well as a good description before you post. If you would like to learn more about using Instagram to share your images contact us and we will be happy to show you the advantages of the bigger picture.
Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org.