How to Create the Perfect Password [INFOGRAPHIC]

With more and more of us shifting everyday tasks — banking, education, social interaction, even shopping for groceries — to the virtual world, securing our personal information has become more important than ever. One of the simplest ways to help protect our financial and other info from prying eyes and would-be identity thieves is to use a strong password. Yet many people take a decidedly casual approach to choosing a password, with potential disastrous results.

Having your password compromised is no laughing matter. More than half a million hackers have a go at cracking Facebook passwords every single day. In an effort to protect its users, the site gives specific tips for protecting both your Facebook account and any financial information you may have saved on the site — unsurprisingly, choosing a strong password is high on the list.

Facebook’s not the only place you have to worry about securing your financial info, of course. A 2013 investigation by Verizon found that, across 27 different countries, attacks on banks and other financial institutions account for a full 37% of data breaches. In 76% of these intrusions, the hackers simply used a weak or stolen password to access the system. Password theft is one thing, but if all that separates a would-be thief from millions of dollars is the name of someone’s pet gerbil, it may be time to beef up password protocol.

So what constitutes the “perfect” password? If you’re serious about security, a strong password will include a mix of upper and lower case letters, numbers, symbols, and even non-keyboard characters. It will be unique (using the same password for everything might be common, but it’s also spectacularly unsafe). It’s also greater than eight characters in length, contains arbitrary phrases made using numbers and letters (e.g., “b4D P4S$W0Rd”), but no complete words. And no matter how secure your password is, it’s made more secure by changing it regularly.

Strong, adequate, or weak, no password can protect against every possible threat. But by following our tips, you can help keep your social media accounts in your own hands, make your financial info safer, and encourage meddling thieves and hackers to seek easier prey.

Here is an infographic to help you protect yourself from losing your password, specifically from WhoIsHostingThis? a webmaster tool that lets you discover which web hosting company any site is hosted with.

The Heartbleed Checklist: The Passwords You Need to Change Right Now

The Heartbleed bug — a major security flaw in OpenSSL — has seriously disrupted the online community this week. OpenSSL is one of the most popular pieces of encryption software, and the bug has potentially exposed millions of user details to hackers.

Some online service providers acted quickly, patching the flaw as soon as it was announced. However, many others have yet to act.

If a service provider is yet to apply the patch, you should not change your password. Instead, wait until you receive confirmation from an official channel that the servers have been patched. Only then should you log in and update your details.

Conflicting reports have led to panic — nobody seems to know which sites have been affected, or whether their servers have been patched.

To dispel the confusion, we’ve created a simple password change checklist. It identifies the major sites which have been affected by Heartbleed – and whether they’ve patched their servers yet.

Last update: April 12, 1:12:00 p.m. GMT

Image: IVPN

What is the Heartbleed Bug?

Video Courtesy: CNN, Quest Means Business

Learn more about the Heartbleed Bug at Heartbleed.com

How to Optimize Twitter SEO for Your Business

It is undeniable that Twitter is one of popular social media websites. It offers fast information through 140 characters. Many companies start to pay attention to the use of Twitter for their business. They even create account for their company and share information about the company itself, the products, services and other related stuff.

See also: 10 Twitter Tips for Businesses

You can use Twitter to promote your business. It allows you to post something short but has sharp information to keep in touch with your customer or gain new potential customers. Twitter is perfect place to keep your business heard by massive users on it. Even if you are new or a seasoned pro to Twitter, here we have simple ways to optimize your company’s Twitter profile through some simple SEO campaign. Fancy to know?  Here is how to optimize your Twitter and get better rank in Google’s eyes as well as promote your business.

Your account name and user name should reflect your business

One of the first things you will have to do when signing up for a Twitter account is to choose your account name and user name. While your account name will show up in your URL, your user name can be seen on your Twitter profile page. Even from here, you will have to consider how your choices will affect your SEO efforts. Choose an account name and user name that are relevant to your business. If you have a brand name, it is best to use that. Although your account name and user name do not necessarily have to be the same, it will be good if you can use the same name for both.

Optimize your bio

The Bio part in your Twitter page is where you will put the description or details about your business. Basically, it is your ‘about us’ page in Twitter. Unfortunately, you are limited to using only 160 characters so make sure that you use relevant keywords especially since this portion is indexed.

Write only quality Tweets

With limited characters available to you per tweet, it is important to consider what kind information you want to share, include all the details. Keep your tweet short and contain sharp information about your business, products or even just share piece of information that relate to your business. This action will give something valuable to your followers and customers. Keep in mind that quantity of tweets is not important as share a quality tweet.

Tweets are a form of linking, and linking can still affect your SEO campaign. While your account might be new and you manage to get a link from a site that has authority on Google, this will start to see an increase in your Twitter Profile’s popularity. If more people start to re-tweet your updates, this will help your site be seen as an authority on a topic, and help to build authority around your site and potentially increase its rankings in Google’s eyes.

Updated your Twitter account frequently

People like something fresh and new on a website. If your company account barely updates the status, potential customers will assume that you are out of business now or you stop the production and they will stop following and even unfollow your Twitter account. To avoid this situation, make sure you update your account frequently; with interesting information to make sure they keep visiting your account because they are curious about what information will you share next through the account.

Re-tweet someone else’s tweet

You can always find a certain information that relate to your business, maybe article from popular newspaper, quote from popular businessman or just tweets relate to your business written by other Twitter users. You can simply re-tweet it again as the opportunity to gain better ranking when it comes to Google search as well as build brand awareness. When your followers have interaction to your account do not forget to reply it and create warm interaction with them. This will keep the intention to your business and company well-maintained and of course attract the customers as well as new potential customers.

Market your Twitter page

This means promoting your Twitter page to other Twitter users. At the start, a lot of users will not have any idea that your Twitter account exists so promote it by putting up a Twitter button on your website if you have one, asking your customers to follow you, informing your customers through email, asking your followers in your other social media networks to follow you on Twitter as well.

Give the Twitterverse New Content

Just because you are on Twitter and you have a website does not mean you are guaranteed better search engine placement. Your best bet is to update your website frequently and tell Twitter about it. Every time you add a page or write a blog entry, be sure to tweet the URL of the new content. Tweeting the URL of your new content will help drive new traffic to your website, increase exposure, build a better online presence, and encourage search engines to crawl your site. If the content is really good, you may even get a few powerful retweets! In other words, Twitter can help spread the word of any website updates much quicker and to a much larger audience.

7 Reasons To Quit Facebook In 2014

Feel less positive, have less real users, get bad effects to health, etc.! These are one of the 7 main reasons why we should quit Facebook – one of the best social networks.

“Facebook is causing irritation.” Have you ever shouted or heard this statement before? If yes, how many times? We believe a lot, right. So why to delete Facebook? It’s because more and more people seems to get more tiredness of its social networking, especially the youth. There are dozens of irritation relating to Facebook in the previous year (2013). Even the company has admitted that the number of young people is using Facebook less regularly. Now, take a look at a couple of reasons that might mention us the reasons to delete Facebook in this year (2014).

1. No one truly wants to know about what happens to us.

Update statuses or sent birthday messages or post photos seem to receive less attention from Facebook users. Here is a typical example. Some says that the number of birthday messages is less than before. It can be explained that perhaps some people don’t take care of us. However, the truth is that this network has no longer attraction. Moreover, there are more and more social networks nowadays. Especially, the young people prefer some specific social networks i.e. post all statuses on Twitter or photos on Instagram.

2. Facebook is not private any longer.

Previously, we can select useful options in Privacy Settings that can help us hide on Facebook for some valid reasons. Nevertheless, now, it’s not right anymore because Facebook has restructured its searching form. Accordingly, the only way to ensure that no one can enter our profile is to block them. Or simply change our name so that the others can't search our real name on Search bar.

3. Our parents know about Facebook.

Facebook is no longer for the young people. Besides, the number of dads, moms, grandparents or aunts joining in Facebook is gradually increasing. It means that whenever posting any status or any photo, we will easily get our parents’ keen and curious eyes. Of course, they do that because they just want to take care of us. However, we have no freedom when using this social network.

4. We easily feel pessimistic when using Facebook.

According to a last study of the UVU Behavioral Science Department – Utah Valley University, more and more Facebook addicts feel unhappy in comparison with the happiest people out there. Using Facebook regularly can increase our loneliness as well as decrease our studying or other activities.

5. Ads are everywhere.

One of the other reasons to leave Facebook is Ads. At first, advertisements just appear on the right side of the screen. However, lots of pieces of ads have started sneaking in with each individual profile, home page. Even people create a new account and just use it for advertising. One more thing is that Facebook has applied some irritating ads out in December. So, whenever entering Facebook, some videos will be automatically played, but just tap on it to hear the voice. Is it the good news?

6. Our health will decrease.

Some scientists say that spending too much time on Facebook will cause some bad impacts on the users’ health, including the mind and the body. Moreover, we can easily get some symptoms as eating disorder and psychophysiological disorder or even be stressful, feel less positive, depression, etc. In addition, almost Facebookers are online at night. It makes the parts in the body work too much and leads to some bad cases about health.

7. The number of “real” friends is truly less.

Try to imagine! The total number of our friends in Facebook is about 1,000 people. Nonetheless, can we assure that we will receive all 1,000 messages on the birthday? Of course, not! Playing Facebook is rather similar to our real life. We just contact those guys, who are really familiar with us, right? Although Facebook proposes advanced searching tools, sometimes we can receive strange suggestions. How can we know that who are “real” and who are “virtual”? If we don't like making “virtual” friends, to stop playing Facebook is the good choice.

How to Tell That Your E-mail Has Been Hacked?

You may suspect that your e-mail account has been hacked when you can’t login to your account or you are getting undelivered or bounced messages for the e-mails you didn’t even send or the people on your e-mail contact list are complaining of receiving e-mails that wasn’t sent by you. There could only be one of the two reasons for this — a virus or a hacker. You should know that your e-mail account has been compromised when you see yourself facing any of the symptoms stated below.

When you receive Bounce Messages and Undelivered Notifications

The people who actually send spam mailers normally replace their genuine e-mail address with an e-mail address that they have randomly picked from the mailing address book or something that they have just made up arbitrarily.

So, in order to track down the real source of the e-mail check the ‘Reading Email Headers’ because some e-mailers don’t normally distinguish between the manually editable “From” ID and the genuine sender source. The best way to combat this is to simply delete the undelivered notifications and the messages that bounced back without clicking on any link mentioned in the e-mail.

Not able to login to your e-mail account

If your e-mail service provider claims that the password that you have entered is invalid, there is a possibility that someone else has accessed it and changed your password. However, most e-mail service providers have an option of password recovery. If you ever feel that your e-mail account has been compromised, change your password to an immediate effect. Ensure that the alternate e-mail address that you have provided as a part of your password recovery is thoroughly active and regularly visited. Nevertheless, also make sure that the problem does not lie at your e-mail service provider’s end before hitting the panic button.

Sent Items folder getting updated on its own

Often, some e-mail worm acts in a way that makes copies of itself and appear in the sent items folder of your e-mail. It is most likely to be an older version of a worm which can be removed easily, as the new–age malware normally doesn’t leave behind such obvious evidences. The best way to challenge this problem is to update your antivirus software and run a full scan on your PC on a regular basis.

When e-mail is sent to a recipient and cannot be traced back in the sent folder on Webmail

This happens when the hacker knows your e-mail username and password and sends spam and malicious e-mails to the people in your address book. They usually remove the traces from the sent items folder to avoid exposure. If you ever happen to face such a situation, change your password immediately as your e-mail ID is at the risk of being gravely misused. Also, make sure that you never share your username and password with anybody.

Recipients in your address book complaining about e-mails that you remember not sending

The recipients on your address book may be sending you angry responses for the spam they might receiving from you, and you clearly remember not having sent any such e-mail. You run a malware check on your PC and notify the e-mail service provider of the situation.

If you face any of the situations above, you should know that your e-mail account has been hacked or compromised. Take the necessary measures to rectify them or prevent them from happening in the first place by monitoring your account on a regular basis.

An Infographic on “Social Networking Stats”

Do you ever wonder what social networking sites you should be focusing your marketing efforts on?

Social Media has grown beyond expectations over the past few years, with terms like “Facebook me” becoming a part of the lexicon of everyday life. But while we all may think that everyone is just on one or two sites, the fact remains that different social media venues resonate more with different people.

Find out who likes and how these social media channels make an impact. The “Social Networking Stats” Infographic contains statistics about people who are using social network.

Image: CueSEO

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<div style="clear: both;" ><a href="http://www.milanaryal.com/2014/04/social-networking-stats-infographic.html"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivbYcQoSmPGwJWCC9meSK64osXrRCHyF0KUhMsKoAh-1DBMWVLyolURvt60F8SsJ9X-VLjnGs4CM6V9diNgCyeQiRzErQc0-FpA0SYYG391s6JtQa3m7lQNpLNQF6FCMbDEKPGovgJwg/s1600/social-networking-stats-infographic.jpg" style="max-width: 100%;" alt="" /></a></div>Via: <a href="http://www.milanaryal.com/">Milan Aryal</a>

6 Simple Advices on Photography

By Chariahs

One way that many people use to express their creativity, is through photography. With photography, you can use a camera to capture moments in life through ways that many people have never imagined. Lenses and filters change what we see with our eyes and make it seem like another world. Anyone can practice photography, especially, if you use the tips in this article.

• Compose your photograph carefully. Sometimes you might have to actually move things around to get the proper contrast or light you want. If you are taking pictures of objects, turn them to get the proper angle. As you progress, you will learn how to make a scene look natural when you compose it.

• Play with the aperture settings. Take a number of photos of the same subject with different settings to see how it affects the look of the final photo. Bigger f–stops allow you to get an entire landscape in focus, while a smaller f–stop will draw attention only to the center of your frame.

• Always highlight your very best images for showcases and displays. Don’t show too many photos and vary the subject matter. It might bore people if you keep showing the same photo multiple times. Be fresh, and try different kinds of photography.

• A great photograph tip is to not be afraid of making mistakes. Mistakes are all part of the learning process. If you refrain from taking a picture because you’re afraid of making a mistake, you’re missing out on a learning opportunity. You must remember that making mistakes is crucial to learning.

• Learn how to use the ISO setting on your camera. It is the setting that determines the film speed. The higher you set your ISO, the more light that will come in. If you increase the ISO in dark settings you will capture more light making the photo turn out better.

• Take photos of people wherever you go. Always ask people first before photographing them. After you get home from your trip, these images will provoke thoughts and memories, even if they are nothing more than ordinary. When selecting people to photograph, always look for those dressed casually and sporting candid expressions.

In conclusion, photography is one way that people use to express their creativity. Photography allows you to use cameras to turn life into unimaginable views. New worlds can be created with simple lenses and filters. If you use the tips from this article, then you can dive into the world of photography.

Editor’s note: I am a mother of a 6 year old bubbly girl who happens to be the most important person in my life. My passion includes writing articles, blogging, photography, technology, and others.

Image: 123RF