Locating your lost android phone/tablet

Android has provided a locate lost device feature that enables one to locate their device and even delete remotely all content on the lost device. This can come in handy when faced with a situation were content on the phone is more valuable than cost of the mobile device.

So how is this done....

First ensure to activate remote "Device Administrator" and there enable "Find My Device".

Settings>>Security>>Device administrator

Can you recover a stolen Phone, Computer and Smart device?

Recovering your smart phone or laptop 

It hurts when you are the victim of a theft of personal property such as your phone or laptop being stolen. The number of apps, documents, pictures, music etc basically we store our entire lives on these devices. Not forgetting to mention the money that was spent in purchasing these devices. So is there a way or are there ways of recovering stolen smart devices?

Here a re-post from lifehacker on how to recover your devices using your IP address. 

Track Your Device's IP Address with Gmail or Dropbox If your laptop or smartphone was stolen, you can use a service like Gmail or Dropbox to find the IP address of your thief. When you log into those services from any computer, it logs the IP address used, and displays your last used IP in your account. In Gmail, it's in the bottom right-hand corner under "Details," and in Dropbox, it's in Settings > Security under the details of each individual computer. 

If the thief used your computer, the last logged IP address may be theirs instead of yours. Again, though, if they're smart, they didn't use your computer and this trick won't work. Use Dropbox to Locate Your Lost or Stolen Computer If you've put off installing anti-theft software like Prey for so long that your laptop gets… 

Read more Of course, knowing their IP only gets you so far. You'd still have to file a police report, send a subpoena to that IP addresse's internet provider, and find out where they're located, which could take a long time (one reader told us it took him a month to go through the process). We've had readers email us with success stories using this method, but they are few and far between. Whatever you do, don't try to track the thief down yourself and get your gear back. That could lead to all sorts of trouble. 

Track Your Android Phone with Plan B 

 If you have an Android phone running 2.3 or lower, previously mentioned Plan B is a pretty cool option. You can install it remotely from the Google Play web interface, after which it will start tracking your phone. However, if your thief has turned off the device, turned off internet connectivity, or wiped your phone, you're completely out of luck, and have no way of tracking it. Plan B Locates Your Lost or Stolen Android Phone, Even If You Didn't Install It Beforehand Android: If you ever lose your phone and don't have a contingency plan in place, you can… 

Read more Sadly, there is no equivalent for the iPhone, since you can't remotely install apps on iOS. Whatever You Do, There Are No Guarantees In the end, there's a good chance you'll never see your stuff again, even if you did install tracking software beforehand (though there are quite a few success stories out there). If the above tricks don't work, you can file a police report and give them your serial number, but there's not much you can do beyond that. 

 How I Got My Stolen Laptop Back Within 24 Hours Using Prey Last weekend, my briefcase was stolen out of our vehicle while it was parked outside of a Bed & … Read more We can't stress this enough: the best way to avoid this situation is to take precautions ahead of time: install software like Prey, LoJack for Laptops, or Find My iPhone. Keep your gear with you at all times. Make sure your doors are locked. The best way to keep your laptop in your hands is to prevent it from falling into others' in the first place. After someone steals it, you're riding on luck. 

 Sincerely,
 Lifehacker

Source: Lifehacker

Facebook Security Tips

Facebook Security Tips

There are a few tweaks you can make to increase your facebook account security. In your security settings page, as shown in the image below, ensure:

1. Login Approvals is Enabled and all login attempts will require a login code sent to your phone.

2. Check Browsers and Apps: Allow browsers and apps you aware of have history login access to your account. If you are not sure of any of the browsers or apps associated with your account, simply remove them from being linked to your account.

3. Where you're Logged In: You may also check where your facebook is logged in, physical location and device type will be displayed. Though I should state here that, facebooks Geo Location is not always accurate, it will give you an approximation of your location.

‪#‎Stay‬ Safe Online Always#

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Link to your facebook security settings page:
https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=security&view

Undo and SMS Features in Gmail

Interesting Features in Gmail

Have you ever wanted to undo or retrieve an email you sent? To be able to undo a sent email and re-edit it or cancel it entirely. This is possible in google's mail application server Gmail. To enable undo feature in gmail, go to Settings >> Labs >> Undo Send >> Enable/Disable.

Gmail Undo Send

Another handy feature from the Gmail's Lab tab, is the SMS service that allow you to send text messages to mobile phones. Thou this feature is not allowed in certain countries, you would have to check whether your country allows this feature, that is your mobile service providers.

SMS in Gmail

Here is a detailed link from google concerning SMS service using Gmail:
https://support.google.com/chat/answer/106015

A note from the above link is given below for a few noted countries, mine in particular that states that sending an SMS to a Gmail account,will cost me and the charges will be from my mobile service providers:

SMS charges: Google does not charge for using this service. However, mobile providers' standard charges will apply to any SMS messages sent from a mobile device to Google Chat. Please check your mobile provider's price plan for details.

Note regarding mobile phone subscribers in North America: depending on which mobile plans your contacts in North America have, they may be charged by their mobile providers for receiving text messages.

Note regarding phone subscribers of Pelephone in Israel: your contacts on the Pelephone network will receive your SMS messages for free, and will be charged for replying according to Pelephone's pricelist for core service. Special rates and packages do not apply.

Note regarding mobile phone subscribers in Zambia: your contacts in Zambia will receive SMS messages for free, and will be charged for replying according to their operator's price for sending an international SMS to the USA.

Those are two interesting features that I felt were worth sharing. If you know of other useful features using Gmail, please do not hesitate to share we us. 

Internet Security

The need to be safe online is a great concern for many of us, thou most of the time when we are online we kind of drop our guard and forget same of the necessary precautions while being online. One reason could be there are several kind of scams, cyber attacks and vulnerabilities its hard to keep track of all of them. This is why it seems well thought to have a trusted registered anti virus. You could manually regularly run checks, to ensure all necessary cyber safety measures are taken but this tends to be quite a work load. The best approach is to schedule your anti virus to run deep scanning on a per desired bases, and to run self manual checks once or twice a week or as desired.

Secure your Data

Stay up-to-date with latest cyber safety tips on how to stay secure online. Some of the tips on online safety are:

• As mentioned earlier, use registered and up-to-date anti viruses.
• Be aware of latest scams.
• Follow up research on every email from unknown persons/companies.

Links to Scam reports

http://www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/e-scams   -   FBI Report

http://www.scamtrends.com/                      -   Scam Trends

http://www.fraud.org/                                 -   National Consumers League 

Stay Safe Online

Online Safety

As with any society,the internet society has grown over the years and has seen growth in many spheres of daily activity. The internet has given birth to many great ideas and  business opportunities for many. International or local relations depending on your locale, the internet is a vehicle that has made it possible for all sorts of interaction,across the globe.

That said, cyber crime has increased over the passed years,with hackers getting more sophisticated with every upgrade in software technology. The need to have updated security software on your computers can not be over emphasized. Having an anti virus is not enough in protecting yourself from online scam artists. An online scam artist can pretend to be someone they not and sending you unsolicited emails. An anti virus can not stop you from accepting an email that appears to be coming from someone you know, you need to be alert always when you online.

So what can you do to be safer online

1. Always take caution when replying to every email, more especially when you receive an email that appears to be from someone you know. Its good practice to counter check,by simply sending an email to the old email address you aware of, or calling them up to confirm they sent you the email. This may seem rather over board,but when it comes to the value of your private information,such measures are always necessary.

2. Set up Two-Step Verification on your social accounts. This is an online computer security system that requires two or more authentication for you to access your account when being accessed by a new device. You do not need to always follow the whole process of authentication every time. You only need to authenticate a device once for a specified time frame before that authentication expires,there after you will need to authenticate the device again. When you enter your password as always,a code is sent to your mobile phone,which has to be entered at the next authentication phase before finally accessing the account. 

3. Stay up-to-date with software updates,new up-dates have resolved buds taken care of,which may have been a back door for hackers to access your computer. Updated software means hackers would need to study the new software and take time to find lope holes if any. An out dated software has already been studied making it more vulnerable for attacks and being hacked,as hackers may be familiar with getting around the old software.

4. One of the oldest rules is create a password that is not easy to figure out. Have a password with complex combination of characters and, make it a habit to change your password frequently.

Here an example of a complex password: PassWord4#?5 



Attackers can use an algorithm/program that calculates possible passwords from your personal information.
NOTE: Do not save your password on your computer. That said, if you get a message for those on facebook, asking you to confirm a log in from a different location that wasn't you,quickly change your password and if that is the password for your other accounts,change them too immediately.

Be alert always when you online,Stay Safe!

Does my business need a Mobile App?

With an increase in the number of smart phone and tablet users,you may have to consider getting a mobile app for your business. Integrating your website with your mobile app is the way to go as statistics show smart phone and tablet users increase by the day.

Why Mobile Apps?

1. Mobile apps are downloadable,making them easily accessible for later use. There are mainly two types of apps, Native and Web apps. Native apps can work without internet access,while web apps require internet access to operate. A good example of a web app is your facebook app, it wont work without the internet. An example of a native app would be a gaming app like chess or Need for speed.

2. Mobile apps ensure your audience are up to date with your updates and every notification is seen. So unlike websites, mobile app notifications will be received as incoming messages ensuring users see the update  immediately you place the update.

3. Mobile devices being portable means your audience is accessible any where any time. Most smart phone and tablet users have their devices on them at all times.

4. Mobile apps are attractive and most users enjoy the aspect of downloading these apps as the are a full package of functions/information. For example apps intended for educational purposes,being able to download and use an encyclopedia off line on your device,these feature makes mobile apps more appealing to most internet users.

5. Today we have mobile apps that can handle tasks that only personal computers could do, the ability to carry out advanced tasks on the go,makes mobile apps appealing to today's smart phone and tablet users.


Those are some of the reasons why your business needs a mobile application.