10 tips for protecting your most important data

From: Techgig.com

For many modern businesses, their data is their most valuable asset. However, these days it seems every morning brings news of another high profile data breach.

Sadly hackers are becoming more sophisticated and more determined than ever before, but this doesn’t mean businesses can’t take steps to protect themselves. Just a few considerations regarding security processes can be enough to ensure would-be hackers move on to an easier target.

Here are ten tips which can help individuals and businesses of all shapes and sizes better protect personal data, financial information and privacy.

Keep your operating system and all software up to date.

This is a tip you’ll hear time and time again from security professionals. Those pesky OS and computer software updates are not only important from a functionality standpoint, but they more often than not contain critical security updates and vulnerability patches.

Where possible, enable automatic software updates to streamline the process and ensure you are always up to date.

Encrypt sensitive data.

Data encryption is no longer just for large enterprises – there are many tools now available to individuals and smaller businesses (some free) that make it easy to encrypt your sensitive data.By using

By using encryption, you can ensure that your data will remain unreadable and safe, even if accessed by a malicious actor. Additionally, always encrypt sensitive data before copying to removable devices such as USB storage or portable hard drives.

In doing so, you’ll ensure that your sensitive information isn’t at risk if a device is lost or stolen.

Use antivirus software.

While it’s widely accepted that antivirus software won’t protect against all types of threats, it does still offer baseline protection against common, well-known malware.

At the minimum, install a reputable free antivirus tool and perform virus scans periodically on all of your IT.

Ensure all employees use a unique, complex password for every account.

Reusing passwords (or slightly modified passwords) across different accounts is one of the biggest concerns in the event of a hacking attack or data breach.

Many times attackers will attempt to access multiple other accounts (banking, PayPal, etc) using login credentials that they have obtained for a single, original account.

If employees reuse passwords, a simple credential breach of a non-sensitive account can grant attackers access to an organisations most sensitive online accounts quickly and easily.

Securely archive or delete data no longer needed.

Minimising the amount of data an organisation stores is not only good housekeeping, but it also minimises the amount of information that is available to an attacker that has gained access to those devices.

If data is no longer needed, it should be encrypted and moved to an offline storage device or deleted altogether – particularly old bank statements, contracts, bills, health records, and work documents.

Regularly monitor activity on online accounts.

No surprise here – the best way to stay on top of a compromised account or fraud is to monitor account activity regularly.

If suspicious activity is identified, all parties involved should be notified immediately. Even with other protections in place, vigilant monitoring is still often the fastest way to identify a compromise.

Change all passwords following news of an account compromise or data breach.

Sadly, data breaches make the news all the time these days – but what should be done when a company or website with which you have an account gets breached?

The most important first step is to change all associated passwords. By doing so, you ensure that your credentials are useless, even if stolen.

Manage privacy settings for mobile applications and online accounts.

While it may seem like a daunting task in today’s day and age, keeping up with the privacy settings for different accounts and applications is critical.

It’s still the best way to ensure that companies (or individuals) do not have access to private information about yourself or your business.

Be wary of free Wi-Fi networks.

Hackers and online thieves often use unprotected Wi-Fi networks to carry out sniffing and/or man-in-the-middle attacks on unsuspecting victims, stealing credentials or other data in-transit.

Avoid using free Wi-Fi networks, particularly in high traffic public places like cafes, airports, and similar places. If using an unprotected Wi-Fi network is unavoidable, be sure that HTTPS is enabled for any sites visited – a good habit for all online activity.

Learn to recognise and avoid phishing attacks (and educate your employees).

Social engineering tactics, particularly phishing attacks, are an incredibly popular tactic for cyber criminals.

Why is that? Simply put, it’s often faster and easier for an attacker to trick another person into taking a desired action rather than conducting complex, manual hacking attacks themselves. Phishing attacks typically have telltale signs such as unfamiliar senders, strange domain names, spoofed web pages or emails, and messages with links or attachments that weren’t requested.

Leverage free online resources to train yourself and your employees to better identify phishing attacks, and avoid messages that appear suspect.

Sadly cyber attacks and online fraud are becoming an increasingly prominent part of personal and business environments today, but there is still plenty that can be done to reduce the odds of an unwelcome attack.

By following these tips and training employees to do the same, individuals and businesses alike can ensure they are not an easy target.

WhatsApp Web client now works on Firefox and Opera browsers

From: Techgig.com

WhatsApp made waves when it launched a desktop version of its messaging service last month, but it was only compatible with Google Chrome. Today, the company has announced it now works on Firefox and Opera too. As with Chrome, you’ll need to launch the Web client on your browser and scan a QR code with your phone to log in.

WhatsApp Web: https://t.co/BPQLxqKDSj - Firefox and Opera browsers are now supported! pic.twitter.com/D4aQiy5IC6

— WhatsApp Inc. (@WhatsApp) February 25, 2015

The desktop service only works with Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry devices, leaving iOS users in the lurch.

WhatsApp Web

25 Best HTML5 & JavaScript Game Engine Libraries For Developers

From: Techgig.com

Just like in the case of the car the engine does all the main work and the main effort is to make the car look amazing. Same is the case of game engine the game developer mainly works on the detailing and makes the game look eye-catching and real. The game engine takes care rest of the things to work with. Earlier a game developer used to design a game just from a scratch and it cost high and unprofitable. To make game developing simpler and easier for the developers the major game developers started licensing their basic game engine like the Unreal. Moreover, with the introduction of mobile and tablet-gaming the budget has become lesser than before, so there is a huge need of JAVASCRIPT and HTML5 game engines. If you are a game developer and you are looking for a game engine that will work flawlessly with JavaScript and HTML5. Although there are many available in both free and paid game engines in the market, but to satisfy a professional game developers need the game engine needs to have something special in it. The quest for the perfect game engine is always among game developers. Here we present you with a list of the best of the best HTML5 and javascript game engines. Every single game engine has its own uniqueness and that special feature is what everyone is looking for. Every game engine has its pros and cons so you should choose it very carefully according to your demands and I am pretty sure that this list has that one you are looking for. more...

A Developers Guide To The Pros And Cons Of Python

From: Techgig.com

Python is billed by the Python Software Foundation as being easy to learn and running everywhere. It's useful for a range of application types, including Web development, scientific computing, and education. Google and Instagram have been among the many users of Python, and the language scores well in popularity indexes.

But Python has had its issues, with questions raised about its performance and design quirks. To get to the bottom of what's right -- and maybe not so right -- about Python, InfoWorld Editor at Large Paul Krill asked dignitaries in the Python community for their input.

Python pros

Read it, use it with ease. "The main characteristics of a Python program is that it is easy to read," says Pierre Carbonnelle, a Python programmer and blogger who runs the PyPL language index. "This has benefits to you and to others. It helps you think more clearly when writing programs, and it helps the others who will maintain or enhance your program. In both cases, it requires less effort to write a Python program than to write one in another language like C++ or Java." Readability of Python facilitates open source development, Carbonnelle added.

Python is easy to use and extremely popular in academia, creating a large talent pool, says Sumit Chachra, CTO at Tivix, a software consulting firm that specializes in Python/Django development. Django and Python are leveraged by Tivix in Web and mobile development, he says.

Python is a very productive way to write code, says Stephen Deibel, of Wingware, which makes the Wing Python IDE. "Some of this comes from the simple syntax and readability -- there is virtually no 'boilerplate' at all. Some of it comes from the rich, well-designed built-ins and standard library and the availability of many third-party open source libraries and modules." By being easy to understand, the code is easier to maintain, he adds.

Python, says Chachra, is dynamically typed and flexible, with code that is less verbose. However, he cites dynamic typing as a potential negative (see below).

Internet of things opportunities. Python may become popular for the Internet of things, as new platforms such as Raspberry Pi are based on it, Carbonnelle says. Raspberry Pi's documentation cites the language as "a wonderful and powerful programming language that's easy to use (easy to read and write) and with Raspberry Pi lets you connect your project to the real world."

Asynchronous coding benefits. Python, Deibel says, "is great for writing asynchronous code, which rather than threading uses a single event loop to do work in small units." This code, he says, is often easier to write and maintain without confusing resource contention, deadlocks, etc. "Python's generators are a great way to interleave running many processing loops in this approach."

Multiparadigm approach bests Java. Python's programming approach is not as limited as Java's, Carbonnelle says. "For example, you don't need to create an OO class to print 'Hello world' in Python -- you have to in Java." Unlike Java, Python is multiparadigm and supports OO, procedural, and functional programming styles, he says. (Java recently added functional capabilities in Java 8.)

"In Python, everything is an object," says Brian Curtin, a member of the Python Software Foundation board of directors and a core contributor to CPython. "It's possible to write applications in Python using several programming paradigms, but it does make for writing very clear and understandable object-oriented code."

Python's cons

Speed can be an issue. "Because it is an interpreted language, it is often many times slower than compiled languages," Curtin says. "However, it comes back to separating the language from the runtime. Certain benchmarks of Python code run under PyPy run faster than the equivalent C code or others."

"A possible disadvantage of Python is its slow speed of execution," says Carbonnelle. But many Python packages have been optimized over the years and execute at C speed, he says. Performance, Chachra says, "is slower compared to older languages such as C/C++ and even newer ones such as Go." Absence from mobile computing and browsers. "Python is present on many server and desktop platforms, but it is weak in mobile computing; very few smartphone applications are developed with Python," says Carbonnelle. "It is also rarely seen on the client side of a Web application."

Python isn't in Web browsers, Deibel notes. "That's a real shame. There is brython, but I don't think it's real-world usable." Python is hard to secure, and that's why it is not in browsers, he adds. "There still isn't really a good secure sandbox/jail for Python, and I think it's considered basically impossible for CPython (the standard implementation).

Design restrictions. Python devotees cited several issues with the design of the language. Because the language is dynamically typed, it requires more testing and has errors that only show up at runtime, Chachra says.

Python's global interpreter lock, meanwhile, means only one thread can access Python internals at a time, Deibel says. "This may be less important these days, since you can so easily spawn tasks out to separate processes using the multiprocessing module, or write asynchronous code instead."

Curtin says there are a few conventions around the use of Python, but significant whitespace is one that is enforced by the interpreter. "The structure of Python programs must be consistent, so where brackets or other identifiers allow the user more freedom in other languages, indentation is what matters when it comes to Python."

Apple slapped with $533 mn fine for patent violation

from: Techgig.com

NEW YORK: Apple Inc has been ordered to pay $532.9 million after a federal jury found its iTunes software infringed three patents owned by Texas-based patent licensing company Smartflash LLC.

Though Smartflash had been asking for $852 million in damages, the verdict, which came late Tuesday night, was still a costly blow for the US tech giant, the most valuable company in the world.

After deliberating for eight hours in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, the jury said that Apple not only used the Smartflash patents without permission, but did so willfully.

Apple suggested the outcome was another reason why reform is needed in the patent system to curb litigation by companies that do not make products themselves, such as Smartflash.

"We refused to pay off this company for the ideas our employees spent years innovating and unfortunately we have been left with no choice but to take this fight up through the court system," an Apple spokeswoman said in a statement to Reuters.

A representative for Smartflash could not immediately be reached.

Smartflash sued Apple in May, 2013 alleging the Cupertino, California-based company's iTunes software infringed its patents related to accessing and storing downloaded songs, videos and games.

The trial was held in Tyler, the hub of the East Texas region, which over the past decade has become a focus for patent litigation in the United States. Some of the biggest jury verdicts have been awarded in the district. Smartflash is also based in Tyler.

Apple tried to avoid a trial by having the lawsuit thrown out. But earlier this month US District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, who presided over the case, ruled that the Smartflash's technology was not too basic to deserve the patents.

That ruling set the stage for a trial. Apple argued that it did not infringe the patents and asked the jury to find they were invalid because previously patented inventions covered the same technology.

Smartflash's suit said that around 2000, the co-inventor of its patents, Patrick Racz, met with a man named Augustin Farrugia to discuss the patents' technology. Farrugia, the complaint said, later joined Apple and became a senior director there.

It was also in Tyler federal court that a jury in 2012 ordered Apple to pay $368 million to VirnetX Inc for patent infringement. A federal appeals court later threw out that damages figure, saying it was wrongly calculated.

Being A Techie What You Can Earn Working At Microsoft

Reference: Techgig.com

Satya Nadella.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has been at the helm for a little over a year.
As Business Insider has learned from talking with employees, it's exciting to work at Microsoft again, thanks to the company's increased transparency, more open culture, and promising new products. Plus, the stock has hit a 14-year high.

There's also the pay.

The 40-year-old company employs some 128,000 people, and judging from the self-reported salaries on Glassdoor, its pay is on par with other tech giants.

Here's the combined compensation - salary and bonus - for 15 of the top gigs at Microsoft:

1. User Experience Designer: $114,211
2. Software Development Engineer: $116,213
3. Program Manager: $121,685
4. Application Development Manager: $134,722
5. Premier Field Engineer: $135,901
6. Senior Software Development Engineer: $173,320
7. Researcher: $193,747
8. Product Management Director: $230,615
9. Marketing Director: $235,386
10. Principal Architect: $253,327
11. Finance Director: $284,933
12. Senior Attorney: $291,197
13. Principal Development Manager: $294,221
14. Senior Director: $311,413
15. General Manager: $457,382

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