Gadgets and Gizmos While Driving

Glancing through the pages of history, it is evident that travelling was always considered a mission that required time, thought and a lot of effort. It was reflected as a source of exertion and most of the times, exhaustion. However, as we progressed, not only did we see wheels replacing foot; we also witnessed comfort and pleasure replacing exhaustion.
Today, travelling has become an art, where vehicles and the process of driving have evolved into something edging towards the borders of experimentation. Now, with a car, a million more tools accompany it to make it a “worth the while” ride. In UK, an institute under the government known as Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) thrives to keep track of the drivers and to help them. The DVLA, has recently started to lend a friendly hand to its clients, and has proposed personalized DVLA number plates. The registration number and the plates are personalized according to the drivers’ choice, hence, brightening up the vehicles.



Other than this small widget used to enhance the outlook of your car, DVLA has also approved of many other gadgets. One of the most amazing gadgets includes a back camera that notifies the driver if any vehicle comes within five feet of its range. The camera allows safety and caution even if the beeping is a little annoying.
One more camera that has gained access in vehicles is the Cowen Auto Capsule AC1 camera. The camera makes a video 15 seconds before and 30 seconds after any accident- thus, removing any doubt about the driver responsible for the accident. This gadget can be operated manually or automatically.
Of course, the GPS system should not stay quiet in such a discussion. This piece of technology is so helpful that it gives directions to any kind of destination. Just name the place and the GPS guider leads the way; so fear no more, no one can get lost any longer!
Don’t we all need to attend an important call during driving? And to think, how many times have we been subjected to a warning just because of a simple call. To end our misery, Super Tooth HD has been invented. It simply has to be installed in the vehicle, and after that it needs no human contact. It recognizes any voice and can bear all of the orders. Plus, the HD delivers a paramount level of clarity in voice transmission. With just this simple device, we can not only avoid the grubby hands of the law but also stay secure.

Finally, a device named “Cobra I Radar Atom” has captured our hearts. The device has the special capability to inform about speed trap locations and to warn us whenever we cross a speed limit. It starts beeping as soon as the speed increases the limit, eventually saving us from an uncomfortable encounter with the law.
All these gadgets and widgets are becoming the focus of different vehicle owners. They are fun, amusing; enhance the worth of your car and most of the times extremely helpful!
Information regarding these gadgets can be availed from various websites and by contacting the DVLA agency guide through the DVLA number or by email. So take this tiny step, and make your lives easier.

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About The Author:
Fia Augusta is a Passionate blogger. She writes on behalf of DVLA. She loves to write as a guest blogger with interest in Travel and Automotive.You can get in touch with her at fia.augusta2308@gmail.com.

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How to Write Killer Content Quickly

Ten Tips to Get Great Content Created in a Snap

Photo by Kristin Nador / Flickr

Quick! Dash off 500 words of content that will shake the foundations of the world! While you may never get a request like this, could you get it done in an hour? What about six hours? While writing well this quickly may seem like mission impossible, there are things you can do to help you achieve this lofty goal.


Tips for Writing Quality Content Quick

Here are ten tips for getting the words out quickly while still having something that's valuable and hopefully entertaining as well.

• Organize - The first thing you want to do is make sure you're organized. This means knowing your topic and spending time to collect and organize notes that you will need to make the article really shine.
• Schedule - Come up with a writing schedule that works for you and stick to it as often as possible. When trying to create great content in a flash, you want to make sure you have the discipline needed to sit down and write without interruptions.
• Concentrate - Speaking of being interrupted, learning how to block everything else out and concentrate on the writing task at hand takes time, but it's a valuable skill to have for a copywriter. Whether you do this by listening to music or writing where there are few distractions doesn't matter. Come up with something that works for you and stick with it.
• Ideas - Coming up with an idea at the drop of a hat isn't always easy. To get around this, have a file or spreadsheet that lists out ideas for future articles. If you're not feeling inspired, you can check this for inspiration. This isn't always going to be possible, but it's a good idea to do this anyway.
• Practice - One of the best ways you can write great content in a short amount of time is to practice, practice, practice. The more you write, the better you're going to become at pulling something together - even if it's at the last minute. If you have extra time, set yourself a challenge and see if you can finish it. For example, once or twice a week sit down and try to write out a great 500 word article in just an hour. Over time, you'll notice that you become better - even with the added pressure of a deadline looming over you.
• Outline - If you're trying to write 500 words - or any amount - it's best to break that down into smaller chunks. For example, write out your headline first, but don't stop there. Go ahead and throw in some subheads and bullet points to break up the main topic or idea of the article. Filling in these smaller sections with words can be easier than sitting and staring at a blank page.

Following the advice above, you should have an easier time writing killer content quickly. Taking your time to edit the piece is still advisable - even for the best writer - but the tips outlined can really help you learn to be more productive when you're writing.

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About The Author:

Sheila Kurdinger has been a fan of the Internet - and a writer - for many years now. She likes the work she sees done by Posirank SEO Resellers.

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Cross Platform Application Development – Mobile User Base

The start Smartphones increasingly means there are more strength in both organizations and developers for mobile application development platform. Trade cannot afford to ask for a single iOS platform, and focuses on the Android operating system and elsewhere. Until the last platform requires to be focused mainly known for smart phone users are not simply the use of devices that run on specific frames.

It is important to have a mobile application that can run on all devices you are using. One of the main purposes why organizations are moving in the direction of cross-platform development because they cannot lose your money by using it as well as generate more revenue than another development process.

Unexpectedly, that using these organizations saves development costs.

# Process for Making

Development platform includes the use of different systems development platform mobile applications such as PhoneGap, MoSync, WidgetPad, Appcelerator, Rhomobile Whoop and helping to eliminate the time required to develop applications. Actually, this lowers the cost of making the applications.

The cross platform application development techniques using platforms have a reverse effect on the cost of application development. Similarly, the code generated by the programmer can continue as a perspective for different tasks produced by one of the many mobile operating framework for which it was created the final code.

If organizations have to make a capture application – stage similar code could be used as a starting development process. This is once again the company maintains a large money.

# For More

Cross platform development provides an opportunity for your brand to make more progress. Near its application is limited to iOS or Android devices. Your application connects to smart phone users cross on different mobile operating systems that connects to a broader base of mobile phone users mixed. Both Android and iOS are two operating systems are exceptionally famous and discussed with one another to become the largest mobile operating system in the world. As a result of that is right for your application to be in the audience focused. Why take risks, creating an application that works well and good on both the iOS and Android Smartphone.

The benefits of cross-platform development is gradually increasing and maintain. There is a lost conviction that this type of cross platform application development used for laundry purposes make scalable truly native applications.

# Conclusion

In any case, it is a traditional history to be dispersed, since it is quite conceivable for the development of applications that meets the destinations native platform all customers. It is a method of sealing the target mobile development that is specially made for business growth.

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About The Author:

This Guest Post Contributed by Nilesh Talaviya, working with Cygnet Infotech, top notch mobile app development company based in India. For more detail follow him at @nileshtalaviya

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Fast and Furious File Management Techniques for Clearing Up Your Computer Clutter

Just like paper files, the files on your computer and mobile devices need to be organized for easy retrieval. A methodical approach to file management will make it easy to update and locate your files even when you’re looking for them many years later. Here are some file management tips for organized and accessible files.

Organize by file types

Applications are best stored in a folder dedicated to Program Files. If your operating system doesn’t automatically install new programs within that directory, create a folder and store all your executables like Excel, Firefox, and Photoshop there.

A central place for documents

All your documents – no matter what they are- must go into your My Documents folder. So your spreadsheets, contracts, and your mockups must be saved into My Documents. Storing your files in this central location will make it easier to find what you need and run backups.

Organize files within My Documents

Your growing list of files in My Documents can be further organized into separate drawers. Create folders within My Documents to separate your files. Use clear and concise terms to name each folder, so you’ll be able to identify them in the future.

Nest folders for deeper organization

Depending on your activity and your volume of files, you might need to create folders within the main folders. For example, your folder called “Minutes” might contain folders for “2013”, “2012”, and so forth. A client folder may contain folders for correspondence, projects, and client data. The objective is to place all files in folders rather than have them floating around as individual files.

Honor file naming conventions

Don’t use spaces in file names, use all lower case, and limit the names to 27 characters or less. So a file name should be customerdata instead of Customer Data. Maintain some consistency in the file naming process.

Be specific

Use specific and logical names, and include the date when naming your file. The objective is to identify what the file is without having to open it. Therefore, if you’re sending a payment reminder to your customers, you can name the file “pymentreminder091613” rather than just naming it “reminder”. In the latter case, you’ll have to open the file to know what it contains.

Real time filing

Place your documents in the correct folder the moment you create them. Develop the habit of using the "Save As" to save and file your documents at the same time. This will save time and the effort of organizing a cluttered mess later on.

Order your files for convenience

Place an “AA” or “!” at the beginning of the file name for those files that you use often. Those characters will ensure that the files are always at the top for easy access.

Cull your files regularly

Sometimes it’s easy to identify old files if you organize them into dated folders. But you can reduce clutter and move files out of the way by deleting unwanted files or creating a folder for “Inactive” files. Micro Com Systems offer a similar solution for reducing clutter caused by your paper docs.

Don’t forget to backup

Create a schedule to consistently backup your files. It’s the only way to ensure you have them if something happens to your computer or mobile device.

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About The Author:

John Hoskins recently helped his office go paperless. An avid blogger, he enjoys sharing what he has learned by posting on the Web.

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Threat Modeling – S.T.R.I.D.E

Image By OWASP 

Finding a proven pattern to find defects early in your cycle saves not just money but also the time required to patch those defects. Threat modeling is a tested and proven method to meet this objective. This procedure evaluates the vulnerabilities that can potentially exist in a target under observation. The vulnerabilities may or may not exist, but assuming that they do and then proceeding with the Software development Life Cycle is a pro-active way of securing your applications.

Prioritizing the area that needs more focus in order to reduce the attack surface is the primary aim of this model. This assessment is done as an iterative process which comes in to picture when new modules are added in to the application. The end result of this assessment is the security profile of that particular application under observation.


Threat modeling categories
Threat modeling has three major categories according to how it is implemented in action: end-point- centric, design-centric, and asset-centric.

An end-point-centric threat model basically deals with the attacker perspective of looking at the application. We know that an attacker initially studies the target completely such that he would have complete available information to carry out an attack successfully. The development team then sits together and speculates the way in which an attacker might penetrate their product. Based on this assessment, they come up with defenses to those attack vectors. Design-centric threat modeling deals with the design process of the application. Vulnerabilities do not only exist in code; faulty design can also allow attackers to find loopholes in the application and use it to their advantage. The design is processed based on inputs from various members and then a final draft is made.

Asset-centric threat modeling deals with the information that is passed to and from the application. Attackers have great affinity towards finding sensitive information with which they can perform successful social engineering, thereby gaining access to the target. This phase deals with all such possibilities where the team decides the manner in which sensitive information is handled within the application.

In this article, I shall explain about a famous security engineering pattern called the STRIDE model. The acronym STRIDE stands for:

1. Spoofing
2. Tampering
3. Repudiation
4. Information Disclosure
5. Denial of Service attacks
6. Elevation of privilege

In this article, I shall show you an in-depth analysis of each item mentioned in the STRIDE model.

Spoofing:
In simplest terms, spoofing refers to an action by a person/device who claims to be the one which they are not. Various known cases of spoofing includes DNS Spoofing, IP Spoofing, MAC Address spoofing, Email spoofing, SMS Spoofing and Biometric spoofing. In all these cases, the only common thing is that there are one or several forms of impersonation.

DNS Spoofing attacks, in other words, are also called as Man-in-the-middle attacks. Every DNS transaction begins and gets incremented by 1. The spoofed packet of the attacker should reach the victim before the legitimate response reaches him, thus poisoning the DNS Cache. This kind of vulnerability is very rare to find these days and can be prioritized to be very low in your threat modeling.

IP spoofing is a classic example of masking one’s identity when performing an attack. Proxy servers and zombie systems are generally used by attackers when they carry out full-fledged attacks.

Another all-time favorite attack of most attackers is Phishing. When performing a phishing attack, Email Spoofing and SMS spoofing come into the picture. This is done in order to gain the trust of the victim to get him to click the malicious link that is craftily sent to him.

Bio Metric spoofing is only a recent threat vector. Biometric traces are left behind whenever a person speaks, walks, or touches, making it one of the most challenging areas of security. Tampering:
Information sent from a sample Machine ‘A’ traverses over an N number of machines. In this situation, there is every possibility that a message sent from ‘A’ may not reach the destination in the same form as it was at its source. A classic example is the use of the Tamper Data plugin in Firefox. The plugin has the ability to successfully tamper the checkout request coming from e-commerce sites and manipulate it according to the needs of the attacker. Another example is that of a proxy agent like burp, which can see as well as manipulate requests from the original sender before it reaches the intended destination.

Repudiation:
If an application cannot handle validations and internal transactions such that it fails to log all of the user actions, then any attacker can take advantage of this design flaw. He can cause transactions to happen and leave no trace since the application could not handle the user actions judiciously.

For example, suppose the attacker is successful in finding a window through which he can perform actions anonymously (due to the flaw in the design/implementation), then all the transactions done by the attacker is not handled by the code, which results in dirty entries in the database, and thereby making the entire database invalid (since it now contains dirty data from the attacker). In such scenarios of repudiation attacks, we can conclude that most of the entries in logs or other storage spaces are misleading and invalid and would need to be cleaned up.

Information Disclosure:
There has been a recently discovered bug in Internet Explorer – mouse tracking vulnerability. This is a classic example of information disclosure. An attacker can exploit this vulnerability by tracking mouse events and using it to their advantage to visit crafted links and scripts, thereby gaining full access to the system. A design flaw can also induce this kind of vulnerability in an application. One example I can recollect is that of a Drupal vulnerability, which as a result of design flaw revealed sensitive information to the attacker.

Denial of Service:
One of the major attributes of Information Security in the CI5A (Confidentiality, Integrity, Accountability, Availability, Authorization, Authentication and Anonymity) is Availability. Denial of Service attacks lead to the unavailability of a machine or a device. This kind of attack affects the performance of the network and might also lead to unavailability of certain services.

The most basic forms of DoS attacks are to consume the bandwidth of the target. Another is purposefully causing configuration errors such that the service is disrupted. An attacker can also place some obstacles of communication (be it physical or digital) to carry out a DoS attack.

The evolution of DoS attacks to DDoS poses a serious threat to enterprises. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are implemented by multiple devices/individuals attacking a single target. This reduces the time needed to perform the attack and it is very effective. In such a scenario, it’s very difficult to trace it back to the attacker when millions of devices attack a single target. For a deeper understanding of keeping your network secure, check out the CCNA training course provided by Intense School.

Escalation of Privilege:
As you are aware, the highest rights in a Windows system are given to SYSTEM and not to the Administrator. As an attacker, I would always like to have the highest access rights on the victim such that I can fulfill my tasks successfully without any issues of access control. This also comes in to picture as a result of a design flaw which allows the attacker to successfully penetrate the system.

STRIDE in Threat modeling
After a brief explanation of what STRIDE is all about, let’s see its role in Threat modeling. When you begin the process of threat modeling, the entire team should sit together and enumerate all the various kinds of attacks that can be possible on the application that you are trying to secure. Following the STRIDE model where in you start from S and end at E gives a solid sense of direction as well as a definitive pattern to form a model. Once discussion is over, the points that have been discussed are documented on the individual modules of the application. This is a defensive way of securing your program, where you know the kinds of attacks that you can expect and you program accordingly to counter each attack.

A brief scenario of threat model includes:
Let me try to enumerate a threat model for a login page with a search input in it. S: Spoofing identity through SQL injection
Spoofing cookies through Cross site scripting in the Search tab ….. And so on
T: Tampering of login credentials on the wire
Observe the GET/POST requests
R: Repudiation of data by stealing a session
I: Encrypting login credentials so that they aren’t disclosed
D: Trying to Fuzz the input and see if it leads to any crash
Trying to send numerous login requests such that bandwidth is consumed
… And so on
E: Escalation of privilege can take place if there is an SQL injection/Cookie hijacking vulnerability.

This is just an example and not the real threat model document. In corporate when you submit a threat modeling documents you need to adhere to various norms and condition specific to each organization.

This article is just a starting point to find security defects early in your software development life cycle. As you gain experience, exploratory testing can be combined with this methodology to yield maximum results in this regard.

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Article By Karthik of InfoSec Institute

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6 Tips to Upgrade Your SEO Presence Immediately

SEO, also known as search engine optimization, is essential to boosting your presence on the Internet. There are various ways to improve your search engine results to obtain a higher ranking for your website for optimal performance. Be sure to execute one SEO tip at a time to get the best results. Your first objective is to create fresh content on a blog with targeted keywords associated with each post. Other tips include:

Specific keywords

Your goal should be to reach your targeted audience. To do this, you should use targeted keywords repeatedly in your website sales copy without breaking the flow of the content. The search engine will detect your keywords and improve your ranking. Be sure to use keywords in your title, description, body and in the headings throughout the content.

Site map

Spiders crawl the web and go through your content to distinguish your website from other similar websites that do not have targeted keywords. Be sure to have a site map. This will help the spiders to understand what your website is all about and each webpage will be appropriately indexed.

Dofollow links

Dofollow links on your blog will allow you to have more targeted visitors and your blog will become more popular; not to mention having backlinks because of your web page’s placement in the search engine. Make valuable comments on blogs with high page ranking. Leave your webpage URL in your comments. This is a good way to get dofollow links back to your website. Do the same thing on related forums that allow comments and links within your signature. When linking to other websites, be sure to use anchor text labeled with the targeted keywords or phrases. Some people make the mistake of using “Click here,” which is not a keyword.

Product feed

If you use product feed, it can also help to draw traffic to your website. Product feeds consists of information about the products, business, descriptions and prices. Submit these product feeds to websites and search engines so that shoppers can find you.

Social media

Social media is important when it comes to SEO. Followers to your social media site will be apt to share your posts with users on other social networks. You will get more clicks on your links and visitors will come to your website. You don’t want to rely only on the search engines because so many search engine updates occur that force you to make changes.

Blogs

A blog is such an easy way to get noticed by the search engines. You can rank easily in the search engines; especially if your blog continues to put out fresh content daily. The algorithms of the search engine work best with highly structured information and fresh content. If you provide quality content on your blog, it will attract other website owners who will want to feature your website to their visitors and customers. This is a great way to create backlinks and the search engines LOVE backlinks. Search engines give more credibility to links going to other websites compared to links to other webpages on your website. Look for possibilities to get links that return to your page from other websites as this will increase your rank and bring you more targeted traffic. A blog or website that continues to provide useful and valuable information will be noticed by the search engine and your page ranking will continue to improve. Include informative videos on your blog that will provide relevant topics to benefit your visitors. The video descriptions will show up in the search engines and you will be appropriately ranked. Your visitors will also spend more time on your website if you provide value and relevance.

Article submission

Write informative and quality articles. Submit them to various popular article directories. Give your opinion at the end of the article and invite readers to comment. These article directories have high page ranking that will also gain you popularity.

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About The Author:

Dave Landry is a blogger and advisor for several business and tech related publications. Dave also writes personal finance advisement articles for debt relief organizations to help those in dire financial crisis.

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