[Devils Workshop] “[Alert] Gawker’s Source Code & 1.4 Million Users Database is on Torrent for Download” and 4 more...

[Alert] Gawker’s Source Code & 1.4 Million Users Database is on Torrent for Download
Enable Email Delegation on your Gmail account
3 Popular FTP Clients for Windows
Chrome Extension to Share Everything on your Favorite Social network
Vlingo:Just speak to get things Done! [Mobile App]

[Alert] Gawker’s Source Code & 1.4 Million Users Database is on Torrent for Download

Posted: 15 Dec 2010 03:37 PM PST

Alert Gawker passwords

I read somewhere longtime back that Internet is write-only medium, i.e you cannot delete once anything goes on the web!

Unfortunately, for Gawker medias more than 1,400,000 registered users, above statement seem to be getting true.

If you search for “gawker” keyword on any top torrent-search engines you will see list of torrents with all leaked data. Tough such torrents are getting deleted by torrent sites, new torrents with same content are coming up much faster.

So what does this hacked stuff contains?

It contains, source code of Gawker Media’s blogging platform (I personally do not interest in its code as I always believed they should have moved to WordPress long time back!)

It contains database dump which includes user-info including encrypted passwords. As passwords are encrypted you may feel safe.

Reason for putting emphasis on word “may” is – I am yet to check Gawker code’s to see how password’s were encrypted. But if they were really “encrypted” and not “hashed” in pure technical terms, they can be decrypted. Also if they are hashed using simple md5, without any cryptographic salt, they are vulnerable to attack using widespread techniques like rainbow table.

Update: Torrent I downloaded contains decrypted password of entire Gawker media staff. This surely means our passwords can be very well decrypted!

Do we need to worry?

One word answer is – Yes!

Considering overall panic around us, it seems that user passwords could be recovered. LinkedIn’s forcing their users to reset their passwords, limited to users who were part of 1.4 million leaked database, could be viewed as their proactive security measure or simply their figuring out what the worst could happen!

My next line could be considered as an overstatement, but developers who works on closed-source system often rely more on “close” nature of codes for security rather than taking efforts to use best cryptographic techniques. So I really won’t be surprised if a hacker managed to decrypt atleast some of them password’s from Gawker’s leaked database.

-- This Post [Alert] Gawker’s Source Code & 1.4 Million Users Database is on Torrent for Download is Published on Devils Workshop .

Enable Email Delegation on your Gmail account

Posted: 15 Dec 2010 06:04 AM PST

Now a days, almost everyone I know has two email accounts. Most times it is an email for work and another one which is personal. I know many people (that includes me ), who have more than a few email addresses. I use some of them only to sign up to different services or social networks.

Gmail now has a new feature called Delegated Email which allows you to delegate a particular Gmail account to another account.

How to enable Email Delegation!

Let say you have a particular Gmail account you want to delegate. Just look up under Settings >> Accounts and Imports. Here enter the email address you want to grant access. We can also specify “Send mail as:” under settings as seen in image below.

This will send a conformation to the second email address that you added as a delegate. The account is shown as Delegated Accounts just like Multiple Gmail accounts are shown.

This is a great way for Gmail to make it easy for me to have multiple accounts but actually delegate certain not so important accounts to one single email address. Also if you are running a business with a public email address and want others to have access to that email address then “Email Delegation” feature seems like a great idea.

Do let me know in what circumstances you will find delegated email accounts useful through your comments.

-- This Post Enable Email Delegation on your Gmail account is Published on Devils Workshop .

3 Popular FTP Clients for Windows

Posted: 15 Dec 2010 05:30 AM PST

Do you use FTP based protocol to manage your files on your web-server? If yes, then you may find this information useful. Before that lets know more about how FTP works.

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. FTP is used extensively in Web Development and maintenance. Using FTP is simple and does not need any software (only the protocol has to be installed on your Operating system). You can even directly connect to your web server using the following pattern: ftp://yourwebsite.com/, however this might be a tedious thing using it directly on your Web browser. FTP clients are meant to make this work much easier and systematic.

The three popular FTP clients I know of, available on web are:

1. FileZilla – It’s a Free, fast and reliable cross-platform FTP client and even supports FTPS and SFTP protocols.

fz3 win main 3 Popular FTP Clients for Windows

Courtesy: Official website

Few of its features are:

Cross-platform support for Windows, Mac OS, Linux and more
Supports IPv6 pattern
Supports multiple languages
Supports drag & drop for files
Supports file editing remotely
Supports remote file search

2. FireFTP – It’s a fast and secure FTP client for Mozilla Firefox and offers cross-platform support, in simple words, it works wherever Firefox works. Its even supports SSL/TLS/SFTP protocols which are considered excellent in terms of Web security.

fireftp 3 Popular FTP Clients for Windows

Courtesy: Official website

Few of its features are:

Offers Directory comparison support, even compares Sub-directories
Support for more than 20 languages
Supports Dragging & Dropping
Offers file compression using MODE Z
Supports Proxies
Supports IPv6 protocol

3. SmartFTP – And here’s the last but not the least FTP client which lets you safely manage files on your web-server. It does offer FTP, FTPS, SFTP and SSH protocols which makes it pretty reliable in terms of security as well. There are limitations in the features based on the license you select.

vistaoffice2007ribbon 3 Popular FTP Clients for Windows

Courtesy: Official website

Few of the common features are:

Full File and Folder synchronization
20+ Languages supported
Offers IPv6 support
Compression supported with MODE Z
Drag & Drop supported
Establish Multiple Connections simultaneously
Transfer verification using: XCRC, XMD5, XSHA
Server to Server File Transfer support
Supports Proxies and Firewall
Caching of Remote Directories

I hope the above information is useful to you while working with your files on a remote server. You can also get detailed information on their specific websites and download the software directly. Do drop in your comments.

-- This Post 3 Popular FTP Clients for Windows is Published on Devils Workshop .

Chrome Extension to Share Everything on your Favorite Social network

Posted: 15 Dec 2010 01:42 AM PST

Google chrome launched its own app store on 7th Dec and immediately, a lot of developers as well as users started using the various apps provided by it. Most of them can be installed for free on your chrome browser, while some of them have to be bought. One of the most handy extensions I found on the store was Cortex, which launched on 7th Dec itself, and has been designed by young entrepreneur Joey Primiani. It’s an easy to use extension which can be used to share almost everything on your favorite social networks from any webpage.

How Does Cortex Work ?

Go to the Cortex website.
Install the Cortex extension to your browser by clicking on the ‘Download on Chrome’ link.
After download is complete, you will be asked to enter details about your Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or Instapaper accounts.
Once you connect to your social network accounts, you are done setting up cortex!
Now you have to simply select a text or your favorite image or even a video on any webpage, and click and hold on that particular object for 1 second.
The cortex menu will now appear (a pie- menu).
Select the social network of your choice where you want to share your content.
Your post gets shared on your social network instantly!

Here is a screenshot of how the Cortex Pie Menu looks like on a web page.

Here’s a demo of Cortex:

Do check it out.Its super easy! Post your reviews and comments

Link: Cortex

-- This Post Chrome Extension to Share Everything on your Favorite Social network is Published on Devils Workshop .

Vlingo:Just speak to get things Done! [Mobile App]

Posted: 14 Dec 2010 09:09 PM PST

Imagine if speaking to your Mobile phone can be the solution to everything you do, how would be your life then? Want to search for the nearest restaurant, want to update your social status on Facebook or just want to send a text to your colleague that you will be late, everything is possible using this little application Vlingo.

Vlingo offers you powerful voice applications which convert your words into action. This is achieved using Vlingo’s accurate voice recognition technology which works on most platforms like Windows Mobile, Android (2.0 and higher), Blackberry, iPhone OS and the widely used by Nokia, Symbian OS.

iPhone.Home Vlingo:Just speak to get things Done! [Mobile App]

Image Courtesy: Vlingo official website

Vlingo is available in both FREE as well as paid versions, the paid one being called “Vlingo Plus” at a price of only US$ 6.99 for Nokia Symbian OS phones. Vlingo is completely free for Android platform and all of its features like Calling your friend, Updating Facebook status, Sending Text messages, Sending emails and Searching on the web. An example of how you can speak to Vlingo is: “Email Mayank; Subject, Regarding Phone; Message, I will return the phone to you tomorrow.” or the simple one is: “Call Mom”.

You can download, find the tutorial videos and see all screenshots for Vlingo at their official website. If you know of any other such application share it with me through the comments below.

Link: Vlingo

-- This Post Vlingo:Just speak to get things Done! [Mobile App] is Published on Devils Workshop .