100 Guesses Is Enough To Crack Your Password

In the past few years the constant ever growing threat of cyber attacks and rampant attack has brought a new sensibility among the avid internet users towards strengthening their password. So how people make their password stronger is not an enigma. Most of the people include a number of two along with punctuation in order to make it difficult for the bad guys to figure it out. Sometimes people even add the name of a site or their pet or some other tricks to spice the things up. But a recent study has shown that if you do things like these then it is simply not enough.

A team of four researchers from the Peking University along with Jeff Yan from Lancaster University has published a study wherein they were able to crack a number of passwords from lesser than 100 guesses. They had aptly titled their study as ‘targeted Online Password Guessing: An Underestimated Threat.

TarGuess designed to break password effortlessly

Typing in the guessed password for hundred times or less than hundred times will be considered as a time consuming affair. Therefore researchers have created an algorithm named TarGuess which has been able to notch 73% of success in selected test scenarios. This means that the algorithm has been successful in decoding the password of users in 100 guesses at the most. TarGuess works so well on the cracking the password because at first it indulge in getting to know the targets.

TarGuess is designed to make use of the personally identifiable information (PII) in order to guess the passwords. Once the target is identified TarGuess makes use of the available information present on the site such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. Then it also makes use of the dozens of the massive breaches which has happened in the past revealing the personal details or account info of the users.

Reuse Password practice should be avoided

Most of the people tend to reuse password for different website and accounts which is a very bad idea when it comes to security. TarGuess can easily spot your email address when you use passwords like biglove123yahoo for yahoo account and a similar password for PayPal account. TarGuess will quickly decide to start guessing with biglove123paypal for the PayPal as the safe bet.

Do not substitute numbers for letters

A number of TV show hackers has popularized the usage of numbers as a substitute for letters. But this practice isn’t a great weapon for creating stronger passwords. Researchers have embedded TarGuess with more than a dozen of transformation rules which can easily help in decoding the numbers for their respective letters. Apart from that it can even do difficult transformation like swapping the word as for @s.

There is a similar kind of tool named Telepathwords created by Microsoft which has the ability to predict the next character within a password as user happens to type it. Therefore substituting habit should be avoided at all cost as it makes your passwords much easier to crack than you can even think of.

How to Turn Off Microsoft's Newest Office 365 Pop Up Ads

Microsoft is known for using pop-up ads in order to increase the adoption of its Windows and Office suite among the users. However in the past few weeks Microsoft has been actively targeting the Windows users to opt for the Office 2016 which is the latest version of Office suite. Office 2016 brings complete package of Office applications with one-time payment for just one computer.

Office 2016 doesn’t have any upgrade option and users would have to wait to next major release in order to get new features. Currently one time purchase option is available both for PC and Macs through variety of versions. In order to give a push to Office 2016 Microsoft has started bringing pop-up ads on the Office 365 version users to make the shift.

How this pop-up ad works?

A number of users are being targeted by the Microsoft with its notorious pop-up ads which adds to the frustration when working with Office 365. During the work a message pop-up right on the screen and states that ‘Your upgrade to Office 2016 is ready. Free with your Office 365 subscription.’ Thereafter users only have three options in front of their screen which asks them either to ‘See what’s new’, Upgrade and Later’. This pop-up ad might seem easy and not so much nuisance but this appear right in the middle of a important work can simply test anyone patience after a couple of times. Not everyone is tech-savvy enough to deal with the pop-up ads. Many users find it difficult to dismiss the pop-up ads.

Pop-up ads are misleading to its core

These pop-up ads are only being brought to the screen of the Office 365 subscriber on the Windows 7 desktop PC. Users with Office 365 Business Essentials plan doesn’t get the capability to use the locally installable Office 2016 apps rather they have to rely on the web applications. In such a case the upgrade to the Office 2016 will certainly not be free as proclaimed earlier rather users will have to make the one-time payment for Office 2016.

Microsoft explanation towards using the pop-up ads

Microsoft has explained that the pop-up ads are not misleading at all as it offers existing Office 365 users to upgrade to the Office 2016. Currently the pop-up ads are being tested by the Microsoft engineers to recalibrate and enhance the frequency of the pop-up ads.

In the meantime if any users is feeling frustrated or having difficulty in dealing with the pop-up ads then it can be removed completely by following the below mentioned ways.

• Step 1: Download the Quick Fix from Microsoft site. 
• Step 2: Give a click on Open or Run and install the Quick Fix. 
• Step 3: Now simply follow the steps provided in the Fix wizard.

A number of users are left wondering how they will be able to make use of their existing version of Office Suite before they have to eventually upgrade to latest version. Then they should feel at ease because Microsoft is offering support for its existing older versions of Office till 2023 and it differs as per the specific version.

How to Make a Mirror That Tells You the Weather

Credit:Imgur

Cool Smart Mirror – Informs About Weather

Much progress has been taken place in the internet of things and with great headway in the field of technology; we tend to live in the future where everything has a tendency to be Wi-Fi compatible. A boring normal mirror can be boosted into a cool smart mirror which could inform you about the weather while one seems to be watching your reflection.

One of the most well-known stop in the making of everything in our lives `smart’, is the mirror.It could be expensive to get a smart mirror and hence creating one could be quite economical. All that one would need is some glass and some support for the mirror, together with a monitor for the display accompanied by a Raspberry Pi for the smarts.

Max Braun, Google engineer for instance had built a smart mirror earlier in the year and presently web developer, designer as well as tinkerer Zach had developed an identical gadget which tends to add voice commands together with verbal responses which seem to sound like a very simple J.A.R.V.I.S.

The manufacturers had developed their own mirror from a sheet of glass together with support. The option lies with the user intending to develop one by following the instruction or by purchasing a custom mirror which has been developed for this purpose.

One Way Mirror/Monitor/Computer

Thereafter one could build a frame for the mirror keeping in mind that the frame too needs to hold a monitor. This could be huge; hence one would require a thick frame to hide it. Moreover you would also require building a section in the frame to grip the mirror.

Eventually you need to install everything and plug it in and then you could have your own smart mirror. A magic mirror is essentially a frame, a one-way mirror, a monitor together with a computer – Raspberry Pi. All that is needed is a-

•  Computer screen which can be taken apart 
•  An observation mirror or a glass together with a mirror film 
•  A Raspberry Pi having a casing and micro USB power cord 
•  A SD card – 8GB 
•  Network adaptor, for Wi-Fi 
•  Wood frame – boards, screw, glue, paint, drill 
•  HDMI-to-VGA adaptor based on if the screen tends to have HDMI or not 
•  A mouse together with a keyboard with USB 
•  An alternate computer to fix OS and stuff

Enhancement of Self-Confidence

One ought to know not to take the measurements for the mirror till you have opened the screen which would tend to be smaller when the plastic is removed. Moreover when you have the screen, ensure that the contacts tend to be on one area on the sides and not straight back. Should they be straight back, one could envisage an issue if the need to hang it later on the wall arises.

The smart mirror has the tendency of providing plenty of useful data for those getting ready to leave their home in the morning, comprising of the date and time, together with the weather, future events on their calendar as well compliments. What one would need most in the morning more than a reminder of caffeine is an enhancement of self-confidence.

Amplify Your Mood with the New Google Home

Say hello to the new smart speaker from the tech-giant, the “Google Home” which is listed under the “Made by Google” product line up. Priced at around $129, the Google Home is a direct competition to the Amazon Echo which has been in the market for a while. So does it have what it takes to be the new favorite? Here’s a quick review of the latest Google Home!

Hardware Specifications: 

Standing at 5.62 inches or 143 mm tall and 3.79 inches or 96 mm in diameter and weighing at around 480 grams, it has a cylindrical shape with 4 LEDs on the top of the device programmed to indicate battery life. The upper surface is also equipped with a capacitive touch panel which allows play/pause music, adjusting volume or opening up the Google assistant. Powered by the same ARM processor and WIFI module present on the Chromecast, it is a pretty compact device that turns your residence into a Smart Home. The base comes with an interchangeable cover with various colors like carbon, copper, snow, marine, mango and violet.

Know Your Companion: 

Google Home seamlessly controls home devices and products like Nest Thermostat, Philips, IFTTT and SmartThings. It also behaves like a Chromecast and using voice commands it can stream audio and video to compatible devices. So if you feel lazy, you can just ask the device to adjust the room temperature or play your favorite TV show for you from your bed! It is rumored that Netflix is working on adding voice commands to their apps and soon Google Home will support it.

The Google assistant supports YouTube, Pandora, Google Play Music, IHeart Radio and Tunein. It comes with a feature viz. “My Day” which lets the assistant access information about the daily schedule of the user. Before heading out of the door you may ask “Ok Google, How’s the weather?” and it will say it loud for you. Consider a situation that you may have more than one speaker in your home; Google clarified that the devices comes with a dual microphone set up and the one which hears the voice best will wake up.

It is context aware which makes it far easier to talk to. Conversations with the device seem a lot easier compared to Amazon’s Echo. However it can access information from only one Google account. This may considered as a minute drawback as nowadays everyone has more than one personal account. Hope it gets fixed soon.

The Final Verdict 

So should you buy it? If you are out in the market for a portable speaker then the Google Home is definitely a wise choice. It has great quality sound output and a compact design. It excels in what it is meant to do i.e. provide a seamless interconnection between devices and play quality music. Yes, it doesn’t come cheap but it delivers for the price point. There are alternatives in the market but a product from a tech-giant like Google is always preferable.

A New Twist on Airplane Wing Design

In one of his greatest work “Codex on the Flight of Birds”, Leonardo da Vinci provided some unique study with almost 500 sketches of flying machine, which is the basis of modern Airplane technology in the contemporary society. The Wright brothers have accomplished the maiden powered flight over hundred years ago, which was controlled by using pulleys and wires to twist and bending of the wings, made of wood and canvas.

Although this system is a quite different one, that is propelled by hinged flaps and the ailerons, which are being used in most of the aircraft since its inception. The aircraft technology has developed in many ways in the last few decades and witnessed some of the most advanced elements in the design and technical know-how.

Now the engineers from MIT and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have developed some hi-tech enchantment, with a new version of bendable and “morphing” wing. This new technology is having some unique features and simplified process of manufacturing that reduces the consumption of fuel by improving the aerodynamics of wings. Some of the features of this basic concept are as follows:

• The fundamental principle at the back of this new concept is the simple use of an arrangement of tiny and lightweight structural components, which are referred as “digital materials” and can be assembled into almost infinite assortment of shapes. This is such a simple structure manufacturing that can be compared even with the formation of configuration with the help of Lego blocks. The separate pieces are quite strong and rigid in nature, but it can be noted; the precise choice of sizes and the materials and most importantly the geometry of the assembling of pieces, which allow for the exact tuning of suppleness of the shape.

• According to researchers; the building up of such large and intricate structure, from an arrangement of tiny and indistinguishable building blocks, which have the exceptional grouping of strength, flexibility and light weight, simplifies the manufacturing process to a great extent. This modular structure is also providing the greatest ever simplicity in both the assembly and the disassembly of the construction that means; when the structure is not been needed, it can be dismantled and the entire structure can be taken apart by segregating its separate component parts, which can be reassembled and used for creating some other kinds of structures.

• Being the composition of different tiny parts; repairing process is also very easy and can be done in a very simple manner e.g. just by replacement of the damaged subunits in a very comfortable manner. The “skin” or the outer coat of the wings is also enhancing the performance of the structure. This “Skin:” is made with the technology of overlapping strips, made of flexible materials and layered as bird’s feather or somewhat like fish scales, which allows the pieces in moving across, while the wings flexes but still provide the most smoothened outer surface. It is ascertained that the primary use of this technology can be for making of tiny and robotic aircraft at the initial stage.