This Unbreakable Encryption Could Save the Internet

The Awareness to encrypt your private data, chat conversations as well as communication is booming like never before that soon the world will mark some day as the International Encryption Day.

This may or may not be possible in future, but Toshiba is all set to create a next level of encryption technology that the firm claims is absolutely unbreakable and "completely secure from tapping".

The best way to ensure the complete security of the communication is to make use of a one-time key to decode encrypted data. However, the problem remains to transfer this key from one place to another safely when even mail carriers may be spying on you.

Uncrackable Encryption Technology: The Quantum Cryptography System

To get rid of this issue, Toshiba is creating a 'foolproof' Quantum Cryptography System that uses photons sent over a custom-made fiber optic cable that is not connected to the Internet.

Thus, anyone trying to intercept the user's data would get data with an entirely changed form of data, making spying incredibly difficult.

However, one thing a user must remember is the key to decode, as there would be no second chance given to decode it, according to analysts.

Testing Encryption Technology for 2 Years

Toshiba plans to launch a two-year-long test for its new quantum cryptography system that will start in August and run until August 2017. If this experiment turns out to be successful, longer-term commercial use would be possible.

The firm will begin verification testing with the transmission of genome analysis data in Japan on 31 August, assisting Japan's Tohoku University to transmit genetic data.

By the year 2020, the company believes to first provide the service to governments and enterprises, and then to consumers, eventually when the cost of development drops.

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World’s First 200Gb microSD Card Arrives

There isn't any troll in the title. The "World's Largest microSD" card sized at 200GB is now officially available for purchasing from Amazon and number of retailers.

So, Is your 16GB, or 32GB, or even 64GB smartphone not enough to store all your data in one place?

Order a Sandisk's new high-capacity microSD card from Amazon now. However, the only issue is that it is not exactly very cheap. You will have to pay around $240 to buy one.

World's First 200GB MicroSD Card

Back in March when Sandisk first announced the world's first 200GB microSD card, it was expected to be priced at around $400. However, $240 has been marked as the price for the highest-capacity microSD card available in the market.

Sandisk's 200GB microSD card, or Ultra microSDXC UHS-I card, offers a transfer speed of up to 90MB per second, which is double the speed provided by its 128GB counterpart.

Transfer Speed: 1200 Photos Per Minute

The company claims that the speed will allow you to transfer up to 1,200 photos in just a single minute. The card is something of great use for photographers and filmmakers who need more storage capacity to store high-resolution photographs and videos.

Moreover, Sandisk's 200GB MicroSD card comes packaged with an SD adapter and a 10-year limited warranty.

Furthermore, the 200GB MicroSD card is waterproof, shockproof, temperature proof, magnet proof and X-ray proof to deal with any possibility of destruction.

However, if you can not spent this much for 200GB of storage space, there always remains an option for you to buy a 128GB MicroSD card that still provides you plenty of space and costs as much as $80

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You Can Now Use Messenger App without a Facebook Account

Don't have Facebook account but want to use its Messenger service? Then go for it because Mark Zuckerberg wants even the people who hate Facebook to use the social network's separate Messenger service.

So, you no longer need an active Facebook account to make use of the Messenger service, all you need is just your name and phone number, the company announced today.

Facebook is giving a new "Not On Facebook?" option on the sign-up screen for its messaging app, which allows anyone to create an account for the Messenger app using his or her first name and phone number.

Facebook to offer Messenger to people without Facebook account

Facebook currently started offering this option for people in the United States, Canada, Peru, and Venezuela; the rest have to wait for the feature.

Users with non-Facebook accounts will enjoy the same Messenger features, including voice and video calls, payments, stickers and GIFs.

The only and major difference for non-Facebook users will be features that rely on the network of Facebook friends. This simply means the Messenger app will rely solely on your phone's contacts in order to find friends on the service.

Moreover, Non-Facebook users will not be able to access their messages on the web.

So far, it is unclear when Facebook Messenger will open its new sign-up option to more countries, but the move clearly indicates that the social network giant is increasingly moving forward to make the Messenger its own standalone platform.

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Facebook Can Recognize You Even if You Don't Show Your Face

Well, this is incredible and scary both at the same time. Forget about "facial" recognition; Facebook's newest technology is way good at identifying you in photos even without the need to see your face.

The New Scientist is reporting about the Facebook's new "experimental" facial recognition algorithm which is so powerful that it can identify you in photos even when your faces are hidden.

Instead, the Facebook's extremely accurate facial recognition algorithm uses other unique characteristics — such as your hairstyle, your body shape, your body language, your clothing and how you carry yourself — to identify that it's you.

Facebook's New Facial Recognition Technology - 83% Accurate

Facebook's artificial intelligence lab is working on this technology and, according to the head of artificial intelligence at Facebook Yann Lecun, the experimental algorithm is currently able to identify individuals with 83% accuracy, even if the faces in the photos are obscured.

"There are a lot of cues we use. People have characteristic aspects, even if you look at them from the back," Lecun said while taking to the New Scientist. Like, "for example, you can recognize Mark Zuckerberg very easily because he always wears a gray T-shirt."

No doubt, this is beneficial to Facebook, who wants to incorporate this algorithm into its recently-launched Moments app that helps create collections of photos by scanning your camera roll with facial recognition.

Even though the feature is very impressive, it does not mean every one of us are comfortable with the idea of being so accurately scanned, identified, and recognized by any tech company.

However, LeCun said the technology could actually be good for privacy. Like, it might alert users if their photo surfaces online, even if their face is not clear or they are facing away from the camera.

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'Undo Send' — How to Unsend Emails in Gmail

Sending an important and confidential email to one of my friends and mistakenly clicked send to someone else. Holy crap!

This is something experienced by everyone of us at some point. When we accidentally hit the reply-all button, send an email to the wrong person, or sometimes forget to attach a file, and then left only with an instant pain of regret. It feels like there is no going back. Isn't it?

But to make you go back and rectify your mistakes, Google has rolled out a new feature that delays sending your email for 30 seconds after you hit Send, so that you can recall it if you want to make some changes.

You Have 30 Seconds to Unsend an Email

After the feature remained in public beta for six years, Google has finally brought this life-saving "Undo Send" feature to the main settings on the Web version of Google's Gmail service.

Once enabled, the Undo Send feature offers you up to 30-second window to "undo" sending an outgoing email after you hit the send button — just in case you change your mind.

Since March 2009, Undo Send feature has buried in Gmail's Labs section, which Google uses to test out new features for Gmail. However, now the feature is available in Gmail's settings under the "General" tab.

Here's How to enable Undo Send option:

• Go to the gear icon in the top-right corner of your Gmail window and open Settings from the menu
• In General setting, scroll down for Undo Send, which is disabled by default
• Click Enable and select a cancellation period up to 30 seconds
• Hit Save Changes at the bottom 

Once done, every time you send an email the yellow dialogue box will appear that displays "Your message has been sent," giving you an option to Undo it. When you Click on it, the email will reopen, un-sent, in the composition window.

For now, Undo Send feature is not available for the Gmail mobile app for smartphone devices. However, the company is planning to roll out the feature for the mobile app soon

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WhatsApp Ranked Worst at Protecting Your Privacy and Data

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has released its annual report card of tech companies for 2015 based upon how much they keep your personal data secure from government snoops.

And the Worst Companies Award goes to…

1. At&T
2. WhatsApp
3. Verizon

Yes, you heard right! WhatsApp is one of the three worst companies at protecting its users’ data so if you are concerned about your data privacy, you should think twice before using WhatsApp.

The EFF released its latest Who Has Your Back report based on 5 basic criteria that included:

• Follows Industry Accepted Best Practices
• Tells Users About Government Data Demands
• Discloses Policies on Data Retention
• Discloses Government Content Removal Requests
• Pro-user Public Policy: opposes backdoors

The prominent privacy advocacy group analysed 24 companies in total, and among them AT&T, Verizon and WhatsApp came out to be the worst companies at protecting its users’ data.

Where Verizon met two criteria of the EFF's criteria, WhatsApp and AT&T only met one.

AT&T, WhatsApp and Verizon have some worst policies when it comes to protecting its users’ personal data from government requests.

Here’s some advice from the EFF to WhatsApp: "WhatsApp should publicly require a warrant before turning over user content, publish a law enforcement guide and transparency report, have a stronger policy of informing users of government requests, and disclose its data retention policies.

Also, Google and Microsoft both earned just three stars each, which isn’t really up to the mark for such two companies that claim definite levels of respect and trust when it comes to data privacy.

However, the EFF report also says that Microsoft has made improvement in company practices and will be in a position to raise a fourth star in September.

Companies that earned the full five out of five stars on the EFF’s privacy scoreboard are Adobe, Apple, Yahoo, Dropbox, Wordpress, Wickr, Credo Mobile, Sonic and Wikimedia.

You can see the results of every single company in the EFF's chart above, and if you want the more detailed explanation, you can access the full detailed EFF report here.

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Why We Love Android M (And You Should, Too!)

Google has recently announced its latest version of the mobile operating system called Android M at its official Google I/O 2015 developer event May 28 in San Francisco.

We don’t know exactly what is the 'M' stands for just yet. My guess is it could be Marzipan or maybe Milky Way. Let me know what you guys think, so write me your guesses down below in the comments.

Android M is not going to be an immense move in look or architecture like Android Lollipop, but it is bringing some eye-catching upgrades that you are going to love.However, after a Google I/O event and having the Developer Preview of Android M and installing it in my Nexus 6, I have got a pretty good idea what I think are the top 10 Best New Features of Android M.

PRIVACY AND APP CONTROL

1. Powerful App Permissions Manager:

The biggest change that Google’s Android M will bring is a granular permissions system, somewhat similar to what Apple has.

Currently, Android app permissions are all-or-nothing — means you have to give the particular app full list of permissions to install the app or don’t install it.

Today, every app wants unnecessary access to your contacts list, GPS location, texts, camera, microphone and other personal data.

Well, Google aims to put an end to shady app permissions requests with its new system similar to App Ops. Android M will be offering user-selectable permissions, allowing you to pick and choose permissions you want to allow a particular app.

For example, if you want to install Flashlight app but don't think that the app needs your GPS location or read your mobile texts, you can simply deny those permissions.

NEW FEATURES TO BOOST DEVICE PERFORMANCE

2. Android M 'Doze' Mode:

Users will experience improved battery life with Android M thanks to Doze, a smart power-management feature that works by allowing the system to manage all the background processes optimally.

Doze is designed to combat battery drain issue on Android devices. With Android M Doze mode, the operating system will keep a tab on the motion detection sensor and if no activity by the user is detected for a long time, the system will shut down all your phone’s background processes.

Support USB Type-C:

Android M will be supporting the USB Type-C connector for faster charging. Type-C has a bi-directional port, so you can use the USB port to charge your phone as well as another device.

3. App Standby

Android M will support another feature called App Standby that will disable network access for individual apps if a user is not using them for a while, cutting down on your device’s background activity and thus improving its battery life.

More interestingly, all background processes will automatically wake up from hibernation if a user plugs the phone into a charger, thus users will not have to worry about missing any important notifications when their phone is plugged in.

4. New RAM Manager

Android M has a new RAM Manager that will provide you detailed information about RAM performance of every Android app.

Google is actually serious with how computing happens inside the smartphone devices and with this new RAM manager, the company will make the device perform faster and smoother.

To open the new RAM Manager in System, Tap menu button, open Advanced and then Memory. In Memory, you can see the memory performance of every individual application that is currently running on your device, and even stop processes that might be consuming too much RAM.

5. Much Better Volume Controls

Volume controls on Android devices were something that worked quite good until Google changed them with the release of Android Lollipop. Alike KitKat and earlier versions of Android, it is once again possible for you to use your smartphone’s volume button to set your phone on vibration mode.

Moreover, if you want your smartphone to go into silent mode but you want your alarms to ring either; it is now possible to do that too, just like earlier.

TIME-SAVING FEATURES

6. Support for Fingerprint Scanning

Most Android smartphones already have fingerprint scanners, but the company is now integrating universal support for fingerprint sensor across its entire platform.

Android device fingerprint scanners will be used to authorize payments through Android Pay, unlock your Android devices, as well as make Google Play Store purchases.

This means fingerprint sensors will be offered as a feature in all major flagship Android smartphones going forward. A standard API will be proposed to let any app developer build fingerprint compatibility into their applications.

7. ‘Google Now’ on Tap

Google Now has always been a great feature that offers you relevant information before you even think to ask for it. The company is now taking the feature to the next level with ‘Google Now’ on Tap.

Swiping from left to right of your lock screen will not show you the dialer anymore, rather it will open Google Now, offering you even more relevant information than one may have experienced ever before.

For example, if you are driving a rental car, Google would let you know nearby gas stations when you are about to the end of your road trip, just in case you don’t have to drop it off with an empty tank. Alternatively, even if you are playing a song and you ask "What’s her full name?," Google will tell you that it’s "Katy Perry."

Also, the Google Now Launcher now allows you to uninstall apps entirely by long tapping an app directly on the Android M home screen and dragging upwards to the right.

Here’s how Google explains Google Now on Tap:

"When you tap and hold the home button, Google gives you options that are the best guess of what might be helpful to you at the moment. But if you need something specific, you can also get Google to help by saying "Ok Google" from any screen, and any app. For example, if you’re listening to Twenty One Pilots on Spotify, you can say "Ok Google, who’s the lead singer" and get your answer right away."

8. Android Pay: Smart Credit Cards

Google previously tried Google Wallet but it never really worked well for the company. Now in addition to support for fingerprint scanner in Android M, the search engine giant is going to give it another shot with Android Pay.

Android Pay will allow you to make your payments possible using Near-Field Communication (NFC) as well as host card emulation techniques for tap-to-pay services. The feature will come pre-installed on AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile devices.

Now you just need to Unlock your smartphone and keep it near an NFC terminal — your payment is done, without opening any app.

Google says that around 700,000 retail stores in the United States will support Android Pay after its release. Android Pay can even be used to make in-app payments if the app developers integrate Android Pay into their apps.

9. Better App Linking

Android OS currently supports the app linking system called Intents that provides you the choice to open a particular link in a web browser or an app, which you have installed on your smartphone.

However with Android M, you will be able to open the link directly within the respective app if the app is already installed on your phone. In the background, the Android M will verify the web link with the server of the respective app and post-authentication will continue to open the link within the app itself.

10. Do Not Disturb Mode

This feature is for one who is tired of being bothered by their smartphone. You can just enable the DND mode by volume buttons.

The new Do Not Disturb (DND) mode in Android M’s quick settings will automatically shut off all sounds and vibrations from apps, including alarms, music, video and games if activated.

However, you do not need to be worried about your phone calls, as you will still be able to make phone calls while DND feature is turned ON. You will also be having the option to allow noises for priority alerts only or alarms only.

Other features of the Android M includes Auto Backup and Restore for Apps, improved microSD storage, a new look and feel of App Drawer, a leaner and faster Google Chrome, Adoptable Storage Devices, and the now standalone Google Photos that was part of Google+.

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How To Encrypt Your USB Drive to Protect Data

The USB flash drives or memory sticks are an excellent way to store and carry data and applications for access on any system you come across. With storage spaces already reaching 256 gigabytes, nowadays USB drives are often larger than past's hard drives.

Thanks to increased storage capacity and low prices, you can easily store all your personal data on a tiny, easy-to-carry, USB memory stick.

The USB drive is a device that is used by almost everyone today. However, there's a downside…

I think you’ll agree with me when I say:

USB sticks are easily lost or stolen.

Aren’t they?

However, in today’s post I am going to show you how to use your USB drives without fear of being misplaced.

If you are not aware, the leading cause of data breaches for the past few years has been the loss or theft of laptops and USB storage devices.

However, USB flash memory sticks are generally treated with far less care than laptops, and criminals seeking for corporate devices could cost your company a million dollars loss by stealing just a $12 USB drive.

By throwing light on the threats of USB drives, I’m not saying that you should never use a USB memory drives. Rather…

...I’ll introduce you a way to use your tiny data storage devices securely.

Losing USB flash drives wouldn’t be so concerning if the criminals were not granted immediate access to sensitive data stored in it.

Instead of relying merely on passwords, it's essential for businesses to safeguard their data by encrypting the device.

Yes, it is easy to create an encrypted USB drive in Ubuntu so that, at least you could rest easy after the loss of a USB drive knowing that your data is secure.

So without wasting much of your time, let’s get to know how to create an encrypted USB drive in Ubuntu.

Getting Ready

Before you can actually encrypt your USB flash drive in Ubuntu, you need to install the cryptsetup utility on your Linux system, which could be easily done by executing the following command:

sudo apt-get install -y cryptsetup

Once installed, insert the USB flash drive you’d like to encrypt into your computer, but make sure that everything that is on the drive is backed up!

Because, the encryption process requires your USB flash drive to be wiped, and anything currently on it will be lost if the drive is not backed up!

Encrypting the USB drive

Once you made sure that your drive’s contents are backed up, plug in your USB drive and open Disk Utility from the Dash.

Now, select your flash drive from the list on the left side and click on either the Stop button or Unmount partition icon present just below the highlighted partition.

Next, click on the Gears icon present in the same line and then choose “Format”. You will get the following window:

You can choose either quick or slow Erase options (although slow erase is technically safer), and then make sure to choose “Encrypted, compatible with Linux systems (LUKS +Ext4)” in Type.

Further, you can type a name for the flash drive in the Name field, set a password of your choice for it and click on Format.

The format process may take some time depending on your selection of Erase option. Once completed, pull your USB flash drive out and re-insert again. You will see the following prompt:

Congratulations, you have successfully encrypted your USB flash drive.

Look it’s that simple to create a secure USB drive on Ubuntu.

Now every time you plug your USB flash drive into a Linux system, it will ask a password to get unlocked, allowing you to use it just as easily as before.

Now if you lose your flash drive, your content is safe as no one will be able to access it without running Linux and knowing your secure passphrase.

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