Saturday, February 23, 2013

How to Migrate between two smart phones

Migrating between phones is really a pain .
Data can be migrated easily by just changing the SD card given that all the data is stored in SD card and not in phone memory.
However, two things which are not so easy are SMS messages and Contacts.

1) Contacts.
Contacts can be exported to a .csv file from old phone and that file can be imported in the new phone.
(Contacts Options >> Import/export )

2) SMS messages
Install SMS backup restore app on both the phones and export the xml file from old phone and import to new phone :)  In case import is not working, one can open the xml file with this app.
Similar apps is available for all the platforms.Since this app works with any xml file, it allows interoperability.

3) For important docs, and other things, use cloud services like Box,Dropbox,Google Drive,Skydrive etc and backup your docs.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

How to tackle Spam Attacks in Facebook

This week, I was a victim of facebook spam attack twice.It took sometime to understand what happened and how to avoid it.I have listed down sometips to tackle this issue.
Looks like that i was an victim of ClickJacking.

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO IF YOUR ACCOUNT IS SENDING SPAM TO YOUR FACEBOOK FRIENDS.

I have seen people who have deleted their facebook accounts just because their account was phished or was part of a spam attack.Below are some tips on how to handle this with peace.

1) Change your password (Account Settings -> General -> Password) 

The number one thing you should do when your account is exhibiting some mischievous behaviour is to change password. If you change password from web interface, it will also prompt you to logoff from other locations where your facebook session is active.

        
2) Disable other sessions (Account Settings -> Security  -> Active Sessions)

Disable all your other active sessions . This will allow phishing to cease in case its a simple one and is not an automated one.

3) Disable Third party applications using your facebook 
      (Account Settings -> Apps  -> Apps you use ).

99% of the time its a third party application which you might have inadvertently accepted which went rogue .Click on  "Turn Off the platform." . This will disable all third party applications using your facebook activity and blocks anything they want to do with your facebook account.
This will take some time (not sure why though ?)  Till then you can remove all apps activity in the same tab.

4) Remove the content that triggered this.
You might get an idea what have triggered this mischievous activity by now.Most probably it would be "like" you did on an external website or a facebook post from a third party app. Remove that or any recent activity which is done from any external entity other than facebook.
If not and in case of Clickjacking , it will trigger this spam attack whenever you login back to facebook. Beware.
Report the app to facebook support /Report as Spam.
( In my case, it was a status update made from a third party app 'Selective tweets' ).

5) Cleanse your system 

Remove all the cookies in your  browser.
Update anti spamware software in your system and run a scan.


But "Prevention is better than Cure" . Do not allow third party tools to access facebook  and do not click on mischievous links.


- VolTa



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