Do you know why banking online is unsafe?

Techie, the whiz kid, guides you through technology on: Do you know why banking online is unsafe?

Banking online may prove out to be time-saving and hassle-free, but have you ever thought about how unsafe it is? Many of you may argue to differ! But, actually banking online is riskier than assumed! Even a recent study by University of Michigan researchers confirmed this. The researchers found design flaws in 76 percent of the 214 U.S. financial institution websites that include top banks.

In fact, many banks make their online customers take risks with their passwords and other sensitive account information, leaving them open to internet frauds. The result is that even the most security-conscious Web surfers could also find themselves as victims of identity theft because they have been made habituated to ignore potential clues about whether the banking site they are visiting is real or a fake site served up by hackers.

Also, there are many banks that redirect users to third-party sites, where pop-ups like ‘secure login’ boxes crop up on insecure Web pages.

Moreover, the banks improperly use Social Security numbers or e-mail addresses — which an outsider that is an efficient hacker can figure out as default ‘user names’.

All of these banking practices put online banking customers at serious risk.

But actually, there are no basic problems with the bank websites' coding that could allow hackers to break in. Instead, it’s the design flaws of the bank sites that guide online banking customers to bad surfing habits.

One of the biggest problems is that even if the login boxes on banks' pages are properly secured (meaning they send and receive encrypted data through a technology known as Secure Sockets Layer or in short, SSL), the full page itself, in some cases, is usually not protected with the same technology — so it becomes more difficult to tell whether the site is real or fake. [SSL-equipped sites show a padlock icon in the address bar which ensure the secured encryption technology and assure that the site's owner is legitimate.]

Again, when users are not notified that they are being taken to another site (when a bank uses a partner site for online bill payments) — then it becomes hard to determine if the new site is trustworthy, because the online registration certificate carries a different company's name.

So even the most tech savvy of the online banking customers could fall victim to ‘phishing’ scams because they are supposed to enter personal information into the site that is not their bank's — and has not been clearly certified by the bank.

Here, the hackers could easily take advantage by sending them fake pages, dressed up like the bank's website. That site would then redirect to another site under the hacker's control, and users might not question the redirection.

Thus it is nearly quite impossible for the online banking customers to play safe. However, whatever little they can do is not click on the links sent in e-mails. At least, this way they can reduce the risks to an extent, if not completely avoid the hacking possibilities when doing online banking transactions.

Related Why answers and technological general knowledge:

• Do you know why Mac is better than a Windows PC?
• Do you know why Google’s Gmail is perfectly customizable?
• Do you know why older people find it difficult to adapt to new gadgets and technology?

Do you know why Google’s Gmail is perfectly customizable?

Techie, the whiz kid, guides you through technology on: Do you know why Google’s Gmail is perfectly customizable?

Google’s Gmail is one of the best free email available in today’s date. Although at times you may encounter some minor hiccups in the newer version, Gmail can be customized according to your needs. And Google is dedicatedly working for further improvements even when most of you are oblivious of its fantastic features. You can actually make Google’s Gmail perfectly customizable.

Now why do I say Gmail is perfectly customizable? Because Gmail has wonderful flexible features that can be exploited to suit different needs. Let’s check out some of these outstanding but little-known features to see how you can perfectly customize Google’s Gmail.

You can customize Gmail inbox with Labels: This is a great way to filter your incoming messages. Click on Settings and then on Filter. At the bottom you will find ‘Create a new Filter’. Say, you want all your ‘myspace’ messages to be organized outside your Inbox. So, under ‘From’ put in ‘myspace’ and go to the next step. Tick ‘Skip the Inbox (Archive it)’. Next, tick ‘Apply Label’ and create a new label called ‘myspace’. Finally, click on ‘Create Filter’ and apply it to all the previous emails you have received from ‘myspace’. The next time you open your inbox, you will find all your messages from ‘myspace’ under Labels.

‘Labels’ is a very useful way to quickly get to mails that you regularly receive from certain friends or networks. You can find the ‘Labels’ tab under Settings.

You can customize Gmail to manage multiple email accounts: Did you know you could use Gmail to send messages from your other email addresses? You do not have to leave Gmail and go to Yahoo mail, for instance, to send a message from there. You can do it from Gmail itself. This feature makes it easier to manage multiple accounts from the Gmail interface.

Click Settings along the top of any page, and open the ‘Accounts’ tab. Under ‘Send mail as’, click ‘Add another email address’. In the ‘Name’ field, enter your full name. In the ‘Email address’ field, enter the mail address you would like to send from.

When someone replies to your message using a custom ‘From:’ address, the reply will be delivered to the ‘From:’ address rather than your Gmail address. If you want replies to be delivered to Gmail or a third account, you will need to enter a ‘reply-to’ address. To do this, click ‘Specify a different reply-to address’ and enter the desired email address.

Click Next Step and then click Send Verification. Gmail will send a verification message to your other email address to confirm that you own it.

Open your other account and either click the link in the message Gmail sent you or enter the confirmation code in the Accounts section of your Gmail settings.

You can customize Gmail to setup POP3: To be able to receive your mails from Gmail in Outlook or Outlook Express, you will have to enable this by going to Settings and clicking on ‘Forwarding POP/IMAP’. Enable the relevant parts. You will find the Outlook and Outlook Express configuration instructions on this page too.

You can customize Gmail with new features from Lab: What is in the Lab? When you log in to your Gmail account, you can find a blue icon. Click on it. Among the new features introduced are:

• A quick-link tool that lets you bookmark specific Gmail messages. It adds a box to the left column that gives you one-click access to anything that you have bookmarked in Gmail. You can also use it for saving searches and important messages.
• You could always put a star on a mail, but now you can insert Superstars, by successive clicks of the mouse.
• The ‘e-mail addict’ tool that lets you lock yourself out of your email account for 15 minutes.
• A fixed-width font option view adds a dropdown menu that lets you view a message in a fixed width font.
• Mouse gestures that let you take actions based on mouse movements. However, this works best in Windows. Don’t try it on a Mac.
• A ‘Signature tweak’ and a ‘Quoted signature’. The first lets you put a signature above the quoted reply and the second puts quotations at random. However, you cannot use both at the same time
• The option to upload your picture so that people can see who they are chatting with.

Now, do you know why I say Google’s Gmail is perfectly customizable? But as Gmail is still in its Beta, you may come across some ‘errors’ at times, if you are using the ‘New version’. When you face any problems like this, you can always switch over to ‘Older version’ (on the top right corner), which is flawless.

Other Why Answers:

• Do you know why Mac is better than a Windows PC?
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• Do you know why we are humans?

Do you know why Mac is better than a Windows PC?

Techie, the whiz kid, guides you through technology:

Have you switched from your Windows PC to a Mac yet, or still a bit hesitant to the bargain? I assure you that you will have a glide, if you make the switch — be it an iMac, MacBook or even a Mac Mini.

I have nothing against Windows, especially if it is running XP. But if it is Vista — you will have to upgrade your memory, graphics card, hard disk and what not! Or you will have to buy a brand new expensive computer. Then, you have to decide on which version of Vista — Enterprise, Business, Home Basic, Home Premium or Ultimate. If you decide to have the best — Ultimate, to run all your games and applications, it’s going to be an expensive affair!

So what’s so compelling about a Mac? If you compare between the Mac’s Operating System OS 10.5.1 (also called Leopard), Windows XP, Windows Vista and Ubuntu, you will understand the difference. In fact, the all Leopard version 10.5.2 is even better.

• Installation: I rank Mac as the leader, next is XP and at the bottom, come Vista and Ubuntu.

• Interface: Leopard gets full points. It is easy to use. Just drag and drop. The best part is the way you can preview your documents, photos and movies without even opening the player.

• Bundled Software: The Mac comes with all the software you need. There is iPhoto to keep your photos and iTunes for your music and movies. This is what you use to sync your iPod. GarageBand makes music, audition instruments and even makes your own band. iMovie edits your movies in minutes, not hours as in Windows. With iDVD, you can make slide shows and movies and write it to a DVD in a jiffy. All this comes bundled under a package called iLife. If you want something better than PowerPoint and Excel you should go in for iWork which has Keynote, the equivalent of PowerPoint. The effects you can put into your presentation are awesome and without even knowing Flash or Photoshop. If you have worked on Excel then Numbers on a Mac is surely going to floor you.

• Drivers and Hardware: Just about everything works with a Mac, even the stuff you used with your old PC. A Mac has USB drivers for printers, external drives, digital cameras, input devices, iPod and more. It can see Bluetooth cell phones and headsets, as well as FireWire cameras. No rebooting is needed and is hassle-free. And, no need to hunt for drivers all over the web, painstakingly.

• Home or Office Network: Networking is a breeze with Leopard version 10.5.2. Windows systems link up with Macs, seamlessly. With Screen sharing you can control any PC on the network and drag and drop files with ease.

• Virus, spyware and malware: There are approximately 115,000 viruses and more than one is being written every day. A Mac is not plagued by never-ending security dialog boxes from Internet Security Suites or Vista. You can safely go about your work or play, without interruption.

So, what are you waiting for? It’s high time that you stop fiddling with the idea about making the switch from a Windows PC to a power-packed Mac. Just dive for it, with your eyes closed!

Other Why Answers:

• Do you know why older people find it difficult to adapt to new gadgets and technology?
• Do you know why we are humans?