Edward Snowden Q&A

Edward Snowden also know as the whistleblower behind the biggest intelligence leak in NSA history has done a live Q&A with The Guardian. He took questions live and answered queries regarding what he did and why he did it. He also spoke about Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Apple. Saying that their denials to allowing the government access to their servers were false. They are actually misleading their users as to the amount of information they were sharing with the NSA. He also spoke about why he choose Hong Kong and why he fled the US.

The Q&A is a good read for people who have been following this saga since it all began. The whole think started with something called PRISM - which gives the NSA authority to seek to snoop on users' data. This could be data from social networks, phone companies and just about anything out there. Many users have since started using the search engine duckduckgo to get their search queries answered. This entire data collection efforts' codename is PRISM.

This whole revelation by Edward Snowden is always on the news and this is the first time he did a live Q&A to answer people's questions. Hopefully he does an AMA on Reddit.

Read the entire Q&A here. Photo by The Guardian

How to recover your Facebook Password using Trusted Contacts

Now here's something useful for people who might forget their Facebook password and in addition lose access to their email. You might read the first sentence with a smirk on your face. However there are many people who lose access to their email accounts. You might think it's not possible - but it is. There might be many times when a user might forget their Facebook password and cannot open the recovery email sent to their email accounts. Facebook wants to make sure you can always gain access to Facebook no matter what happens. And to facilitate this Facebook has introduced something called Trusted contacts.

What is Facebook trusted contacts and how does it work
With Trusted contacts you can add 3 - 5 people who you think you trust the most. These friends need to be on Facebook and once you add them as trusted contacts. They will be notified and can help you if you ever lose access to your Facebook. Make sure you can contact these people offline - phone or someone you can visit physically. It's like giving your house key to a trusted friend. So once you lose access to your account call them up and let them know you want to recover your account. They can then help you out with a security code. Once you get your security code from at least 3 of them. You can enter then codes and gain back access to your account. There will be no need to add a security question and all of them. The codes are enough. Also good if your account gets hacked.

How to setup, enable turn on Trusted Contacts on Facebook.
You can click here to go to your security settings and enable Trusted Contacts or follow the steps below.
1. Login to Facebook
2. Click the cog icon and then choose account settings
3. On the left click on Security
4. Now click on trusted contacts
5. Choose trusted contacts
Save and you're done. The process has now started.

Source: Facebook Notes.

Please see video below if you need the visuals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGBgogY2L7w

How to follow Good Password Hygiene

There is enough news these days of Social Networking sites getting hacked. Once that happens you the end user stand to loos your account and maybe even your friends get spammed. Once an account is hacked you could also loose all your information and get your lists of friends etc deleted. This seems to be a problem generally on the internet and there seems to be only one way to fight all of this. Maintaining good password hygiene -- on social sites and else where on the internet. There is no company that is not susceptible to being hacked and till such time that permanent solutions are not found. The responsibility of keeping you account safe is left to you. So here are a few steps you need to follow to ensure good password management for your account, and keep your account secure.

How to set your passwords and keep them secure
1. Your passwords should be at least 10 characters long
2. Should contain a mix of characters -- letters, symbols (^%#), upper case, lower case and numbers
3. Don't use the same password for multiple sites
4. Change your password every six months

What is a password and why is it important
1. When you create a login ID on any site, you also need a password.
2. Passwords when being created and stored are always shown in asterisk -(******).
3. It is what gets you into your favorite sites like Google+, Facebook and Twitter.
4. It should not be shared with anyone.
5. Should be stored in a secure place. You can use a number of password saving apps online or better still -- find a way to manage all your passwords locally and offline.

Disable Java on your browser for better password protection
1. Most account seem to be compromised through the Java loophole.
2. The U.S Department of Homeland Advisory also has this to say on disabling Java.