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Why you need a Software Update Scan

Today’s PCs are loaded with lots of softwares, which require regular updating them with the latest release provided by the developer of that software application. This software updating is also important to keep you safe from the potential software vulnerabilities and threats. Programs such as anti-virus, personal firewall, and anti-spyware are great for protection, but they do not protect you from software vulnerabilities, for which you have to do a software update scan and update your programs.

But you never know, which software is now old and has a latest release available for download.

How to do a Software Update Scan

There are lots of tools available on Internet for this purpose, some free and some paid. Secunia PSI is one such FREE software update scanning tool, which helps you secure your computer from software vulnerabilities. This great web tool, also searches for the software, which have now gone dead, and lets you decide whether you want to keep it or remove it.

Overall a nice useful and FREE webtool.

Creation of strong passwords is the key to online safety these days. With the rapid increase in the web applications, which require you to register with them, there are virtually hundreds of passwords, which an average Internet user has to create to sustain his online presence. Remembering these passwords is a bit tedious work, and because of this, most of us tend to create passwords, which are just easy to remember, often overlooking whether somebody can hack passwords or not. And also repeat these passwords for more than one services.

However, this leaves a hole in our defence against potential online threats. These passwords, which are not that strong, can be hacked sometimes by experts of this dubious art. These masters know the weaknesses of people to create passwords with birthdays, own names, spouse or children names, zip codes and so on.

So how to create hack proof passwords easily

This discussion brings us to a trade off, where you tend to give up the security for convenience. But I have been using a simple trick for years, which gives me fairly strong passwords, without making them difficult to remember.

I, just like any other person, think of some moderately strong password made up of only alphabets, which is easy to remember and modify it with following thumb rules.

• Replace all ‘l’ with ‘|’.
• Replace all ‘a’ with ‘@’.
• Replace all ’s’ with ‘$’.
• Replace all ‘i’ with ‘!’.
• Replace all ‘o’ with ‘0′.

For instance…

• A “silki’ becomes ‘$!|k!’ .
• A “webtoolsandtips” becomes “webt00|$@t!p$”.
• A “windowsxp” becomes “w!nd0w$xp”.

This gives me some really hack proof passwords. Can you hack them easily ?