WhatsApp is Now Free For Lifetime

Good News for WhatsApp users!

The widely popular messaging service is going completely free. And you'll be able to use WhatsApp without paying a penny.

Old WhatsApp users might not be aware of this, but WhatsApp introduced the subscription fees for its service a few years ago, forcing new users to pay an annual 99 cents (~$1) subscription fee after the first year.

However, WhatsApp announced Monday that the Facebook-owned company is dropping its annual subscription fee to make its service free to all users.

While announcing the plan today, WhatsApp's founder Jan Koum stated that the annual subscription fee was still a barrier to some users.

"As we have grown, we have found that this approach has not worked well," WhatsApp admitted in a company blog post today. "Many WhatsApp users do not have a debit or credit card number, and they worried they'd lose access to their friends and family after their first year."

What will be WhatsApp's New Business Model?

WhatsApp categorically said the company won't be replacing the subscription fee with third-party advertisements like intrusive banner and interstitials, which nowadays is a common practice used to make free applications profitable.

Instead, the company said it will explore ways businesses can use WhatsApp to connect with individuals, and will introduce new ways for users to communicate with businesses and organisations that will pay the company to target relevant communications with customers.

For example:

• A bank could use WhatsApp paid account to communicate with its customers about recent transactions and necessary fraud warnings.
• An airline could use WhatsApp paid account to contact its passengers about a delayed schedule or cancelled flight.

It is the same approach WhatsApp parent company Facebook is using with its own Messenger application, which in last month started allowing its users to book an Uber cab directly through the Messenger app.

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This thirteen-year-old builds a satellite that can produce oxygen in space

Thirteen-Year-Old Wins Space Agency Competition By Creating A Model Satellite That Will Produce Oxygen On Mars

The recently concluded “Satellite is Born” competition held by the Israel Space Agency saw 13-year-old, Roni Oron, from Ramat Hasharon, Israel emerge as the winner. All those young children who are aged between 12-15 and have a desire for designing model satellites that can impact science and humanity in a positive way can take part in the competition.

According to the Isreali youth magazine “Ma’ariv L’Noar,” Oron’s winning idea is called Bio Sat which through the use of photosynthesis aims “to solve a problem for astronauts trying to prove that life on Mars is possible.”

Oron explained that the Bio Sat is “built like a large bubble on one side of which there is a mirror and the other is transparent, enabling the penetration of sunlight. In the middle there is a capsule, which will be made of a membrane through which air can pass but water cannot. Inside of it there will be water and algae, and outside there will be carbon dioxide. Through a process of photosynthesis, the satellite will produce oxygen. There will be additional mirrors inside the satellite that will enable sunlight to reach the capsule, but not by direct radiation, which would harm the algae.”

Oron credited her parents who supported her passion for science:

“My father, an orthopedist, was very happy when I began my research. From my mother I learned the wisdom of looking at life creatively.”

Later this year, Oron will attend the NASA summer camp in Florida as the winner of the competition. She explained:

“This will be sort of a beginning for the development of this idea, a kind of camp in which you meet with many astronauts and [other]teens. We will arrive there as guests of honor, stay there until very late hours to develop the satellite, and then we’ll see where it goes.”

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You Wouldn't Believe that Too Many People Still Use Terrible Passwords

Some things online can never change like -- Terrible Passwords by Humans.

When it's about various security measures to be taken in order to protect your Internet security, like installing a good anti-virus or running Linux on your system doesn’t mean that your work gets over here, and you are safe enough from online threats.

However, even after countless warnings, most people are continuously using deadly-simple passwords, like '123456' or 'password,' to safeguard their most sensitive data.

Evidence suggests that weak passwords are as popular now as they ever were, and the top 25 passwords of 2015 are very easy to guess.

Password management firm SplashData on Tuesday released its annual "Worst Passwords List". The 2015 list almost resembled the 2014 list of the worst password, but there are some interesting new entries, including the Star Wars-inspired 'solo,' and 'starwars.'

Hard to believe, but '123456' once again topped the list, just like last year, and again followed by the truly terrible 'password.'

Sport remains popular among online users as 'football' and 'baseball' are both on the top 10 list of worst passwords.

Top 25 Worst Passwords of 2015

SplashData analyzed over 2 Million leaked passwords in 2015, and the results are as follow:

1. 123456
2. password
3. 12345678
4. qwerty
5. 12345
6. 123456789
7. football
8. 1234
9. 1234567
10. baseball
11. welcome
12. 1234567890
13. abc123
14. 111111
15. 1qaz2wsx
16. dragon
17. master
18. monkey
19. letmein
20. login
21. princess
22. qwertyuiop
23. solo
24. passw0rd
25. starwars

"The longer passwords are so simple as to make their extra length virtually worthless as a security measure," says SplashData

The importance of online security around personal data has increased due to the rise in data breaches and cyber attacks over recent years.

Last year was the year of data breaches. According to an estimate, around 480 Million personal data records were leaked online, which included high-profile breaches at the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the extramarital affair site Ashley Madison.

So remember: "God helps those who help themselves," likewise nobody can secure you online unless and until you are not willing to.

How to Create a Strong Password

Always create different passwords for different sites. So that if one site is breached, your other online accounts on other sites are secure from being hacked.

These are some useful tips that will help you make password strength secure and easier to remember:

• Use a combination of lowercase, uppercase, numbers, and special characters of 8 characters long or more like s9%w^8@t$i.
• Use short passphrases with special characters separating to make it difficult for crackers and could be easily remembered like cry%like@me (cry like me).
• Avoid using the same combination of passwords for different websites.
• If it is difficult for you to remember different passwords for different websites, then use Password Manager applications like RoboForm, 1Password, LastPass.

Stay Safe! Stay Secure!

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Stolen accounts of Uber and PayPal users are more in demand on the dark web forums

Stolen Uber and PayPal accounts are more coveted that credit cards on the Dark Web

It seems the cyber criminals are now a days preferring stolen Uber, PayPal and even Facebook accounts to the traditional favorite. Every stolen credit card, Uber, PayPal, Medical Insurance and other such personally identifiable information (PII) finds its way to the Dark Web marketplace. And according to Trend Micro, the latest trends suggest that credit cards, which were the old favorite, are losing ground to stolen Uber and PayPal accounts as the new favorites among the buyers and sellers on the underground marketplace, or “the Dark Web.”

According a recent report published on CNBC, stolen Uber account information could be found on underground marketplaces for an average of $3.78 per account, while personally identifiable information, such as Social Security Numbers or dates of birth, ranged from $1 to $3.30 on average – down from $4 per record in 2014.

Furthermore, PayPal accounts – with a guaranteed balance of $500 –were found to have an average selling price of $6.43. Facebook logins sold for an average of $3.02, while Netflix credentials sold for about 76 cents.

The old favorite among cyber criminals, U.S.-issued credit card information, which is sold in bundles, was listed for no more than 22 cents each.

“It’s an incredible underground ecosystem. There is a high level of competition for these criminal buyers and there are a lot of different types of forums. It’s incredibly diverse, but incredibly mature,” said Ed Cabrera, Trend Micro’s vice president of cybersecurity strategy.

Experts say the stolen Uber accounts are current favorite among cybercriminals because they are often used stolen Uber credentials to book “ghost rides,” in which they create a fake driver account and charge nonexistent rides to stolen accounts.

“They are doing their own market research or where they can find the data that’s most valuable in the criminal underground and they develop their attacks accordingly,” said Cabrera.

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Apple testing Ultra-Fast Li-Fi Wireless Technology for Future iPhones

Apple to make future iPhones compatible with a cutting-edge technology that has the capability to transmit data at 100 times the speed of WiFi, suggests the code found within the iOS firmware.

Apple may ship future iPhones with Li-Fi capabilities, a new technology that may end up replacing the widely-used Wi-Fi in the future technology.

Beginning with iOS 9.1 update, the operating system's source code makes mention of "LiFiCapability" alongside declarations to other hardware and software capabilities, hinting that Apple may be experimenting with ways to integrate Li-Fi technology with future iPhones models.

Li-Fi compatibility with Future iPhones

Li-Fi compatibility was spotted in the code for iOS 9.1 by a Twitter user, who goes by name Chase Fromm, and was independently confirmed by Apple Insider. However, there is no such indication that Apple is actually working with Li-Fi.

But, as pointed out by Apple Insider, Apple filed a patent application for a device in 2013 that described a method of "optical modulation using an image sensor," hinting that the company may have been working on new ways to utilize light to transmit data.

What is Li-Fi Technology?

Li-Fi, a next-generation technology invented by Professor Harald Hass of the University of Edinburgh in 2011, is capable of transmitting data via light (i.e. Visible Light Communication or VLC). The thing that makes Li-Fi so compelling is its fastest data transferring speed.

Li-Fi tests have shown it can transmit information more than 100 times faster than a standard Wi-Fi network, with theoretical speeds of around 224 gigabits per second.

This means that you could download multiple high-definition (HD) movies to your iPhone over a LiFi connection in a matter of seconds.

However, it is unclear how Apple intends to make use of LiFi, as, at the present, no technology on the market uses LiFi. So, it could be used for talking to devices, say the Apple TV, within the same room. This is just speculation.

So, is Li-Fi technology likely to be a feature with iPhone 7?

No chance.

Given the early stages of the LiFi technology, it is unlikely to say that it could be a feature with iPhone 7. Although a number of companies are working to commercialize the technology, it is expected that Li-Fi could be ready for commercial use by the end of the decade.

Also, despite promising high speed, LiFi has some limitations. The biggest drawback to the LiFi technology is that it cannot work through walls because visible light cannot penetrate through walls.

Besides this, the LiFi technology also requires a direct line of sight between the transmitter and the device in order to operate.

However, this limitation could be seen as a boon as it make Li-Fi secure from external sniffing. Meanwhile, this also means there is less interference from other devices, making the technology a more secure transfer protocol than standard Wi-Fi.

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Google to Speed Up Chrome for Fast Internet Browsing

Google is planning to make Chrome faster in order to provide its users fast Internet browsing experience.

Thanks to a new, open-source data and web compression algorithm for the Internet called Brotli, which Google announced last year to boost its web page performance.

With Brotli, Google will speed up Chrome and users could get a significant performance boost in coming months.

Google introduced Brotli last September and claimed that the new algorithm is a "whole new data format" that could reduce file sizes by up to 26 percent higher than Zopfli, the company's three-year-old web compression technology.

Net result – Fast Internet Browsing

In a post on Google+ on Tuesday, web performance engineer at Google Ilya Grigorik announcedthat the new algorithm is coming to Chrome soon, which will change the way files are compressed, improving loading speeds by a quarter.

Besides faster loading speeds, Brotli also have additional benefits for smartphone users, which includes:

• Lower data transfer fees
• Reduced battery use

Brotli is currently in beta testing mode, with a current status "intent to ship", however, it is likely to be rolled out with the next stable release of Chrome.

Advantages of Brotli

• Brotli outperforms gzip for typical web assets (e.g. css, html, js) by 17–25%.
• Brotli -11 density compared to gzip -9:
• html (multi-language corpus): 25% savings
• js (alexa top 10k): 17% savings
• minified js (alexa top 10k): 17% savings
• css (alexa top 10k): 20% savings

Chrome to Speed Up Web Page Performance Over HTTPS

At present, Brotli is restricted to HTTPS connections, and if you are curious to see Brotli in action, you can activate the feature in Chrome Canary, which is Google's browser for testing new features.

Thereby, you can carry out internet speed test with the help of various website performance testing tools to know what difference Brotli makes to your Internet browsing experience.

So, Get Ready to Speed Up Chrome and make your web page performance faster.

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Samsung Get Sued for Failing to Update its Smartphones

One of the world's largest smartphone makers is being sued by the Dutch Consumers' Association (DCA) for its lack in providing timely software updates to its Android smartphones.

This doesn't surprise me, though.

The majority of manufacturers fail to deliver software updates for old devices for years.

However, the consumer protection watchdog in The Netherlands, The Dutch Consumentenbond,filed a lawsuit against Samsung, due to the manufacturer's grip over the local market compared to other manufacturers.

Last year, the discovery of the scary Stagefright Security Bug, which affected over 1 Billion Android devices worldwide, forced Samsung to implement a security update process that "fast tracks the security patches over the air when security vulnerabilities are uncovered a security update process that "fast tracks the security patches over the air when security vulnerabilities are uncovered," and that the security updates will occur once per month.

However, the watchdog also blames Korean OEM Samsung for not being transparent regarding the critical security updates, like the update to fix Stagefright exploits, that are necessary to "protect [its] consumers from cyber criminals and the loss of their personal data."

Majority of Samsung Handsets Vulnerable to Issues

According to DCA's own research, at least 82 percent of Samsung smartphones available in the Dutch market examined had not received any software updates on the latest Android version in two years.

This failure in providing the software updates left the majority of Android devices vulnerable to issues on security and others.

The DCA says that the agency has previously contacted Samsung many times and discussed the matter privately with the manufacturer giant to resolve the situation, but it failed to reach an agreement with the company, and so it decided to go to court.

At this point, I should mention that these are entirely valid claims.

Like most other manufacturers, Samsung doesn't provide timely software updates to its devices.

No doubt, the Samsung Galaxy S6 series have received Stagefright patches on time, but the manufacturer failed to provide Stagefright fixes for its majority of midrange and entry-level Android devices.

Furthermore, none of Samsung's devices currently runs the latest Android 6.0 Marshmallow, three months after it officially launched.

DCA's Demands from Samsung

The agency has requested the manufacturer to update all of its smartphone devices to the latest version of Android operating system for two years since the handset is purchased (not launched).

In some ways, the agency wants Samsung to treat software updates as part of the warranty that has its length mandated at two years in the European Union.

"[We are] demanding that Samsung provides its customers with clear and unambiguous information about this," The DCA writes. "Also, [we are] demanding that Samsung actually provides its smartphones with updates."

Response by Samsung

In response to the lawsuit, Samsung released an official statement saying the company was working on improving its updates on software and security.

"We have made a number of commitments in recent months to better inform consumers about the status of security issues, and the measures we are taking to address those issues,"reads the statement. 

"Data security is a top priority and we work hard every day to ensure that the devices we sell and the information contained on those devices are is safeguarded."

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