Gmail is not 100% Safe! And we have got proof

Gmail is fast, but we just found out how insecure it is. The standard Gmail loads into a java applet which gives Gmail all the so called, cool features. Each time you open a mail, Gmail creates an executable file named ‘mail.google.com’ in the Internet Explorer Cache (usually in Temporary Internet Files folder). This file cannot run on windows, if you try opening it you get an error message:

We opened the file in the best ever hacking tool, Notepad. As expected we got a scramble of text. Some lines of the text looked like html code, so we thought of opening the file in Internet Explorer. For this we saved the text file as ‘mail.html’ and opened it in Internet Explorer hoping to find some effect of the html. The result was negative. Then we opened the file in Microsoft FrontPage and switched the view to HTML (refer image)

In the HTML view, the text was organized and comprehensive. And we got the answer. Gmail is not 100% safe. We could make out the mails that we had previously opened on our computer from the html. Here is an example:

Original Mail:

HOW TO DETECT A 2-WAY MIRROR?
When we visit toilets, bathrooms, hotel rooms, changing rooms, etc. How many of you know for sure that the seemingly ordinary mirror hanging on the wall is a real mirror, or actually a 2-way mirror i.e., they can see you, but you can’t see them. There have been many cases of people installing 2-way mirrors in female changing rooms or bathroom or bedrooms. It is very difficult to positively identify the surface by looking at it. So, how do we determine with any amount of certainty what type of mirror we are looking at?
CONDUCT THIS SIMPLE TEST: Place the tip of your fingernail against the reflective surface and if there is a GAP between your fingernail and the image of the nail, then it is a GENUINE mirror. However, if your fingernail DIRECTLY TOUCHES the image of your nail, then BEWARE; IT IS A 2-WAY MIRROR! (There is someone seeing you from other side). So remember, every time you see a mirror, do the fingernail test. It doesn’t cost you anything. It is simple to do.
The reason there is a gap on a real mirror, is because the silver is on the back of the mirror UNDER the glass. Whereas with a two-way mirror, the silver is on the surface. Keep it in mind! Make sure and check every time you enter in hotel rooms. May be someone is making a film on you.

Ladies: Share this with your friends.
Men: Share this with your sisters, wives, daughters, friends, colleagues, etc. Pass this message to all Ur friends in the Contacts

Take care.......
luv
GTM

The Scramble we found from Cache:

[[["v","1mq71lcaz8ekj","5259372521f1cec4","41","1","vaknsvbtjz8a"]
,["gn",""]
,["cfs",[]
,[]
]
,["i",100]
,["st",1211373576]
,["qu","32","6745","0","#006633",0,0,0,"0","6.6"]
,["ft","Add a personalized \u003cspan style\u003d\"color:#0000CC;text-decoration:underline;cursor:pointer;cursor:hand;white-space:nowrap\" id\u003d\"prf_g\"\u003e\u003cb\u003esignature\ u003c/b\u003e\u003c/span\u003e to all your outgoing messages. \u0026nbsp; \u003ca style\u003dcolor:#0000CC target\u003d_blank href\u003d\"http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?ctx\u003d%67mail\u0026hl\u003den\u0026answer\u003d8395\"\u003eLearn more\u003c/a\u003e"]
,["cs","112276a993ec9903","2 way mirror","2 way mirror","",["^i"]
,[]
,0,1,,"112276a993ec9903",[]
,1,"4",0,0]
,["mi",8,1,"112276a993ec9903",0,"0","GTM JS","GTM","4gtmjs@gmail.com",[[]
,[]
,[]
]
,"4/25/07",[]
,[]
,[]
,[]
,"Apr 25, 2007 11:55 AM","2 way mirror","",[]
,1,,,"Wed Apr 25 2007_11:55 AM","On 4/25/07, GTM JS \u003c4gtmjs@gmail.com\u003e wrote:","On 4/25/07, \u003cb class\u003dgmail_sendername\u003eGTM JS\u003c/b\u003e \u0026lt;4gtmjs@gmail.com\u0026gt; wrote:","gmail.com",,,"","",0,,"\u003caab366660 704242325y38b5aab4q2dace5d9177108a0@mail.gmail.com\u003e",1177482336000,,0,"2 way mirror",0]
,["mb","\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c u\u003eHOW TO DETECT A 2-WAY MIRROR?\u003cbr\u003e\u003 c/u\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen we visit toilets, bathrooms, hotel rooms, changing rooms, etc.,\u003cbr\u003eHow many of you know for sure that the seemingly ordinary mirror\u003cbr\u003ehanging\u003cbr\u003eon the wall is a real mirror, or actually a 2-way mirror \ni.e., they can\u003cbr\u003esee you, but you can\u0026#39;t see them. There have been many cases of people\u003cbr\u003einstalling 2-way mirrors in female changing rooms or bathroom or\u003cbr\ u003ebedrooms. It is very difficult to positively identify the surface by \n\u003cbr\u003ejust\u003cbr\u003elooking at it. So, how do we determine with any amount of certainty\u003cbr\u003ewhat\u003cbr\u003etype of mirror we are looking at?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\ u003e\u003c strong\u003e\u003cu\u003eCONDUCT THIS SIMPLE TEST:\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/u\u003e\u0 03c/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePlace the tip of your fingernail against the reflective surface and if \n\u003cbr\u003ethere is a GAP between your fingernail and the image of the nail, then\u003cbr\u003eit is a GENUINE mirror.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHowever, if your fingernail DIRECTLY TOUCHES the image of your nail,\u003cbr\u003ethen BEWARE, IT IS A 2-WAY MIRROR! (There is someone seeing you from \n\u003cbr\u003ethe\u003cbr\u003eother side). So remember, every time you see a mirror, do the\u003cbr\u0 03e\u0026quot;fingernail test.\u0026quot; It doesn\u0026#39;t cost you anything. It is simple to do.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe reason there is a gap on a real mirror, is because the silver is on \n\u003cbr\u003ethe back of the mirror UNDER the glass.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhereas with a two-way mirror, the silver is on the surface. Keep it in\u003cbr\u003emind! Make sure and check every time you enter in hotel rooms. May be\u003cbr\u003esomeone is making a film on you. \n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLadies: Share this with your friends.\u003cbr\u003eMen: Share this with your sisters, wives, daughters, friends,\u003cbr\u003ecolleagues, etc.\u003cbr\u003ePass this message to all Ur friends in the Contacts Take care.......n\u003cbr\u003edo test\u003cbr\u003eit....\n\u003cbr\u00 3e\u003cbr\u003e\ u003cstrong\u003eluv GTM\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n",0]
,["ce"]],"0"]

See for yourself, the whole of the mail is in the cache. We tried with many such files. We found lot of mails in bits and pieces along with a bunch of email addresses. Now that’s solid proof.

If you are someone who uses public computers or shares a computer with someone, it would be good for your privacy if you clear the cache after logging out of Gmail every time. Some public computers do not give access to the cache, in that case use the ‘Basic html view’ available in Gmail. We recommend Firefox to use Gmail. It does not have this problem of privacy.

And for the Google guys: Time has come to solve this Privacy issue.

Gmail Just Doubled its Upload File Size limit

Previously you could upload only files of 10 MB size in Gmail. Now Google doubled this limit. So that now you can upload even bigger files that can go up to 20 MB.

Remember that Gmail scans all the files that we upload for viruses.  So Gmail can be used as a virus scanner too fi you dont have an anti-virus installed on your PC. So now you can scan for even bigger files. Only thing that you need is high bandwidth.

Read About The increased size limit from Gmail | See the Gmail Features

b.

MC recommendations while choosing an e-mail address

Simple E-mail addresses are easy to remember..
dip_open-heart44562@gmail.com... Look at this email addresses. You read it once and is likely to forget it really soon. Consider this frankhardy@gmail.com... You will probably remember this for ever. When you create a email address name it with your own name and try to avoid underscores, fullstops and numbers if possible. That way your friends can easily remind your email addresses. If your name is not available add a two digit number at the end.

People will easily forget the placing of the dots and the underscores. But they will never forget your name. The two digit number at the end is also not hard to remember.

There is one added advantage if you choose simple email addresses without fullstops and underscores.. You can tell that to anyone really fast. Try telling the e-mail address I have added at the beginning of this post. Compare that with the second one...

So that is what MillionClues recommends...
b.

 

Protect Your Password From Keyboard Loggers 2

I have made a previous post on the same topic [ See Previous Post ]. That's why named this with a '2' at the end. Here is a new method to do the same.

Windows has got an On-screen keyboard in the accesibility tools. Use that keyboard to enter passwords and credit card information in forms. Keyboard tracking softwares will track them as just clicks and the information remain hidden. That way you can keep your passowrd safe from both software and hardware Keyboard Loggers.

Make sure that no one is watching you when you enter your passwords using the Onscreen Keyboard. If someone watch he can easily know your password seeing your clicks.

The On-screen Keyboard can be found in Start>Programs>Accessories>Accessibility>On-screen Keyboard

b.

Group your contacts within Gmail

With Gmail you can create mailing lists so that you can group your contacts with common intrests to one name. Then you can send mail to all these contacts by just selecting the group name.

Lets see how to do that...
Go to contacts and select all those contacts that you wish to make to a group. From the actions drop down menu select new group. Give the name of the group and you are done.

When you wish to send mail to this group just type in the name that you gave. For eg. if you created a group with the name 'school mates', key in 'schoolmates' in the to: box. All the contacts will selected automatically.

To add contacts to this group later, select the new contact and from the actions drop down menu select add to group. You can remove a purticular contact by selecting it and pressing remove from group from the same menu.

Good luck!
b.

All About Labels in Gmail

Gmail, the most impressive email service on the internet has got something called labels.
Labels can be used to label your mails. Just like you star your mails in the gmail inbox.

Where can u find ur labels...
Labels that you have created can be found in the sidebar on the left of gmail

To create a label...
Method 1 .
Go to settings>labels. There you will find all that you need to create a label.
Method 2.
On the labels region on the sidebar of gmail click on edit labels to edit or create new label.

How to apply label...
To label a purticular mail, select the mail and in the actions drop down box choose the label that you wish to apply. All the labels that you have created will be available there.

All the mails with a purticular label can be seen together by clicking the label in the labels region in the sidebar.

Quite useful to sort your emails. For non Gmail users, this is another reason to join gmail.
Good luck!
b.

Read more about gmail at :
* Gmail - Fast and Free
* Chat in Gmail
* Vacation Responder in Gmail

* Sending Executable file in Gmail

 

Use Gmail with Keyboard Shortcuts

Gmail has got shortcuts in it like we have in yahoo. This feature often goes unnoticed because it is not enabled by default. ( I found it only last week ! So is my father ).

To enable shortcuts go to settings. In the general settings ( the very first page ) turn keyboard shortcuts on. Now save the settings. Back in the inbox you will find a ' > ' waiting before the last mail you read. This is the indication of which mail you are pointing to.

Here are the basic shortcuts :
While in the inbox or while reading a mail these will work. Remember while you are entering text shortcuts will be counted as text inputs.

c   - Compose
Shift + c   - Compose in a new window
j   - Older mail ( the arrow > moves down while you are in the inbox )
k   - Newer mail
enter or o   - Open mail
/   - To place the curser in the search box
u   - Back ( Like Back to Inbox or Back To Contacts )
r   - Reply
f   - Forward

gi ( g followed by i pressed in sequence )
   - Go to inbox
gd   - Go to drafts
gs   - Go to sent mail
gc   - Go to contacts

For the complete list of shortcuts see the learn more button just near the ' turn keyboard shortcut on ' option in gmail settings.

b

Enable chat history so as to receive offline messages in Gmail

Gmail is getting better day by day. So is Google talk. Google talk has introduced a facility which was previously available with yahoo and some othere instant messengers. Its called offline messages.

Offline messages are like emails. Messages sent to the reciever when the receiver is offline. He can access them once he is online. But when done with a instant messenger program they are called offline messages and not the regular e-mail.

Google talk, still in beta now offers offline message functionality which means that you can chat with your ofline contacts. But the end receiver must enable chat history in their settings ( Settings > chat ). Many users have not done that. Do enable your chat history and let your friends talk to you even when you are ofline. These ofline messages can be either seen as email in your inbox or as a pop up when you next login to your Google talk.Either of this will happen only if your chat history is enabled.
b

Archive Your mails in Gmail and make your Inbox look clean

Have you been ever troubled with a whole lot of mails in your inbox..? If you do not wish to delete those lovely mails but still wish to have a clean inbox Gmail has got solutions. Gmail offers archiving facility for its users.

Archives are collections of previous records into a less frequently used media. Like we create backups in CD's and DVD's of those data which we do not use often in our computer.

All you have to do is select all those mails that you wish to archive and click 'archive' button which is above all the mails in the inbox. Those mails will me moved to the archive and removed from your inbox.
You can later access these mails in the 'all mails' folder of Gmail. This way you can have a neat inbox without having to delete a single mail. Thanks to Gmail.

b

Add your Photo In Gmail - Let the world see you.

Gmail lets you to add your photo to your profile in Gmail. Doing this will send your picture to your friends and they can see you often.
But for your friend to see your picture he has to choose to display the picture of your chioce in the contacts. This is on by default. But he can choose to display a picture of his pick, and if he is doing that he will not see you.

Gmail will show your picture when he hovers over your mail giving your friend a quick glance of you smiling. But on account of 'internet borne diseases' like fake pictures through morphing and related issues, its not always very safe to give your picture to everyone. But you can always have some picture in that place of your picture. Why dont you try giving a picture of a small scenery as your photo..? But you cannot post a very big picture. Only a thumpnail size of 96x96 is allowed. Still it is really good to ahve some picture instead of a blank ghost picture which gmail automatically adds.

To add your picture go to the settings. On the very first page there is a picture link. Clicking that opens a window with an optional browser. Open the browser and open a picture. Gmail will then give you an option to crop your image. Do that if needed and save then save your picture. You are done.

Remember not to use pictures that is copyrighted, or that contain adult content or even those of celebrities ( unless you are on of them ! ).

b

Sending an Executable File in Gmail

As a matter of security from malicious code or so, G-mail beta does not allow users to send Executable files in Gmail. This helps to keep Gmail virus free. But this can be irritating at-times, like when you are trying to send something which is definitely virus free. Like if you did like to send a program that you made for evaluation to your friend or so. Here are 2 ways to send such files. Thanks to my friend Sam.

Method 1 :
Add the executable file to a zip archive. Its not over yet. Add this zip archive to another zip archive. So that your executable file will be inside two zip archives simultaneously. Then attach it and then you can send it comfortably.
eg:. If your file name is asd.exe , first add it to a zip archive named abc.zip or so. Then add this abc.zip to another zip named xyz.zip or so. Then attach it.

Method 2 :
Rename your executable file to something which is not an executable. That is change the extension .exe to somthing like .jkl or so. then attach it and inform the reciver at the other end to rename it to .exe before he can use it. That's it.
You can rename the file using command prompt.
For eg: if you wish to rename asd.exe to asd.jkl take command prompt and then go to the directory where your file is. then type ' rename asd.exe asd.jkl' without the quotes.

Good Luck!

Chat Right Inside G-mail

I have already mentioned that G-mail is the best web-based free e-mail service. As you might know we can chat right inside G-mail. The chat applet loads while the inbox is loading and connects itself to the chat server so that you can know when your contacts are online. When they come online you can chat with them right from there.

In Gmail the chat applet is present at the left bar below the labels ( or just above it if you have configured to do so in the settings ). That applet shows some of the contacts of you. ( In the settings you can choose the number of contacts to display ). Those ones whom you have chosen to display always will always be there. The remaining gaps will be filled by your frequent contacts.

To always display a purticular contact in the applet hover over the contact and you will get a popup. In that at about the right bottom corner you have display options where you can choose form : Auto , Always and Never. If the required contact is not there in the chat applet go to the contacts and just after their name there is an option to change the settings of display. Choose 'always' to see that contact always.

When a contact comes online ( and If he/she has signed in to chat ) his status will be displayed as online by a green bulb near his name. He can choose to diplay it as red if he chooses his status as busy. When the green bulb is lit you can chat with him by just moving your mouse to that contact and clicking 'chat' on the popup which then appears. It does not take time to load a chat applet. Its already there. A small window insantly appears where you can start chatting.

This chat facility is available only if you have choosen the G-mail view as 'Standard with chat'. This can be seen at the bottom of the inbox and just above the program policies link.

Choosing the 'Standard with chat' loads the chat applet every time you log in to your inbox. So this takes more time. Also the connection to server might get lost frequently if you are using a dial up connection. So dial up users will have to sacrifice the speed and it takes long to lead even a mail.

So if you are not intrested in chatting and is a dialup user its better to use the 'Standard without chat' or 'basic html' view. This will make checking mails more enjoyable.

G-mail have also provided users with a facility to record the chat's This is something which is not available with all chat programs. To record your chats you have to say it to do so in the settings. If you have choosen to record the chats the chats will be stored in the chat link which is found below the inbox link in the left part of the page. Every chat is recorded step wise along with time.

Its good to check your settings atleast once in 3 months. Remember that G-mail is still in the beta state. So they are adding more and more features to it. If you keep checking your settings you wont miss any of their new features.

Actually this was intended for non G-mail users. If you are not using G-mail yet, let me welcome you to G-mail. I had already put an article on G-mail. Read that too.
But to sign up to g-mail you need and invitation. If you are intrested and is looking for an invitaion send me a mail at : arunbasillal@gmail.com. I will send you one ( Remeber, I got limited invitations remaining.. about 94 only ).

Again welcome to G-mail, the best web-based free email service.

b

 

Vacation Responder - Your Personal Manager

We have got a whole lot of free as well as paid e-mail proviers. For instance you got yahoo, msn,hotmail,g-mail,rediffmail,ureach,hoshmail and ofcource a lot more. Unknown to many. Every one using the internet would be having a single mail id atleast.
But most of you wouldnt have noticed the vacation responder in most of the providers. Believe me. You got vacation responder in G-mail, Yahoo, Ureach, Rediffmail and .... I dont know about the rest.
As the name says vactaion responder is something which respondes to the incoming mails right at the moment it is recieved. So u can inform the sender if you are away for quite a long time. It can also be used in firms telling the customers that ' your mail is under processing and we will get back to you soon'. This is a real useful tool but most people do not know of this thing.
I have been using it a for a long time. One day one of my friend called me and asked me to teach him too this technique. I was wonder-stuck. I had thought that everyone around would be using it. And that caller is someone who had his own blog and sub-domain.
So to all my friends who do not know of this vacation responder...
For gmail vaction responder is found in settings. You cannot add graphical messages to it. You can set the vacation responder for infinie time.
For yahoo vacation responer is found in the my-account section. Unlike g-mail you cannot set the vacation responer to infinite time. You can only set for 6 months maximum. You have to give a starting date and a ending date.
For Ureach vacation responer is found in the settings section. I think u can set this for infinite time like g-mail.
For rediffmail users vacation responer is found in the settings.
All these are for free users. Paid users will have lot more options - i think.
Going through the settings of your account is very important. Especially for g-mail whcih is still in its beta state. They at Google wil be constantly working on it. So more functions add on from time to time. To keep track of it do visit ur settings regularly.
For more clarifications and g-mail invitaions ( as per availability ) contact me at arunbasillal@gmail.com.
b

Gmail - Fast And Free

Gmail is the best webbased free mail service. If I say this i dont think you would object. Because there is no reason to do so. Which other provider gives u such free service without any graphical adds..?

Ok Gmail has got adds. But thats the google addsence running. Those adds might prove useful to us. Addsence as u might know shows content speicfic adds on the right side of your mails. Those adds are not graphical so the pages loads really fast.

Did u get what I meant by content specific adds..? Look. If you got a mail from your friend saying that it's her sisters birthday the next week. Google adds will show some sites that will allow u to send e-cards. So you can do that right from there. Or for instance, if ur mail contains something related to flights between london and moscow , believe me the content specfic adds will come up with something related to that.

Turning back to Gmail.
Even thought it is in its beta version it has got a whole lot of things. Its been over an year I started my gmail account ( arunbasillal@gmail.com ). But even before that I used to get invitations to join Gmail from lots of my friends. Those days i used to think what is so special about Gmail. One day at a Cafe I saw my friend Gautam, using his account. Just by the view of that an idea came to my mind saying that it is really good. So the very next day is sighned up.
And I got.. 2500+( Now 2771 and counting) Mb of space, Bright colours to the inbox, And a brand new neat and clean inbox. First it was a facination. Then it became a craze.

Later Gmail added the inbult chat facility. So we could chat to our online contacts and to those on the google-talk. It had a very minute yet powerful chat utility right inside it.
Now Gmail has got a inbuilt mp3 player so there is no need to load an external player to play ur music files in there.

Its not over. Gmail has got all those standard features found in yahoo or any other mail providers. It has got a spam filter ( very intelligent one ), A mail search engine ( which will bring u the exact mail u want. Just give the subject or somthing related to it ), A vactaion responder, and labels Gmail also has got a very cute thing. If u send a mail to a new emai id, that id will be automatically added to ur contacs. Also when u type the id if it is in ur contact those ids pop down. So u just have to click it.

Gmail also has an option to save all ur chats right in it. You can also create mailing lists . Using indicators in Gmail u can know which all mails are sent to u alone ( >> ) and which all mails are sent to u as a part of a miling list ( > ). U will also get a part of the mail right into your inbox. So you can always find the right mail faster, without opening it.. And speaking of the speed..its supersonic. Most of the things in there are just like on the harddisk of ur pc.

Unlike other providers one cannot sign up for an account in Gmail right from their website. You need an invitaion from an existing Gmail user. That means that all Gmail users form a network which is closed and is opened only through invitaions.
If u are looking for the best e-mail provider send me a mail and I will send u an invitaion.

Come Home to Gmail and all the best google. We are looking forward for the day Gmail will be in its full version.