This open-source Android app is designed to detect credit card skimmers

This open-source Android app is designed to detect credit card skimmers

Protecting our data is a constant battle, especially as technology continues to advance. A recent trend that has popped up is the installation of credit card skimmers, especially at locations such as gas pumps. With a simple piece of hardware and 30 seconds to install it, a hacker can easily steal credit card numbers from a gas pump without anyone knowing. Now, an open-source app for Android is attempting to help users avoid these skimmers.
The CEO of SparkFun, Nate Seidle, partnered with programmer Nick Poole to develop “Skimmer Scanner.” This free, open-source Android app is built to detect credit card skimmers that are used most popularly in the area around your phone, specifically at a gas station.
Skimmers are commonly used at gas stations for a number of reasons, primarily because of how easy they are to install. Hackers only need their skimmer which costs about $10 and a master-key for the pump. Obtaining that key isn’t very hard either, as there are only a few variations that work for most pumps. Once installed, the skimmer does its work completely silently, and the hacker simply needs to return and connect over Bluetooth to grab the stolen card numbers.
Using your phone’s Bluetooth radio, Skimmer Scanner searches for a specific Bluetooth signal that is emitted by these skimmers, attempts to establish a connection, and then verifies if there is, in fact, a skimmer in the vicinity. It does this by using the default ID used by popular skimmers to search for them. What’s interesting is that, in a lot of cases, these skimmers aren’t secured or altered since the hackers will install them in “bulk.”
Skimmer Scanner is available now on Google Play, and you can also go check out the full blog post at  SparkFun’s website for more information. If you’ve ever run into this problem yourself or are simply interested in how this tech works, I highly recommend giving it a read.

Zuckerberg speaks on Facebook's role in maintaining election integrity

Zuckerberg speaks on Facebook's role in maintaining  election  integrity

On Thursday afternoon, Mark Zuckerberg went live on Facebook to discuss Facebook's role in maintaining election integrity. Zuckerberg, who had just returned to work from paternity leave, said that he hoped that Facebook would be a force for good democracy.

The company is currently working with the US Government regarding the Russian interference in the 2016 elections. Although they did not find much evidence of facebook being used by Russian groups in the beginning, they did uncover a lot later. He added that whatever evidence was found was handed over to congress. "We will continue our investigation into what happened on Facebook in this election. We may find more, and if we do, we will continue to work with the government. We are looking into foreign actors, including additional Russian groups and other former Soviet states, as well as organizations like the campaigns, to further our understanding of how they used our tools. These investigations will take some time, but we will continue our thorough review."

Facebook will also be making political advertising more transparent, in order to stop interference wherever possible. "We're going to bring Facebook to an even higher standard of transparency. Not only will you have to disclose which page paid for an ad, but we will also make it so you can visit an advertiser's page and see the ads they're currently running to any audience on Facebook. We will roll this out over the coming months, and we will work with others to create a new standard for transparency in online political ads," said Zuckerberg. Facebook will also strengthen the review process for these ads.

They also plan to increase investment in security and election integrity, and partner with election commissions across to the world and inform them of online risks in their elections. They are currently working with Germany on their upcoming elections this weekend. "In 2016, people had billions of interactions and open discussions on Facebook that may never have happened offline. Candidates had direct channels to communicate with tens of millions of citizens. Campaigns spent tens of millions organizing and advertising online to get their messages out further. And we organized "get out the vote" efforts that helped as many as 2 million people register to vote who might not have voted otherwise. Many of these dynamics were new in this election, or at much larger scale than ever before in history, and at much larger scale than the interference we've found," Mark reiterated.

But he admits that it is "a new challenge for internet communities to deal with nation states attempting to subvert elections" and stressed on Facebook's commitment to democracy.

How to Scan Documents Using Your Smartphone

How to Scan Documents Using Your Smartphone

Our smartphones have become very powerful gadgets, the computing power within them can achieve a lot if put to use in the right way. We have heard of scientists who “mine” computational power from smartphones all over the world to complete tasks but today, we’re going to be looking at one of the easiest ways to get more from your smartphone, such as scanning a document.

It’s not once I have seen someone take a picture of a document, maybe for safe keeping or to send it to someone, I have done this too and that’s how I came about Quick PDF Scanner and Cam Scanner. Most people preffer the latter from the former, they literally work the same way, but I like what I like and that’s Quick PDF Scanner and here’s how it works:

Once you fire up the application, you are met by a homescreen that will, by default, show you up to 5 previously scanned documents, that’s if you have been using the app like I have. There is a floating camera icon and that is what you should pay attention to.

Tapping it opens up a view finder that you will use to scan the document you want. The process is automatic, once you align the document to the grid lines, the lines turn from white to green and if a second or so, the image is captured and processed.

After processing, you can edit the image by changing how it looks, I recommend sticking to original or magic – if you scanned a black and white document. Next you can share the document, crop it and if you are up to it, you can use the OCR (Optical Character Recognition) feature which recognizes the text in your document and allows you to edit, but keep in mind this doesn’t always work. If you are pleased with the document, you can go ahead and save it on your phone or share it, either as a PDF, .doc file or as an image. There’s even an option to send the scan directly to a printer.

So far, Quick PDF scanner has worked perfectly for me, in good lighting and with a well printed document, the scans come out looking great. The quality of the scan is very dependent on your phone’s camera, if your camera doesn’t take great photos, no amount of magic can make it scan a document well.

So why should you use an app to scan a document instead of just taking a picture? Well, like I mentioned, dedicated scanning apps offer better quality and they get rid of the background where you had placed your document, any more questions? There’s a comment section below.

Here’s a free business idea, if you have a great camera phone and are feeling entreprenuerial, why not start a scanning business, using your phone? Oh wait, you can’t actually start that scanning business because everyone with a smartphone knows about this now, or can you?

9mobile Cheat, Trick To Start Getting #10,000 Bonus On 9mobile Everyday

9mobile Cheat, Trick To Start Getting #10,000 Bonus On 9mobile Everyday

In This post, we will be discussing on how to get up to N10,000 bonus daily for 30 days on 9Mobile network as the rebranded Etisalat Nigeria now offers series of bonuses to their esteemed subscribers.
This 9mobile bonus is available for new and existing customers. You can get up to N10,000 bonus daily for 30 days. It is tagged "super deal". (yeah, that's the name of the offer).
9mobile (formerly known as Etisalat) is a leading network provider among other Mobile Telecommunication companies in Nigeria.
They of recent present an amazing package for both new and existing 9mobile network users.
A special offer for all new and existing customers on the 9mobile network. Get up to 10 times the value of your first recharge daily
HOW DOES THIS WORK
New customers will be entitled to 10 times the value of any recharge daily for voice calls and data to all networks in the first month.
As an existing customer, you get 7 times the value of your first recharge daily for voice calls only to all networks for 30 days.

* To activate this bonus, simply dial
*819 *1#
NOTE: Voice bonus is only valid for
7 days and data bonus valid for 1 day. Existing customers must be on easystarter, easycliq, talkzone or cliqlite tariff plan.