How to check if user name or ID has been compromised in a data breach

When data breaches occur, there are various kinds of data that get compromised. The most critical data that can get compromised is the user name or ID or the password. All is not lost due to a great service hosted by Troy Hunt. Use https://haveibeenpwned.com/ to check if the User name or user ID appears … Continue reading How to check if user name or ID has been compromised in a data breach →

How to save an email in the .eml format

To save an email in the .eml format, follow the steps below: Login to the email accountIf Conversation view is enabled, then disable it. In GMail, this is in the Settings optionDownload the email as .eml format. Once above steps are done, the email is available in the .eml format. In some email services, this … Continue reading How to save an email in the .eml format →

How to validate a short URL

At times, short URLs starting with https://bit.ly or https://goo.gl or any other short and strange form are received via SMS or even email. It is difficult to authenticate and know where these URLs point to. If the source is trusted, then too, it is important to know and validate these URLs to ensure they do … Continue reading How to validate a short URL →

How to enable USB Debugging on an Android device

To enable USB Debugging on an Android device, first enable Developer options on the phone by going to Settings -> About, look for the Build Number and tap it 7 times. Then in Settings -> System -> Developer Options, scroll down and check the box that says USB Debugging to enable it. You are now … Continue reading How to enable USB Debugging on an Android device →

How to validate digital signature in a document in Linux

In Linux, libreoffice-draw has the ability to open and validate digital signatures. Unfortunately, this functionality is broken as of today in the seahorse or gnome-keyring on LinuxMint 19.2 Tessa. This is due to the Ubuntu repository not having an updated package or a bug in seahorse. Without digging into above, a different program named PDFStudioViewer … Continue reading How to validate digital signature in a document in Linux →

Shared hosting and WordPress

WordPress had recently upgraded it's code to work with PHP 7. Subsequently, each time I logged into the hosting provider account, I was always reminded by WordPress to upgrade the WordPress code and stay up to date with the latest security patches. Unfortunately, the hosting provider informed that the latest PHP 7 scripting language could … Continue reading Shared hosting and WordPress →

How to hash files in Windows 10 into a file

Getting the MD5 hash of a file on Linux is very easy. However, in Windows, there are several utilities, but using Windows internally inbuilt command certutil, it can be done as follows in the Windows shell: C:>for /r %%f in(x) do (certutil -hashfile "%%f" MD5) >> output.txt output.txt will contain the files with their MD5 … Continue reading How to hash files in Windows 10 into a file →

How to debloat, remove crapware from Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro smartphone

Never look a gift horse in the mouth.. If you are one of those who is a technology connoisseur and love to compare specifications of smart phones before making a purchase decision, you need to be aware that the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro with 6 GB Internal RAM, best display and camera is a … Continue reading How to debloat, remove crapware from Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro smartphone →

Recover encrypted ecryptfs home folder from encrypted dm-crypt luks disk volume

Whew... saved by the skin of teeth. The grub2 bootloader of my computer got corrupt. I was not able to boot into the computer and all was lost. For security reasons, I set up LVM with full disk encryption. Thereafter, each user's home folder was further encrypted with ecryptfs (the default you get when you … Continue reading Recover encrypted ecryptfs home folder from encrypted dm-crypt luks disk volume →

How to enable Developer options or menu on an Android Phone

On the phone, select Settings -> About Phone. Locate the option called Build number and press on it 7 times in succession. You will then find that Developer Options is enabled in the About Phone menu.