my computer screen. It was from my sister who always felt I deserved much more.

My boss walked in behind me at that moment. I was caught unawares and didn’t have time to close the window. He read it (I’m sure), talked about something else and left the room with a weird expression on his face.

I’m sure all of you must have faced similar embarrassing situations, either at home or at work.

Luckily for us, now there are systems that can block sensitive content on a computer screen. When a document is displayed, only the user of that computer can see the text. All others will see content that is convincingly made to look like real but is not.

This miraculous system is “Chameleon,” developed by Oculis Lab, a U.S. based company. According to Bill Anderson, president of Oculis Labs, “For example, a line of text that reads “the cat ran across the road” may appear to a snooper to say “the turtle had a nice lunch.”

For now, this system is designed specifically for military use.

How does this work?

Chameleon works by initially performing a calibration test on the person who is the original user of a particular computer. The movement of a person’s eyes over the text is observed. The pattern is said to be different for 95% of the people.

The text can be seen by the user, whose eyes are tracked by “gaze tracker,” an infrared camera. For people with a different gazing pattern, the text changes to something else. Anderson said, “We are replacing content with equally probably false content.”

All these text changes occur within 23 to 65 milliseconds during the saccades, which are the rapid unconscious eye movements. Of course all this happens so fast, that for the user, it is just like reading text normally on the computer.

Chameleon begins with intercepting application content, such as a Microsoft Word document and then turns to intercepting the graphics card. Anderson said that although the authorized user can intercept the changing text outside their peripheral vision, it does not create any problems with the comprehension of the document.

I know you’re wondering how Chameleon comes up with all that false unrelated content, but content that makes sense. It uses a statistical dictionary to create convincing content. If the computer is being used by a soldier for some confidential information, he doesn’t have to keep a watch over his back, as whoever comes from behind can only view this false content and not the original.

But there is a slight problem – about 5% of the people are said to share the same viewing pattern, which means if such a person looks at the computer screen, he or she will be able to view exactly what the user is viewing. But then since such people make up only 5%, it is unlikely that such a situation will arise.

Chameleon is also smart enough to resist a tempest attack, which is an old technique where electronic signals that the hardware sends out, such as the graphics card etc. are detected and then used to figure out the content. There can also be no viewing the content with screenshots taken with zoom lenses.

Currently, the system has been developed to work with Microsoft Windows PCs, but may be used with other operating systems too. The company plans on approaching the U.S. military initially and later other NATO allies. Each license per computer costs US$ 10,000.

Regular consumers like us need not be disappointed, as Oculis has already released for sale, a product called the “Private Eye,” that works with a regular webcam. This detects the user of a computer and if that user turns away from the webcam, the text on the computer screen is blurred within 100 milliseconds.

Sometimes, closing the window makes it seem rude or distrusting of the other person. Such awkward situations of closing the window as soon as someone walks in are alleviated.

The company is releasing an advanced version, the PrivateEye Professional, very soon. If the webcam sees someone standing behind the user, it will immediately display a thumbnail video window of that person’s image. Imagine how embarrassing it would be for an interloper who snoops from behind hoping to see what you’re up to, and sees his own face instead.

One would think the cost of such a wonderful device would be very high, but a consumer license for PrivateEye costs just $19.95, while a commercial license costs $59.95. PrivateEye Professional costs $59.95 for a consumer license and $119.95 for commercial use.

Oculis Labs has come a long way from being a family and friend financed business that started with $1 million, and is currently on another fund-raising spree, with a hope of raising another $1 – $1.5 million. It has big plans for the future and hopes to use this technology into data leakage security products offered by big vendors. Another option it is looking at is to be able to ship PrivateEye with new PCs by entering into a deal with PC makers.

Well, at least with the smart thinking of this company, we are soon going to be rid of the dread of using computers for confidential or personal matters.

Image: Aileen (via Flickr)

We have to accept the fact that our lives revolve around gadgets and we cannot live without them. These gadgets are power hungry and unless we keep feeding them, they close down, shutting everything and bringing life to a still. Our reliance on gadgets can be scary, if we are not prepared.

Most of us carry at least two of these energy monsters; laptops, phones, iPods and digital cameras, which make sure they run out on us just when we need them the most. How many times have you had your laptop give up when you are about to send an important email? Didn’t your digicam die when you spotted something you wanted to capture? It happens to all of us all the time.

But you can be smart and get the better of your gadgets. There are a few tricks that will help you squeeze more juice out of the batteries in these gadgets, to ensure they keep ticking for longer.

Keep them cool at all times

We all love the fact that our gadgets have fancy covers and cases to keep them safe. We even buy a good looking case when we see one. What we fail to understand is that these cases are the number one enemies of your devices. As if battling the heat outside and the warmth of your pocket or bag is not bad enough, your devices are tortured and stand no chance in these hell holes.

Batteries die faster due to heat. The power in batteries comes from a chemical reaction and extreme temperatures make batteries work harder to generate the same amount of power, using up the battery life in huge chunks. So, you will have to keep your devices cool if you want your battery to last longer.

Stay away from features you do not use

Today’s devices come with numerous features, such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, backlights etc. In the excitement of having all these features, you never bothered to learn that these features hog batteries.

The first thing to do is to turn off all the features you are not currently using, in order save power. Secondly, your iPods and phones have lights that enable you to see the screen more clearly, and these lights can be detrimental to your battery health. It is good to either completely turn off the lights or lower the intensity to save power. With laptops, apart from taking care of the backlight, you can also remove all the devices, such as a USB flash drive etc. that you are not using. Turn off the LCD on your digicam and look through the view finder.

If you are in the midst of a photo shoot and your camera beeps indicating low battery, you can make it go longer by turning off the flash. Get into the habit of switching off flash whenever possible as this will give a long lease of life to your batteries.

Refrain from turning devices on and off

Image: Thruhike98 (via Flickr)

Most of us are guilty of making the mistake of turning off and restarting our devices often, because common thinking is that turning off devices when not in use saves power. The fact is that devices consume maximum battery when they are starting up, so switching off should be done only as a last resort. If you phone has an “airplane” mode, use that instead of switching it off. In that mode, you can save a lot of battery life as it will not catch cell signals and is better than turning it off completely.

For laptops, you can use the “hibernate” mode, especially if you are going to be using it soon. Similarly, you must ensure not to switch off your camera often between snaps. Instead, turn off the LCD screen and leave the camera on, if you know you’re going to be taking pictures within the next few hours.

These precautions may seem simple but are guaranteed to keep your battery kicking for long. You will not have to face disasters of your devices dying on you. Conserving battery power not only gives a longer battery life but also keeps the devices in good condition for longer.

In spite of government officials clarifying that this is only meant to protect children from pornography and all other unhealthy content, there have been protests galore from various quarters.

According to Liu Zhengrong, deputy chief of the Internet Affairs Bureau, “The nationwise move is purely to protect the youngsters from Internet pornography and violence. The software has proved to be effective in trials in schools.”

Even the producer of this software, Jinhui Computer System Engineering Co. said the software only filters nude pictures and other pornography. Their official media quote says, “Our software is simply not capable of spying on Internet users, it is only a filter.”

However, computer makers and human rights activists look at this differently. They feel the government is doing this to censor the Internet. Critics fear that the software may work as a spyware to keep tab on all access to politically sensitive websites and blogs run by Tibetan activities and groups of dissidents. There have been complaints from manufacturers of foreign brands too, saying it is not going to be easy installing the new software in such a short time.

Experts are of the opinion that all this effort by the government is going to be a waste of time, as consumers will be able to delete the software or reformat their hard disks after they get their new computers.

The government is said to have spent $6.1 million on the “Green Dam-Youth Escort” filtering software.

Many Chinese geeks have been playing with this new software for the past few days and several reports have made their way online. They say that while the porn sites are blocked by the software when trying to access on the Internet Explorer, Firefox allows access. This means, this software may help with the average kid but not the tech savvy kid. Teachers and parents also comment that many normal websites are also banned, including course-related material. Some interesting reports also say that the software has the ability to record Internet usage data as well as being spyware – it transmits reports to Jinhui Corp., and there is no guarantee that personal information is not collected secretly.

The software manufacturer is also said to have received death threats and thousands of harassing phone calls. A well-known magazine argued that control over censorship to protect children should be left in the hands of parents and teachers. Although, the government can use any mechanism to guide parents to take responsibility for their children, it should not try and take the place of a parent.

This outcry by citizens, the legal challenges, satirical cartoons and petitions made the government take a long look at their proposal again. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology changed its stance and revealed that users are not forced to install or use the Green Dam Youth Escort software – though the software will come with all PCs that are going to be sold from July 1, either pre-installed or on a CD.

With people so used to their freedom in using the Internet, this kind of authoritarian moves may just be a thing of the past.

Things have changed and now they do it for making a fast buck. They come much younger, smarter and tech savvy now and can outsmart even the smartest crackers of all.

These hijackers have high earnings, and can earn as much as $2 for your cell number, up to $500 for your credit card number and as much as $400 for your bank customer ID and PIN. Your worth has increased with time and if have a corporate identity, you could be worth thousands of dollars. Don’t be too happy about your worth, as the more worthy you are, the more at risk you are.

Falling prey to the cyber mafia is not difficult. There lurkers infest places where there are hundreds of people and hijack people’s computers. Social networking sites that are so popular with everyone are their best bet.

They turn your computer into a BOT (hijacked computer.) Usually a spyware of malware is downloaded onto the computer, which then holds the computer captive and sends all the data to the person who has done this, exposing all your passwords to him. Thinking of all those times you were asked to download these for free?

A study reveals statistics of over 10,000 computers being converted into BOTs in a single day and are linked to huge networks of such computers, which are called BOT networks. Thousands of BOT nets exist all around the world. It is scary to note that the largest such BOT network server was brought to light in Holland, which contains a network of 150,000 BOTs.

Some of us innocent souls, who do not know much about these things, can never can imagine that the computers we love so much and rely on each day of our life, can prove to be so dangerous, if we are not prepared.

This cyber mafia functions almost like its offline counterpart. These cyber criminals collect all the stolen information on credit cards, bank accounts and other sensitive details and dump it in underground (hidden) servers. Then sell it to buyers for huge dollars.

This network is as complicated as the real mafia and their underground dealings are extremely well planned and executed.

Buyers also play safe when buying this information, to avoid getting caught. They use agents or cashiers who help convert all the stolen details into currency, in the form of e-gold or money transfers. They use e-gold because there are no charge-backs and the payments are instantly done. Some cashiers go to the extent of wiring online money transfers with the stolen credit card. They engage the services of a middleman who receives this transfer with the use of a fake identity. This middleman charges a percentage in the cashed out value as a fee. This fee could sometimes go as high up as 50%, depending on how much money has been cashed out.

Emails are also not safe anymore. The dreadful truth is that, an email is almost like a postcard that changes numerous hands before reaching the person it was sent to. During the transit it would have been read by many people and picked up viruses that get installed once they reach their destination.

With the millions of internet users across the globe, cyber threats are increasing with each passing day. As users of the internet, each one of us has to be constantly vigilant of lurkers in this ever evolving threat environment. Protecting ourselves the best we can and following some guidelines is the only way to survive online.