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Google Introduces New Android Security Features

Android "O" was officially released in August this year under the name "Oreo". It is supposed to be smarter and faster than all previous versions. With the release of Android 8.0 Oreo a new security system has been launched called Google Play Protect. Android’s new security system scans all apps for malware before and after you install them. It is automatically enabled on your device.

Google Play Protect will be built into devices that have Google Play Store. Play protect scans all apps on your device for vulnerabilities and gathers information through machine learning over time that allows it to find threats. It also lets the user know if an app is dangerous and prevents them from downloading it on their device.

Google has always been doing security analysis on apps before allowing them in the Google Play Store. However, there was no way to verify that the apps stay safe after installing them on a mobile device. This new capability allows Google to scan apps after they are installed and this is a big move. Besides, the new feature not only scans apps downloaded from Google Play, it also scans apps that are downloaded from third-party sites.

The ability to scan apps after installation will help in detecting apps that are designed to hide their malicious activity for a set amount of time after an update. Malicious apps usually wait for a week before doing anything malicious so that they can hide their presence. If the app that was working fine suddenly does something malicious then it will be flagged by Play Protect.

Play Protect uses machine learning to identify and separate out bad apps. It provides powerful new protections and greater visibility in the security of your device. It is also capable of automatically taking action to keep your data and your device safe. The scanning runs automatically in the background but you can start the scan on demand as well.

As always the biggest security risk that still remains is the possibility of losing your mobile phone. To help in such cases Google has launched Find My Device as part of Google Play Protect. With Find My Phone you can locate, ring, lock and erase your Android devices remotely. This is a built-in feature.

To summarize, new features in Google's Android security include

Play Protect that scans all apps in the Google Play Store before users can download them. It periodically scans all apps already installed on the Android device.

If apps are downloaded from third-party sites then it scans and monitors them around the clock for any change in behavior. This is very useful for apps that appear normal at first but later starts misbehaving and downloading malicious components.

It has a built-in anti-theft feature called Find My Device. If the device is lost then it allows the owner to lock it and disable all data on it.

It has a Safe Browsing feature which stops users from visiting suspicious sites when browsing the web using Chrome.

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You Can Prevent Data Security Breaches!

The recent data breaches at Yahoo made big headlines and have caused a serious dent in the the company’s reputation. The first major data breach resulted in user account information of more than 500 million users being compromised and the second breach reportedly affected more than 1 billion users. Data security experts believe that the breach affected personal user information. So what exactly is a data breach?

A data breach is an incident in which data that is confidential or sensitive in nature falls into the hands of unauthorized people who could then use it for potentially damaging purposes. It is believed that depending on the sensitivity of the data being compromised, a data breach could cost an organization as much as $6 million or approximately $200 per record being compromised. Data security experts say that with the right measures organizations can prevent data security breaches.

Data Security Policy

The first step for any organization is to have a data security policy in place. This should include a security classification of the different types of data within an organization and how each classification is to be safeguarded. Make sure the policy covers how data is to be shared with external vendors that could be your partners.

Educate Employees

Threats to data could come from both external and internal sources. Hence you must train you employees and make sure they understand how to handle and protect sensitive data. Your security policy should be designed to ensure employees follow the rules. For eg: many organizations do not allow pen drives on their laptops as a data security measure.

Incident Response Plan

Make sure you have an incident response plan in case a data breach does occur. The plan should include who should be informed in case of a breach and what actions are to be taken. Depending on the kind of breach, this might need the inclusion of legal teams as well.

Conduct Risk Assessment

Conduct regular risk assessment exercises within the organization. Make sure your data classification is up to date. Data access must be granted only on an as needed basis. Also do not capture and store any data that you don’t really need. Also make sure data backups are just as secure. Identify any new risks that may not have been part of your original risk management plan. The plan should be always kept up to date.

Follow Security Best Practices

This includes encrypting data where appropriate. Keep security patches on all your systems up to date. Use firewalls to keep unauthorized users out of your network. Use security scanning software on your systems. You may need to have a separate team that only focuses on keeping your organization safe from online criminals and ensure data security.

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Details About Payza API Guide For Web Developers

Setting up a payment getaway in your site can be helpful overall. If you are still thinking about it, stop now and start integrating it into your payment pages. The web developers can take assistance from the Payza API Guide for web developers.

The guide will help them with the coding process and the use of the integration tools. If you are implying it yourself then they will help to automate your business processes. The main contents of the guide are:

Standard Integration The first thing is that you do not need any kind of programming knowledge. A basic knowledge of the HTML and web page design will do. The buttons that you will be creating are stored in the Payza accounts. You can view the codes and edit them according to your needs. With Standard Integration, you can create customizable payment buttons.

In-Page Checkout The In-Page checkout will make your checkout page appear as a pop-up. So, you do not have to redirect them to another page. Thus, you can convert your existing buttons easily. They can be used to create payment buttons.

Advanced Integration The Advanced Integration is best for the online sellers. They want flexibility with the creation of the payment buttons. HTML coding is required to create the Advanced Integration Payment Buttons. An important part of these buttons is that they do not store the data in the Payza account. So, the information created cannot be edited or removed.

Tokenized Payments The online sellers can use the tokenized payment buttons. They are similar in terms of flexibility to the Advanced Integration Payza payment buttons. For this, you first have to use the GetPaymentToken API. This will provide a token for your website with the HTML codes. That token can be used to create the tokenized payment button.

Instant Payment Notification (IPN) This contains the payment details and the customer information data. It provides automatic notifications in the form of messages. This can be used to create receipts, fulfill orders or update the databases. So, whenever someone pays you on your online business or you pay someone you are notified instantly.

Application Programming Interface (API) The good API strategy can help you to interact easily with your customers. They also enable integration with the Payza platform.

All of the above are the strategies that you can imply to your business website. They will introduce certain new features to your website. When you are using them you will be able to provide better services to the customers.

The Payza buttons are really helpful in using for split payments. They will improve the post-purchase experience of your customers. They will be organizing the things into single databases. Thus you will be earning digital economy.

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Quick Tips For Increasing Your SEO Score

Google is the number one search engine in Canada. It handles more than 50% of the total search requests worldwide. It uses more than 100 algorithms to track and manage HTML content. All of this to ensure that only the most relevant results are shown at the top of its organic search list. Not surprising then, more and more online websites are scrambling to make it to the top of Google’s search results. This is the reason SEO or search engine optimization is a top priority for businesses and websites that want to establish an online presence.

SEO is a fundamental component of website building and digital marketing. It is really a collation of techniques and best practices to make a website show up higher in the search results page. These best practices do change and keeping your website optimized is a good idea. Research has shown that most users do not go beyond the first page of search results. Also, the top five links in a search result get the most hits which mean they are the most likely to convert a visit into a business sale. When put in this way, SEO takes on a whole new dimension.

Let us look at some of the key elements of SEO that decide which website is ranked higher.

Keywords

They are the words the user types into the search engine. The main function of SEO is to find these keywords. You can modify the structure and content of your website to add top keywords that are relevant to your website. To increase your SEO score it is important to target keywords that the audience will use. By using the most popular search terms you can attract a lot of people to your site. If people visiting your site realize it is not what they are looking for then they return to the search result page. This is called 'bounce'. Bounces signal to the search engine that visitors to the website have not found what they were looking for. Naturally, websites that have higher bounce rate are rated lower in search results.

Link Building

It is important to build network links that direct browsers to your important pages. SEO bases the legitimacy of the website on how many pages link to it and how high these pages are ranked.

Usability

An important tip - your website navigation should be straightforward and easy-to-use. This makes the user experience more pleasurable. Search engines look down on websites that have many levels and ranks them lower.

Analytics

Another way is to identify the legitimacy of a website is to measure how many people are using it. Each visitor that remains on your page for a significant amount of time is a signal to the search engine that your website is useful thus resulting in improved rankings.

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Android Pay Users Will Be Able to Make Payment on Various New Sites Soon

Android Pay users are soon going to enjoy the paying facility on thousands of new websites. Apart from adding your credit cards, gift cards, and loyalty cards, now users can add two other cards as well for making online payments. Google finally announced its partnerships with Mastercard and Visa to expand its service of mobile payments.

Advantages of This Expansion

As it will support fingerprint recognition; with this service about to become a reality, users will no longer need to remember each and every passwords and username to continue with checkout. This strategic partnership will provide its users, a hassle-free transaction that will be both secure and easy to continue. People will look forward to the single tap transaction while making payments online or in store. Making the payment integration much easier than before to the developers as well as the merchants; it'll make the whole experience of online payment more improved than ever. Till now, you were using your Android phone for adding loyalty, credit, etc. cards to pay online. As a benefit of this partnership, now you can enjoy paying by Mastercard and Visa cards also.

Expanding Relationship with PayPal

The two prominent financial technology companies have not only expanded their relationship with Google, but with PayPal also. At the beginning of this year, to make its functions and service known to more people, it opted for a partnership with Visa and Mastercard. Well, this move is intended to provide a strong grip in the present competitive marketplace.  The primary goal of this partnership was to make the services offered by PayPal more visible during shopping.

The Ultimate Goal

The ultimate goal of this partnership is to make the entire experience of shopping online more preferable with its easy payment option. Making the online paying process more seamless, it allows the users to choose the preferred authentication mechanism. Preventing the number of abandoned shopping bags on websites, its objective is to bring in more traffic and to encourage the existing customers to shop online. The e-commerce merchants who have already opted for Masterpass or Visa checkout won’t need to make any alterations from their end. Now you can enjoy easy checkouts and easy paying procedures in thousands of new sites.

This online payment app is scheduled to be updated at the beginning of 2017. The United States of America will be the first to receive the updates. Google also has plans to expand this service all over the world, including Singapore, UK, Hong Kong and Australia.

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There Is No Free Money!

I recently came across a money adder software that promised to give me some free money. Being familiar with the IT world I instantly sensed a scam. I wonder how many such software are out there trying to make unsuspecting internet users provide their personal or banking information. And how well are payment processing platforms geared up to deal with these scams? So I decided to poke around one such processor - Payza.

How Payza Works

Payza is an online payment platform that allows registered users to transfer money across international borders. Payza works on the concept of e-wallets and allows multiple ways in which users can transfer funds to and from their e-wallets. A quick search through their support site and i did find warnings about Payza money adder scams.

Hacks That Don’t Work!

Apparently hacks such as Payza Money adder are common across all online payment platforms. These scams offer to transfer free money into your online accounts.  Sometimes they claim to have found a loophole or special computer code which adds money to your online account. Very tempting indeed for the uninitiated. Payza warns its users that whatever names these scams may go by Payza Money Adder or otherwise, it does not support any of them and goes on to warn its users to avoid falling for these traps.

Some of these money adders work on mobile phones and are sophisticated with stylish design and branding to tempt users. They will at some point ask you for your personal information and online account details. Once these are provided, it is very easy for scammers to compromise your accounts. And if you use same passwords for multiple accounts then you might end up compromising your other accounts as well.

Payza has a fraud and security department that works on identifying various websites and social media pages claiming to provide Payza Money Adder. Users are advised against entering information on such sites. I think these kind of proactive warnings can go a long way in educating users and preventing accounts from being hacked.

Stay Safe

Following a few simple rules can help keep your online payment accounts secure. Always while logging in make sure to check the website url - it should be a https url. Avoid clicking on links in suspicious emails and be very careful while providing personal information. Also check the privacy policy of the website when you are posting personal details as part of the registration process.

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Payza’s Prepaid Cards Are a Boon for Frequent Travellers

According to one statistic, the number of online users who have been victims of credit card fraud could top as much as 30%. This is an alarming figure, especially as more and more economic transactions, happen over the web today! So is there a better method to make payments online without compromising your private information or your finances?

Enter Prepaid Cards

Payza, an online payment platform that facilitates quick transfer of funds across international borders recently introduced a prepaid card feature. This is a highly secure prepaid Mastercard program offered internationally to all its members worldwide. You can use this feature to use funds from your Payza account online, at ATMs or even in person at stores in a convenient, affordable and easy way.

Fraud Prevention

Due to common online frauds which come under review by homeland security Payza prepaid card is a safer option. It is a viable alternative to cash as well as credit cards. Users can safely transact online using this prepaid card without the threat of their information being exposed to cyber criminals. Prepaid cards have finite funds and in case your card is stolen or misplaced you can report to Payza and block further transactions on the card. Payza’s security and fraud prevention matrix ensure that any suspicious online activity is acted upon before user information is compromised.

Prepaid Card Features

The cost of the card starts from $19.95 USD and it comes with a chip-and-Pin technology. Payza provides an online account management feature to protect the cardholder’s funds and information. It allows members to transfer funds to and fro from their Payza wallets, monitor for and report suspicious activity, report a lost or stolen card and change their card’s security PIN. The prepaid card can be used at any global location that accepts Mastercard. This makes the card a very attractive option, given the huge customer base that Mastercard enjoys worldwide.

Payza’s security and fraud prevention allow you to secure your payments through tokenization. As is the norm with all online transmission of sensitive information today, your payment information is encrypted before being sent over the wire to keep potential hackers at bay.

As an avid traveler, I have often worried about providing my credit card information at local shops. The prepaid card is a big boon for travelers like me as this means we no longer have to worry about the loss of sensitive information every time we make a purchase.