Google+ The next Facebook

So you've recived an invite from someone you know to join Google+. Great! But why should you make an account at Google+ and what is it? Google+ is Google's new Social Networking site. Now you're probably thinking, ok, I really dont need another social networking site to log onto. Well, you do have a point, but I'll tell you what makes Google+ different than the rest.

First, Google+ has all the features Facebook has on posting. Links, Videos, Pictures, the usual, but Google+ also has the ability to show your location, kind of like Twitter! Here's an example:
The location may be incorrect, but that's the GPS's fault.

Ok, well this is kind of neat, but why do you need to make an account in Google+? Well, let me show you something that makes Google+ even more neat. One word, Circles. Circles are currently the main attraction in Google+ (at least to me.)
Lets say I wanted to post a message to people that are friends, maybe "I got REAL drunk last night :P" (Don't worry, I don't drink.) But you don't want your whole family to know. You can choose who that message to. You wouldn't want to send that message to your boss, or family, but just your friends. All you have to do is select the correct stream in the side of the your page, and your message will only be sent to them!













Another neat thing is you can name your circles anything you want, such as "Loosers" "Bosses" but the person you added to the circle will not see what circle they are in, just that you added them to a circle!

Ok, Google+ seems kinda cool, but what else can it do?  Well Google+ has another neat feature called Hangouts. Say you want to invite a whole group of your friends to a webchat. By starting a Hangout, it will then show that you started one on everyone's page and they can join (and remember, you can choose who and what groups to send it to!) Everyone that has a webcam can then chat, and get this, if you talk on it, your face will show up on the main screen (unless someone else is talking, then you just have to talk louder than them) Hangouts also work with the Android Google+ app! Say you don't want to text every single person on that your planning to go out with tonight the movie got canceled, you can invite all those peeps in a hangout and discuss where your going to go instead.

Nifty! What else does Google+ offer for their Android app? Google plus has an interesting feature that when you take a picture with your phone, it will automatically upload them to a private folder on your Google+ account. Now all you have to do is just choose what pictures you want to share with the world and all the others will stay private! This takes away the hassle of choosing all the pictures you want to update to the site and wait for them to load, Google+ takes the hassle of uploading them and does it automatically.

Hmm, I think I will accept that invite to Google+, but what can I expect in the future? You can most likely expect apps and games just like Facebook. Google will most likely create a "language" (if it hasn't been done already) for developers to create Apps and Games! If they were smart, they will make it so that there is some way to control scams and such (like the Facebook dislike button.) Remember, if you want to try Google+ you MUST have an invite as of now. It is like when Gmail came out. Expect it to be like this for a while while they work out the kinks in their system. See you there when Facebook phases out!

If you would like to at least take an interactive tour of Google+ Check out plus.google.com

Why not to use a WEP Password.

Have you noticed your internet speeds declining, is your WiFi light flashing with a large amount of activity when no ones using it? Your router may have been hacked. If you are using WEP encryption, you are virtually defenseless against attacks. Unfoutunately, some ISP's still give out routers, that only have WEP!

 

If your router does not allow for other encryption, (wpa, wpa2) then there is even more sad news, your router could most likely be hacked in minutes. If you have a router like this, BUY A NEW ONE. I wouldn't say that if I really didn't mean it. A new Cisco router may go for 50 dollars, but you will be that much more secure. To put though, how easy it is to hack a WEP encryption, I will go ahead and demonstrate.

Now one tool used often by hackers is an Operating System called Backtrack. The pluses about it are that 1, you don't have to reinstall your operating system, as it can run live off the CD, and 2, it has almost all drivers for WiFi cards built in, no needing to install anything, just put the CD in and run it!

The first step that a hacker would take would be to "spoof" his MAC address. A MAC address is a HEX number (meaning it can use the numbers 0-9 and A-F) that is unique to your wifi card. When you spoof it, you are acually making any router, or computer think your mac is whatever you want it to be. Your MAC could actually be A5:44:3D:0F:DD, but if you spoofed it, you could make it, say: 00:11:22:33:44:55 What is the reasoning behind this? Lets say, the wifi hacker forgot to spoof his MAC. If the police were to come knocking at his door, and had a warrent against his/her computer, they could easily identify their mac address by looking at the card. WiFi hacking is illegal, so you could easily press charges against the hacker. A spoofed MAC, though would not match up with the actual one, so noone would know "whodunnit." Remeber though, the information below is to be used on YOUR OWN ROUTER TO SEE IF

To spoof your MAC address in BackTrack, you would use the following commands

First find out what your WiFi Card name is with the console:

airmon-ng

A list of wireless interfaces will come up. Mine is named wlan0, so from now on, replace wlan0 with your wireless cards name

Now lets shut down all interfaces with the wireless card:

airmon-ng stop wlan0

ifconfig wlan0 down

then you spoof your MAC address

macchanger --mac 00:11:22:33:44:55

Then turn the airmoniter back on

airmon-ng start wlan0

Now you may begin searching for your router. use the command

airodump-ng wlan0

A screen like this should come up:

Find your routers BSSID (e.g mac address) and copy it. Also look at your routers channel

Now use the following command to begin collecting data:

airodump-ng -c channel -w filename --bssid MAC wlan0

Replace channel with your routers channel number, filename with a filename for your data, MAC with the routers BSSID/MAC address and wlan0 with your wifi cards name.

Ok, so in this screen you should notice somewhere that it says #data and below a number. This is a rough estimate of how much data packets you have collected, with IV's. IVs will help you decode the password!

Now lets open another console and use the command

aireplay-ng -1 0 -a ROUTERSBSSID -h 00:11:22:33:44:55 wlan0

When successfull, you will get a screen like this:

Replace ROUTERSBSSID with the routers mac address, wlan0 with the wifi card name

now do one more aireplay command

aireplay-ng -3 -b ROUTERSBSSID -h 00:11:22:33:44:55 wlan0

Replace just like the command above.

When done successfully, you will have a screen like this and your #Data column will raise fast.

Ok, now time for the final step! Acutally cracking the password. When you get enough #Data (you should gain at least 10000 IVs) you may then stop the aireplay console by selecting that console and pressing CTRL C Now open a new console and type in the last command:

aircrack-ng filename-01.cap

Remember that filename you gave the airodump-ng command? use that as the filename, and yes you do need the -01.cap at the end! It will begin cracking, if it does not work, it will say something like, "Failed. Next try with 15000 IVs." redo the aireplay-ng steps again untill you get that much #Data. When it successfully cracks it, it should show a screen like:

This means your router is unsafe, and you need to change to a WPA/WPA2 password. As stated before, if your router does not have this setting, BUY A NEW ONE... Unless, you dont mind, giving anyone around you access to your internet connection. This may seem long, but if done by someone with experience, it can be done in less than 5 minutes!

Remember, use WPA/WPA2 and stay safe everyone.