TikTok Users Now Need to Be Wary of scammers

TikTok has seen a great rise in popularity. Last year alone, TikTok has seen a meteoric rise. It is one of the most downloaded apps on Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

What is TikTok? 

TikTok is video sharing app developed by a Chinese Internet technology company called ByteDance. It is a 15 second video making app and one of the most popular video sharing apps. Initially it was launched in China as Douyin in September 2016. A year later, it was open to the international market under the name of TikTok.

According to a CNN Business report dated June 2019, TikTok has more than one billion monthly active users. With TikTok, users can create and share short videos with special effects.

TikTok has seen a meteoric rise in the Indian market. According to the app analytics firm, Sensor Tower, the app was downloaded more than 240 million times in February alone.

The app is very popular, but many say that the content is inappropriate.

Due to its increasing popularity among the masses, the scammers too are not to be left far behind. They are looking for ways to commit fraudulent transactions. There was a report that was published by a cyber security company called Tenable stating that TikTok is becoming a platform for adult dating scams. The report claims that the scam makes users sign up for an adult dating website.

TikTok as a platform for adult dating websites

The unsuspecting users sign up on the adult dating websites.

The TikTok profiles that are shown in the accounts contain nude pictures and are stolen from other websites. The idea behind this is to increase the likes of the account and increase the popularity of the given profile.

According to Tenable, the fake profiles show up in the ‘For You’ section page. This has been placed there by TikTok, though it is not known how this happens. The scammers force the users to go to Snapchat accounts where there are videos on nudity. Once the users go to Snapchat where they add adult based accounts, they will encounter a Snapchat story. This will show videos of an unknown person either being sexually suggestive or showing nudity. There will be an emoji or a sticker that will cover the explicit portion of the video.

From the Snapchat account, the unsuspecting user will be directed to adult dating websites. The user will be asked their age and then be directed to a sign in page. After filling in their information, the user will be directed to the actual adult dating website. Here again, they will need to fill the sign up page.

The scammers benefit by generating revenue. They maximize their cost per action to generate revenue. Every time a user signs up, the scammers get paid. A scammer gets paid between $1 and $3 for a qualified lead based on the geographical region, age category or a new user account.

Another way of scamming users is asking them to subscribe to a ‘premium’ Snapchat account. Here the scammers earn revenue when they post not-safe-for-work (NSFW) Snaps from a more private account.

How is TikTok protecting its users? 

They say there are strict policies in place. They flag and remove the spam accounts before they reach the users account.
The number of scammers are increasing and TikTok needs to take stringent steps to wipe out these fraudulent activities.

Turn Old Electronics Into Fast Cash

 If you have old, electronic devices collecting dust it your drawers or cabinets, now is the time to trade them in for some quick cash. As one of the hottest startups to launch in San Diego, the tech company ecoATM offers a new and intriguing way to recycle, declutter your home and pad your bank account at the same time.

How Does It Work?

Like any good tech startup, ecoATM began as a way to meet a need. Thousands of Americans have old, used technology laying around that they never even touch anymore, so why not turn that unnecessary clutter into quick, easy money? The process is simple. Just visit one of the 2700 machines scattered across the country and insert your fully-charged device. State-of-the-art technology then analyzes the device to determine a fair price. If the amount of money you are offered is agreeable, all you have to do is accept it and then our kiosk rewards you in the form of gift cards or cash, depending upon your preferences.

What Devices Does the Company Accept?

The ecoATM company accepts many different types of small, portable electronic devices that would otherwise take up space in our home. The amount of money you receive varies depending upon several factors. The quality, age and type of device you have to offer all have an impact on how much money you can earn for trading it in. EcoATM accepts nearly any model from the following categories.

• iPhones
• MP3 players
• Android phones
• Mobile phones
• Tablets

Before trading in your device, make sure you have wiped its memory so there is no chance you could have personal information stolen. The best way to do this is to restore your device to its factory settings. Not only does this erase your information, but it prepares the device to be restored and go to a new owner with minimal hassle on your end.

What Are the Benefits?

Trading in old devices has many benefits. You have no use for them anymore, so they simply take up space and collect dust the longer you keep them. You can choose to trade certain devices in to your cell phone provider for credit toward a new device, you can sell it to someone else, or you can trade it in with ecoATM and save yourself both time and hassle.

Most cell phone providers only accept mobile phones for trades. Instead of receiving cash, you can earn credit to a new phone. Older phones and those in less than perfect condition may not be accepted, which still leaves you with the old device that takes up space.

If you choose to sell your devices, you may not get nearly what they are worth. You also have to deal with the hassle of presenting the phone to the buyer, whether in person or via a mail carrier, and collecting the amount of money you agreed upon.

When you choose to trade your device in with ecoATM, not only do you receive fair market value depending upon condition and age, but you also have minimal hassle. You don’t have to communicate with buyers or haggle over a price, and you don’t have to worry about shipping your device. You simply drop your device off at one of our kiosks, receive a price, and either accept or decline the offer.

EcoATM has revolutionized the process of trading in unused electronic devices. Get quick cash by decluttering your home with items you have no use for, and do it in an environmentally-friendly way. Visit one of our kiosks today or check out our website to get an estimate on how much money you stand to receive for your device.

Google Bug Bounty to provide security for Android Apps

Many apps on Google Play Store have malware which have been discovered recently. In order to increase security of the apps, Google is seeking help from the public too. Google is regularly improving their security and privacy of their products. The Google Bug Bounty provides security for Android apps.

What is Google Bug Bounty?

Google is offering a wide range of vulnerability reward programs to encourage the people and developers to improve security for everyone. As part of the Google Bug Bounty program there are changes to the Google Play Security Reward Program (GPSRP). In addition to the Google Bug Bounty program, they are also launching the new Developer Data Protection Reward Program (DDPRP).

How does Bug Bounty offer changes to the (GPSRP)

Google Play Security Reward Program offers rewards to the developers who find any security breach on the apps. Earlier, there were only eight top apps which were included in the program. Now, any app from Play Store that has more than 100 million installs come under this program.In case a developer comes across any security breach in an app, they need to report it to Google. They can then claim a bounty of up to $20,000.

As part of Google Bug Bounty program under the GPSRP, all these apps are eligible for rewards. This is even in the eventuality of the app developer not having their own vulnerability disclosure or bug bounty program. Google will disclose the vulnerabilities to the concerned app developer. In this way the security researchers help the app developers to identify and fix the malware in their apps.

In case the developers have their bounty programs, the researchers can collect their rewards from the developer and from Google. From GPSRP, which is a part of the Google Bug Bounty Program, vulnerable data can be identified. With this Google can create automated checks to scan all the apps in Google Play for any malware.

The app developers who are affected will then be notified through Play Console. Play Console is part of the App Security Improvement (ASI) program. This program gives information on the malware and how they should fix the problem. Till date, ASI has helped over 30,000 developers fix more than 1,000,000 apps on Google Play. According to the Bug Bounty program, GPSRP has paid over $265,000 in bounties.

Launching of Developer Data Protection Reward Program as part of Google Bug Bounty

DDPRP is a Bug Bounty program which is in collaboration with HackerOne. It will help to identify and fix malware in Android apps, OAuth projects and Chrome extensions. Here, rewards will be given to those who can give complete evidence of data abuse in a similar model as Google’s other vulnerability reward programs.

In this Bug Bounty program, it aims to find out situations where the user data is being used illegitimately, without the consent of the user. There could be a breach related to an app or Chrome extension. That app or extension will be removed from Google Play or Google Chrome Web Store. In case an app developer is involved in data abuse, their API access will be removed. As per the Google Bug Bounty in the DDPRP, a single report could net $50,000 reward.

Best Business Apps: 10 Best Business Apps for Android in 2019

In this hyper-competitive digital world, business is no longer an easy task. Unlike previous days, you will not depend on others. You have to manage & Monitor all the employees, products, Sales, networks, financial issues and more.

You can do it now with the simple Best Business Apps. As you got the huge list of critical tasks on a daily basis, it's quite easy for any business man to become stressed and overwhelmed. But you don't have to be overwhelmed or stressed in this modern era because there are lots of applications to help you out.

You can quickly download the best business apps for your Android and make your work easier. Usually, you will find all the applications which are used to manage your teams or even do great things. In this post of best business apps for Android, we have listed all the best business apps for small and medium-sized businesses.

Larger businesses usually have their own customized apps for their works. But, if needed large business can also use these apps as well. Let's get into the list of best business apps for Android in 2019.

Best Business apps for Android in 2019:

G Suite (Google Drive):

When we think about the best business apps for Android, Google Drive & G Suite should come first. Mainly because of its delightful features. This app has the suite of office apps under the Gsuite banner. This supports documents, spreadsheets, PDFs, Images, Notes, Powerpoint presentations and more.

You can also save anything on your Google Drive and access anywhere from any system. As Google Drive itself is a Cloud Storage app so you will have a free 15GB of Space where you can save anything you love. It automatically synchronizes to the multi-platform devices as you can access your files from any system.

Apart from that this app also integrated with the Google calendar. So, this can simply remind you of the important meetings and other works of your business. This is G Suite is one of the safest places to store all your files.

It's quite easy to invite others to edit, share and leave comments on your files or folders which is very helpful from the business perspective.

Important Features:

• Can Safely Store your important files and access them from any device.
• Quickly search for files by content or name.
• Share files hasslefree with your friends and family.
• You can view, edit or even comment on the files.
• Check the file details and activities with ease.
• You can quickly use your device camera to scan the documents and do more.

Asana:

Asana is one of the most useful business apps for Android. This is simply a to-do's reminder. Whether you are in a meeting or traveling you can often use Asana to quickly capture tasks, write your ideas, keep reminders and do more.

With this Asana app, you can also get your teammates updates, you can organize tasks for teammates and do projects as well. You can even manage your every day to-do list. By using this app you can stay on top of your work and manage it from anywhere.

This app is having both the free and premium versions. The basic free version is more than enough for medium businesses. So, its best to use this app for your business uses. That's why I have listed this on the best business apps for Android.

Best Features of Asana:

• You can quickly add your work or to-dos on the Go.
• Quickly check your works on your "My tasks" tab.
• Create the projects and organize your tasks on boards.
• You can add due dates, followers, details and more.
• Comment on the tasks from anywhere to clarify your team doubts or ask questions.

CamScanner:

CamScanner is yet another useful tool for business. This is one of the best free business apps for Android in 2019.

This app helps you to turn your camera into a scanner. You can simply scan the business cards, documents, receipts, brochures and more. The best part is you can edit the PDFs in this app if needed. Along with that, you can quickly share things with your teammates.

 This business app is helpful for people who often deal with the documents, expenses and other such things. Download this app and make your work easier with scanning, storing, sync and other aspects.

Best Features of CamScanner:

• In CamScanner you can quickly digitize your document by just scanning.
• You can optimize your scan quality and use smart cropping & auto enhancing feature as well.
• Extract Text from the images with optical character recognition feature.
• Share files and documents in JPEG Format, PDF and more.

Best Free Business Apps Google My Business:

Google My Business is one of the most useful apps for businesses. You shouldn't ignore this because this plays a vital role in your business development. This app helps you to make your business visible on Google search engine and its maps.

If you're looking for local customers to visit your business then you shouldn't be ignoring this app. With this app, you can update the facts of your business like working hours, name, address, items people can get and more.

Google My Business also helps you to manage multiple locations if needed. So, this makes it crucial for small businesses to boost their sales.

Best Features:

• Quickly respond to reviews, messages with your customers.
• You can make edits to your menu card.
• Make edits to the working hours and address.
• Upload photos of your special deals.
• Quickly get real-time updates and notifications whenever a customer connects with your business.

Microsoft 365 Business:

Microsoft 365 is another useful business app which is quite similar to the G Suite. In this business suite, you'll find out all the important apps such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint and more in both the desktop and mobile versions.

So, this Microsoft 365 business suit is often important than other business suits. Usually, this app is free but it has some premium in-built features which may cost you around $5 or above per month. In this app, you can communicate with others as well through text, voice and video communication.

Similar to the G Suite, the business 365 Subscription also has cloud storage and other tools to help you out. Apart from that, you can find special tools such as office lens which helps you to act as a scanner app for business use.

In this business suite, you can find out the One Drive app which lets you work effortlessly with both your personal and professional work files on the go. With all these features we can list this in best business apps for Android in 2019 list.

Best Features:

• You can quickly open any document, pdf or ppt with the help of Microsoft business suite.
• Open and save files on OneDrive in Office apps such as One Note, Powerpoint, Word, and Excel.
• Find your photos with automatic tagging.
• Get quick time notifications when your shared document is edited.
• Share your photos, videos, and albums with your favorite ones.
• Get access to your files offline.

Slack:

Slack is one of the most useful tools for business. This is perhaps the best app of its kind. Slack is usually a chat app which is specially designed for business use. This has a clean & Simple user interface with the special options of multiple channels, conference calls, chatbots, and more.

This app can be integrated with lots of other third-party apps such as Asana, Google Drive, Giphy, Microsoft Suite and more. Slack is good for all kinds of businesses and its great option for businesses who strive to have chat service without any subscriptions.

With the help of slack, you can bring your team communications in one place. You can get more work done with the help of slack conversations and even check your to-do list and have more conversations as well. This is one of the best business apps for Android in 2019 you should use.

Features:

• Slack helps to communicate with your team and organize all your conversations by project or topic.
• You can message or call any person on the group within the team.
• With slack, you can share or edit documents with your team.
• You can integrate lots of third-party apps like Google Drive, Asana, Dropbox, Twitter and more.

Base Camp:

Base Camp is another cool android business app you should have a glance at in 2019. This tool is a project management system app which helps you to plan and organize your projects. Base Camp works pretty much similar to the Google Calendar, and it allows you to plan and quickly organize your schedule.

 You can have a look at the calendar to view all your daily tasks and events. This is a great tool for business owners as it does remind your important meetings. Not only that you can use this basecamp to upload your files and communicate with your team, clients, and others.

This tool helps you to manage a large group of employees seamlessly. So this is a perfect tool for you plan things that's why I have listed this on Best business apps for Android.

Features:

• You can quickly organize everything.
• All your team members will be on the same page.
• Projects will move faster with the collaboration of the team.
• You can find out what's going on with your project.

PayPal:

When it comes to business the most crucial part is sending and receiving payments. So, to be better in that aspect you have to use Paypal apps for your business. Paypal apps are the best business apps for small and medium-sized companies.

Top companies also use PayPal in most of the cases but there are having enough options left with them other than Paypal. The Paypal apps help you quickly manage your transactions. You can produce invoices in Paypal and can even pay your employees as well.

All you have to do is set up a business account. So, that it will simplify both receiving and sending the payments to others. The Android version of PayPal comes with fingerprint support. So, your transactions will be secured.

Features:

• Send money to your friends, family, clients and outsourcing employees.
• Helps you to keep your financial information private and secure.
• Secure encryption technology with fraud protection.
• Fingerprint unlocking method.

Best Business Apps for Small Business Square Register:

Square Register is another interesting business app which is helpful for small business owners, entrepreneurs, and other mobile users. This app is all about the simple point of sale system. Square is a basic app which requires a magnetic strip reader.

It's a free mobile point of sale app that helps you to quickly accept payments and run your business. Usually, it accepts debit, credit card payments for magstripe and then access your funds in only 1-2 business days.

You can use the square reader for contactless payments and chip to accept the EMV chips. If you are striving to have the payments faster? then you have to access this app.

Features:

• Accept all credit cards and debit cards for payment.
• Can record cash, gift cards, and other forms of discounts.
• You can send and track invoices directly from apps.

Best Business Apps: Zoom Cloud Meeting:

Zoom Cloud Meeting is a special video conferencing app. This app is helpful for all the business owners to attend conferences with their clients or team. With this app, you can add up to 200 concurrent participants.

Along with that you can share the screen with others and has presentation features as well. This app scales up well and its simply fantastic. If you are looking at the best conference app then this app is your go-to app. That's why we have listed this app on the best business apps for Android list.

Features:

• Quickly stay connected with more than 100 person group.
• High-Quality screen sharing and instant messaging option for free.
• Makes online meetings, conferences, group messaging easier.

These are the 10 best business apps for Android in 2019 you have to use. All these apps are pretty useful for small, medium and large business owners. Use these app to stay up to date with the digital world.  

FIDO2 Enabled Log In: Google Services using Your Fingerprint?

Apparently to sign in to Google Services all it takes will be your fingerprint. Google plans on allowing users to sign in to their Google accounts using their fingerprint or the screen lock on their phones. Of course, this will be available to Android devices only that are maybe initially. Normally when trying to log into one’s account you need your user ID and password. But now all that is going to be done away with. Google has rolled out this new feature with its Pixel range of phones at present. Other Android enabled devices are not too far behind either. Google plans on rolling out this new feature on Android 7 devices and above shortly or in the next few days.

More Security with FIDO2 Enabled Log In: 

Google’s new feature has been years in coming with the tech giant collaborating with the FIDO Alliance and the W3C to get things on the road. And things are now finally on the road with this new feature coming to Pixel smartphones.

This new method of logging into your Google accounts is supposed to be more secure and of course simpler to use.

In Google’s blog they mention newer methods of technology surpassing the need of the traditional logging in using your password kinda thing. With this new method of logging in coupled with the tech giants already present automated protections; this method is pegged to be more secure and easy to use.

The Point in Using FIDO2 instead of Normal Android APIs: 

According to Google’s blog the whole idea in using FIDO2 standards as opposed to your average APIs on Android is that the biometric system made with FIDO2 standards are now used on the web too. This means that various other accounts can be synced using the same biometric on different platforms as opposed to making a separate one for different log ins.

Note to Users: 

While you fingerprint maybe used across all platforms, your fingerprint will never be sent to a Google server. It will remain on the device itself, this is according to a blog posted by Google. The only thing that will be sent to Google’s Server is cryptographic proof that the user has correctly scanned their fingerprint using biometrics.

This remains an essential part of the new feature built on FIDO2 standards.

For Further Security: 

If that’s not enough there’s always Titan Security Keys as well as Android phone’s own built in security key for added protection.

These security keys as well as the new method of logging in, using biometrics, are all based on FIDO2 standards. However, the two methods are meant for different things, while one is used for bootstrapping a new device to make sure it’s the same owner logging into their account but from a new phone, the other that is verification based on biometrics, is done after bootstrapping a device and is all used for verifying the identity of the already signed in user during step- up flows.