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What is BGP?

To send data packets from one IP address to another IP address, the intermediate routers must know how to pass the data to the next-hop so that the data will finally arrive at the destination IP address. The IP address is the destination address where the data is delivering to, and the Internet must know how to deliver the data to the final location. Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is the protocol that helps routers find the shortest path to the destination, and also provides an alternate route if the shortest path is blocked. In other words, BGP is guiding routers on how to get to the final IP address.

Google's Advanced Protection Program for high-risk users

We've recently heard that about a half-billion Facebook accounts were breached, and posted on hacker's forum for anyone to grab. We often hear the world's largest companies were hacked, and our personal data are leaked. A website like HaveIBeenPwned search data breaches, and tells you if your email or phone number has been pwned. It's not your fault that your personal data has been breached, but you'll be the next victim of identity theft if you don't protect yourself.

What is WAN?

A wide area network (WAN) is a network generally transmitted over the telecommunications network that interconnects long-distance networks. If it wasn't for the WANs, the Internet wouldn't exist, and the smaller LANs and Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) wouldn't be interconnected. The telecommunications network was originally built for voice traffic but as the demand for packet ("data") traffic grows, the existing telecommunication was used to deliver data traffic over WANs.


Remove GeoTagging before sharing your photos

We often share our photos on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. We also send our photos via Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, and Skype without much privacy concerns. Did you know that the person who receives your photo can reveal your personal information such as the location of where the photo was taken and when it was taken? If the photo was taken from your backyard, you are advertising where you live to anyone who has access to your photos. A stalker can find your home from an Instagram photo you've posted a few days ago, and a thief will be able to determine your whereabouts by looking at the timestamp embedded in our photo you posted an hour ago in Hawaii. We often share too much information on social media, and they can work against us if someone abuses them.

What is your backup strategy?

No one is thrilled with making backups but some of us who lost data in the past know how critical it is to backup our data regularly. I used to make a backup of my PC on an external HDD, and replicate the contents back to forth when I get a new PC or new HDD. As size of HDD gets larger, I've upgraded my HDD a few times and finally moved to a NAS drive with RAID 1 mirroring. Having an external hard drive was great until cloud drives debutted in 2008.

My Facebook is hacked and someone is asking money

We often hear a Facebook account is hacked, and someone is using the stolen account to ask for money from friends, family, and business acquaintances. If you become a victim of a stolen account, there is a good chance that you'll not be able to access your Facebook account as the hacker probably changed your password. You'll have to let your friends and family know that your Facebook account is hacked, but you will have to contact them individually as you have no access to your Facebook account.


How to protect yourself from doxxing?

There are many reasons someone wants to dox you and share all your confidential information with the public to target you. Hackers have been using "doxxing" to revenge their rivals and enemies, but this practice has been extended to regular people like us. Gathering personal information online is not an easy task, but someone will go through the trouble of collecting the data to harass you is mind-boggling.

6 Cybersecurity Tips for Writers & Bloggers

Cybersecurity studies say that around 30,000 websites are hacked every day. Many hackers break into websites without their owners realizing the issue, so it might take months before the breach is detected. At that point, making repairs is way too late. The best protection is prevention, and this rule applies to cybersecurity. To keep a blog or author website safe from hackers, writers need to follow the best practices of cybersecurity.

What is a sitemap?

A sitemap is the file that you specify to let the search engines know about the pages, videos, and images hosted on your website. By creating a sitemap, you can specify which pages are important, when they were last updated, and how often they were changed as well as alternate language versions (if any). You may also create an HTML version of the sitemap for your visitors to allow them to easily navigate your website.


What are Client Hints?

Client Hints is a new feature introduced by Google on Chrome browser and is later adopted by other browsers and included in the HTTP specifications. Client Hints was developed to help deliver responsive web easier and faster, and also makes it easier for webmasters to markup less code.