Data Privacy Day - Let's Give Some Privacy to Privacy

Annually observed across the world on January 28^th, is the Data Privacy Day. The day is commemorated for reiterating the importance of protecting data and privacy on the Internet. In this post, we share some insightful tips on what you can do to keep your information safe.

Tips to Protect Your Privacy On the Internet

#1. Think twice before making your personal information such as date of birth, address, phone number, etc., public; especially on social networking sites. See also: Things You Shouldn’t Share Online

#2. Treat any unwanted or unexpected email asking for personal information as a phishing attack. Trash such emails, and filter out the sender. See also: What is Phishing and How to Avoid it?

#3. Never trust links or attachments in emails coming from unsolicited sources.

#4. Avoid unsecured WiFi networks while accessing websites where you have to login or provide your personal or financial information.

#5. Create strong passwords with a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, special characters, and uncommon words. See also: Creating Strong Passwords

#6. Secure your online accounts with two-factor authentication, wherever possible.

#7. Review permissions before downloading any application on your mobile devices.

#8. Password protect your mobile, tablet, and laptop. Such devices are more vulnerable to theft.

#9. Avoid storing sensitive data such as passwords, bank account details, social security number, etc., in USB drives. Even if you should, then get the data encrypted.

#10. Never use the same password for different accounts on the Internet. This will ensure the safety of other online accounts if one is compromised.

#11. Take regular backups of your important files and documents on external drives or online cloud.

#12. When you delete any sensitive data, ensure that it is unrecoverable by any recovery tool. See also: Learn how to delete your data securely

#13. Protect your computer from spyware by turning on pop-up blockers, disabling autorun, avoiding inappropriate sites, and verifying free software before downloading them.

#14. Spare some time going through the privacy statement of websites to know how your personal information is being treated and used.

#15. Prevent unauthorized external devices such as CD/DVD, USB devices, etc., from accessing the data on your computer. Learn about Quick Heal Data Theft Protection

#16. Remember to sign out of websites when you are done, especially when you are using a public or shared computer.

#17. Identify secure websites before providing sensitive information or making any transaction. A secure website has the ‘lock’ icon and its URL begins with ‘https’.

#18. Avoid checking ‘Remember me’, ‘Remember password’, ‘Keep me logged in’ boxes.

#19. Protect your computers, mobiles, and tablets with a multi-layered security software.

#20. Turn OFF location-tracking services on your mobile device, if they are invading your privacy,

Source : http://blogs.quickheal.com/wp/data-privacy-day-lets-give-some-privacy-to-privacy/

Happy Republic Day

Hold Your Head High;
Let The World Know You Are Proud To Be An Indian.
Vande Mataram And Happy Republic Day.

Happy Makar Sankranti, Bhogali Bihu, Lohri, Pongal and Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi

Classical Dance performance from Officer Trainees of AP

Great performance from Officer Trainees of AP @ LBSNAA, Mussoorie - Please see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPX9efCIyMw

Officer Trainees from AP - 88th Foundation Course (2013) for All India Services @  LBSNAA, Mussoorie

1	SIVA SANKAR LOTHETI	IAS
2	J. KEERTHI	IAS
3	AMARKESH D	IPS
4	Raghuvamshi Y	IPS
5	CHETANA MYLABATHULA	IPS
6	SRIJANA G	IAS
7	SHAN MOHAN Sagili	IAS
8	T L REDDY Narasimhugari	IAS
9	DEKKA KISHORE BABU	IPS
10	Shashanka Konduru	IAS
11	J MEGHANATHA REDDY	IAS
12	VISWAJIT KAMPATI	IPS

Creation of Telengana - Who Else is Fighting for Statehood?

Who Else is Fighting for Statehood?   India with its Administrative Divisions in 1951 With the creation of Telengana as the newest state of Republic of India, fire sparks have been provided to others demanding statehoods in the country some of whom have been doing so right from independence. At this point of time, others demanding statehoods for various regions across the country have understood that you need a very solid movement and a few reasons to benefit the Central Government as basics to get a legitimate claim. We realized that it would be a good thing for all of us to know which are the other major regions demanding independent statehood and you can decide for yourself as to what is right and what is not. Do you agree with breaking down the existing states to smaller ones or do you believe that we should try going back to 1951 when the number of states were fewer in India?  Is there any justification in these claims or is it going to benefit the nation? There are a lot of thoughts that one needs to undergo to truly understand the scenario! Here is a tentative list of Proposed States (Fighting for Statehood) in India: 1)      Awadh – Comprising of 21 districts of central Uttar Pradesh including capital Lucknow, major cities such as Kanpur, Allahabad, Gorakhpur, and Sonia Gandhi's constituency Rae Bareli.  2)      Bodoland – Comprising of four districts with majority of Bodo tribes, a treaty has been signed by Govt. of India, Govt. of Assam and Bodo Extremists (BLTF) creating a subordinate government system in this area under Assam 3)      Braj Pradesh or Harit Pradesh – Comprising of entire Western Uttar Pradesh (22 districts) west of Awadh districts including Mathura, Agra, Vrindavan, Aligarh, etc. and long with Gwalior and Bundelkhand regions of Madhya Pradesh. This division is based on Lord Krishna's native land (Braj) and the stark difference in culture from Awadh region of Uttar Pradesh. Both the demands are separate! 4)       Dimaraji – Asked for by the Dimasa tribe, comprising of two complete and four partial districts of Assam and Nagaland (including Dimapur district) and includes the major town of Silchar 5)      Gorkhaland – You must have surely heard of this movement leading to a few cases of violence as well. This claim comprises of Darjeeling Hills and Doars region in West Bengal. They have been asking for a separate state for more than 100 years and were first given a subordinate organization – Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council but with the 2008 Gorkha Janmukti  Morcha rallied for a separate state again and now the semi-autonomous DGHC is being replaced by Gorkhaland Territorial Administration 6)      Kashmir, Dogradesh and Ladakh – All the three regions of Jammu and Kashmir (Jammu – Dogradesh, Kashmir and Ladakh) have asked for separation.  While Kashmir and Jammu have been asking for separate statehood, Ladakh has proposed a Union Territory status in order to preserve the Buddhist culture of the region. 7)      Kukiland – Kuki was a separate country in the pre-British times in Manipur comprising of three full districts and two partial districts.  8)      Kutch – An under developed region of Gujarat compared to rest of Gujarat, this region was a separate state till 1956 but was merged with Bombay state to put together the region of Gujarat state in 1960. It includes the vast dry barren lands of Rann of Kutch in North-west Gujarat. Kutch is also currently the largest district in India  9)      Kosal – Comprises of 11 districts, one block and one sub-division in Western Odisha. This region lies of the leeward side of the Eastern Ghats and is bordered by Jharkhand in the north, Chattisgarh in the west and Odisha in east and south.  10)   Mithila – Comprises of 24 Maithili speaking districts in Bihar and 6 in Jharkhand. This region is a huge spread right from West Champaran in North-west Bihar to Araria, Kishanganj in Noth-east Bihar to Begusarai, Lakhisarai in Central Bihar to Banka in South-west Bihar. It also includes the 6 districts in absolute north-east Jharkhand including Deoghar. 11)   Purvanchal – Comprises of 17 Districts of Eastern Uttar Pradesh including Varanasi and Gorakhpur. This is a predominantly Bhojpuri region and the movement for the new state is being headed by none other than Mr. Amar Singh (ex-Samajwadi Party general secretary whom you would know for a flamboyant life style and friend of Bacchans) 12)   Saurashtra – Comprises of 7 districts in South-west Gujarat including Rajkot, Junagarh, Jamnagar, Porbandar, etc. A lot of people in this region believe that their overall growth has been slow since the formation of Gujarat state in 1960. 13)   Tulu Nadu – Comprises of Udupi and Dakshin Kannada districts of Karnataka and Kasergod district of Kerela. The division is based on the linguistic and cultural presence of Tulu (a language spoken in this region which is close of become one of the recognized languages of India to preserve the same. 14)    Vidarbha – Comprises of 11 districts of central Maharashtra including Akola, Nagpur, Gondia and Amravati. For a long time, people in this region believe that, development has been ignored by the Maharashtra governments in past and present whose development focus lies solely in Western Maharashtra. There was already a commission (State Reorganization Commission) that proposed the formation of Vidarbha state with Nagpur as capital but it ended up being included in Maharashtra when the state was formed in 1960. 15)   Vindhya Pradesh – Was already a state of India formed by joining 34 princely states but was later included as a part of Madhya Pradesh by the State Reorganization Act of 1956. There has been a call for a separate state for 11 districts in this region since 2000 but the movement is mild. Various Proposed States in India - You Would Notice a Few of Them Overlapping as Well! Source : http://www.addongyan.com

Happy new year...

Dear All,

ITCSA is wishing you a very very happy new year...May God spread prosperity and joy in your life on this New Year and fulfill all your dreams....