The events in Paris and the consequent fear of terrorism have created an unprecedented situation, with a climate of prudence and control which, inevitably, is easily foraged by the media and politics. For example, today's news is that we want to check chat communications to intercept any information exchanges between terrorists, who according to some would even be in touch using the Playstation 4 online game mode.
Beyond the fact that this is not proven, it is quite clear that if two people speak in code they can also use the chat of a Chess game to organize attacks.
If governments want to control any internet communication for national security, trampling on any right to privacy, they can certainly do so.
Even so, however, there are powerful, free and easy-to-use tools that counter any control action, which hide any online communication, which protect securely against any attempt at intrusion, espionage, hacking and interception, both by cyber criminals, both from governments.
In this article we see 10 security and computer privacy tools to make information private and protected communicate on the internet in a private way that maybe no one will have to use every day, which is important to know, also because they are free .
1) Tor Browser
If you don't want websites to know who we are, if you want to do research without worrying that they are recorded in the history, if we want to browse without leaving traces on our computer and also on external servers, just use the TOR browser, designed for online anonymity such as surfing the web.
With this portable browser and running on every Windows, Linux or Mac computer, you can also browse the deep web sites, where there are mostly illegal activities anyway.
The negative aspects of Tor are related to a somewhat slow connection, also because it is constantly diverted, and to the fact that to guarantee full anonymity it is necessary to renounce any external plugin, including the Flash.
2) Tails
Those who want an interception or intrusion-proof computer can use the Tails operating system, bootable from DVD or USB stick from any PC (without the need to install it).
It is a Linux distro that includes a whole series of tools to make every online activity private.
It also allows you to visit dangerous sites from the point of view of viruses without risking that your PC is compromised or infected.
Tails was also the operating system used by journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras to communicate with Edward Snowden., The former NSA agent who disclosed very private documents regarding Internet espionage by the US government.
3) Tunnelbear
TunnelBear is one of the best programs, with free account, to surf behind a VPN.
VPN is a very effective technique for protecting and hiding the exchange of data on the internet externally.
For example, a VPN is essential when browsing from a wifi network open to all, unsecured, on which traffic can theoretically remain visible to anyone who wants to intercept it.
Anyone with the right tools can spy on the connection and collect sensitive information such as usernames and passwords, chats, online bank information and more.
A VPN encrypts data in and out of the computer and makes it appear as if you are in another country.
Tunnelbear is very easy to use and install, on Chrome and as a smartphone app, and you can use it for free for limited use.
In addition, those who want to surf behind VPN permanently can buy the unlimited full account for only $ 5 a month.
4) KeePass
One of the biggest natural vulnerabilities on the internet is related to web account passwords.
Those who use them easy to remember and those who always use the same on every site make a terrible mistake and hand themselves over to every hacker who wants to steal information.
Keepass is a free app for managing passwords, which can be synchronized online via Dropbox, which generates passwords for each website so you no longer have to remember them one by one.
Only that of Keepass becomes the password to be memorized in the head and the only one that must be used.
5) OTR (Off The Record)
Who wants to chat with the assurance that nobody, from the outside, can read what I am sending and receiving, you can install the OTR plugin on Pidgin (Windows) or Adium (Mac) chats.
With OTR all messages are encrypted and from Snowden's documents it seems that not even the NSA has managed to bypass this protection.
Alternatively there is also the new Tor Messenger, the private chat by the developers of Tor Browser
6) PGP (Pretty Good Privacy)
There are many programs and plugins to encrypt email, among which PGP is noted, which is currently among the most popular.
PGP works by generating a pair of keys, one private and secret and the other incomprehensible public.
To send the message to a person, his public key is used to encrypt it.
Instead, the recipient can use the private key to read the email.
7) HTTPS Everywhere
We said in point 3 that to protect internet traffic on a public network it is better to use a VPN.
However, there is also a lighter solution, it is enough that any sensitive data is sent to an https site.
HTTPS encrypts the payment data so that they are not intercepted along the way.
HTTPS is the protocol that encrypts the data sent and received and it can be seen how all the sites that receive credit card payments are in https.
To avoid scams or portals that are fake replicas of famous sites and be sure not to be mistaken, you can install the HTTPS Everywhere plugin, which has become one of the most popular extensions for any web browser.
8) Malwarebytes Antimalware or Spybot
Speaking of PC security programs, you absolutely must be prepared to remove any infected or suspicious files that could be used by an attacker.
Spybot Search and Destroy and MalwareBytes are among the most effective computer security tools to scan your PC.
It is advisable to use them at least once every month to be sure that your PC is intact and safe.
9) Veracrypt
If you want to hide files on your PC, such as documents or photos, so that even the police could not be able to recover them without knowing the key to decrypt them, you can use this program, Veracrypt, born from the ashes of TrueCrypt which was instead interrupted.
VeraCrypt is a program to create encrypted folders, also capable of encrypting an entire hard disk, a partition or external disk or USB stick.
VeraCrypt uses the AES encryption standard, the one with which the United States government protects its Top Secret documents.
10) Signal
Speaking instead of smartphones and messaging, we saw, in another article, the apps for chatting and making calls safely and privately.
Signal is one of the most effective, apps for Android and iPhone capable of encrypting chat communication, sent files and even normal phone calls.
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