online security

You don't have to be up to things nefarious to be concerned about privacy online. Merely attempting to do your banking via an open wifi hotspot or send/receive personal email on your phone or laptop at the library or the airport should be enough to raise alarm bells.

After all, your stuff is going out over radio, for pete's sake. Who knows what varmint might be listening in? Right?

So may I commend to your attention a couple solutions I have found. I've discovered for email Protonmail.com, which offers strong encryption between your computer and their server, and if both ends of the conversation are on Protonmail accounts, the encryption is end-to-end, meaning at no point between you and your spouse will it be possible for anybody to see your love notes. While on their servers, your mail is also encrypted, and they keep no logs of your communications, so they can't sell or surrender to any government any information on you. They are based in Switzerland, and while they offer free email accounts, with paid accounts you get more storage space and extra features including throwaway aliases to help scuttle spam.

Protonmail also has a VPN, which also is free, although there are extra features for paid VPN accounts. Besides being encrypted to their servers, they keep no logs on your surfing, so cannot sell your footprints or surrender data to the government.

For years I have been using AzireVPN, a VPN based in Sweden, and although it is a paid service, it has proven very helpful in keeping my credit card number and word of when I'll be gone from home (and home thus vulnerable to burglary) out of the hands of the bad guys. Azire also keeps no logs of your 'net footprints, and also gets my recommendation.

Those of us who roam the country, relying on cell phone networks and restaurant/campground wifi are justified in being cautious about our privacy on the interwebz. I am not affiliated in any way with either of these businesses, and do not profit in any way from recommending them to you all. I am merely giving you the benefit of my experience.

Azire VPN clicky
Proton mail clicky
proton vpn clicky

fj12ryder
Explorer III
Mar 18, 2019
Just to be a bit nit-picky, when you talk about changing your MAC address, you're not really changing it, you're changing how Windows, Linux, IoS, etc. show your MAC address. The actual MAC address of that network card has not changed. If you took it out and put it in another machine, it would show the same as when it was new.

Basically you're just spoofing the MAC address. Substituting another number for your OS to display. I know, just nit-picking, but still... Kind of like someone referring to your SSN number, or the VIN number on your car.

"Since this address is physically printed or "burned in" the card, it cannot be changed."
packnrat
Explorer
Mar 18, 2019
and to think all the corps are pushing people to store everything in the "cloud".
can you say unsecured. easy for a crook to find and take.
the mega places are hacked in someway almost every day. only true secured, is on your computer when it turned off.
pnichols
Explorer II
Mar 18, 2019
packnrat wrote:
and to think all the corps are pushing people to store everything in the "cloud".
can you say unsecured. easy for a crook to find and take.
the mega places are hacked in someway almost every day. only true secured, is on your computer when it turned off.

Better still - or instead of - make sure that your router is turned off when not needing Internet access, and of course including during the night when sleeping.

My WRT router has the built-in capability to have it running during a schedule that I can set through the router's UI. Using this feature to turn off the router, including when sleeping, reduces the hours that hackers have access to it ... especially those on the other side of the world.

BTW, a lot of folks must be turning off their routers during the day when they're at work. I'm retired so I can check WiFi signals around my home using a WiFi signal monitoring app on my computer. There's many WiFi signals from my neighbors showing in the evenings and mornings and all day on weekends, but during the week most of those signals are gone in the middle of the day.

FWIW, "the cloud" is merely remote servers storing whatever information you put on them. The DW and myself never use "the cloud" or any other "service" for storing our personal stuff - including photos. Hackers can get at this stuff anytime, and in case of a catastrophic Internet failure ... there goes access to your photos!
LittleBill
Explorer
Mar 18, 2019
fj12ryder wrote:
Just to be a bit nit-picky, when you talk about changing your MAC address, you're not really changing it, you're changing how Windows, Linux, IoS, etc. show your MAC address. The actual MAC address of that network card has not changed. If you took it out and put it in another machine, it would show the same as when it was new.

Basically you're just spoofing the MAC address. Substituting another number for your OS to display. I know, just nit-picking, but still... Kind of like someone referring to your SSN number, or the VIN number on your car.

"Since this address is physically printed or "burned in" the card, it cannot be changed."

yes just spoofing what is reported on layer 2
LittleBill
Explorer
Mar 18, 2019
pnichols wrote:
Hackers can get at this stuff anytime, and in case of a catastrophic Internet failure ... there goes access to your photos!

your photo's will be the least of your concerns if the internet fails, pretty much will go dark ages.
pnichols
Explorer II
Mar 18, 2019
LittleBill wrote:
pnichols wrote:
Hackers can get at this stuff anytime, and in case of a catastrophic Internet failure ... there goes access to your photos!

your photo's will be the least of your concerns if the internet fails, pretty much will go dark ages.

Not quite so far back in dark times for those of us who keep local soft and hard copies of everything business related, who maintain local hard drive stored photos, who get the bulk of their intertainment via satellites instead of the Internet, who have multiple personal residence generators with plenty of stored fuel, and who keep their RVs stored at home with all tanks full that should be full and all tanks empty that should be empty.

It's probably best to trust that which you have no choice but to trust (i.e. the joists holding up your floors), but not to trust that which you have a choice in whether or not to trust (i.e. the Internet). ;)
LittleBill
Explorer
Mar 18, 2019
pnichols wrote:
LittleBill wrote:
pnichols wrote:
Hackers can get at this stuff anytime, and in case of a catastrophic Internet failure ... there goes access to your photos!

your photo's will be the least of your concerns if the internet fails, pretty much will go dark ages.

Not quite so far back in dark times for those of us who keep local soft and hard copies of everything business related, who maintain local hard drive stored photos, who get the bulk of their intertainment via satellites instead of the Internet, who have multiple personal residence generators with plenty of stored fuel, and who keep their RVs stored at home with all tanks full that should be full and all tanks empty that should be empty.

It's probably best to trust that which you have no choice but to trust (i.e. the joists holding up your floors), but not to trust that which you have a choice in whether or not to trust (i.e. the Internet). ;)

you think your entertainment is going to work if the "internet" breaks? what do you think feeds the satellite signals? its all run on or near or in the same bundle as the internet.

if we lose enough to "break" the internet, pretty much everything stops, banks close, credit cards don't work, hell im not even sure if power is going to work at this point. so eventually you will need something that depends on it. this coming from a prepper,

if the internet breaks, just hope you have enough bullets to stop everyone from trying to take your stuff.

man we are off topic.
pnichols
Explorer II
Mar 18, 2019
I hope satellite signals will be fed via radio signals from at least some studios using hard drives to store their entertainment stuff, and from some emergency government information sources via secure private channels having nothing to do with the Internet.

Everything may "stop" but when things recover enough such that banks can spin up their local hard drives again, and the courts function again, I will have my hard copies to show them as proof from my end on where to start over again regarding me and mine.

Individual bullets will do no good: View again "The Postman" to see how folks will have to combine their bullets and band together enough in fortifications (like that's going to happen) in order to hold off armies of marauding hoodlums.

Slightly back on topic ... probably the shortwave enthusiasts with their transceivers and us folks who still have all-band portable radios (remember those?) will be able to keep something akin to an "intra-net" going.

Trust what you wish ... but be prepared to maybe someday pay the consequences of that in which you trust.

Forum Discussion

online security

About Technical Issues

Related Content

TIP ONLINE

Camper Security

Online Tire Ordering

RV Security

5th wheel hitch security