Most Secure Browser

With all this online security talk, you might be wondering wich browser is the most secure. While I could launch into a discussion on the security merits and flaws any particular browser, that would go beyond the non technical scope of this blog, and be largely pointless since it can be boiled down to this: No browser is the safest.

I can say this with fair certainty because while any particular browser excels in one area, it falters in another, leaving it vulnerable. The essential idea is that nothing is bullet proof,  maybe youve been getting that from this blog, maybe not, but thats all there is to it. No system is 100% safe, or 100% virus-proof, or 100% whathaveyou, given enough inventiveness, you can break anything.

Where does this leave you when looking to use the "safest" browser? At a minimum I would suggest using a browser compatible with the security add-ons that I´ve written about, and others that I haven´t, so probably Firefox or Chrome. Just remember that having all this security isn´t a gurantee (of anything), apply the usual caution when visiting sketchier websites, or downloading suspicious files, & stay safe on the net.

Use Tor

Tor, which stood for "The Onion Routing Project" was originally developed by the navy to aid in concelaing the identities of its users online. It accomplishes this by running a users internet traffic through the Tor network, eventually sending it out to the internet and then routing the response back through the network to the user. These constant reroutings are what provides the anonymity, as it is extemely dificult to track where the traffic travels within the network. Essentially, it protects you from the surveillance of your online activites by third parties. 

Usage case scenarios for this app includes needing to comunicate with others confidentially, avoid surveillance, or being just plain paranoid. Download it or find out more at the Tor website. They also have an android app to privatize your internet traffic while on the go. 

Keep in mind that like Tor, your security depends on having various layers for maximum effectiveness.
 

Antivirus Software

Antivirus software is what rallies the forces once the castle has been stormed, these days antivirus software is a must for anyone connected to the internet, so what are the best antivirus applications for Windows/Mac? Yes, I know Mac users like to think of themselves as immune to viruses, but malware for Mac is on the rise, so it doesn’t hurt to know what your options are (I myself don't use an antivirus for Mac). Since this is a more technical subject, I am deffering to Lifehacker for suggestions of the best antivirus apps.

Windows

Avast! is what Lifehacker recommends as the best antivirus for windows, you can read their article over here, but basically it amounts to its ability to catch viruses, combined with relative ease of use, and the added bonus of being free.


For Mac

Sophos is the recommendation for those who choose to run an antivirus on their Mac, it blocks both Mac and Windows viruses, and is fairly light on system resources. Get the full scoop here.

Prey: Recover your stolen devices

                                        

Prey is an app for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android that helps you get back your lost/stolen devices. Its easy to set up and simple to use, the free version lets you track up to 3 devices, like your phone, laptop, and tablet for example. 

All you have to do is install it, login to your account, and your devices can now be tracked making them easier to find if they get lost/stolen. Prey also offers some other tools to help, such as displaying a message on the screen, sounding an alarm, or remote wiping the device. Overall it's a great tool to have in your tool kit and may get you out of a pinch.

You can get it here.

Back up your computer

Backing up your data is an important step in securing your information, because if your hard drive crashes, chances are you still want access to your files. There are several ways to go about this, you can get an external hard drive and store your data on there (possibly with the help of a backup  utility) or you can use a cloud service like Dropbox and sync just your most important files, or your entire computer if you're willing to cough up some cash. Lets take a look.




Dropbox

Dropbox offers 2 GB free on sign-up, and for $9.99/month, you can get 100 GB, with other plans offering 200 or 500 GB, which is probably plenty for most people. The advantages here are that you can download an app that will sync the contents of a folder from your computer to the cloud, the bonus being that you can access them anywhere. Best of all, it encrypts your data for extra security.



External Hard Drive

If you go the external hard drive route,  you probably want to use a back-up utility to handle backups for you & help keep you sane. On Mac you can use the built in Time Machine tool to manage backups, if you're running Windows, then Crashplan is for you! It comes in both free and paid flavors.





Another important thing to remember about backups is to have one off-site that way if your house burns down and everything is destroyed, your data is safe on the hard drive you keep at work, or in the cloud.

Encrypt your hard drive

As Edward Snowden confirmed, encrypting your hard drive is an effective way to keep people from easily reading your files if they manage to get a hold of them. Lets look at some tools for encrypting your hard drive.

Mac users are in luck, as OS X has a built in solution called FileVault which can be turned on in the system preferences. When you go through the set up you will be given a recovery key which will let you decrypt your data if you ever forget your password, you should record somewhere safe. Once this set-up is complete, you can use your computer as normal while it encrypts your hard drive in the background. All files saved on your drive from now on will be automatically encrypted. For full instructions, here's a step-by step guide. One of the downsides is that a small handful of programs are not compatible with FileVault, Diablo III being one example.

Windows users can download TrueCrypt, a free disk encryption utility that is a bit more robust than FileVault, in additon to encrypting you drive, it enables you to create hidden disk partitions and encrypt them to further increase security. Unfortunately I can't vouch for how well TrueCrypt works as I have not used it, but here are instructions for setting it upon your machine. (Alternatively you can use Bitlocker.)

DNSCrypt

DNSCrypt (developed by OpenDNS), though technically a preview release, is an application that encrypts your DNS requests. DNS requests are your computer communicating with a DNS server asking it to translate your human-readable urls into machine-readable urls, for example, duckduckgo.com becomes 50.18.192.250. Encrypting these requests prevents snoopers from knowing what websites you’re visiting, spoofing a url and presenting you with a false page, or from mucking around with your packets in general. This program may accidentally break your connection if it can't access its servers, if you want more reliability, open up the preferences and check the option "fall back on insecure DNS", and yes, this is another install-it-and-forget-it application.

DNSCrypt for Windows & Mac can be downloaded here.

Keep Software Updated

Keeping your computer up to speed on the latest patches and updates is one of the easiest ways to plug holes in your digital fortress. If you’re running Windows, go to the start menu & look for Windows Update under all programs, open it up & hit "check for updates" and install anything that comes up, especially if it's security-related, I'll wait. If you’re on a Mac its even easier, when you’re on the desktop, click on the apple icon in the top left and select "check for updates" and install anything that shows up.  If you haven’t done this in a while the download/install process may take some time. 

In the meanwhile, you should consider turning on automatic updates so that the latest patches get downloaded & installed automatically, here's a quick guide on how to do this for Windows, Mac users can head over here to accomplish the same thing.

Chrome & Firefox check for updates automatically, though Firefox may prompt you to restart the browser to complete the installation. Since you’re thinking about it (and you're reading this), check for updates to your browser plug-ins! Mozilla provides a visual way to see what needs to be updated here.

Other programs like your anti-virus and firewall are probably configured to update automatically, though it never hurts to check and make sure.

With your computer updating itself and plugging security holes on its own, you can have a little more peace of mind.