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.

Send Secure Text Messages

Text messaging is notoriously insecure, anyone can read your messages in transit or on your phone, so what are some options for rendering your communications unreadable while on the wire?

TextSecure

We've talked about Whisper Systems before, and now we're featuring them again for their Secure texting app, TextSecure. TextSecure is a full replacement for the default texting app on your phone. As you might imagine, it enables the encryption of text messages stored on your phone, and, once configured, the sending of encrypted text messages to others who have TextSecure installed. You choose the key messages are encrypted with, making the security as strong as you like. 



Gliph

Another option is to use a completely separate app for sending secure messages. If this is what you're looking for, take a look at Gliph. It works by choosing a set of "artifacts" to be your glyph, to get in touch with others, instead of swapping phone numbers, you swap glyphs. All correspondence between any two users is encrypted, and messages on your device are also encrypted with a user-selected password. An interesting bonus to Gliph is that it allows users to make Bitcoin transactions free of charge. 


Some might propose Snapchat as a secure means on communication since the messages are deleted after a certain interval of time. This is not so because the messages are "deleted" not deleted. Basically what happens is that the app changes the message staus from unread to read, so the app will ignore the ones marked as "read", but they are still on your phone, and can be retrieved fairly minimal effort by anyone with a little know-how. So much for ephemeral messaging. Aside from being able to retrieve supposedly deleted messages, they lack any encryption while in transit, and are as insecure as regular texts in that respect.

Hopefully these suggestions have you sending safer messages instantly.

Alternatives to Google Drive

With Google on the list of companies that (willingly or begrudgingly) handed over data to the NSA, what alternatives are there to Google drive where some of your most personal data may be stored? Lets take a look at a few different options.


Dropbox
 
I've mentioned Dropbox before, but its worth putting on this list too. You get 2 GB for free to start, but if you send out some invites to friends and they accept, you get a 500 MB bonus for each person that signs up with a current maximum of 18 GB. Beyond this, Dropbox offers a few different storage options starting with 100 GB for $9.99/month. In addition, your data is encrypted in their cloud, the downside being that y0u don’t choose the encryption key.



Dump Truck 

Dump Truck by Golden Frog offers 5 GB of space on sign-up, and features 500 MB of additional storage per referral, same as Dropbox. In addition, its pricing plans are nearly identical to Dropbox, though Dumptruck's offeings start at 50 GB for $5/month, followed by 100 GB for $9.99/month. From there, the pricing/GB is the same as Dropbox, minus the discount if you pay for a year of service upfront. It even offers the encryption, though it claims to be more secure than "other services" as it made its own apps, and owns its network and servers, therefore having a higher degree of privacy for users.




SugarSync

SugarSync offers 5 GB free, and slightly different pricing plans than Dropbox & Dump Truck, though the 100 GB for 9.99/month is the same, with a maximum of 250 GB for 24.99/month, it also has special options for businesses. Like the other two, it also offers apps for Windows/Mac/iOS/Android, to easily sync files/folders across devices. This is all done securely as SugarSync, like the others, features file encryption measures for your privacy.

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.

Alternatives to Google & Yahoo search

 Word is that the NSA was getting it's data from a slew of tech companies, limiting your use of their services is on sure-fire way to ensure they don't have a much data to hand over should it be requested, so what are the alternatives to doing a Google/Yahoo! search?

Duckduckgo started in 2008, and as a privacy-minded search engine, it doesn't track your IP, forward you search query to the sites you click on, install cookies, or otherwise track you or your searches, and its default is the more secure HTTPS. it does however compile the results of 50+ search engines, and filters out content mills designed to rank high in Google search rankings.

Startpage has been protecting users privacy since 2006, and enhanced its privacy procedures in 2009. It doesn't log IP addresses, set cookies, or otherwise track its users. In addition it has the European Privacy Seal for data protection. It also uses HTTPS to increase security, and unlike Duckduckgo, it offers image and video search.  

Using either of these two options will increase your online privacy instantly.