GoTrusted Review Available on Security Catch

We'd like to let our customers and potential customer know of a new review that's available for the GoTrusted service from Security Catch. We want our customers to be fully informed when making the important decision of which VPN provider to use so we welcome sites like Security Catch that can provide potential customers a third-party perspective on the service we offer.

FastVPNService Now Offering VPN Analysis and Reviews

We'd like to welcome a new VPN comparison website to our industry, Fast VPN Service. At GoTrusted, we feel we compare well to other VPN services on price and performance, with no hidden costs.  We always think more information for the consumer helps them make the best choice (us!) when it comes to choosing their VPN Service so check out their reviews here.

Microsoft Releases Aggregate of Law Enforcement Requests

Microsoft has released their latest Law Enforcement Requests Report. It gives an aggregate of how many user's and accounts have been released to law enforcement agencies in the last six months. This is the second report Microsoft has released with their first being in March

The total number of customer data requests was 37,196 totaling some 66,539 accounts across all Microsoft services, including Skype. This number reflects requests made officially for the first half of 2013, but does not include requests pertaining to national security. There are many requests from dozens of countries, but the main concentration of requests comes from five countries. The US, Turkey, Germany, France and the United Kingdom. These five countries make up 73% of the requests made. 

You can read more about the report and see future reports on Microsoft's site.

Vodafone Server Hacked in Germany

A Vodafone server was recently hacked exposing over 2 million users accounts. The attack was detected at the beginning of September.

The hacker gained access to customers account information including names, addresses, birth dates, and bank account information. Vodafone, the world's second biggest mobile carrier, said the hacker did not gain access to cell phone numbers, credit card information, or customer PINs. It is believed that the hacker had insider knowledge on the systems in place.

This is one of the latest in a string of high profile hacking cases that have occurred in the last few months. Companies like Google, Twitter, and The NewYork Times have come under similar attacks.

You can read more on the attack on the Business Week website.

China experiences largest cyberattack in its history

Chinese internet was struck by the largest cyber attack in its history on Sunday, August 25th.

The massive 'denial of service' attack targeted .cn domains, including the popular Sina Weibo microblog site.

With a 'denial of service' attack of this scale usually bot-nets are used. These are comprised of possibly hundreds or thousands of computers. These computers are usually inadvertently infected with malware and other programs that cause them to take commands from the person running the bot-net. In this case the bot-net sent out thousands of request simultaneously to the domain servers which resulted in slow, or completely unreachable sites.

The attack was two-stroke with the first attack happening at 2am and a subsequent attack occurring at 4am. The second wave of attacks was 'long-lasting and large-scale' according to state media. The attack caused websites using the .cn domain to either resolve slowly, or not at all, resulting in many Chinese users not being able to reach the internet at all.

There is no clear motive or suspects currently and no one has taken responsibility for the attack. You can read more on this story on CNN.

New GoTrusted Version Available for Mac and PC

We've released new versions for both our Mac (v2.2.5.4) and PC (v2.3.5.5) clients today.

We've added a new Menu button to the status window of the PC version. This should make the settings menu much easier to navigate to. Clicking the button will bring up the same menu that right clicking the icon tray 'G' brings up in previous versions.

The next big change is that we have updated our regions selection to allow for more specific server selections. This has been added in both the PC and Mac versions. You'll now be able to choose from North American East, West, Central, and Auto. You'll also have Europe East, West, and Auto available as well. The Auto feature will be selected by default and the preferred for most people. Auto will find the fastest server available at that time and connect you to it. For those that would like to connect to somewhere more specifically the East/West/Central option will give you that functionality.

We hope everyone likes the changes that have been made. It's due to direct customer feedback that these new options have been added and they should further add to the ease of use our customers have come to expect using our VPN service.

New GoTrusted Windows Version Released

    It's been a busy week here at GoTrusted. Following the new servers that have opened in Hong Kong, we're releasing the new 2.3.5.0 version of GoTrusted for Windows.

    Users will notice some obvious changes immediately. We've added a 'Menu' button to the status window to make navigation in the client easier. The settings menu has also been changed. The basic settings for region selection, and user login will be found in the first tab labeled 'General'. We've moved the less used troubleshooting settings to the separate advanced tab.

   Behind the scenes we've ironed out a few bugs that were affecting a very small percentage of users under specific circumstances. We'll also be releasing the updated Mac version shortly.

   If you have any questions or run into any problems using the GoTrusted VPN service remember to contact our support via the support page!

Thank you,

The GoTrusted Team

GoTrusted Expands Bandwidth in Europe

     Due to increases in ISP speeds provided to customers in the European area, GoTrusted has now expanded its available bandwidth in Europe with the launch of our new high-speed German secure server location.  These new servers will ensure that fast performance is maintained for GoTrusted's existing European users, in addition to future users of our VPN service.

    As always, support is there to help if you run into any issues so don't hesitate to contact them.

China Increasing Internet Controls

China is tightening their hold on Internet users, according to a new article from Time, after a flood of online complaints about official abuses rattled Communist Party leaders.

China's government approved a new law Friday December, 28th that requires users to register their names and other identifying information when they register with access providers or post information publicly on the Internet. This is something that will remove the idea of remaining anonymous online, without a VPN service, for China's 500 million users. The public has been largely taking advantage of the internet to make complaints about the government and exposing corruption.

GoTrusted will continue to support our users located in China to make sure the protection of anonymity is not lost and that people will be able to access the Internet without censorship or fear of reprisal.

Google says 'Government Surveillance is On The Rise'

In an article recently published on NBCnews.com, Google has released information regarding governments' requests for information on users as part of their 'Transparency Report'.

There have been 20,938 total inquiries to Google, involving 34,614 accounts worldwide. Currently, it seems, that governments around the world are increasing surveillance of Internet users. Google has stated they have complied with most of these requests. It's also worth noting that this is only in reference to Google. The numbers are likely much higher when you take into account all providers governments may also be issuing these inquiries to.

The report comes following prominent email snooping cases from official agencies. A situation that puts front and center the fact that, in current digital times, it is so important for us to be advocates for our own privacy and safety when going online.

This is why we're working so hard here at GoTrusted. To make sure our customers' privacy is protected while using our Secure VPN Tunnel. Whether that's from malicious individuals or governments who's policies take a turn and privacy becomes the target. We are here to make sure worrying about your online privacy and security isn't an issue.

Protect Your Personal Info At Work

With hacking a prevalent problem at home and in the workplace, a recent study commissioned by IT firm Sailpoint set out to see just how dangerous the modern workplace is for personal data, private browsing and identity protection.

According to the survey, one in five Americans would ditch a company if it lost their data, and 10 percent would tell their friends and family to abandon that business. But even though people are worried about it happening to them, nearly the same number of Americans said they would steal data from their employer, given the chance. Even more outrageous, almost a quarter of British citizens surveyed said they would sell that info for profit! (Only 5 percent of Americans would – or at least admit it.)

These statistics underscore the need for security in the workplace. There are simple things workers can do to protect themselves.

Always Log Out: A workplace uses a lot of public terminals and company-owned computers. From an open Facebook account to an e-mail left up, co-workers can swipe critical information just by walking past your desk. Sales leads or sensitive financial info are just a glance away if you don't take the extra three seconds before lunch to log out.

Make Complex Passwords: If you cover your desk in Yankees gear or have a prized pup named Pepper, you don't want to use these obvious interests as passwords. Any curious co-worker could pop into your personal info. Use at least one number or symbol to throw off would-be intruders.

VPN Services: A VPN account, which transfers your computer transmissions to a remote server, is the safest way to use office wifi. Many offices have encrypted wifi. But if co-workers are already on the same network, they can see your information with the right mouse clicks. So ensure that you are truly browsing in private at work.