Microsoft to Cease Windows XP Support

Microsoft has announced that it will no longer be supporting XP or Office 2003 starting on April 8th, 2014.

XP has been actively supported the past 11 years with system and security updates. According to Net Applications, a metrics company that tracks the percentage of users on each operating system, the XP install base is still at 37% globally.

Some people are taking Microsofts advice to upgrade their OS.  The global percentage of computers using XP dropped from the 40% it was at previously, but 37% is still a significant number.

Come April 8th you can expect XP machines to no longer automatically update and security updates to no longer be issued. Many believe this will be the starting gun for hacker groups to find security holes. Without updates these possible security holes will remain open and the operating system exposed.

Now's the time to think about upgrading if you were on the fence before. Upgrading your OS and running your GoTrusted Tunnel will ensure you remain safe while browsing online.

Happy Holidays from the GoTrusted Team!

All of us here at GoTrusted just wanted to wish each and everyone of you wonderful and safe holiday season!  It's been a great year.  We hope you all are enjoying this time of year, and if it happens to not be your holiday season, we hope you're enjoying December all the same.

We look forward to continuing to provide the level of service our customers have come to expect from us in the coming New Year!

Happy Holidays to you and yours from the GoTrusted Team!

Staying Safe While Shopping Online This Holiday Season

New Version of GoTrusted released for Mac and Windows.

We've completed rolling out the new GoTrusted client versions for our users. The new version 2.3.5.7 for Windows and version 2.2.5.6 for Mac should increase connectivity in regions that have found difficulty in the past due to internet issues in the area and offer more stability for all users. 

We'll continue to implement and improve features with future releases so keep an eye out!

And remember, our GoTrusted support is available if you run into any problems or have any questions.

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.

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.

New GoTrusted Review on BestReviews.net

A new review has recently been posted by BestReviews.net about GoTrusted's VPN Service.

In the review, they highlight our company history and the features you'll be seeing when using GoTrusted. It's a good read for those looking for an additional resource before trying our VPN service.

Our customers can also leave their own customer reviews on the site. We hear a lot of great feed back through our support so if you feel the need, please let us know how we're doing on the site!

Information Week 2013 LAN Survey

Information Week has published their  LAN survey with some interesting results.

There were 419 respondents in the survey composed of mostly businesses with more than 5000 employees (34%) and more than 10000 employees. (21%)

Some of the results show the potential direction we're going to see companies moving toward in regards to wireless technology. A couple interesting data points are:

• 45% have plans to deploy 802.11ac gear on production networks, half of those will go to it as soon as it is available.

• 37% see wireless replacing wired infrastructure within five years.

802.11ac is going to be the new wireless standard and is projected to be common place by 2015. It has roughly three times the speed of current 802.11n technology. It also boasts increased range and stability.

The idea of wireless replacing wired infrastructure, while it seems an eventuality, will take time and will likely cause some stir in the security community. Wired connections can be completely closed, only allowing someone physically connected to access systems. Wireless, while still able to be secured, is always going to need to allow at least some level of connectivity from the outside world. Adding a potential gateway for attacks on systems.

VPN services and increased, more innovative wireless security will become more and more necessary as we move toward a wireless future. It's going to become even more important that we protect ourselves from potential threats in an age where information is becoming increasingly valuable and available.

FTC plans mobile security event for June 4th

The Federal Trade Commission will be holding a public event on June 4th in an effort to make the public more aware of the emerging and lingering security threats in the mobile device ecosystem.

The event will be held in the agency's Washington, D.C. conference center and will highlight data collection, advertising, and other topics such as emerging mobile threats, potential infrastructure issues, and authentication strategies for mobile devices.

Of course VPN Services are becoming more of a hot topic, especially in the mobile ecosystem, so we'll no doubt be hearing how they will increasingly come into play as privacy becomes an ever looming issue and people look for ways to protect themselves.

Online Tracking and Ways to Prevent it.

A recent article on http://www.abine.com about current online tracking practices highlights just how much information we may be giving out without our knowledge.

They have a nice infographic showing who may be tracking you, as well as some of the most common and simplest ways these companies track consumers.

Reasons for tracking are generally for advertisers to try and target people specifically and to build consumer ‘profiles’, but most people worry that these reasons are not always on the up and up.

In a questionnaire to Wall Street Journal readers, 60% said they worry ‘Tremendously’ about the loss of online privacy.

There are, of course, some simple steps you can sue to combat unwanted tracking and profiling. These include: Making sure your social networking sites privacy settings are set correctly, delete your information from companies that publicly sell it, running a free browser add-ons like DoNotTrackMe, and running a VPN like GoTrusted.

Running a VPN service will make you anonymous and prevent sites from targeting you by your geographic location as well as keeping you safe from sites that may try to view your browsing or buying habits online.

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.

VPN Services Fight for Freedom of Information in Iran

The main thorn in the paw of many Iranian citizens is Iran's lack of basic freedoms like freedom of speech and freedom of peaceful assembly. These repressive laws were put to the test in 2009 and 2010 as Iranian citizens used VPN services and identity protection software to amass protesters and broadcast their desire for freedom around the world.

But Iran's government has not gone without a fight and this week, took yet another step to reign in these freedoms. Iran's Telecommunication Minister Reza Taghipour announced Monday that the use of encrypted VPN accounts and other identity protection software to by-pass government imposed censorship filters was officially a crime and would be prosecuted by the law, German news agency Deutche Presse Agentur reported.

"Every country has its own rules for using the internet and we have our own," said Taghipour in a statement. "The use of VPN or other anti-filtering software is forbidden and considered as a crime."

This announcement seems to make millions of Iranians criminals as, according to studies done in the country by third-party sources, approximately 17 million Iranians access Facebook using a VPN, while another 5 million use the software to access other blocked information. Iran has had these rules in an official capacity for years but has been unsure how to enforce them. By attempting to track VPN service users online, the Iranian government believes it can stop protesters no longer willing to stand for these infringed freedoms.

'We have to and will take any necessary measure to confront this soft war,' the minister said, according to ISNA news agency.

Although the Iranian government cannot monitor encrypted VPN services, they plan on attempting to disrupt their use by the population. Technically this is difficult and imposing these laws previously have been spotty. For example, it is technically illegal to have a satellite dish in Iran to view TV programming from outside the country – but a look on the roofs of any major city will see satellite dishes in abundance.

Whatever steps Iran, or other governments may take to limit and censor the access to free information, VPN services will attempt to ensure these freedoms, which should be innate human rights, for oppressed people around the globe.

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.

Apple's FaceTime Encryption Raises Security Concerns For Video Chatters

When Apple introduced FaceTime—an iPhone-based video chat service—in June 2010, it wasn't long before people raised questions about security. After all, FaceTime only works over wifi and, while most wireless systems are properly encrypted, many are not. How would Apple ensure private browsing, VOIP calling and video chatting?

Apple has stated that a best practice for any WiFi use is to ensure that WiFi encryption is being used with the access point (preferably WPA2) – accordingly, if enabled, then FaceTime is secured using this encryption.. If your WiFi uses a different type of security—namely the much maligned WEP— or, as in the case with much of public WiFi, no security, your Facetime calls may be open to hacking or theft.

This issue was raised in two recent cases. Aldo Cortesi, a Kiwi security consultant famous for his work on the class-action lawsuit against gaming network OpenFeint earlier this year, released a report this week calling several of Apple's security protocols into question. His concerns stem from the way Apple devices access game and app servers. His report indicates that over 100 million users could be vulnerable to internet spies, and recommends some kind of identity protection.

Tech blog ZDNet also recently reported on a Health and Human Services update that requires all healthcare providers looking for government funds to be HIPAA compliant. In order to gain compliance, health care providers must update wifi security if they plan to use FaceTime. The HIPAA statute declares that, while WPA and WPA Personal may be acceptable depending on the circumstances, WEP security is not allowed.

These questions as to current security have caused some to seek alternate means around mobile device call security in general. Users can bypass these security concerns by imposing their own security measures. Commercially available methods, like VPN services, offer protection no matter what type of wifi security is being used. This offers a sigh of relief to business professionals and long-distance couples who would prefer to keep their video calls as private as possible.

Don't Get Spooked By Online Halloween Shopping

According to a report released by the National Retail Federation, not even the ghosts of recession's past can scare away Halloween's buying brilliance. After taking a dip in 2009, 2010 saw a return to full-fledged spooky spending, with shoppers plunking down $1.8 billion on candy, $1.6 billion on decorations and another $1.8 billion on costumes, both for their children and themselves. While Halloween is fast becoming a holiday favorite, online shopping for your favorite scary gags without identity protection could leave you in very real terror.

Busy online shopping days like Cyber Monday (the newly-minted web-based answer to America's busiest shopping day, Black Friday) attract online scammers, hackers and snoops looking to catch your credit card number or other online information over non-encrypted wi-fi networks. If you are buying candy, costumes or decorations on a non-protected network without the protection of a VPN account, you may be broadcasting your personal shopping info to every prying eye within a one-block radius.

Just like your favorite Halloween mask, VPN services hide your IP address and other pertinent details so you can browse in private. Behind this mask, all your web information is transmitted through a remote server so that it isn't open to the average person looking in, no matter what security is available on your network.

While most online shopping portals and e-commerce sites are encrypted for safe shopping, some can be easily manipulated. And with many scammers using phony e-mails to steal personal information, busy shoppers getting e-mails from Halloween retailers are at increased risk for identity theft and hacking. But with dummy e-mail addresses and other security measures, VPN customers are better protected, behind a scary mask of security.

Don't get spooked by online Halloween shopping this year. Just get a better mask and scare the snoopers right back.

VPN Service: The Perfect Back-To-School Tool

When shopping for back-to-school technology, most students think of a new laptop, an external hard drive or a tablet. But what about making sure your classmates are keeping their eyes on their own paper this fall? According to the Federal Bureau of Consumer Protection, students age 20-29 are most likely to be victims of identity theft, making identity protection a serious concern on college campuses.

Many students use VPN services to ensure their identity cannot be stolen online. By funneling all online information through a private, encrypted server, students can hide an IP address so cyber crooks never get an
accurate read on where you are, what you are doing or how much you are spending.

College students are perfect targets for identity thieves. They usually have a large amount of disposable income, furnished by mom and dad or student loans; they often spend large portions of the day online; and they are constantly passing personal info through school websites and campus Wi-Fi networks. In short, today's college campus makes private browsing nearly impossible, making students vulnerable to hacking, snooping and identity theft. But a VPN account allows students to browse anonymously from anywhere.

Your identity includes your name, address, phone number, email, social security number, mother’s maiden name, ATM pin, date of birth, and account numbers or usernames. Any combination of these can provide enough information for an identify thief to steal from you. By protecting these pieces of information, you can ensure that you will not become a victim.

The Bureau of Consumer Protection also recommends monitoring your credit score, shredding bills and offers that contain personal information, limiting credit card usage and leaving your social security cards at home. But for online activity, VPN services can protect your digital life as well.

VPN Services Find Censored Customers Abroad

While VPN services work wonders for businesses looking to protect proprietary information and college students working at coffeeshops, a VPN account protects more than just a few profit-loss statements or a class schedule. In some countries, it is the only shield you have against government scrutiny.

For years, oppressive governments in countries across the world have sought to control the flood of information to its citizens. But with the Internet's global reach, never has the want for informational freedom been greater. Recent demonstrations in Tunisia, Egypt, Lybia and Syria were convened using the Internet and social media. But with governments cracking down and seeking out activists online, the need to hide your IP address has never been greater. The web publication TheNextWeb.com reported that, in interviews with protestors, they claimed VPN's were a way of life now. One Bahraini activist, known on Twitter only as Abu Ahmed, said he takes many precautions like not tweeting until he is a safe distance from an event and obscuring faces in all photographs.

“It makes it harder to authorities to track small events and harder to identify me,” Ahmed said of his private browsing techniques. "Activists should also cover their online trail, use a program to hide your IP address and encrypt the data transferred."

In the September issue of the Atlantic, reporter James Fallows shows how the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Syria have put a scare into the Chinese government. A mildly oppressive government firewall called the Golden Shield has kept the flow of information out of China for years. But the government has turned a blind eye to businesses, students and other web warriors using proxy sites and VPN's.

Fear from these other nation uprisings has led to shake-ups in VPN usage, with customers still looking to circumvent the firewall and browse in private, but the government attempts to block these VPN channels. Now, VPN service providers are in private communications with customers, working to keep these channels running. The Atlantic believes the shake-up was simply a method to reassert power. But many VPN companies have vowed to keep improving services to nations like China, where private browsing is a luxury many are not afforded.

New Wi-Fi Threats Make VPN's Essential To Safe Surfing, Report Says

According to recent polls, over 83% of Americans own a cell phone or mobile device and, by 2015, are all expected to be connected to the Internet in one form or another. But with wireless companies scaling back smartphone plans—this month, both Sprint and AT&T announced data plans as low as $15 with drastically reduced wireless capabilities—the hunt for free Wi-Fi will gain millions of new hunters this year.

Sadly though, Wi-Fi security is still evolving, making identity protection and private browsing difficult.

A new report from Information Week magazine has shown a spotlight on some new dangers in the world of Wi-Fi that should draw concern from the mobile-connected community.
Snooping Software: Plugins and software platforms will continue to emerge, helping snoopers, spies and hackers glimpse private information. And as mobile networks have become more widespread, these platforms are even more lucrative for the opportunistic interloper. " It's trivially easy to snoop on unencrypted protocols and perform traffic analysis with Wireshark or a similar network protocol analyzer, or hijack browser sessions with a plug-in such as Firesheep," Information Week commentator Kurt Marko reported.

Man-In-The-Middle Attacks: VPN's can route your browser information through heavily encrypted channels to prevent attacks, thwarting Man-In-The-Middle hackers from rerouting all your browser information, lifting passwords and other sensitive information from public Wi-Fi networks. This is usually facilitated through wireless login Trojan pages, giving you no indication that you have been infiltrated.

While many tech-savvy individuals have taken to avoiding public networks to protect their information, this tactic may not work forever as mobile access becomes more central to our everyday communication. While many technology companies are now rolling out VPN plugins, 3rd party VPN services still hold the recommendation of tech professionals as they are constantly updated to protect against new and increasingly savvy snoopers.

Google Android Reaches 500k Daily Activations

Andy Rubin, director of mobile platforms at Google and overseer of the Android mobile device operating system, used on smartphones and tablets, had a lot of phone calls to make this week. That's because the open source Android operating system is now reporting 500,000 activations per day. This is up from 400,000 just two months ago.

The company is even in talks to create a new device in the Samsung Nexus family of smartphones. But with Android rapidly expanding into the tablet market and allowing more and more applications, even encouraging user modifications to the OS, are Android users still able to browse in private and hide an IP address on public networks?

Tech researchers at security software firm Trend Micro Inc. have called the system's security into question. In a statement to Bloomberg News in January, Trend Micro chairman Steve Chang stated that "Android is open-source, which means the hacker can also understand the underlying architecture and source code.” This knowledge, he said, could enable certain types of viruses that would be impossible to achieve on the iPhone.

The Apple App Store has very stringent restrictions that Google has argued reduces the potential for innovation and forces app creators to hand over most of their profits to Apple. Currently, Android leads Apple in the smartphone and tablet market by a wide margin.

As Android is an open platform, there are very few restrictions on the applications available. Google has said it does place some restrictions, trying to at once remain open to new innovation and protect its users.

“On all computing devices, users necessarily entrust at least some of their information to the developer of the application they’re using,” Mountain View, California-based Google said in an e-mailed statement. “Android has taken steps to inform users of this trust relationship and to limit the amount of trust a user must grant to any given application developer.”

The larger Android becomes, the more GoTrusted can help offer its users peace of mind. By using GoTrusted features like free proxy sites, VPN services and dummy e-mail addresses, you can browse the web at public locations and reduce the chances that your identity information can be hijacked by malicious applications or OS vulnerabilities.

Identity Theft On The Rise As Tech Giants Struggle To Prevent Crime

Almost 10 million Americans learned they were victims of identity fraud in 2008, up from 8.1 million victims in 2007. As casual Internet use has become even more common, research and security professionals estimate that information crimes have continued to increase, despite increased protection from viruses and hackers. Why is this identity protection failing?

There are three basic types of identity thieves: online crooks, online spies and a new breed of political criminal called Hacktivists. The popularity of online shopping, social media and overall increased browsing has made online crime more attractive and led identity thieves to get creative. A technique called phishing—which earlier this month was used to obtain thousands of prominent e-mail addresses, passwords and other sensitive information from government officials and CEOs through GMail, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail—uses real-looking e-mails to fool readers into clicking a link or entering a password to an untrustworthy source.

Revealing personal information on Facebook is a prominent example of what can go wrong when users neglect identity protection. Oftentimes, phishers will send a fake message from a user you are friends with, asking you to click a link. When you do, you are taken to what you think is Facebook to log in but you are actually turning your username and password over to identity thieves. This can be used for simple spying or, since many people use the same passwords for everything, even financial gain. Phishers also create e-mail forms that look like they are coming from your bank, asking you for account information and other sensitive information.

During the WikiLeaks scandal, the imprisonment of founder Julian Asange angered his ardent supporters, who supported the transparency the WikiLeaks document dumps represented. In protest, sites who blocked donations to Asange's legal defense—Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Amazon—were the victims of thousands of hack attacks that crippled servers and caused a small financial panic. These 'Hackivists' used information obtained through identity theft to break into these servers.

To avoid being a victim of identity theft, there are several things you can do. Hiding your IP address is a good start. Using a proxy server, you can confuse identity thieves into thinking you are at one IP address when in fact, your IP address is hidden in a virtual private network, or VPN. VPN services allow you to browse undetected, protect yourself from phishing and even give you a dummy e-mail address you can use for online websites you don't trust.

The best way to stack the deck against getting your personal information taken is by using identity protection software when using the Internet. Visit GoTrusted.com today to learn more about our online protection services.