Safer Internet Day

Today is Safer Internet Day. Originally started in 2004, Safer Internet Day aims to raise awareness of emerging online issues. One such issue very close to us at GoTrusted is, of course, digital privacy. Our VPN service believes in the idea that people deserve privacy and safety browsing the internet and we work very hard to ensure that that remains possible.

Our digital lives are so interconnected with our regular lives that it's very important to be diligent in how we use the internet and who we allow access to our information. Something as simple as using an unsecured hot spot can result in your sensitive accounts being compromised. There's no reason your information should be going anywhere that you aren't fully aware of and that's just one of the things our VPN service can help with.

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.

New Mac Version Available

Version 2.2.7.6 is now live for Mac users! This version has some new updates that should further improve stability, especially in certain regions.

You can find the link to download under your account settings or by going here.

As always, GoTrusted support is available if you run into any issues!

Massive Security Flaw Found in iOS and OS X 10.9 Mavericks

There is a newly discovered security flaw present in Apple's iOS and OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) that has many people concerned. The flaw is believed to be caused by a single repeated line of code and effectively leaves hundreds of millions iOS and OS X Mavericks devices open to hackers. 

The flaw allows for a man-in-the-middle attack to be executed on anyone connected to the same wifi hotspot an attacker might be using. These kinds of attacks occur when an attacker intercepts the 
information being sent between two parties - you to your bank's website for example - and then impersonates each party to the other.  This allows the attacker to access any and all information
you're sending out. Banking information, credit cards, social media postings, email, and any website login information are all able to be intercepted while connected to the same wifi hotspot. 

This effectively makes public wifi hotspots a perfect location to perform the attacks. A stranger can sit in a busy coffee shop, run the attack, and gather information without any of the victims ever knowing anything was amiss. This is the kind of scenario where a VPN service like GoTrusted becomes invaluable. Anyone connected to our service would be protected from such an attack. Our encryption would make it impossible for the attacker to read any of the information coming over the connection. Making sure your your personal information is kept personal.

It's not entirely clear how long the flaw has been present. It could date back to when the iPhone 4 was released in 2010 or may have been introduced with past software updates. All iOS are urged to not use any public Wifi until they update their iOS version with the new patch. Apple has not released a timeline for the OS X Mavericks to be patched so users should make sure their GoTrusted is running if connecting to any public networks. You can read more about the security flaw here and a more detailed rundown on the flaw on Krebs on Security.

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.

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.

UK Net Filter to Be Controlled By Chinese Firm Huawei

It was announced that the new internet filter for the United Kingdom, known as HomeSafe, being pushed by Britain's Prime Minister will be run by the Chinese firm Huawei. The system has fallen under some scrutiny by US and UK politicians alike, according to the BBC.

The concern has been raised due to the close ties the company holds to the Chinese government and the lack of ministerial oversight of the rapid expansion of the company throughout UK infrastructure. The company was founded by Ren Zhengfei, a former officer in China's People's Liberation Army, which has also raised concerns that the company may be politically motivated and not just commercially so. Huawei has also been labeled a threat to national security by US intelligence committees.

An additional concern for many people is the fact that, even if you are opted out of the HomeSafe filtering, your searches and browsing are still sent through the Huawei databases causing many people to consider VPN services to ensure their privacy and access. Legitimate sites being blacklisted are also a concern as the system is automated and may blacklist sites that do not meet actual blacklist criteria.


The legislation is set to be passed through by the end of 2013. Making all ISPs within the UK compliant by mid-2014.

GoTrusted Expands Bandwidth in Asia

    Good news for our Asia based customers! We've further expanded the bandwidth available in Asia with a new high-speed, secure server location in Hong Kong.

    The new servers will make sure our current level of performance is maintained in the Asian region with the increase in traffic from our new users.

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.

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.

Safer Internet Day

It's that time of year again. Safer Internet Day is today and we have some more tips for protecting you and your loved ones while online.

1. Use different passwords

 It sounds like it could be confusing, but this is one of the best ways to make sure that if only one account is compromised instead of all of them. Saving you a lot of headaches in the end. 

2. Choose strong passwords 

Using password as your password, if you didn't know, is asking for someone to just help themselves to your account. Avoid using your name, birthdate or other similarly obvious password combinations. It's also a good idea to change your passwords every six months.

3. Use a VPN Service

Using a VPN Service is a great way to protect information you are sending and receiving. Services like GoTrusted encrypt your data so it is unreadable to anyone else, but the intended website. Even if someone is somehow able to nab the data they would have no way to look at it. This can keep you safer online whether you're at home or at the coffee shop down the way.

4. Don't reveal to much on social networks 

Be careful what you are sharing and who you are sharing it with. Information you post can easily be used by hackers to figure out security questions and passwords. This also stretches into reality as well. Publicly posting that you're out of town for the week could be an invitation for burglars.

5. Protect your Computer and Browser

This one is an obvious one. You should always be running the latest version of your anti-virus, operating system, and VPN. Making sure your'e up to date keeps you up to speed with current viruses that are circulating and closes known bugs in your operating system that could be exploited.

6. Secure your wireless connection

This means setting a password and changing your network ID from the default. How many times have you seen open networks named 'Linksys' or 'Netgear'? Leaving your connection open like that leaves you vulnerable. It's possible for people to connect to your network and look at any device connected to it. 

7. Shop at safe websites

Always look for the padlock next to the site address and that it has HTTPS in the url. This shows the site is secured. 

8. Think before clicking links

Scammers and phishers are getting smarter and more creative all the time. Anyone can make a complete copy of a website easily. Be careful with the links you click in an email. If they seem suspicious, don't click them! Receive an email from Amazon about your order that you never placed? It's always safer to navigate to the main site and log-in than it is through an email link. These are just some ways scammers are trying to get your login credentials. 

Safer Internet Day is organized by Insafe during February as a way to promote safety online.

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.

Tips For Protecting Data While Traveling

 

A recent article posted by Information Week from Eset has outlined a few strong tips for keeping your data secure while traveling.

The article was made in response to the FBI/IC3 warning to travelers regarding use of hotel Internet systems.

This is an excerpt from the IC3 warning.

"Recent analysis from the FBI and other government agencies demonstrates that malicious actors are targeting travelers abroad through pop-up windows while establishing an Internet connection in their hotel rooms."

The FBI recommends that all government, private industry, and academic personnel who travel abroad take extra caution before updating software products on their hotel Internet connection. Checking the author or digital certificate of any prompted update to see if it corresponds to the software vendor may reveal an attempted attack. The FBI also recommends that travelers perform software updates on laptops immediately before traveling, and that they download software updates directly from the software vendor’s Web site if updates are necessary while abroad.

Tips include: making sure your software is up to date prior to travel, backing up sensitive data on a encrypted external drive, and making sure you have password protection and inactivity timeouts engaged on all devices.

One of the tips mentioned is to use a VPN service when connecting to the hotel's Internet, something GoTrusted has always emphasized to its customers traveling abroad or simply to the local coffee shop. Using our secure tunnel while going through a connection that may or may not have your best interests in mind or simply lacks up-to-date security, ensures that your data remains private and secure.

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.