Category Archives: Tor Browser

The recent update to WhatsApp's terms, which forces users to share private data with Facebook, has been the center of discussions on the internet. The news has also opened the eyes of a large set of smartphone users regarding privacy. Most users don't realise that the commonly-used apps and services are a privacy risk. Thankfully, privacy-focused alternative apps and services are available that you can use instead of the widely used ones.

Chat and communications:WhatsApp, with over 2 billion users, has been the most popular service for conversation and voice/video calls. While it encrypts your chats, the recent update to terms makes it a privacy nightmare for users. The alternative app that you should try instead of WhatsApp isTelegramandSignal. Both of them are ranked highly for user privacy and do not share any user data making them safe to use.

Social Networks:Facebook is the most used social networks across the world. However, as Facebook has grown in terms of users, it has also come under fire for privacy issues. With WhatsApp sharing its user data to Facebook directly now, Facebook now has access to two user data streams, which is a significant privacy issue. The good thing is that you have alternative social networks available that are focused on your privacy. If you prefer a Twitter-like interface, you can check outMastodon, which is ad-free, easy to use and does not collect any information. Other alternatives for social networks you should check out includeDiasporaorSocial.

Browser:Your browser works as your gateway to connect to the Internet. The trouble is that almost all of the commonly used browsers (Chrome, Edge, Safari etc.) track the usage and share user data with their parent company. If you are concerned about your privacy, then it would be best to switch to a focussed privacy browser across your devices. Our recommended alternative isBrave browser, which is available across desktop and mobile operating systems. The browser does not track user activity and also comes with a built-in adblocker. The other option to consider isthe Tor Browser, which masks your activity and encrypts your usage data so that no one can track it.

Email:Your email is a significant source of your personal information. This is why almost all of the commonly used email services by users are a privacy risk. Your emails are not encrypted, and the data from your email account is used to show you personalized ads across the various products offered by the parent's company. The only way out is to use a secure email service.ProtonMailis the top choice as an alternative in this scenario. It offers end to end encryption for email and provides the option to self destruct email for additional privacy to the user.

Search engine:While Google is the most used search engine across smartphones and computers, it is not recommended to be used if you value privacy. Google tracks your usage and then uses that information to show personalized ads across products, which is a privacy breach. If you are concerned about your privacy and do not want to be tracked by your search history, then it's time to switch to a privacy focussed alternative such asDuckDuckGo. To avoid this, we recommend changing to a search engine focused on user privacy. DuckDuckGo does not store any user information as it does not track the user this way, it shows the same search results to different users.

More here:
WhatsApp Messenger new terms: Best privacy-focussed apps and services - Moneycontrol

This tutorial shows you how to install Tor browser in Ubuntu Linux. Youll also learn a few tips around effectively using the Tor Browser.

Privacy is one of the most discussed topic these days. From the NSA spying on citizens and governments alike to the Facebook data scandals. Privacy-concerned people are trying to find ways to protect their privacy.

For those concerned about agencies spying on their network, the Tor Project provides some of the best solutions to protect their privacy. The Tor Protocol is one of the most popular tools created by the Tor Project.

Tor Project has its own Tor browser which is based on Firefox and configured to protect users privacy and anonymity by using Tor and Vidalia tools that come bundled with it.

Lets see how can you install and use Tor browser.

The Tor browser launcher has made things a lot simpler to install the Tor browser in Linux. It does everything for you automatically, you just have to install it and run it. So, you should prefer using it to get started.

No matter what Linux distribution you have, the recommended method of installing the latest Tor Browser launcher is using Flatpak.

If you have a software store that supports Flatpak (like Pop!_Shop on Pop!_OS), you can easily search for Tor Browser launcher and get it installed.

In case you prefer the terminal, you should first set up Flatpak if you havent and then type in the following commands:

To run the launcher, type in:

When you run the launcher, it will download the tor browser as shown in the screenshot below. All you have to do is follow the on-screen instructions to continue connecting to Tor and launching the browser.

The Tor browser launcher has been included in the Universe repository of Ubuntu so you can easily use the apt command to install it.

If you are using Ubuntu, make sure that you have the Universe repository enabled.

Once you have that, you can install the Tor browser launcher:

Note that this is not the browser itself. Its just the installer. So, to run the launcher, you need to simply type in:

The Tor browser launcher can be downloaded and run in any Linux distribution. You can find the files and instructions on its download page.

All you have to do is to download the file, extract it, go to the extracted folder and run the launcher. Rest of the steps will be the same what I have shown below.

If you didnt run the launcher yet, you should have the following two entries in your application menu Tor Browser and Tor Browser Launcher Settings. Click the Tor Browser Launcher Icon to start the launcher.

Troubleshoot: Its possible that youll see a SIGNATURE VERIFICATION FAILED error if youve installed it using APT (version 0.3.2). Click on the next section to expand and fix for this problem.

When the download finally finishes, you may see this SIGNATURE VERIFICATION FAILED. The error code is GENERIC_VERIFY_FAIL.

To fix this, you need to refresh the outdated GPG key bundled in the Tor launcher with a new one from Ubuntus keyserver.

You can simply click Start to try again and that should fix it. If that still hasnt fixed the issue, you may use the command below to do that:

Normally, it should show that the key has been refreshed:

Now you need to click on Tor browser again to restart the download and installation. It should be quicker than before.

After the download is done, you will probably see a window as shown in the screenshot below. And show a connection screen. Click on connect to start the browser and connect to the network.

Once it is up and running, youll be greeted with the homescreen of the browser.

Tor browser is now successfully installed and you can browse the internet anonymously and privately now.

This is an old method and should only be used in Ubuntu 16.04 or lower versions if the torbrowser-launcher package is not available.

Thanks to Webupd8, we have a PPA that we can use to install Tor browser in Ubuntu and other Ubuntu based Linux OSes easily (if you are not comfortable installing from source code). Open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and use the following commands:

The above PPA should also be valid for Ubuntu 12.04 and other Linux distributions based on it.

If you want to uninstall Tor browser, use the following command:

If you are not happy with the Tor browser (installed via APT), you can remove it using the command below:

If you installed it using Flatpak via software center, you can easily uninstall it from there. If you installed it from terminal, type in the following command:

Now that you have installed the Tor browser, let me tell you a few tips about using it. Its up to you if you want to use some or all of these tips.

Go to the Tor network check page to see if your browser is properly connected to the network.

Maximizing the browser allows websites to access device info such as screen size and resolution. If youre concerned about this, do not maximize the browser. The tor browser even shows you a warning if you do it.

By default, Tor Browser chooses the standard security level. However, you can select Safer and Safest levels. You can learn more about the levels here. To access this menu, click the onion below the tabs and select Security Settings.

Try to use search engines that do not track you. A few examples are DuckDuckGo or Disconnect.me. Tor even sets DuckDuckGo as the default search engine. Also avoid installing browser extensions as they may track you.

As Tor is a hidden network so you may come across a few sites that are illegal or promote shady/illegal activities. Try to stay away from these kind of websites.

Unlike a traditional VPN, Tor doesnt just relay your connection through a single location. Instead, your data is relayed and transferred through a number of locations. This is called a Tor Circuit. You can view your current circuit by pressing the lock icon on the left of your address bar.

Instead of using normal websites, you can use Onion services which are part of the Tor network. Some websites are available in this form. They use a .onion address. A few of them are

Beware of the shady and illegal ones, most of them are available only as a .onion service.

You can read more Tor browsing tips in details here.

Do you like using Tor?

I hope this article helped you in installing Tor browser on Ubuntu and other Linux distributions and thus enabling you to protect your privacy.

Speaking of privacy, VPNs are another popular tool for protecting privacy. Switzerland-based privacy company ProtonMail provides an excellent secure and private VPN service, ProtonVPN (affiliate link). You can get their service as well, if you are interested.

What other privacy-related tools do you use?

Original Author

Contributing Author

Like what you read? Please share it with others.

Read more from the original source:
Easily Install Tor Browser in Ubuntu and other Linux - It's FOSS

The Dark Web is a notorious word and well for a reason. The Dark Web may be monitored by authorities but it is very difficult to control activities and find the locations of people involved. Though the Dark Web has many other uses, we cannot ignore the fact that it may be used for criminal activities and could be dangerous for those who are not familiar with it. This article is simply for information only.

Before understanding the concept of the Dark Web, we need to understand what the Deep Web is. We use a term called indexable to indicate content that is searchable on mainstream search engines and such content is mostly from blogs, new websites, government websites, etc. However, the vast majority of content is not indexable because you need to sign-in to access it. Eg. All emails, all posts on Facebook which are not public, all medical and bank records. This is huge!

The Deep Web is simply content that is not indexable. Dark Web is the content that is intentionally hidden. This doesnt include content merely restricted from web crawlers, but content which is hidden with an intention to avoid finding the location of the people involved with it or bypass restrictions by authorities. One of the most popular applications of the Dark Web is espionage because neither can your location be traced, nor can it be prevented.

The best method to access the Dark Web is using the Tor Browser. Interestingly, the Tor Browser could be used as an advanced form of a VPN because it makes the person in the background totally untraceable. Websites wont be able to trace your IP address and you can be sure that the logs arent stored.

Once you install the Tor Browser, it is important to set the location right.

Websites can find your location through your IP address and it also tells of your service provider. So, Tor allows you to choose the exit and entry nodes for your IP connection. The IP address the website will detect is that of the exit node, so we can focus on changing that for now. The procedure to change the exit node in Tor Browser is as follows:

The Tor browsers folder would be saved on the main Desktop page. Also, a desktop shortcut will be created.

Use the Desktop shortcut to launch the Tor Browser and accept the permission. The reason is that to create the file in which you need to change the location for the Tor browser, you need to launch it once.

Now, close the Tor browser and open the folder for the Tor browser.

Navigate to the path: Browser > TorBrowser > Data > Tor.

You would notice the torrc file in this folder.

Right-click on this file and select Open with.

Select the Notepad or Wordpad applications for opening this file.

In this case, {US} represents the location which is the US. You can change it according to your needs, eg. CA for Canada and IN for India.

Press CTRL+S to save the changes.

Now you will be able to restart the Tor browser in the intended location.

The websites usually accessed through the Dark Web arent like your usual websites with .com and .ca TLDs. The most common extension is .onion. The names of the website are juggled and made it difficult to remember. Eg. eajwlvm3z2lcca76.onion is the website address for a popular eCommerce website on the Dark Web. These names could be ever-changing so if you dont find anything on this address, dont blame us.

Heres an honest answer. The common search engines for the Dark Web like Grams are not very useful. The better approach would be to use the HiddenWiki website. It compiles the list of common websites on the dark web.

Bitcoin is the most common currency on the Dark Web, especially for the anonymity it carries. Alternatively, you could use other crypto-currencies. However, please be sure of the law in your countries over crypto-currencies before trading.

We hope you would use the Dark Web safely and responsibly.

Read the original:
How to access the Dark Web using TOR browser? - TWCN Tech News

Due to the increased use of social media platforms to organise protests and lead unified campaigns, internet shutdowns and social media regulations are becoming rampant as authorities in various countries try to shut out critics and suppress anti-government speech.

Owing to this, many internet users are now resorting to surfing the web via Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to circumvent internet bans as well as gain access to blocked websites or applications.

This was brought to the fore as members of Nigerias Feminist Coalition (FemCo), who played a pivotal role in the #EndSARS campaign against police brutality, reported that the FemCo website had been allegedly blocked by the government.

Expectedly, the website is not accessible in Nigeria except through a VPN. What the VPN does is that it creates a private anonymous connection from a public network by establishing secure data encryption and masking a users internet protocol (IP) address. This disguises your location and makes it possible for you to access the site.

However, it appears that a number of Nigerians still do not understand how VPNs work.

Please someone like me doesn't even know how this VPN works or what it is all about. I'm not ashamed to learn trust me. Myself and other Nigerians will do appreciate it if someone tells us why we need it, how it works and way to go. Thank you to my tutor in advance. Love you

Aside VPNs, there are certain browsers such as Tor which incorporate core functions of a VPN including shielding your IP address. This article highlights four (4) of these VPNs and how to use them.

NordVPN is a decentralised VPN service provider which effectively encrypts your internet data, conceals your IP address and hides your physical location.

To begin using NordVPN, download the version for android or iOS.

Install the app and proceed to set up NordVPN. Launch the app, then click Sign up and enter your email address.

Then create a password that you can remember and log in. You should get the message logged in successfully. You can now choose a payment plan suitable for you either monthly, every 6 months or yearly. NordVPN subscription costs N4,670 for the monthly plan.

Before you browse the internet via your browser, switch on the Nord VPN by clicking the power button and select a preferred location different from the country where internet/website access is disabled (Nigeria in this case).

You will be able to view restricted websites and use blocked apps.

Express VPN is another decentralised privacy software that you can use to bypass internet restrictions. It also offers top browsing speeds.

To begin, download Express VPN for android or iOS. In a similar process to that of NordVPN, simply fill in your email address and chosen password then tap Sign In to continue.

You will be redirected to a Set-Up page where you will be able to log in to your ExpressVPN account and also choose a subscription plan. Subscription charges vary from N2,700 per month upwards.

Tap on the power button to switch on the VPN connection and then proceed to open your browser.

Tor browser is built on open-source software which facilitates anonymous internet activity by concealing your location. It functions as a kind of VPN browser.

To start using Tor, download Tor for android or iOS.

After downloading the app, you will not have to enter your email address or password. Simply launch the Tor browser to begin exploring the web privately.

Tor is completely free to use.

Windscribe VPN is a browser extension which enables users to access blocked internet content and protect privacy. It offers free VPN service for up to 10gb of data.

First, download Windscribe for android or iOS. Sign up with your preferred username and password. Then login to continue.

To turn on the Windscribe VPN, click on the virtual power button and select your choice country among the listed options.

Proceed to launch browser in private secure mode.

If youd like to get featured on our Entrepreneur Spotlight,clickhereto share your startup story with us.

SUBSCRIBE

Get latest Technology news, reviews, business-related content with a deliberate emphasis on the African narrative and insightful analysis in Nigeria straight to your inbox.

Read the original:
4 VPNs That Can Help You Access Blocked Websites in Nigeria - Technext

In brief

Editor's note: This article has been updated with comments from Coinfirm CIO Pawel Aleksander.

Blockchain analytics company Coinfirm has found millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency missed by the US Department of Justice when it seized about $1 billion of Bitcoin from someone it thinks hacked the defunct dark web marketplace The Silk Road.

In a blog post on Friday, Coinfirm said that it has found millions of dollars in assets that belong to Individual X, the pseudonym that the DOJ awarded the hacker when it announced the seizure of the $1 billion in Bitcoin on November 5.

Among unretrieved funds are 693,701 Bitcoin Diamonds, worth approximately $310,000; 69,370 Super Bitcoin, worth around $66,000; and 69,370 Bitcoin Private coins, worth roughly $11,000. Coinfirm did not disclose the full extent of the unretrieved funds.

Coinfirm CIO Pawel Aleksander told Decrypt, "We are deliberately avoiding making public all of the addresses that are relevant in the case of various forks. In that way, we are better able to help authorities should they want to take action on these assets."

Coinfirm believes that Whoever has access to the private keys of the main wallet, would still have access to these funds, meaning that the hacker still got something for their effort.

Blockchain investigation firms traced the origin of the hack to a wallet address that had been circulating around forums for about a year, believed to be related to the Silk Road, the online black market that the FBI shut down in 2013.

The DOJ, did, however, retrieve less obscure forks of Bitcoin, such as Bitcoin SV and Bitcoin Cash.

The Silk Road was an online darkweb marketplace, accessible through the Tor browser and powered by Bitcoin. It sold drugs, fake drivers licenses and credit card details, among other illegal goods and services. The FBI shut it down in 2013.

Its founder, Ross Ulbricht, is serving a life sentence without parole in an Arizona prison. He occasionally posts analysis about the Bitcoin market from his cell.

Read the original here:
Feds Missed Millions When Seizing $1 Billion in Silk Road Bitcoin - Decrypt

Apple has denied claims that the companys anti-malware software collects details of appsrunning on Mac devices, along with the devices IP addresses, which contain city and country identifiers. The clarification has come in light of a heated debate around privacy concerns within the Apple ecosystem, as alleged by German security researcher Jeffery Paul in a recent blog post.

Paul, in a blog post titled Your Computer Isnt Yours, had alleged that Apples Gatekeeper feature, which ensures that a users Man runs only software that is pre-approved by Apple, collects IP addresses. This software allows Apple to stop an app from running on its devices if its developers certificate is revoked. In theory, this feature allows Apple to stop users from installing malware on their devices. But, according to Paul, Gatekeeper gives Apple a lot more information than the company is letting on.

This means that Apple knows when youre at home. When youre at work. What apps you open there, and how often. They know when you open Premiere over at a friends house on their Wi-Fi, and they know when you open Tor Browser in a hotel on a trip to another city Jeffery Paul, security researcher

Soon enough, Apple responded with an updated support document, presumably in response to Pauls blog post and the discussion it elicited on Reddit and other platforms.Apple said that Gatekeeper only performs online checks to verify if an app contains known malware and if a developers signing certificate is revoked.

We have never combined data from these checks with information about Apple users or their devices. We do not use data from these checks to learn what individual users are launching or running on their devices Apples updated support document

Apple emphasised on how the security checks have never included users Apple ID, or the identity of their devices. At the same time, however, the company said it will delete any IP addresses it has collected so far, perhaps admitting indirectly that it indeed had collected some IP addresses: To further protect privacy, we have stopped logging IP addresses associated with Developer ID certificate checks, and we will ensure that any collected IP addresses are removed from logs [emphasis ours].

Additionally, the company committed to introducing more changes to its security checks mechanism:

How other apps/ecosystems handle telemetric data collection: Almost all apps and programs collect telemetry data, which is a term for data that helps developers understand how their software is performing. However, it is considered ideal when this data collected is anonymised that it cannot be used to identify the user in any way. Firefox, for instance, allows users to know what data is being collected from them, which is anonymised to protect their privacy. Similarly, all projects that are part of the Linux Foundation need to anonymise telemetric data to ensure that users personal data or any other sensitive data is not at risk.

Here is the original post:
Apple tries to clear the air about its anti-malware software accused of collecting users' IP addresses - MediaNama.com

Netwalker is a strain of ransomware that targets Windows-based systems.

First discovered in August 2019, it evolved throughout the rest of 2019and into 2020. Significant spikes in NetWalker targeted attacks were noted by the FBI during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Here's what you need to know about the ransomware that has attacked major schools, healthcare systems, and government institutions throughout the US and Europe.

PreviouslycalledMailto, Netwalker is a sophisticated type of ransomware that renders all critical files, applications, and databases inaccessible through encryption. The group behind it demands cryptocurrency payment in exchange for data recovery and threatens to publish the victims sensitive data in a "leak portal" if ransoms arent paid.

The group is known to launch highly targeted campaigns against large organizations,mainly using email phishing sent to entry points to infiltrate networks.

Previous samples of poisoned emails used the coronavirus pandemic as a lure to make victims click on malicious links or download infected files. Once a computer has been infected, it starts spreadingand compromises all connected Windows devices.

Aside from spreading through spam emails, this ransomware can alsodisguise itself as a popular password management app.As soon as users run the bogus version of the app, their files will be encrypted.

Like Dharma, Sodinokibi, and other nefarious ransomware variants, NetWalker operators use the ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) model.

Ransomware-as-a-service is the cybercrime offshoot of the popular software-as-a-service (SaaS) business model where software thats centrally hosted on cloud infrastructure is sold or rented out to customers on a subscription basis.

In selling ransomware as a service, however, the material sold is malware thats designed to launch nefarious attacks. Instead of customers, the developers of these ransomware seek out "affiliates" who are expected to facilitate the spread of the ransomware.

Related: Ransomware-as-a-Service Will Bring Chaos to Everyone

If the attack is successful, the ransom money is split between the developer of the ransomware and the affiliate who distributed the prebuilt ransomware. These affiliates normally get around 70 to 80 percent of the ransom money. Its a relatively new and lucrative business model for criminal groups.

The NetWalker group has been actively recruiting "affiliates" on dark web forums, offering the tools and infrastructure to cybercriminals who have previous experience infiltrating large networks. According to a report by McAfee, the group seeks out partners who are Russian-speaking and those who already have a foothold in a potential victims network.

They prioritize quality over quantity and only have limited slots for partners. They stop recruiting oncethese have been filled and will only advertise via the forums again once a slot opens up.

Previous versions of the NetWalker ransom note, much like most other ransom notes, had a "contact us" section that used anonymous email account services.Victims would then contact the group and facilitate the payment through this.

The much more sophisticated version that the group has been using since March 2020 ditched the email and replaced it with a system using the NetWalker Tor interface.

Users are asked to download and install the Tor Browser and are given a personal code. After submitting their key through the online form, the victim will be redirected to a chatmessengerto talk toNetWalker "technical support".

The NetWalker system is organized much like thecompanies they target. They even issue a detailed invoice that includes the status of the account i.e. "waiting for payment", the amount that needs to be settled, and the time they have left to settle.

According to reports, victims are given one week to pay, after which the price for decryption doublesor sensitive datais leaked as a consequence of non-payment before the deadline. Once payment has been made, the victim is directed to a download page for the decryptor program.

The decryptor program appears to be unique and is designed to decrypt only the files of the specific user who made the payment. This is why each victim is given a unique key.

The gang behind NetWalker has been linked to a spate of attacks on different educational, government, and business organizations.

Among its high-profile victims are Michigan State University (MSU), Columbia College of Chicago, and University of California San Francisco (UCSF). The latter apparentlypaid a $1.14 million ransom in exchange for a tool to unlock the encrypted data.

Its other victims include the city of Weiz in Austria. Duringthis attack, the citys public service system was compromised. Some of their data from building inspections and applications were also leaked.

Healthinstitutionshave not beenspared: the gang reportedly targeted the Champaign Urbana Public Health District (CHUPD) in Illinois, The College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) in Canada, and the University Hospital Dsseldorf (UKD) in Germany.

The attack on the latter is believed to have caused one death after the patient was forced to go to a different hospitalwhen emergency services at Dusseldorf were affected.

Be wary of emails and messages asking you to click on links or download files. Instead of clicking on the link right away, hover over it to examine the entire URL which should appear at the bottom of your browser. Don't click on any email links until you're definitely sure it's genuine, which might mean contacting the sender on a separate system to check.

You also need to avoid downloading fake apps.

Makesure you have reliable antivirus and anti-malware installed thats regularly updated. These can often spot phishing links within emails. Install software patchesstraight away since these are designed to fix vulnerabilities cybercriminals frequently exploit.

You also need toprotect your networks access points with strong passwords and use multi-factor authentication (MFA) to protect access to the network, other computers, and services in your organization. Taking regular back-ups is also a good idea.

While it doesnt target individual end-users yet, NetWalker can use you as a gateway to infiltrate your organizations networks through phishing emails and malicious files or infected bogus apps.

Ransomware is a scary thing, but you can protect yourself by taking sensible precautions, staying vigilant, and

You've seen the news reports, and read about it on Facebook. Perhaps you know someone who has lost all of their data because of it.

Loraine has been writing for magazines, newspapers, and websites for 15 years. She has a master's in applied media technology and a keen interest in digital media, social media studies, and cybersecurity.

Join our newsletter for tech tips, reviews, free ebooks, and exclusive deals!

Please confirm your email address in the email we just sent you.

Read this article:
Everything You Need to Know About NetWalker Ransomware - MakeUseOf

Invisible Web, as the name suggests is the invisible part of the World Wide Web which either is not indexed on the search engine or is subjected to various access restrictions. The regular search engines cannot trace or track the content uploaded on the Invisible web which means not everyone can get access to it. Just in case you arent aware, the World Wide Web can be called the metaphor Ocean which further has different sections like Surface Web, Shallow Web, Deep Web, and Dark Web.

Whereas the Dark Web actually refers to a set of anonymously hosted websites that are not indexed by the regular search engines. There are specific web browsers and search engines to access this Invisible Web and this is what we are going to learn in this post.

This website is one of its kind as it showcases international historical newspapers. It includes 3,866,107 Newspapers and 4,345 Newspaper titles which is huge. Most of the newspapers shown on this website are on the deep web and are not indexed on Google or other traditional search engines. You will get the newspapers from the 17th Century too. You can either use the search bar to get a specific newspaper or can go through the newspaper archives. Check Elephind here.

Voice of the Shuttle is an excellent resource for anyone interested in Humanities. It is a beautifully and perfectly curated collection of deep web content. The collection includes a wide range of categories right from Architecture to General Humanities, Literature to Legal studies, and a lot more. It has been listed in Forbes as the best of the Web directory in the Academic research category. Check Voice of Shuttle here.

It is a Dark web search engine and you need to install the Tor web browser to use it. You wont be able to open the links without the Tor browser. Ahima indexes the hidden content published on Tor. Check Ahmia here.

These were the five search engines to explore the Invisible Web. Do let us know if you want us to add in some more names.

Follow this link:
Invisible Web Search Engines to access the Deep Web - TWCN Tech News

Its been 10 years since the beta release of EFFs HTTPS Everywhere web browser extension. It encrypts your communications with websites, making your browsing more secure. HTTPS has journeyed its way from an urgent recommendation to a main component of traffic of our everyday web experience. In 2018, we discussed the importance of HTTPS Everywhere and our ongoing effort to encrypt the web. We have come far and still have more work to do. This post gives a snapshot into the landscape of HTTPS Everywhere today.

Since the launch of HTTPS Everywhere, other projects have also taken on the task of helping users browse securely. These more recent projects include DuckDuckGos Smarter Encryption and Smart HTTPS. The biggest difference is that HTTPS Everywhere still operates a community-curated list of rules for particular sites. Many users who add to our list have intimate knowledge of the sites they are contributing. Examples of such reports include subdomains of a site that have misconfigurations, insecure cookies, or CDN buckets to account for.

Many users wanted dynamic upgrades to HTTPS, so we developed the Encrypt All Sites Eligible (E.A.S.E) mode in HTTPS Everywhere.

EASE automatically attempts to upgrade connections from insecure HTTP to secure HTTPS for all sites, and prevents unencrypted connections from being made. This parallels the features of the more recent projects listed. EASE mode also assists in preventing downgrade attacks, where malicious actors attempt to redirect your browser to an insecure HTTP connection to the site. This is handled slightly differently by other projects, but we want to emphasize that our rulesets also apply to sub resources on the page as well. Meaning, if there are images and scripts that link to another domain, such as a Content Delivery Network (CDN), our rules can apply to those as well. We are not only adding rulesets, but amending them as websites change. HTTPS Everywheres maintainers and contributors have done a fantastic job over the years maintaining this aspect of the project.

A common question is whether HTTPS Everywhere is still helpful if DNS over HTTPS (DoH) is enabled? Absolutely. The Domain Name System (DNS) looks up a sites IP address when you type the sites name into your browser. A DNS request occurs before the sites server connection is made; DoH occurs at this layer. After the DNS request has been made, the connection to the sites server is next. That is where HTTPS Everywhere comes in: it is able to secure your traffic to the requested site.

DNS request = request for I.P. sites address

HTTP request = request communication with site's server/website content

DoH & HTTPS = encrypted request for sites I.P. & encrypted request with site's server/website content respectively

Many browsers have made important strides in adopting HTTPS at a more aggressive rate. For example:

We hope to see these developments, especially the option to be HTTPS by default, in both Firefox and Chrome.

In the coming decade, we hope browsers will further help to encrypt the web. Its time for browsers to close these remaining gaps and give users the choice to upgrade to HTTPS. We hope our HTTPS Everywhere project will eventually not be needed in its current state, because the browsers themselves will close these gaps. This will take a strong commitment by all major browsers to provide comprehensive HTTPS options for their users.

In addition to encrypting your web traffic, HTTPS Everywhere also provides extended features that have made way for some exciting developments in internet privacy.

Our update channels provide a secure way for other parties to load their own rulesets. For example, SecureDrop partnered with Tor to use HTTPS Everywhere Update channels to have human-readable onions in Tor Browser! As SecureDrop explains:

SecureDrop uses onion servicesaccessible only via the Tor networkto protect sources sending tips to news organizations. When you visit an onion service (address ends with .onion), all traffic to and from the service is encrypted and anonymized.

We are excited to be able to provide a platform for easily shared AND secure tips to newsrooms. A very big hat tip to SecureDrop and Tor Browser.

HTTPS Everywheres ruleset rewrites are very useful, but can be memory heavy in comparison to most extensions. To alleviate this, we have a ruleset redirect engine written in Rust that compiles to Web Assembly. If Web Assembly isnt supported, then Javascript is the fallback for rewrites. We picked Rust because it is a memory safe language that is lightweight and manageable. Also, one need not rewrite existing parts of the code base in order to take part in more modern developments of web applications.

Learn more about Rust + Web Assembly: https://rustwasm.github.io/docs/book/introduction.html

This project and its extended features were created to make privacy and security not only accessible but easily obtainable to everyone. Anonymity and privacy on the web shouldnt be limited to people with highly technical knowledge. Hopefully when we write an update a decade from now, HTTPS Everywhere will be retired, because its encryption safeguards will have been fully integrated as a common feature of the net.

Thank you for using HTTPS Everywhere. If you havent installed it, do so today!

Read more here:
10 Years of HTTPS Everywhere - EFF

Safari, Explorer, Chrome these are some of the most popular internet browsers ever. But theyre not necessarily the safest.

With rates of cybercrime steadily rising, you should arm yourself with all the tools you can. And there are browsers out there that were built with your security in mind.

Before we begin the list, we must define what we mean by security in this context. Generally speaking, were talking about which browsers protect your information, your privacy and take steps to keep you safe from security breaches. In no particular order, here are some of the best options:

You probably werent expecting such a mainstream browser to kick off this list, but Firefox can be a very safe option. You just need to tweak it.

Within the browsers settings, you can modify your Privacy and Security settings to standard, strict, or custom. And there are plenty of guides online that can help you customize your settings.

For example, you can customize your settings to block content that tracks the sites you visit and profiles you.

You even have the option to make sure specific websites dont track you.

There are numerous plug-ins, like Decentraleyes and uBlockOrigin, that can add extra layers of safety and security. Just make sure you use a trusted guide, as some modifications can cause some websites to become inaccessible or can slow download speeds.

If you like Firefox but want to up your security game even further, check out Tor Browser. Its basically a fortified version of Firefox.

Another branch of the Firefox tree, Brave was founded in 2016 by former Mozilla head Brenden Eich. As part of its standard protection features, Brave protects against fingerprinting, blocks trackers and ads, upgrades to HTTPS (which protects against eavesdropping and tampering), and has a built-in script blocker.

Fingerprinting is when sites scrape together specific information about you and your computer, which they use to create ads for you and can block you from identifying frauds or avoiding harmful bots, according to The Washington Post.

Brave also allows you to select what data you want to delete every time you close the app.

The browser has drawn criticism by including its own ads on websites while blocking ads from competitors.

But all in all, Brave is a good option. The browser fully transferred over to Chromium codebase, allowing easy use of Chrome extensions.

Its all in the name. Security and privacy are this browsers main goal. Unlike Mozilla, Epic defaults to the highest security setting. It may make some websites inaccessible, but if youre serious about security, this could be the browser for you.

Epic deletes all traces of history as soon as the app is exited. All third-party cookies are blocked. It hides your IP address, making a VPN unnecessary.

It claims to block 600+ tracking attempts per session, in addition to blocking ads and fingerprinting.

While these browsers might be some of the safest and most secure, none can guarantee safety.

If you feel like your security has been breached, do not hesitate to reach out to one of our trusted professionals. And if you want to add an extra layer of security, consider proactively adding one of our digital protection plans.

Featured image from Shutterstock.com

More here:
The Top Three Browsers for Security and Safety - Hacked