Surely you have read the words proxy or proxies more than once during you Internet usage. But what is it? What is it useful for?

A proxy is a program or device that performs an action in representation of another one. To say it more clearly, a proxy is an intermediate between your computer and another one. For instance, if we want to visit a website, we can do it through a proxy. What the proxy does is asking for it to receive the website information (images, texts, multimedia content, etc.) and we will then receive it from the proxy, which shows it to us on our browser.  It is just functions as an intermediate between our computer and another one with Internet connection. Depending on the proxy we use, it will give us more or less privacy protection. Read the rest of this entry »

For most people, anonymity on Internet seems impossible to achieve since there are always ways to identify the sources of all content published on the Internet. Nevertheless, after researching anonymous blog posters,  if we follow some steps and take care of our on-line activity, it is possible to  achieve anonymity when blogging or interacting on-line. Read the rest of this entry »

Ethical hacking means using the informatics and security knowledge to perform tests on particular networks so as to find their vulnerabilities, report them and then take the needed measures to improve it´s security. These tests are called pen tests or penetration tests. While performing them, security professionals try multiple ways to enter the net to steal sensitive information.

Penetration tests emerged as a necessary response to the first attacks or non authorized intrusions to  certain organizations which brought important money and reputation losses. Read the rest of this entry »

New surveys show that over half of users on the internet are still relying on the use of outdated web browsers. This information shows that millions of users are exposing themselves and leaving themselves vulnerable to numerous security flaws that could cost them a lot.

Qualys, a security compliance firm was behind the survey whose research exposes user vulnerability for those on old browsers as newer versions are generally upgraded with a focus on improving on the failures of the former, meaning that they also seal such loopholes that cyber criminals could use, to access and harvest information from personal computers of the users. Read the rest of this entry »

Individual anonymity is the default in the actual world if you reside in a big town, not only do  you not know everybody you see, however you are not permitted to randomly require an ID from them and it should be a default online.

It is not so much a disagreement with this fact, but it is believed the problem is framed wrongly. Framing the “online anonymity” concern in the perspective of being a default makes it a binary concern a plain on/off button; either mystery is the default, or something else (from pseudonymity up to robustly authenticated identity) is the default. However, online identity is not a binary concern. Identity (be it access, authentication, federation, authorization, or any other factor) functions on a continuum. Further, each “user-centric” system known of does not request to make “identity” a default, hence much as it requests to make “choice” (counting the choice of secrecy) a default. Whether the system is CardSpace, SXIP, or OpenID, they all start by having the client pick how they will present themselves. Read the rest of this entry »

Before Google and Facebook grew to be the giants of the internet, the most renowned online saying was, “nobody knows you are a dog, on the internet “. It appears the days when people were permitted to be dogs are coming to an end. The previous web, a position where identity could stay split from real life, is quickly fading away from the computer monitor.  Many people just desire online contacts supported by “authentic” identity. And this, states critics, will have irreversible outcomes on the openness of the internet.

The quest for authenticity is crawling into the hearts of a good number of social media models and in the present internet landscape is playing a vital part in how you connect with one another and with internet content. For a lot of people, Google and Facebook products are the total of their internet interaction, and the significance in building a platform that offers assurance that an individual is who they state they are, rather somebody playing to be them, is important to a social network’s triumph. Read the rest of this entry »