With all the security breaches going around, it’s hard to keep track on which sites got broken into, what was stolen, and, most importantly, if you are affected. have i been pwned? website provides a very simple interface to check if your account data was leaked, across more than a hundred websites.
Try it out … you might be surprised. Like I was. :)
Let’s Encrypt – anew Certificate Authority, which is free, open, and automated – announced that it’s leaving beta. Just look at how many SSL certificates they’ve issued, and at what rate!
I’ve first written about Let’s Encrypt back in November 2014. It hasn’t been that long ago, but boy, what a journey!
WhatsApp introduces end-to-end encryption for all communications – chats, pictures, videos, etc. I’m sure it’ll help them get more individuals and businesses on the network, as well as probably ban the app in a handful of countries.
WhatsApp has always prioritized making your data and communication as secure as possible. And today, we’re proud to announce that we’ve completed a technological development that makes WhatsApp a leader in protecting your private communication: full end-to-end encryption. From now on when you and your contacts use the latest version of the app, every call you make, and every message, photo, video, file, and voice message you send, is end-to-end encrypted by default, including group chats.
The idea is simple: when you send a message, the only person who can read it is the person or group chat that you send that message to. No one can see inside that message. Not cybercriminals. Not hackers. Not oppressive regimes. Not even us. End-to-end encryption helps make communication via WhatsApp private – sort of like a face-to-face conversation.
Reddit user ThatOnePrivacyGuy compiled this Google sheet with comparison of 130 VPN services.
It covers a whole lot of metrics for each – from pricing, encryption and configuration options to additional services, activism and jurisdiction. Enjoy!
Updated (May 22, 2017): If you want to learn more about different VPN providers, have a look at Anonymster.com.
Here are a couple of quotes from the “You are your phone” article:
Even obscure variables such as how frequently a user recharges the phone’s battery, how many incoming text messages they receive, how many miles they travel in a given day or how they enter contacts into their phone — the decision to add last name correlates with creditworthiness — can bear on a decision to extend credit.
and
The test subjects used their phones more than five hours a day, on average. Much of that usage went on unconsciously, the researchers found. When the subjects were asked to estimate how often they checked their phone during a day, the average answer was 37 times. The tracking data revealed, however, that the subjects actually used their phones 85 times a day on average, more than twice as often as they thought.
It’s an interesting read, though not too surprising.