Best VPN

How important is it to use VPN in today’s world?

VPN or Virtual Private Networks have always been useful, but now, they seem to be more useful than ever. VPNs today have become a necessity than an option. Due to some of the recent happenings in the world politics, changes in privacy related laws in some countries and growing cyber attacks make VPNs all the more important for businesses as well as individuals today. Virtual Private Network (VPN) creates a secure private network connection over a public network, like Internet, and allows users to send and receive data across this secure private network. Virtual Private Networks were mostly used by large business and government organizations only. But now, individuals, businesses and organizations of all sizes have started to make extensive use of VPNs. And, this change in increased use of VPNs is being seen globally. Some of the reasons that make VPNs popular and increase their importance in today’s world are mentioned below:

VPN adds security against cyber attacks (like ransonware):

In the recent times we have seen increased cyber attacks and data thefts taking place across the globe. Even some of the biggest organization have been at the receiving end of these attacks.  Yahoo, LinkedIn, Tumblr, leading banks, and a number of other organizations have had to deal with security breaches in the recent times. In the last couple of years we have an infamous cyber attack called ransomware become increasingly common. Ransomware is a malware that encrypts your files, holds them hostage and then demands money to decrypt the files, payments made to anonymous bitcoin accounts. The year 2016 and 2017 saw a series of ransomware attacks. Ransomware attacks became so rampant that the cyber criminals making use of this attack made over 1 billion USD. VPN is technology which greatly enhances the security of your Internet connection and reduces the chances of your data being stolen and misused.

VPN combats anti-privacy laws:

Another reason which increases the use of VPN is privacy related laws being passed which affect the citizens. USA passed an anti-privacy bill which authorizes Internet Service Providers to snoop on their consumers and even sell that data. And there are many other countries who want to follow the suit and introduce similar bills in order to eliminate net neutrality. With the risk of having private information being sold to advertisers and others, internet users are becoming desperate to look for alternate methods to subvert this breach of privacy. VPNs provide an effective method  to internet users to safeguard their online privacy and security, helping combat the anti-privacy bill and surveillance.

VPN provides security for Cryptocurrency Trading:

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading saw an enormous popularity in 2017. As a result a large number of people started buying and selling Bitcoins and other Altcoins on cryptocurrency exchanges. With the increasing popularity of cryptocurrency trading, many cryptocurrency trading exchanges had to deal with cyber attacks as well and some of even losing billions of dollars as a result. Since the nature of cryptocurrency is digital, users save their cryptocurrency wealth in digital wallets which needs to be secure and foolproof against any cyber hacks. This is another area where VPNs are extremely useful since VPNs make your connection private and secure. Use of VPNs ensures that your private data, like username and password, are hidden from the prying eyes of hackers. Some cryptocurrency trading exchanges and digital wallets are developing VPN as an inbuilt feature to provide an extra layer of security.

VPN avoids Censorship and Surveillance:

A lot of countries around the world impose restrictions and censorship on the use internet which prohibits the access to certain websites and other online services. There are numerous countries who impose these restrictions, the count is limitless. Users living in such restrictive countries benefit from the use of VPN by connecting to a VPN server enabling them to tunnel out of the censorship restrictions and allow them to access the full world wide web. VPNs also conceal your data and internet activity from any surveillance. Since the censorship and surveillance by authorities is increasing around the world, the popularity and importance of VPNs would also continue to increase.

You are traveling outside the United Kingdom or you live outside the United Kingdom, and you do not want to miss out on your favorite TV shows from the United Kingdom. Normally, when you would try accessing UK TV channels on Internet, either through BBC iPlayer, TVplayer or any other website streaming UK centric TV shows over the Internet, you would not be able to access the content on such applications because of geo-restrictions enabled on them. That means, the content on these media streaming applications is accessible only when you are living inside the UK and it blocked when you try to access from anywhere else outside the UK region.

BBC iPlayer is a popular Internet based media streaming service by BBC – British Broadcasting Corporation. BBC iPlayer hosts a number of UK TV shows, movies, music videos, sports events, and more. BBC iPlayers supports media streaming on a number of devices – Smart TV, Laptops, Smartphones, etc.

When a user tries to access BBC iPlayer from countries other than the UK, he’s unable tto view the content due to geo restrictions enabled on it. Below screenshot shows the error you would get when you normally try and access BBC iPlayer from outside the UK.

How to unblock and access BBC iPlayer from outside the UK?

There’s a good news for those who would want to watch media content on BBC iPlayer from outside the UK. Here we would explain a method that allows you to bypass geo restrictions and watch your favorite TV shows on BBC iPlayer. Follow the below simple steps: 1. Get B1-Router 2. Setup B1-Router as per the instructions supplied 3. Connect you Smart TV (or any other device) to B1-Router 4. Login to B1-Router’s Administrative Panel 5. Navigate to Country Gateway tab, select ‘United Kingdom‘ as a country, and confirm it. 6. Wait for a few seconds for the connection status to change and reflect your IP address as a UK based IP address. 7. Visit BBC iPlayer application or website, and watch your favorite TV shows. B1-Router masks your original IP address and assigns you a UK based IP address, thereby enabling you to access BBC iPlayer easily. B1-Router circumvents the geo restrictions on BBC iPlayer and allows you watch media content on it, outside the UK, from anywhere in the world.

Below screenshot shows BBC iPlayer working outside the UK, unblocked with B1-Router.

How to unblock TVPlayer outside UK and watch TV channels?

TVPlayer is an Internet-based live TV streaming service for users to watch free-to-air channels through their Smart TV, laptops, smartphones and tablets. The TV service allows television licence holders in the United Kingdom to stream 78 free live television channels, including BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Heart TV, Capital TV and The Box. TVPlayer offers a “TVPlayer Plus” branded ‘no contract, cancel anytime’ monthly or yearly subscription service which allows consumers access to an additional 30 live streaming television channels, including Gold, Cartoon Network, Discovery Channel, Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2. TVPlayer makes it easy for users to watch various TV channels over Internet. However, TVPlayer is only available inside the UK whereas the content on it is blocked when a user is located in any other country outside the UK.

With B1-Router you will also be able to bypass the geo-restrictions on TVPlayer and watch a number of UK based TV channels from anywhere in the world.

Here is what you need to do inorder to access UK TV channels from outside the UK. Follow the below simple steps:

1. Get B1-Router 2. Setup B1-Router as per the instructions supplied 3. Connect you Smart TV (or any other device) to B1-Router 4. Login to B1-Router’s Administrative Panel 5. Navigate to Country Gateway tab, select ‘United Kingdom‘ as a country, and confirm it. 6. Wait for a few seconds for the connection status to change and reflect your IP address as a UK based IP address. 7. Visit TVPlayer application or website, and watch your favorite TV channels. B1-Router would unblock TVPlayer for users outside the UK and allow them to watch UK TV channels from anywhere in the world. TVPlayer blocked outside the UK

B1-Router masks your original IP address and assigns you a UK based IP address allowing you to watch UK TV channels from anywhere in the world.

Encryption

In the contemporary world where the news about data leaks and security breaches have become quite frequent, cyber-security and more specifically encryption is an important concept for many companies to understand and implement. Security breaches and data leaks cost millions of dollars to organizations. IT Security has become the highest priority for many global companies and government departments.

There are many security protocols and technologies available which help organizations to secure their infrastructure, data and communications. However, encryption is one of the most important part of IT security strategies that are implemented by companies and government departments.

Encryption is a technique which helps protect the data and communications.

What is encryption?

Encryption is a technique of encoding the information in such a manner that it becomes unreadable and only authorized parties are able to access it. The authorized party can access the information using a key which decodes the information.

The encrypting process basically transforms the information or a message from plain text to cipher text by encrypting it using an encryption algorithm. The cipher text can only be read when it is decrypted using a key, which only the authorized party will have. Encryption ensures that data is not read or altered by unauthorized parties.

Here is an example of how encryption works.

When you send an email using an encrypted email service, the plain text message is scrambled and made unreadable for unauthorized parties.

This is how an encrypted email message looks like:

"hQIMA9k15z0KX/NsARAApV8pSKc9kSbARMzjCLM6b9YsMz3I3QFZUKqWpCwO6ut2lmsddHnsVSjHZe0MS0FnNI2SJDuW+7Kt2MR2DXcYpB/6esYBm6dbL73/GM8wW9qa450okjxNf4VeErVgt2VSJ/qyLlVuc5BnLz9IodTu3rNtGGcqTWOKQiB2vXGqfdw+/5bSKtESZxVi/YRGVNeIk+fa/2Yh7lnv5xUaaakdGTdj3LSHw77+CoTcG+L5RaHrgMZ6OItioR9UN51xgfYELg8q21llCK9MotpjgRSHJaZphBvl3liKTj7uQbYGNGpwwIHJ4 zb+yrP4WRONA0AqVgOk5LNevpCxO7Ag4BVgE9WJ1MOsAGD9jTKfHZZPKlh7O949JthZ5T5Nd9+oZAnJmBSyt+R9SA943a6fa1EUFWJ2yPzNDblhu 9lgcTQ2BqRRvKx02SyHwAR22TvUI8+w9c/8VUajcZ/eudz44FcLdK35mmLhyQDw87301Lo4aFb52opTFp+dYio5UYK6wR9MUu8OzrGeiAV98d30Tk 9WTntWcm486B2kN7/dhHxEYsMI2ZWzq4KXNog3/29AarcgbqQIjKY3RHxYsP1/6wnyqdI6JeLGunTEbeVA5tq10ZIHHZehayxnfLJMEd0TjQh5gyXF1x0YjoT7wGCLscS02yG/5PSyA6pK0GRbEyaNOAaceRvBbcsrmWybWe1ySR+gRIuAK3KygCUONZ4MXR0hopKJpz4pliTnd/u6Wfya83pzC1Cn3P6cO4yH6sRjXWB3KztYkKOyDwVFYNk7nfZFcAW+1ZfA3WWm5MRrgxQT2JJ9Gj1U7ue0tCqEYdpq1yTgtpbSZiO5Orx3fA29/N4kpIk6YrDIPKzafE8qzaP0xO+IeTw8g0RqfyKxZTZ1pY5SPdx0lSbmGVz3irQ7VabonRVoVZhyURPrXw2TVUA7Ft hKt0bmAotdR2D0vVW7sLeDFattpr2Qs1dr99/+1btilLQGyl7s3cgtw+eLKmutLpAbU6u2iXxxSCSGS1JMR1+1nILNf26XXkES+KhsdsIoEDiTQ+ S6r0BL/IfUHUgt1KgBUHwMGycLsP+69FyFJPuTW21ttSJMBJx5S3aB8R2VmRWCi4+Mrctllg+H4C6ml4Pn64sjNNdSJer3gpSynceFuySM mul46CDBwAKxt9haksZ5bBqLcIhAkJ+96PtLTvqEHP6jLFyVisuHUTZoh3buheK5SuuJoQIq6SlAJYp8eo2SpZAk0W9gAvmFV+0nlI7//G0lF4/tns2om3Hs8uQQ0F+vE8SvgrrxxEeXSPjqZpmfw+VHQg9iwBJzHJfVObQQwUuKhFqVbsUpEU48h4qhKjMlvJd+H2gFfw3VywQwK45X nLInUpyANK+uVlxwfCoUz0u+3RADVAxkCKWoWmw6f4eY5IaBRnMb1uzzRXv6RRaShZyZ7BI3ZbcBXsG7MFrMNRdSF5zN3r=JSOY"

Only the intended authorized recipient can decrypt the above encrypted text. The authorized party receives a private key from the sender of the email, using this private the authorized recipient can decrypt the email.

Decrypted email text:

"Hello John, How are you doing? Join me for a cup of coffee next week in San Francisco. Best, Alex."

Different Encryption Methods

Symmetric Encryption:

Symmetric Encryption, also known as private-key cryptography, uses a single key for encryption and decryption. The sender encrypts the data with a private-key, sends the encrypted data to the authorized recipient, the recipient uses the same private-key to decrypt the data. Symmetric Encryption is also known as private-key or secret-key cryptography because it uses a secure private-key for both encrypting and decrypting processes.

Asymmetric Encryption:

Asymmetric Encryption, also known as public-key cryptography, uses two different keys for encryption and decryption and hence differs from symmetric method. In asymmetric method, a public-key is used for encrypting process whereas a private-key is used for decrypting process.

Hashing:

Hashing is a type of cryptographic security which generates a unique fixed-length value or a hash for a message or data. Hashing is irreversible, once a message is condensed into an irreversible fixed-length value, it cannot be reversed. This is where hashing differs from encryption which is a two step process where a message is first encrypted and then decrypted, which is not the case with hashing. Hashing is a single step irreversible process.

Hashing is used to verify the data and check if the data has been tampered with, and cannot retrieve the original message.

– Captain Krypto

Kryptotel is an IT Security Services and Product Development Company specializing in Cyber Security and Secure Communications. Kryptotel develops secure communication applications with strong encryption and security features. Feel free to consult Kryptotel for your cyber-security challenges. www.kryptotel.net.

Encryption Algorithms

In our previous blog post ‘Encryption‘ wherein we explained encryption and different encryption methods. This blog post is subsequent to that and here we will explain different types of encryption algorithms that are most commonly used in cyber-security world.

Types of Encryption Algorithms

Tripe DEC/DEC

RSA

AES

Blowfish

Twofish

MD5

SHA1

HMAC

Triple DES or DES/3DES

Data Encryption Standard was first used and endorsed by US Government in 1977. DES encryption algorithm forms the basis for ATM PIN authentication and also utilized in UNIX encryption password. DES is a block cipher with 64-bit block size and uses 56-bit keys.

Triple DES or 3DES was designed as a more secure and stronger encryption algorithm to replace the original version of DES algorithm. Triple DES encrypts the data three times with three different individual keys of 56-bits each, which makes the total cumulative key length up to 112-168 bits long.

RSA

RSA is a public-key encryption algorithm and a standard for encrypting sensitive data sent over an insecure network like the Internet.

RSA encryption algorithm was first introduced by Rivest, Shamir and Adleman at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the year 1977. It is with reference to these three individuals that this method of encryption was named as RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman).

RSA, a public-key cryptography, is an asymmetric encryption which uses two different but mathematically linked keys for encryption and decryption. In RSA encryption algorithm, a public-key is used for encryption and a private-key for decryption. The public-key could be shared with others but the private-key must always be kept secret.

RSA is one of the most popular and widely used encryption algorithm for encryption and digital signatures in the cyber-security world today.

AES

AES or Advanced Encryption Standard is an encryption algorithm that was announced and approved by the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in November 2001. AES replaced DES encryption algorithm and became a standard encryption technique for the US government in 2002.

AES encryption algorithm was developed by two cryptographers from Belgium, Joan Daemen and Vincent Rijmen, who submitted it to NIST where it was approved. AES, originally named Rijndael, is a family of ciphers with different key and block sizes.

AES encryption algorithm comprises of three block ciphers of 128-bits, 192-bits and 256-bits. Although encryption with AES 128-bits is quite strong and efficient, 192-bits and 256-bits key is used for higher grade of encryption.

AES is a symmetric encryption algorithm and uses a single private-key for both encryption and decryption processes. AES encryption algorithm is used by numerous organizations worldwide apart from being trusted by the US government.

Blowfish

Blowfish is a symmetric block cipher that was developed and introduced by Bruce Schneier in 1993 as an alternative to the encryption algorithms existing at that point in time.

Blowfish has a 64-bit block size and a variable key length from 32-bits up to 448-bits. Blowfish encryption algorithm splits a message into the blocks of 64-bits and then encrypts the blocks individually.

Blowfish is unpatented and a free to use encryption algorithm, easily available in the public domain.

Twofish

Twofish is a block cipher encryption algorithm based on Blowfish encryption algorithm. Twofish was one of the five finalists at NIST to replace DES encryption algorithm where NIST eventually selected and standardized the Rijndael algorithm, commonly known as Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm.

Twofish is a symmetric key block cipher with a block size of 128-bits and key size ranging from 128-bits to 256-bits. Twofish algorithm being a symmetric encryption technique uses a single key for encryption and decryption.

Twofish encryption algorithm was designed by a team of cyber-security experts led by Bruce Schneier at Counterpane Labs in the year 1998. Like Blowfish, Twofish  is also unpatented, license-free, free-to-use and available in public domain.

MD5

MD5 Algorithm was developed by Professor Ronald L. Rivest of MIT in 1991, and is widely used to verify data integrity. MD5 is a one-way hash function which creates a 128-bit hash value, and is most commonly used in digital signature applications.

MD5 algorithm has been optimized for 32-bit machines and was designed to replace MD4, an earlier hash function also designed by Rivest.

MD5 algorithm verifies data integrity by processing a variable-length message into a fixed-length output hash of 128-bits. MD5 algorithm is sometimes also referred to as Message-Digest algorithm.

SHA

SHA or Secure Hash Algorithm is a family of cryptographic functions which includes SHA-0, SHA-1, SHA-2 and SHA-3. SHA algorithms are component of SSL certificates to verify data integrity, that is to ensure that the data has not been modified.

SHA-1 cryptographic hash function that was designed by the United States’ NSA in 1995. However, SHA-1 is no longer considered to secure enough and post 2010 many cyber-security experts have recommended the use of SHA-2 or SHA-3 as a replacement to SHA-1. Most of the popular browsers would stop the support for SHA-1 based SSL certificates.

SHA-2 is also designed by NSA and was first published in 2001. SHA-2 is a set of cryptographic hash functions which includes six hash functions of different digest sizes: SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512, SHA-512/224, and SHA-512/256.

SHA-3, formerly named Keccak, was designed by cryptographers Guido Bertoni, Joan Daemen, Michael Peeters, and Gilles Van Assche and was approved by National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) as a part of a competition which received 64 submissions from all over the world. Subsequently, SHA-3 standard was released by NIST in August 2015.

HMAC

HMAC or Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC), first published in 1996, is a type of message authentication code that involves both a secret cryptographic key and hash function. HMAC simultaneously verifies the data integrity and authenticates the message.

In HMAC, the message and the key are hashed in separate steps which adds to the security of HMAC. The cryptographic strength of HMAC is dependent on the strength and size of the hash function and size of the key.

IPSec and TLS protocols use HMAC-SHA1 and HMAC-MD5 algorithms.

- Captain Krypto

Kryptotel is an IT Security Services and Product Development Company specializing in Cyber Security and Secure Communications. Kryptotel develops secure communication applications with strong encryption and security features. Feel free to consult Kryptotel for your cyber-security challenges. www.kryptotel.net.

There are over 2 billion smartphone users in the world today. The enormous rise in the use of smartphones globally has also led to a surge in the usage of mobile applications. There are over 2.2 million Android based applications in Google PlayStore and over 2 million iOS applications in Apple's AppStore.

Applications, in general, are becoming a dominant form of digital interaction and hence applications are not just limited to smartphones. Applications are developed and used for wearable devices, for devices connected in Internet Of Things, Smart Cities and Smart homes, etc. These devices communicate with each other via applications which makes security in applications all the more important. Security is critical in applications and therefore applications need to be without any security vulnerabilities, but that is not the case. Application do have security vulnerabilities.

Some of the common security vulnerabilities in mobile applications are explained below.

Weak Server-side Components:

Mobile applications communicate to the servers using APIs. The communication requests from APIs need to be properly verified and authenticated before allowing an access to back-end services. Absence of proper security verification and authentication would lead to security vulnerabilities.

Weak server-side security vulnerabilities include Cross-site scripting and forgery, weak authentication system, injection attacks, etc.

Data Leakage and bad storage practices:

Mobile applications collect a lot of data. Some of the data collected by applications is required for them to function, but there is also unnecessary data collected which is a cause of concern. It is critical that the collection of data by apps doesn't compromise a user's privacy. An unsecured app could leak the user's private data. There have been various researches and studies which show how mobile apps have been collecting user's personal information and then leaking the same data to agencies or third-parties.

Here are some common ways mobile applications expose user data:

Using a misconfigured or insecure ad and/or analytics framework. A framework which is not properly configured or doesn't proper security measures could be a potential security vulnerability to collect and expose user's personal and sensitive information.

Unencrypted data transmission from between the app and the back-end server.

Unnecessary logging by the applications becomes a vulnerable point to expose data to unauthorized third-parties.

Android applications have an option of storing the data on external storage which is a point of vulnerability because the applications cannot trust that files have not been modified.

When users sync their data to a cloud platform which is not secure increases vulnerabilities of exposing the data to unauthorized access.

Weak Encryption & Security Protocols:

Mobile applications become prone to external attacks in absence of strong encryption algorithms and security protocols. Attackers use information stored in the cookies and environment variables to bypass the security and access the data on the mobile device. Mobile applications needs to built with latest and strong encryption algorithms which meet the modern security requirements.

Below are some facts as per HPE 2016 Cyber Security Report:

52.1% of applications accessed geolocation data

70% of education applications on iOS accessed geolocation data

11.5% of applications accessed contacts

40.9% of social networking applications accessed contacts

19.8% of finance applications accessed contacts

16.3% of applications accessed calendar data

41.9% of iOS game applications accessed calendar data

52% of iOS weather applications accessed calendar data

61.7% of applications used ad or analytics frameworks to expose data

64.8% of health applications used ad or analytics libraries to expose data

53.2% of medical applications used ad or analytics libraries to expose data

43.8% of finance applications used ad or analytics libraries to expose data

94.8% of applications include logging methods

70.6% of applications can access external storage

(Link to the detailed report: https://saas.hpe.com/sites/default/files/resources/files/Mobile%20Report%20ver%2010.2.pdf)

Wearable Technology and Security Concerns

The use of wearable technology has been on a rise in last few years, and so are the security concerns that come along.

What is Wearable Technology?

The terms 'wearable technology', 'wearable devices', 'wearable gadgets', or simply 'wearables' are referred to the class of electronic technology devices that can be worn on the body. Wearables are created by integrating technology or computers into clothing and accessories which can be easily worn around the body.

Wearable technology is most often advocated as one of the greatest application of Internet Of Things considering the fact that wearables have the potential to completely transform the way we live, today and in future.

Although these wearable gadgets can perform same computing tasks as mobile devices and laptop computers, but wearables are primarily designed to track health and fitness related information. The sophisticated modern wearable tracking devices are made up of smart sensors and scanning features which help track physiological functions of the body. Therefore, helping consumers achieve their health and fitness goals.

Examples of Wearable Gadgets?

Below are some of the wearable gadgets available in the market that are most commonly used.

Fitness Trackers: Fitness Trackers help in monitoring exercises and physical activities by tracking biofeedback from the body. They are based on sensors and are worn around the wrist, connected wirelessly to the smartphone via bluetooth displaying health and fitness related information on the smartphone application.

Smart-watches: The modern smart-watches are not designed just to display the time, but is door to your digital world. Smart-watches are worn around the wrist and connected to your smartphone, and generally displays notifications from phone calls, messages, emails and social media.

Some other types of wearables are sports watches, smart jewellery, implantables, etc.

What are the security concerns of Wearable Technology?

No doubt that the use of wearable technology is on a rise, and there has been an increase in the popularity of wearable devices. But along with the popularity growth of wearables there has been in an increase in the concern over security with such devices.

While wearables such as fitness trackers, smart-watches, sports watches, smart clothing provide great benefits to the consumers, at the same time consumers need to be cautious about the possible security concerns of wearable devices. Most of these wearable gadgets are Bluetooth enabled and connect to the Internet, they are vulnerable in absence of proper security measures like encryption and authentication.

Wearable devices such as fitness trackers monitor and track activities and health related information of consumers all around the clock, therefore huge amount of private and sensitive data is collected and stored by these devices. This makes wearables an attractive target for hackers to get unauthorized access to this private information and monetize it. In absence of strong security measures, hackers could manage to get access to these health records and make money by selling these records.

Some of the known security vulnerabilities in wearables are: SQL Injection, Phishing, Buffer Overflow Attacks, etc.

Consumers also need to be cautious about allowing manufacturers of such wearable devices permission to share their information with third-parties. Reputed and well-known brands usually implement appropriate security and privacy measures. Consumers should avoid low-cost and poorly designed wearable devices that may possibly create security threats.

SmartPhone Encryption

What is smartphone encryption?

Smartphone encryption is process of making your smartphone secure, and protecting its data and information from any unauthorized access.

To enhance mobile security there are two main kinds of encryption that a smartphone can have to prevent unauthorized access to private information – one is aimed at securing the 'data at rest', and second secures the 'data in motion'.

To secure 'data at rest' usually smartphone device is encrypted. An encrypted smartphone typically has a key or a passphrase to allow access to the phone, protecting information stored on the mobile device – photos, text messages, email communication, call information, access to social profiles and private data, documents, etc.

When a device is encrypted it stores the information in an unreadable scrambled format. The information is unlocked only with an authorized key with the device owner. Typically a smartphone key is an alphanumeric passcode or a passphrase comprising of a combination of letters, numbers and/or special symbols. Some high-end and latest smartphones models also use fingerprint authentication to unlock the encrypted device.

To secure the 'data in motion' just having the mobile device encrypted is not enough, the information transferred from one device to another (communication) can be secured through a process called as end-to-end encryption. End-to-end encryption ensures that data or information is accessible and readable only to the person it is intended for. Data is encrypted from the device when it is sent and decrypted only on the authorized recipient's device. No third parties in middle, communication carriers, unauthorized persons, or agencies will be able to access to the information.

How important is smartphone encryption?

There is an old proverb which says, “a man's home is his castle”, but in today's age it would not be wrong to say, “a man's smartphone is his castle”! A smartphone is the closest thing a person can have in today's world, and it remains with you all the time like your shadow. It is rightly said that a smartphone is even closer to you than your best friend since your smartphone has more information about you than your best friend can ever have. On your smartphone there is a list of your contacts, your call records, your private messages and conversations with your friends, family and colleagues, your banking and financial information, your passwords, private and personal photos, videos, business documents, etc. Protecting this information and preventing it from falling into wrong hands is crucial, and the only way to that is through encryption.

Blockchain Technology and Cyber Security

What is Blockchain?

Blockchain technology was first introduced in digital currencies or crypto-currencies (Bitcoins) in the year 2009.

Crypto-currencies, like bitcoin, are currencies that exist only in the digital world. These are not physical tangible currencies that move from one hand to another. People make transactions in the digital world and transactions are verified and based on a consensus mechanism in the massive peer-to-peer network.

The crypto-currency bitcoin is based on blockchain technology. The transactions in bitcoin happen by changing the ownership creating a record in the blockchain. The blockchain in the crypto-currency system are managed by distributed nodes, all holding a digital ledger of the entire blockchain. Blockchain is a decentralized distributed database system secured using cryptographic technology. Since the blocks are distributed across the world and there is no centralization of the data and the fact that blockchain system uses cryptography to keep transactions secure, makes blockchain system one of the most talked about and revolutionary concepts in the current age.

Blockchain technology is the backbone technology behind Bitcoin!

Blockchain technology goes far beyond the crypto-currencies, it is going to revolutionize the digital interactions in coming years. Blockchain technology will revolutionize the cyber security and has the potential to disrupt many industries.

Blockchain definition: A blockchain is a type of distributed ledger, comprised of unchangable, digitally recorded data in packages called blocks. These blocks are stored in a linear chain and each block in the chain contains data which is cryptographically hashed. The blocks of hashed data draw upon the block just before in the chain, ensuring all data in the overall blockchain is not tampered with and remains unchangeable.

Cyber Security and Blockchain.

Cyber Security has been a growing concern for individuals, business organizations and governments in recent times. As state-sponsored surveillances, hacking, security bugs, online frauds and malicious codes have become increasingly common these days, the demand for a more robust and a reliable security system has become critically important.

With Internet of Things, Smart Houses and Smart Cities concepts coming to reality today and our increased dependency on computer-driven systems, a strong and robust cyber security has become a need of the hour. According to a study by Gartner the number of things connected to Internet was 4.9 billion in 2015, and forecast the number would reach 25 billion by the year 2020. Each of these things connected to the internet is a vulnerability and provides a potential threat to the whole system. Therefore it becomes critical strengthen and make cyber security more efficient.

Online breaches and security attacks into traditional banking systems have resulted into a lot of people losing their hard-earned money. In the past number of e-commerce systems have also been affected due to cyber attacks. Personal information and private communication of a lot users has been accessed unauthorizedly either by illegal hackers or due to government surveillances. All these  online breaches, hacks or cyber attacks were possible because of weak and inefficient cyber security system in place. Also, because of the fact that the system or platform was centralized in nature and hence easier for the hacker to take control over.

This is where Blockchain comes in and provides a viable alternative. Blockchain technology alleviates a lot of cyber security concerns because of its decentralized and distributed system.

A way forward to secure these computer-driven systems is decentralization and distribution of data. Since blockchain based systems are distributed in nature, they could effectively play a greater role in creating robust cyber security systems. In a typical blockchain system, data is kept on various systems and servers across the world, thus removing a central point of control. Blockchains could also be used in secure communication systems by distributing workloads and creating consensus mechanism in the control systems. Acquiring consensus of all of the network is impossible for a hacker to achieve, hence saving the system from being taken over by unauthorized parties.

Cyber Security of the future is going to be revolutionized by Blockchain technology.  Decentralization, distribution of data systems, and consensus mechanism in blockchain make it a very popular weapon for cyber security specialists.

How to download Pokemon Go when its not available in your country?

Pokemon Go is a free-to-play augmented reality game available on iOS and Android devices.  It is Nintendo's first foray into the augmented reality apps. Pokemon Go after its launch on July 6th 2016 has taken the world by storm proving to be incredibly popular having captured the imagination of millions.

Pokemon Go takes the gaming concept into the real world wherein players have to physically walk around in the real world to find out Pokemons rather than exploring the virtual world. Pokemon Go is a location-based augmented reality game which provides you a map of the real world with your location on it and as you move around in the real world to find out hidden virtual Pokemon. Players go around in the real world scanning their surroundings and catch a wild Pokemon when it pops-up on the screen. Players capture Pokemon by throwing a Poke Ball onto them and add that Pokemon to the collection.

Pokemon Go has become a global phenomenon and one of most used mobile apps, it is downloaded by over 130 million people worldwide since it's launch a little over a month ago.

Pokemon Go was launched in select countries like US, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and the UK where it was made available for download from Apple and Android App Stores. Subsequently more countries were added to the list where Pokemon Go was made available but even to this day it is not available in a large number of countries.

Countries where Pokemon Go is available for download:

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Belgium, Bulgaria, Brunei, Cambodia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Falkland Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, French Guinea, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Guatemala, Guyana, Hungary, Honduras, Hong Kong, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, UK, US, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam.

Some of the countries where Pokemon Go is not available as of now:

Mexico, Russia, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Malaysia, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Egypt, Nigeria, UAE, Saudi Arabia and others.

How to download Pokemon Go if its not available in your country?

If Pokemon Go is still not available in your country and you just cannot wait but to experience the phenomenon that's been taking the world by storm, here's a good news for you. You can download Pokemon Go using VPN One Click. VPN One Click enables you to change your virtual location to the country where the game is available and download Pokemon Go app.

Here's what you need to do.

1. Search for VPN One Click on your phone's App Store

2. Download and install VPN One Click

3. Connect to servers of one of the countries where the game is available

4. When you are connected to VPN, launch the App Store and search for Pokemon Go app and download it.

Once you download Pokemon Go app on your device, you can enjoy the game even in your country where it is officially not available yet.

For any suggestions or clarifications, please drop in a comment here and we would do our best to support you.

How secure is end-to-end encryption with WhatsApp?

WhatsApp, one of the most popular messaging app service, in April this year, announced that the service would now use end-to-end encryption to secure user communication. The service would benefit 1 billion+ users of the messaging across all devices.

End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is a secure way of communication where only the actual users involved in the communication can access the messages in the chat. Eavesdroppers, cyber-criminals and hackers, telecom companies, Internet Service Providers or government agencies cannot read the messages. Even the company that has built the application will not read the messages.

WhatsApp on its website says, “WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption is available when you and the people you message use the latest versions of our app. Many messaging apps only encrypt messages between you and them, but WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption ensures only you and the person you're communicating with can read what is sent, and nobody in between, not even WhatsApp. This is because your messages are secured with a lock, and only the recipient and you have the special key needed to unlock and read them. For added protection, every message you send has its own unique lock and key. All of this happens automatically: no need to turn on settings or set up special secret chats to secure your messages.”

This means WhatsApp will now have end-to-end encryption by default. WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption will ensure that all communication between two users will secure and cannot be read by anyone else. Text messages, Audio/Voice notes, videos, pictures, everything will now be encrypted and cannot be read by anyone except the sender and the receiver. Not even the WhatsApp.

Although it is a welcome that step that WhatsApp is finally an encrypted messaging service, but the question that now arises is “how secure is WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption?”. We will break down encryption in WhatsApp and how secure it actually is.

WhatsApp had partnered with Open Whisper Systems to design its new end-to-end encryption feature which is based on Signal Protocol.

According to the whitepaper issued by WhatsApp, once the session has been established, clients need not rebuild new sessions with each other until the session is ended by the users.

The whitepaper further explains how encryption takes place in WhatsApp. It reads, “clients exchange messages that are protected with a Message Key using AES256 in CBC mode for encryption and HMAC-SHA256 for authentication. The Message Key changes for each message transmitted, and is ephemeral, such that the Message Key used to encrypt a message cannot be reconstructed from the session.”

All this sounds good so far, and whether the security and privacy that WhatsApp talks about is enough for the user or not is for the user to decide, not for us. But here's our two cents on that.

WhatsApp might still collect your metadata.

While the end-to-end encryption might ensure that the contents of the message are not accessed by unauthorized users or even by WhatsApp, but WhatsApp itself would store metadata. This means the phone numbers involved in the conversation as well as the timestamp on the messages are stored on the servers of the company. Collecting metadata could give out information like who the user communicated with, the time of the communication, how often the two users communicate with each other, the location of the two users at the time of communication, etc.

WhatsApp is owned by Facebook

WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook in the year 2014. Facebook is considered one of the least privacy minded company in the market. There also have been some reports doing rounds on the Internet that Facebook supplies government with reports and information. So if that's the case then it makes little sense that a messaging app owned by a least privacy minded company would not share information of the users to the government agencies.

Messaging apps with higher grade of encryption available in the market.

Now that the popular messaging app WhatsApp has decided to go with end-to-end encryption, it is not the best encrypted messaging app available in the market. There are many other messaging apps in the market today which offer higher grade of encryption. Some apps even provide military grade of encryption and multiple levels of security.

So if a user is concerned about privacy and security then WhatsApp might not be the best option for  that user. The market is wide open with encrypted messaging apps.

Providing encryption to a billion users free of cost?

WhatsApp has a billion users and providing end-to-end encryption to a billion users is a stupendous task and the efforts must be appreciated. But the question that arises in people's minds is why is WhatsApp offering encryption at no cost at all? Why is it free of charge? Where does WhatsApp make money from?!

Please feel free to add in your thoughts in the comments section below. We would appreciate your valuable contribution.

How to encrypt your calls and chat?

In the digital era that we live in today, securing privacy of your data and communication on any medium is next to impossible and a never ending struggle. Your communication could easily be accessed by your telephone operator, Internet Service Provider, and even some agencies.

With the omnipresent methods of modern surveillance on almost all modes of communication, there are still ways to protect your communication and data from prying eyes. In this blog, we discuss about how we can protect our calls and chats from being snooped upon.

Having your calls encrypted is a fool-proof way of securing your communication. There are a number of encrypted VoIP apps available in the market today who offer secure communication by making use of various encryption protocols.

Kryptotel Secure VoIP is one of the superior VoIP apps in the market who's core feature is encryption of the communication. Using Kryptotel Secure VoIP, a user can make encrypted audio and video calls, and encrypted instant messaging as well.

For government officials and business professionals who are concerned about their call conversations being private and secure, especially when telephone companies keep record of telephone call data in their archives for years.

Call tapping for private investigation purposes and for commercial competition/illegal industrial espionage leads to 5% of the world's population being listened to during their private conversations.

Kryptotel secure VoIP app has been designed keeping in mind the government and business professionals who want to secure their communication to safeguard their organization's communication and activities. Spying on competitor companies to industry secrets common for contract hackers.

Kryptotel Secure VoIP app doesn’t transit through the operators public telephone switches but uses Internet connection encrypting the content safely without leaving any trace or the possibility of recording any of the data (the caller or the called). Even with the “Black Out calls” the caller ID is changed for every call.  Kryptotel app is one of the best solution a person concerned about his/her privacy can find today.

The Kryptotel app uses military grade encryption and other secure features to secure a user's communication through the app. Kryptotel app uses Asymmetric, Symmetric and SHA-512 algorithms in order to maximize the level of security.

Asymmetric Encryption based on RSA certificates and private key of 8192 bits, which is a military grade requirement in encryption.

Symmetric encryption based on AES 256 bits is used by Kryptotel app.  This app also uses SHA-512 algorithm for digital signature.

This is a stronger level of encryption used in the app. In the commercial world, usually an encryption level of RSA 20148 bit and AES 128-bit is used. For securing online banking, RSA 2048 and AES 128 bit is usually used.

All the communication, between two devices with Kryptotel app, is encrypted. Be it instant messages, audio or video calls, audio conferencing - all of it is encrypted and secured with a military grade encryption.

Using a Kryptotel app, you can share images, audio and video clips, and also PDF, XLS, Doc file types.

Upon installing Kryptotel secure VoIP app on your device, you are provided with a unique number (just like a phone number). When you want to make an encrypted call to other person with Kryptotel app, you need to dial his/her Kryptotel number.

In case the other person is not available to pick the call, it will be redirected to his/her voice mail. The voice mail will be stored in an encrypted container and only the actual recipient will be able to listen to it. The voice mail can be listened only through a Kryptotel app which uses account authentication method and decrypts the recorded message. To access your voice mail you need to dial toll free number 444 and keep digit 1 pressed for few seconds, the easy to use IVS will guide you to read, store and cancel your voice mail.

Download Kryptotel Secure VoIP app

You can either download Kryptotel app from your phone's app store or from its website: https://securevoip.kryptotel.net/download/

Benefits of using VPN

VPN or Virtual Private Network is a network technology that creates a secure network connection over a public network like Internet. Benefits of VPN – The computers and devices connected to the VPN allows them to transfer the data securely through the encrypted tunnels created by the VPN.

All the network traffic is sent over a secure connection to the VPN to keep the data and information safe and secure. VPNs protect your data over the Internet much like a firewall protects the data on a computer.

If you are already a user of VPN, you would know the benefits of using VPN. For those of you have not used a VPN until now, it’s probably the time to switch to a VPN service. Out of the innumerable benefits of using VPN, consider the below major benefits of VPN.

Access Blocked Websites & Avoid Geographical Restrictions:

VPN allows a user to access blocked websites and circumvent geographical restrictions.

Some countries keep restrictions on certain websites and block these websites from being accessed by people living in that country. This is called as Geo-blocking of the websites. VPNs have a work around for this too and is more popular for enabling users to access websites which are otherwise blocked in their region or country. The VPN routes the Internet traffic to a VPN server located in a different country thus bypassing the regional restrictions and Geo-blocking of the websites.

Online Security & Privacy:

Using VPN also increases online security and privacy of the user over the Internet.

Users who are concerned about their online privacy use an encrypted VPN connection to connect to the Internet and browse through the Internet more securely and privately because the VPN encrypts your Internet traffic. All the other traffic will travel through the encrypted tunnel created by the VPN. It protects you from the prying eyes of hackers and snoopers who want to capture your passwords and personal information.

Anonymous Browsing:

VPN service enables a user to browse through the Internet completely anonymously.

A lot of people who are concerned about their security and privacy prefer to browse the Internet anonymously. A VPN connection would create a secure encrypted tunnel between a user’s computer or mobile device to the VPN Server, enabling the user to carry out online activities anonymously.

Public WiFi Security:

A VPN increases the security when connected to a public WiFi network.

Public WiFi networks like the ones you would find in a coffee shop or in a hotel room are not as safe and secure as one might believe they would be. Most public WiFi networks are insecure and open since they lack public WiFi security encryption. It is easiest to hack or snoop into your connection when you are connected through a public WiFi network. If a user is connected on a public WiFi or an untrusted network (such as in a hotel, coffee shop, other public places, etc.), the browsing activity of the user on non-https websites could easily be snooped upon.

Even if there is a username and password for the connection, you are still at risk because you are sharing the network with a number of other people.

VPNs enable a user to be secure on a public network. Irrespective of which network you are connected to, VPN keeps you Internet browsing session private and secure, and prevents an unauthorised user to snoop in onto your data.

Secure Connection to Remote Networks:

VPNs also allow users to connect to remote network securely.

Most business use Virtual Private Network to allow their employees to access their company’s private network securely while being physically away from the company premises. The employees could be traveling around the world and still connect to the secure private network of their company to access files, applications, and other resources on the office network. Business also share servers and other such network resources among multiple their office locations all around the world. Using VPN, the company resources are not directly exposed to the Internet and therefore increases the security.

People can also use a Virtual Private Network to access their home network while traveling which allows them access files and videos and games on their home network while being connected remotely.

These are some of the major benefits of VPN that we have observed after having used VPNs for years now. Please let us know if you would like to contribute and add your point to these benefits of VPN. You may comment below to add more benefits of VPN.

Click here if you would like to check our VPN service.

Internet of Things Security

Internet of Things or IOT is a network of physical objects or things connected to the Internet. The objective of Internet of Things is to enable these objects or things to communicate and exchange data with each other.

These objects could be anything like mobile phones, TV, watches, car, headphones, lights, house-holding items like refrigerator, washing machine, microwave oven, etc. These objects and entities, known as things are provided unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data automatically over a network.

The communication in Internet of Things (IOT) comes from computing devices and embedded sensor systems used in industrial machine-to-machine communication, smart energy grids, smart homes and building automation, vehicle to vehicle communication and wearable computing devices.

However, since the idea of communication between physical objects and the internet is relatively new, the security could at times become vulnerable. Increased automation and digitization creates new security challenges. Security of multiple points in the network is challenging and the risks are huge.

Cyber security is of utmost importance in Internet of Things, and security is not given the highest priority, the whole business model based on IOT will be undermined.

We have highlighted some of the security challenges in IOT:

1. Increase in vulnerability points:

As there are millions and billions devices connected in the Internet of Things. Each of these devices create a potential security risk as they represent a potential doorway to your IT infrastructure and data.

A study by Fortify, a part of HP, showed that 70 percent of the devices connected in the IOT are vulnerable to the security issues.

2. Privacy Concerns:

Most of the devices connected in the Internet of Things in one way or the other collected at least some personal information of the user from the device or from the application. Some of the devices even transmit this information via the network without any encryption. This makes the data vulnerable to theft and misuse if accessed by an unauthorized person.

3. Authentication and Authorization:

Weak and easy to break passwords add to the vulnerability. A lot of users configure their devices and accounts with weak passwords. Some of the users don't even change the default passwords given by vendors for the devices.

4. Not all devices connected are encrypted:

In Internet of Things the devices connected communicate with each other by transferring data from one device to another device via the network. Most of these devices fail to encrypt the data and hence an addition to the security issues. Encryption in IOT should be of the highest priority seeing the amount of data and information that transferred between the devices, the cloud and the mobile applications.

It is crucial to take care of the above security challenges and make Internet of Things more secure and trustworthy for users. Security of Internet of Things is a multi-layered approach, and security needs to be taken care of at two levels – the device level and the network level. This will be ensured by increasing the security level around the following.

1. Secure Booting:

Secure booting will ensure that the device only allows an authorized access and keeps the hackers away. This could be done by using a digital signature, or a cryptographical signed code.

2. Secure Code Updates:

Secure code on the device should be updated for any bug fixes or security patches ensuring that any malicious code does not enter into the system.

3. Access Control:

Access Control methods should be installed into the device to allow it to only access the necessary resources required to perform any action.

4. Device Authentication and Data Security:

It is important to prevent unauthorized access to the device, data storage or communication. Data Storage and communication needs to encrypted. All communications with the device should be authenticated, the device needs to be authenticated prior the device communicating over the network.

5. Secure Communication:

Incoming and outgoing communication from the device needs to secured and encrypted. Strong encryption protocols should be used to encrypt the communication.

6. Prevent Cyber Attacks:

It is important to prevent any sort of cyber attacks. This can be achieved by embedding firewalls which would provide a layers against such attacks by inspecting the traffic at the device and stop the malicious attempts and block the hackers before launching an attack.

Taking care of the above points will ensure that security and privacy is fully protected and not compromised.

References:

http://www.cmswire.com/cms/internet-of-things/top-5-internet-of-things-security-concerns-026043.php

http://www.vyzvoice.com/the-internet-of-things-security-challenges/#_ftn1

http://internetofthingsagenda.techtarget.com/definition/IoT-security-Internet-of-Things-security

How to avoid Turkey's social media block?

On July 15th, 2016 the reports of an attempted military coup in Turkey started coming in. As the news spread the internet users in Turkey started experiencing trouble in accessing some popular social media websites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Although it is not fully clear whether Turkey had completely blocked the access to these social media websites or just slowed down their bandwidth. On Friday evening an organization named Turkey Blocks that monitors internet censorship in Turkey tweeted that Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been blocked in Turkey.

Here's the tweet that we are talking about:

https://www.vpnoneclick.com/how-to-avoid-turkeys-social-media-block/

The tweet shows that Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been completely shutdown in Turkey while Instagram and Vimeo were still available.

In a subsequent tweet Turkey Blocks tweeted, “Our data indicated a 2 hour period of social media throttling but no evidence of a full internet blackout in #Turkey.”

Post midnight some people claimed that they had spotty access to Facebook and Twitter, but overall it was observed that people in Turkey struggled to access social media site.

Some Turkish citizens were still seen as using Twitter and Live Videos feature of Facebook, but it is most likely that they had been using VPNs or Virtual Private Network to access Facebook and Twitter by routing their connections to VPN servers location in different countries and thereby avoiding Turkish government's blocking measures.

It is not the first time that Turkey has used internet censorship and geo-blocking measures to block certain websites from being accessed by the people in Turkey. Turkey usually blocks access to social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram. On July 2nd, there was an online blackout in Turkey after Istanbul airport attack. Turkey takes measures like Internet blockade in the aftermath of tragedies and violences in Turkey.

Turkey passed a law in 2007 which allows the government to ban or block websites in Turkey. There have been situations in 2014 and 2015 when popular social media websites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube had been banned and blocked in Turkey.

A huge number of Turkish people resort to VPN solutions to access blocked websites, but it's not always easy for non-tech savvy people to easily configure VPN software on their devices. We have come up with easy to install and easy to use VPN solution called VPN One Click. VPN One Click has been developed with aim to make it easy for everyone to use a VPN, even for non-tech savvy people. VPN One Click was launched in the year 2011 and is being used by over 1 Million users globally.

VPN One Click is a one click installation on most devices, and selecting VPN server from as many as 29 countries happens with just simple clicks. VPN One Click doesn't need any configuration, you just install VPN One Click application on your device and instantly start using it to access blocked websites. VPN One Click application is available and compatible on most devices and platforms including iOS, Android, Windows, Linux, Mac OS, etc.

Here's how you can download and install VPN One Click.

On your iPhone and iPad:

1. Open your App Store and search for VPN One Click

2. Download and install VPN One Click

3. Start using Internet

On your Android based smartphones:

1. Search for VPN One Click in Android Play Store

2. Download and install VPN One Click

3. Start using the Internet

For Other Devices/Laptop Computers:

You can download VPN One Click from your device's respective app stores or you can choose to download VPN One Click from our website at this address: www.vpnoneclick.com/download/

For any doubts or details, please visit our Getting Started page: www.vpnoneclick.com/getting-started/

VPN One Click has been designed to provide maximum speed for your internet connection with no traffic limit.

How to send encrypted emails?

Email is an important part of our communication in our day to day life – both for personal and professional purpose. However, emails are prone to disclosure of information. An average email service doesn't do much to protect your emails. In most cases, when you send out an email it is sent as a plain text via web with no encryption involved. That means emails can even be read by people who are not the designated recipients of the email. Even a popular email service like Gmail doesn't support encryption and therefore prone to be intercepted.

It is important to protect your emails from being read or sniffed by someone to save avoid misuse of the sensitive information and data in the emails. Email encryption is one way of protecting and securing your emails from being accessed by someone who's not an unauthorized recipient of the email. Encryption is a process of transforming a plain text email message into a cryptogram which is a set of symbols making it look like a scrambled text which makes it unreadable except for the one who owns the readable key.

Encryption is done with the help of two keys – Public Key and a Private Key. Public key is used to encrypt the email message whereas private key is used to decrypt the email message.

This is how the encryption process works and makes email communication safe and secure.

- When you send a secure email message to someone, you use a public key to send the encrypted email but keep your private key secret.

- When someone sends you an email message, they use public key to send the encrypted email message, and you use your secret private key to decrypt the message.

There are various technological tools available to effectively encrypt an email and communicate with your peers with an added security and protection to your emails. These email encryption tools would work to automate the encryption process for you.

There are also some web based encrypted email services that allow users to send out encrypted emails. Mail1Click is one such email service which enables its users to send and receive encrypted email messages.

Mail1Click is a free and secure email service that uses strong encryption level to keep the email communication safe and secure. Mail1Click has an easy to use interface that encrypts the emails automatically.

Mail1Click can be used by individuals as well as business professionals to send and receive encrypted emails. All you need to do is activate your Mail1Click account and all the encryption, decryption, signature and signature authentication is automatically executed by the application. You just use Mail1Click like any other popular email service, only with a difference of emails being encrypted with Mail1Click.

Here's what you need to use Mail1Click:

1. Choose between personal or business

2. Create an account with Mail1Click

3. Start using Mail1Click

Business users can also select their own domain name to use Mail1Click. e.g., [email protected].

There are two ways to access Mail1Click:

a. Mail1Click access through web: https://webmail.mail1click.com/

b. Mail1Click access by downloading email client on smartphone, tablet or a computer:  https://www.mail1click.com/mail1click_download.php

Best VPN for iOS

In this blog we try to explain why VPN One Click is the best VPN for iOS.

Most of the technology enthusiasts must have heard the term VPN, but for starters here is what a VPN is? VPN creates a secure connection between your device and the Internet, all your Internet communication is routed through an encrypted tunnel created by VPN.

If you live in a country that has Internet censorship laws, uses geo-blocking of websites, or you just don't want hackers or snoopers track your Internet activity – then VPN is an essential application to use on your Apple device (iPhone or iPad) which would enable users to access any unblocked website and browse Internet anonymously.

VPN One Click, when installed on your Apple device, connects the client (iPhone, iPad, etc.) to a secured network when you are on a public WiFi, the data is transferred through an encrypted tunnel and hence using VPN One Click on the iPhone or iPad also enhances Internet security apart from enabling you to browse Internet anonymously and accessing blocked websites.

While many companies offer VPN solutions for iOS, but here is why we believe VPN One Click is the best VPN for iOS.

1. VPN One Click is an easy to install VPN Software. Installing VPN One Click on your Apple device doesn't require any technical knowledge. One just needs to download and install VPN One Click from Apple App Store. It's usually very simple and could be installed with just a single click.

2. Ease of Use. VPN One Click automatically connects you to our VPN servers using an encrypted tunnel. Your real IP Address is hidden and safe from external access or attack. Using VPN One Click, its very simple to select between VPN servers. VPN One Click allows its users to choose from VPN servers located in 29 countries.

3. The best way to secure an iPad or iPhone is to use VPN One Click on it. This VPN software doesn't just allow you to access blocked websites and remain anonymous on the Internet, it can also be used for data encryption and tunneling. Apple has built-in VPN settings for configuration.

4. VPN One Click designed for maximum speed. VPN One Click creates a super fast connection on iOS with no traffic limit. It doesn't affect your bandwidth.

5. Increased Privacy. VPN One Click keeps no connection logs. It doesn't even ask you to use your email while registering for the VPN. VPN One Click gives ultimate importance to the privacy of the user.

6. Encryption Protocols: VPN One Click encrypts ALL your Internet Communication using encrypted PPTP protocol or L2TP/IPSEC security protocols. Avoid filters, access any website without getting tracked or spoofed. Maintain complete privacy on every Internet connection.

How to get VPN on iOS?

1. Search for VPN One Click on Apple App Store, or download it from our website.

2. Download and install VPN One Click for iOS on your iPhone or iPad.

3. Connect to any of our VPN servers located in 29 countries.

4. Use Internet on your phone normally, but with an added security and privacy.

VPN One Click for all iOS versions:

VPN One Click is compatible with all versions of iOS. You can install VPN One Click on any series of iPhone or iPad.

Share VPN One Click subscription on iPhone and iPad:

When you download and install VPN One Click on your iPhone, you can also use the same subscription on your iPad, and vice versa.

VPN One Click subscription on iPhone and iPad:

VPN One Click is available as a free version and paid version on iOS. Below are the details:

Free Version: VPN One Click is available for use for free on iOS, but only for a limited time. With the free version, you can only connect to the VPN One Click's free servers in Europe.

Paid Version:  

Option 1: $1.99 per month

Option 2: $9.99 per year

The paid version of VPN One Click gives you access to the faster and dedicated VPN Network of VPN One Click. The paid user has access to VPN servers located in more than 29 countries.

All the above features make VPN One Click one of the best VPN for iOS.

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How to protect your email account

Emails are important part of our day-to-day communication. We use emails for personal as well as professional communications. Emails contain sensitive personal and professional information – Bank details, access to social media accounts, etc. Therefore, it is really important that your email account is secure and protected from hackers. In this guide we will tell you some simple ways to protect an email account.

Check the security options your email service provides. All email providers ensure that the email security is maximum, but a user should know how to make use of those security features.

1. Choose a stronger password. Make sure it is not easy to guess.

A strong password will be a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numeric digits, and special characters. (a – z, A – Z, 0 – 9, @#%$&, etc.).

2. Always use an alternate email address in the details, this will help you regain access to your email if someone takes control of your email account. Also, enter your mobile number in the account details.

3. If your email service provider gives a Two Step Verification method, make sure you make use of it. This will increase the level of security of your email account.

4. Security Questions: Make sure to use security questions which are not easily guessed. Remember the answers.

5. Protect your Computer: If you are using a wireless Internet connection or your computer doesn't have a good anti-virus system in place, then the data on your computer as well as your emails are at risk. If you dont have a firewall in place then your wireless connection is not safe and can be easily snooped upon by the hackers.

The least you can do to secure your wireless connection is to use a WPA key on your wireless connection.

You can add WPA key by following this method: Goto Connections >Wireless Network > Router >Properties >Device Webpage