AnchorFree Introduces Expat Shield to Help People Abroad Connect with Their Family (also Hotspot Shield FREE)

http://anchorfree.com/news-events/

http://dns.tmcnet.com/topics/internet-security/articles/90854-anchorfree-introduces-expat-shield-help-people-abroad-connect.htm

http://www.expatshield.com/ (Expat Shield)

http://anchorfree.com/ (Hotspot Shield)

Alan Spicer says: I haven’t tried these products yet myself… but a lot of my yachting/marine customers use WiFi in a lot of places that  they travel and dock. The same goes for my other communications (telecom, computer, networking) customers on land. Even if you use a Hotspot Access Sharing Router system, e.g. that gets your whole boat online on hotspots via WiFi, the Hotspot system is still very often unsecure. In order to provide an open system that’s easy to connect to, for example in a marina or anchorage, they typically run a system that’s not using WEP, WPA, or WPA2 WiFi Security Protocols. What does that mean? Well it means that over the airwaves (once the Internet Traffic leaves your boat) there is no protection against sniffing or snooping your web surfing (your business transactions, emails, etc.)

Now grant it some things that you do, say your bank, use SSL … Secure Sockets Layer … That’s the web sites with Thawte or Verisign (or similar) protections. Those are the ones where the web address (URL) is “https://” instead of “http://” and the LOCK typically goes on in your web browser. And that’s pretty good, see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_Secure 

The main idea of HTTPS is to create a secure channel over an unsecure network. This ensures reasonable protection from eavesdroppers and man-in-the-middle attacks, provided that adequate cipher suites are used and that the server certificate is verified and trusted.

But that may not be good enough for other things that you do across the wild wild Internet. Email may not be secure, and general surfing habits may not be secure.

I first learned about Hotspot Shield just recently, but while reading articles and write-ups off of their web site - I learned also about Expat Shield. Like I said I haven’t tried either but the latter also claims to allow access to certain web sites that multi-country travelers (or expatriates) may have been denied access to in the countries where they are staying. So I thought that one might be interesting as well.

* More information … The Hotspot Shield, and likely also the Expat Shield, are doing a form of Web Proxy, by using a VPN … that must terminate somewhere.

See VPN: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VPN 

A VPN is a secure tunnel which would get you out from your computer past the insecurity of WiFi Hotspots (and maybe other systems abroad) but it has to terminate somewhere and then go out onto the actual Internet. Depending on where that/those server(s) are located it may slow down your surfing speed. And you have to trust that company to provide a VPN server that’s safe to use. I’m sure that AnchorFree is a reputable company and would respect your connection, data, and privacy. But a spoon full of Caveat has to go with everything like this. Companies such as search engines are in the business of making money out of the traffic that they handle. So somewhere along the line, at some time, you would think that they would want to do *something* with the data on peoples web surfing and other Internet habits. It’s all information. And that information is worth something to quite a few people (organizations, companies, …)

* That’s all for now!

—
Alan Spicer

DBA Alan Spicer Telcom / Alan Spicer Marine Telecom
Computer Services, Wired/Wireless Networking,
Cell/Sat/Landline Communications, General Consulting…
Marine, Business, Small Office and Home Office (SOHO)

* Cost Savings and Integration of Multiple Internet Technologies
on board Sail and Motor Yachts * Documentation, Operating
Instructions, and Support after the Sale *

* http://www.marinetelecom.net/
* http://www.internetforyachts.net/
* http://www.wifiyacht.net/
* 954-683-3426

Mobile Internet! Step up to the HSPA 3G Fast Internet!

Ericsson W35 released in the USA. This you’ve gotta SEE!!
Better looking presentation than W25 (you might not want to
hide this one in the Doghouse!) + High Speed Upload which
the W25 did not have.
http://www.marinetelecom.net/Ericsson_W35/

This entry was posted on 4. August 2010 at 14:28 and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.