Secure Email & VPN

BytorJr

Two Star General
Full Member
Minuteman
Nov 28, 2018
6,586
11,373
Ok,

So we see what is happening here where most of us live.

My questions are simple:
1) Secure email: Proton, mailbox.org, tutanota
2) VPN service: Nord? Proton? ????

Suggestions? Mailbox.org doesn't have a mobile client, but at this rate...Apple/Google will block those too.
 
This guy has a good technical description of email security problems.

The email technology is very ancient, and the IP protocols require the emails be sent in clear text.
He points out that email that stays within the same domain - proton mail to another proton mail are less risky.
Email leaving one email system to a different one (think gmail to proton mail) is not secure, because the transfer is plain text.
He describes how meta-data pollutes all email, and thus does see any way to make email completely secure, says he uses something called “signal” to communicate, instead of email.

My own guess is that some proton mail and vpn services are just agency honeypots.

He also has a good video on how fingerprinting works to ID us all, I was amazed how it is almost impossible to avoid.
 
This guy has a good technical description of email security problems.

The email technology is very ancient, and the IP protocols require the emails be sent in clear text.
He points out that email that stays within the same domain - proton mail to another proton mail are less risky.
Email leaving one email system to a different one (think gmail to proton mail) is not secure, because the transfer is plain text.
He describes how meta-data pollutes all email, and thus does see any way to make email completely secure, says he uses something called “signal” to communicate, instead of email.

My own guess is that some proton mail and vpn services are just agency honeypots.

He also has a good video on how fingerprinting works to ID us all, I was amazed how it is almost impossible to avoid.


Proton encrypts the mail on its servers and does not have the ability to read it even if they were told to give it over, and with the laws over there that’s unlikely, it’s not readable without the key, does that guy have any facts to back his claims up?

End of the day the primary threat for the average person isn’t some random hacker kid, it’s big state and big tech, proton seems to at least help with that.
 
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VPN + 256bit encryption.

But VPN will make life slow and the encryption can be a hassle and won't work unless the people you deal with use it too and humans in general are far too lazy and apathetic when it comes to privacy, or hell, just Rights in general!

Now I'm no IT whiz, there are people much more versed in it than me, THEIS is someone you should talk to IMO. I just know a few things and understand how our government/corporations (the line is blurring) work and what drives greed in this country and that makes figuring out motive and/or what they "could" and likely "are" doing a lot easier. And I'm seldom wrong, unfortunately.

VPN only stops what Comcast (I assume you have Comcast since they have a defacto monopoly, they intentionally do NOT buy shitty, sparsely populated or hard to maintain areas so as to appear as not having a monopoly but every market worth a fuck is owned by Comcast now) or your ISP sees you doing, they wanted a piece of the pie a few years back so that's the deal there. VPN stops them from seeing where you GO which is all the info they get. Once you're there, google and all the other usual suspects are still spying once you log in to whatever --you gave them permission. Ad blockers, not storing any history, deleting google and ms's shit, not logging into or downloading shit from these places and not using facebook essentially stops the rest. I used to get this shit too, targeted ads and the like, until I made those changes.

I tape over the camera, I did this before Snowden did and was called paranoid (apparently I'm still paranoid and afraid of technology, though they know the "if you're not doing anything wrong" excuse is faulty, it's the only one they can come up with...). And I uninstalled the mic drivers and software in this computer, so I have a DAC and stereo headphones and a mic I can use for movies, music or playing video games --and what I use for appt.'s on the computer. I have to physically plug it in and activate it for it to work.

I also switched to "Smartpage.com" for a homepage and search engine. It's not the best, but they don't track you and privacy is their niche. What it does is to use Google's tech for the search but without all the other spy shit. Because it's not "you" searching but "smartpage" the results are far more generic. I've compared it to google though and the results are "good enough". I highly recommend it. Sad it has to be a niche... Anyway, I don't get advertisements in hotmail (which I still use) says "looks like you're using an ad blocker, but you can PAY US for no ads?" Fuck off, I got it for free. Firefox is probably gonna be your best big browser.

I used Strong VPN and it worked and I could set it up on the router (you can get a VPN on your computer but all the other shit is still unprotected if you don't install it on the router). Problem is that it SIGNIFICANTLY slowed shit down, to the point it was mostly unusable for anything other than searching and even that was slow.

So now I just use the Norton version on the computer (the Norton VPN is probably the easiest there is to set up, just turn it on really) the Playstation connected to the TV (what I use to stream) isn't protected. But it's also a much lesser device that can't really spy on me and if my watch list is that important to you, I'll give it to you. But stay the fuck out of my computer.
 
Proton Email, Tor Email, and/or MullVad (VPN) is getting you 99% of the way there.

The remaining 1% is the fact that you have to ultimateily trust the exit node of the tor server, and/or trust the exit server of the VPN. I like MullVad VPN as it allows for wireshark protocols, and multi-hop connections in two different countries.

If you are super concerned and want to maximize, make sure the exit node(s) of whatever tor route and/or VPN you use are in countries that do not participate in any of the US/EU data sharing initiatives.
 
VPN + 256bit encryption.

But VPN will make life slow and the encryption can be a hassle and won't work unless the people you deal with use it too and humans in general are far too lazy and apathetic when it comes to privacy, or hell, just Rights in general!

Now I'm no IT whiz, there are people much more versed in it than me, THEIS is someone you should talk to IMO. I just know a few things and understand how our government/corporations (the line is blurring) work and what drives greed in this country and that makes figuring out motive and/or what they "could" and likely "are" doing a lot easier. And I'm seldom wrong, unfortunately.

VPN only stops what Comcast (I assume you have Comcast since they have a defacto monopoly, they intentionally do NOT buy shitty, sparsely populated or hard to maintain areas so as to appear as not having a monopoly but every market worth a fuck is owned by Comcast now) or your ISP sees you doing, they wanted a piece of the pie a few years back so that's the deal there. VPN stops them from seeing where you GO which is all the info they get. Once you're there, google and all the other usual suspects are still spying once you log in to whatever --you gave them permission. Ad blockers, not storing any history, deleting google and ms's shit, not logging into or downloading shit from these places and not using facebook essentially stops the rest. I used to get this shit too, targeted ads and the like, until I made those changes.

I tape over the camera, I did this before Snowden did and was called paranoid (apparently I'm still paranoid and afraid of technology, though they know the "if you're not doing anything wrong" excuse is faulty, it's the only one they can come up with...). And I uninstalled the mic drivers and software in this computer, so I have a DAC and stereo headphones and a mic I can use for movies, music or playing video games --and what I use for appt.'s on the computer. I have to physically plug it in and activate it for it to work.

I also switched to "Smartpage.com" for a homepage and search engine. It's not the best, but they don't track you and privacy is their niche. What it does is to use Google's tech for the search but without all the other spy shit. Because it's not "you" searching but "smartpage" the results are far more generic. I've compared it to google though and the results are "good enough". I highly recommend it. Sad it has to be a niche... Anyway, I don't get advertisements in hotmail (which I still use) says "looks like you're using an ad blocker, but you can PAY US for no ads?" Fuck off, I got it for free. Firefox is probably gonna be your best big browser.

I used Strong VPN and it worked and I could set it up on the router (you can get a VPN on your computer but all the other shit is still unprotected if you don't install it on the router). Problem is that it SIGNIFICANTLY slowed shit down, to the point it was mostly unusable for anything other than searching and even that was slow.

So now I just use the Norton version on the computer (the Norton VPN is probably the easiest there is to set up, just turn it on really) the Playstation connected to the TV (what I use to stream) isn't protected. But it's also a much lesser device that can't really spy on me and if my watch list is that important to you, I'll give it to you. But stay the fuck out of my computer.

 
I use Mullvad for VPN and ProtonMail for email. My expectation is this level of security is probably just enough to provide me with some privacy. Better security is possible but it will require time, money, and a lot of hard work.

Here is a link to a VPN review that might be helpful.
 
Even if an app says they don’t have back doors, how does the company know that one of their employees isn’t moonlighting and getting some extra cash to put a back door in on their own initiative.
I use paid services that advertise privacy as a selling feature. That way at least there is the threat of losing their business if they don't police their employees. I don't have the skills or the time to do it all myself so I just do whatever I can to stack the odds in my favor.
 
When I send emails via email, it openly gives out which point, country I am writing from. So that I did not have this, I decided to use a VPN and now any mail is suitable for me. In truth, it sometimes lags, but I can send it from anywhere in the world, well, almost. Something similar I was looking for and for watching movies and dug up a range and a list of VPN on netflix-vpn.com, where more media will be available to me on netflix. I did not immediately start using the first VPN, tried several and works well, at least more memory for the archive and less advertising.
 
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What is so special about that one?
Nothing.

They all sell your data. They can't see the contents of your sessions but you don't need to be paying a 'vpn' for that, virtually any site provides secure (encrypted) connections. They sell your browsing history which comes from DNS requests.
 
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No offense but you have 3 other posts and have only been a member since September 2022. Not taking your advice.
Fellow SH'er and cyber-security researcher/engineer here. Don't take some answers you read here as gospel, always do your homework before using a security product or service, especially when the later comes from very liberal companies. They will throw you under the bus (electric of course) at the first occasion they have (we frequently witness the double standard with such entities).

Ask you what you want to achieve first, if you guys only want to improve your online privacy, almost any decent and well-known VPN and anonymous email services combined will do, but you may still leave artifacts you don't even think about that can compromise your identity. The more you use such services, the harder it is to conceal everything.

Now as for protection from outside threats, that's an entirely different story, and requires way more works and precautions at the both the personal and technological levels. You always need very good operational security, especially on the long term. My two cents (in US dollar)..
 
I don't know anything about anything. :poop:

I use proton email and VPN. Started off with the free versions, upgraded with their BF sale.
 
Holy jesus on a stick.
Just looked thru this thread....must be 6-7 spam posters....or more.
I guess the letters VPN drew them via simple google search ?

Lets see shall we :þ

VPN
VPN
VPN
VPN
VPN
VPN
VPN