Online security devices

[SHRED]

Like Keezel, Cujo, etc...

Anyone using them for their home or especially during their travels?

I'm interested in not being bothered with ads and foremost my privacy but what about cookies? Are they still used or do we need to sign in every time we go to a username/Pword site?

I don't quite understand how these work and my concern is they would slow and complicate my interaction with the Web.

http://www.crookedbrains.net/2016/01/online-privacy-and-security-gadgets.html?m=1

[Egnever]

1. Not sure what you are trying to accomplish

looks like Keezel is just a VPN and Cujo a firewall. Both of those things could be accomplished at your router. Or in the case of a traveling laptop on the device itself.

What is it you are trying to do?

[SHRED]

2. Just trying to minimize hacking

Especially using public Wi-Fi.

While traveling I use apps to check bank account because I've heard using an app provides a good layer of privacy.
At home I have an Asus router.
For the home network I'm assuming this is enough provided we don't have infected devices?

Just trying to tighten up security.
I am thinking if r redoing all my passwords soon also.

[Egnever]

3. Are you using mostly your phone or a laptop?

[SHRED]

4. Phone

Galaxy S5
iPhone 7

Then iPad 2 and PC..in that order.

Mostly phones with some iPad use on the road.

[Egnever]

5. Here is what I would suggest.

Two things.

First for basic net security a VPN. I use these guys https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/ and they work pretty well. They do slow my traffic down some but if i am in need of a fast file transfer I just turn it off. I have no trouble streaming with it on though so it still leaves my connection fast enough for the majority of uses with no noticeable issues.

There are many to chose from another popular one is https://www.ipvanish.com/pricing.php I have not tried them myself so can not vouch for their speed but most of what i have read about them seems good.

Both of those will work on most platforms.

Second for the passwords. I highly recommend last pass. https://lastpass.com/

That is a password manager, you make one strong password and then let last pass generate ridiculous passwords for everything else. For example I just had last pass generate this password 1Cnd!0$bLOrjgvGY4z That would take decades to crack. Basically it is an extension for your browser or an app for your phone it encrypts all of your stored passwords on your end so they can not be compromised. So what I do is when I run my chrome with last pass installed I enter my one last pass password that is also a good strong password. After that it has all of my other passwords saved so when I visit say my bank it will fill out my login info for me. I don't know any of my passwords really except the last pass password and my gmail. All of the rest of my passwords were generated and saved by last pass.

If you are using chrome and signing in to it last pass will follow you to every device when you log into chrome no need to reinstall it it does so automatically when you sign in to chrome. So if i go to say a relatives house and need to get to my bank on their computer I sign into chrome then last pass and go to my bank and it fills in my login just like I was at home. Again it encrypts all the passwords so there is no danger of them being compromised.

Great program and will even check all of your saved passwords and find duplicates and help you change them. Well worth the few dollars a month for the premium but even the free version is good if you just want to run it on one machine.

Anyway I wouldn't buy a device where you are stuck if the device breaks. With the two solutions I mentioned here you accomplish the same thing and are not locked to a single piece of hardware and all the problems that come with it .. battery, lugging it around. basic hardware failure.. etc

[SHRED]

6. Fantastic

Thanks so much

[SHRED]

7. I got Last Pass

Paid the $12.50 for one year.

Looks like a learning curve is in order.
Not sure how it works yet.

[Egnever]

8. Yes there is a small learning curve

here's a short video series on using it.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsXN_jRonzyf3x69ctvts7twfA5VdM28m

That should get you started. Main thing is look for the icon in the username or password field that should now appear on any site you sign into. When you sign into a site last pass has not seen you sign into before it will ask if you want last pass to remember it. Assuming you have the extension installed in your browser. There really are a lot more things you can do with it but the basics are good enough.

[SHRED]

9. Most of the sites I visit

They are auto login.

I'll figure it out.

[Egnever]

10. yea it isn't really hard

Just takes a bit of getting used to. And really once you have all your sites in last pass you can set it to auto log you in as well so the experience will not be any different but if you take the time to go through the security check after you have your sites in last pass and follow the recommendations you will end up with close to if not completely impenetrable loggins.

One of the best things I ever did really. Now all of my passwords are completely ridiculous and I don't actually know any of them except my last pass and my gmail.

[SHRED]

11. Thanks for your help.

[SHRED]

13. Last Pass questions

So I will need to use Last Pass going forward to access password protected logins on websites?

What happens if I try and access a website from a device not using my Last Pass?

Can I return to not using Last Pass in the future?

I still need to learn it better.

[Egnever]

14. Well that depends

yes and no.

What last pass is great at doing is creating a virtual storage of your passwords that is secure. This allows you to confidently create passwords that would be ridiculously hard to remember without writing them down somewhere while at the same time allowing you to have different strong passwords for every site you log into with no need to remember them.

This means if one site is compromised then all of your other sites wont be compromised as well. Most people use the same password in multiple places so if one place falls then the hackers have gained access to multiple sites. Creating different passwords for every site you log into is hard to keep track of without some sort of password manager.

You could certainly rely on the browsers ability to save logins but those are not nearly as secure as last pass that encrypts everything by default.

You could certainly just use last pass to generate strong passwords then write them down, or you can even export them to a file you could store somewhere safe.

If you access a site from a machine that does not have last pass on it you would just have to know the password you used for that site.

What I do is use chrome and I sign into chrome with my google account. When you do that Chrome retains all of your settings, bookmarks and extensions, including last pass. So when I go to another machine as long as it has chrome on it all i have to do is sign into chrome on that machine and last pass will be installed automatically. Then all I have to do is sign in with my last pass account and all of my passwords are there ready to use. When I leave that machine I sign out of chrome and it is gone.

Alternatively you can sign into the last pass website and retrieve your password there from a machine that last pass was not installed on.

If you use a browser to save your passwords it is trivial for someone that has access to that machine to access them. if you use last pass and don't leave your instance of last pass signed in it becomes nearly impossible to do so.

On my home machine I leave last pass signed in. Not the safest practice but I work on computers for a living and keep my machine clean of infections and the machine itself is passworded. If someone were to steal the machine they could get to any passwords that were stored in my browser but none of the passwords stored in last pass.

You certainly don't have to use last pass. It is simply a great way to use different passwords for every site you visit without having to remember every one while also keeping them secure( I don't know any of mine other than my gmail and my last pass). Also assuming you set up your account on whatever site with a recovery email address you can always recover your password or reset it as long as you have access to your email.

In my case if I lost access to last pass for some reason. I would have to go to each site and recover my passwords one by one.

Hopefully that all makes sense but in case it didn't here is an article from a professional that explains the benefits.

http://www.howtogeek.com/141500/why-you-should-use-a-password-manager-and-how-to-get-started/

[SHRED]

15. I thank you again

I'll get busy learning

[BlueStateLib]

12. vpn review

https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-anonymous-review-160220/