Use Personal VPN Services to Access Blocked Websites

When one thinks of blocked websites, you usually think of adult sites. However, you, might be surprised that many “normal sites” are blocked merely for daring to connect the world. Sites that encourage interaction are often censored, as are sites that feature controversial subject matter.

Two of the sites you would think to be anything but controversial are among the most blocked sites in the world: Facebook and Twitter. To you, Facebook and Twitter may only be social networking companies that help for further online discussion. However, these social media tools are often used for controversial purposes: like sharing adult content, or helping nurture rebellious causes, or reporting on questionable dealings.

In addition to social media sites, download sites such as BitTorrent and Mega Upload have also been banned, since many (if not most users) who use such sites download copyrighted content. Recently, Mega Upload felt the wrath of the U.S. Government acting on behalf of Hollywood and the music industry, by closing the site down and indicting the owner. (This happened despite celebrities speaking out for Mega Upload’s defense)

Video content sites, though they may not even share an illegal sharing, still merit government attention for the content they promote. YouTube and other video sharing sites have also been banned because of its controversial content, both amateur (videos of government atrocities) and even professional shows that it just happen to be banned in the country of origin. (China and the Middle East are both notorious for banning certain U.S. shows)

The advantage of VPN services is that they allow you to surf the Internet anonymously by cloaking the IP address. Only the VPN company itself knows what you’re doing and the best ones make it a point to erase all logging information concerning your visits. In addition to cloaking IPs, VPN hosts also allow users to securely upload and download information. This means that you could access banking information (and other sensitive information) securely through encryption.

Laws are quickly changing, and the U.S. has been one of the most engaged countries on the issue of government censorship, followed by Britain and Australia. U.S. lawmakers have tried to pass several controversial bills that empowered the state to censor questionable content. If this trend continues, it may reach a point where certain websites that feature heated political commentary or other “whistle blowing” themes might be banned entirely.

No wonder users are looking into VPN security—the freedom to surf of your own free will!

About Author: Veronica Clyde

Veronica Clyde reviews the best VPN  providers at VPNServices.net. She loves to share Online Security, VPN technology and Blogging tips. If interested you can check out a Hide my ass.com review.

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How to Know You Are Shopping On A Safe Website?

SSL is a secure socket layer, which prevents phishing, spyware or any kind of Malware attacks. It boosts customer’s confidence. SSL encrypts the information that flows between the user’s browser and owner’s website. When customer sees the green bar in address bar, he become ready to transact online and that action enhance the profitability of an enterprise.

As we have seen that in few years, E-commerce is developing so fast but there is a concern of security. SSL removes all the hurdle of phishing and other malwares and provides customer a healthy online shopping environment. There are steps by which online visitor will know that whether the site is secure or not.  

(a) A standard web site without SSL security displays “http://” before the web site address in the browser address bar. This moniker stands for “Hypertext Transfer Protocol,” and is the conventional way to transmit information over the Internet.

However, a web site that is secured with a SSL Certificate will display “https://” before the address. This stands for “Secure HTTP.”

(b) You will also see a padlock symbol on the top or bottom of the Internet browser (depending on which browser you are using).

(c) When you click on the padlock symbol on the page, it will display details of the relevant certificate with company information as verified and authenticated by the CA.

• Standard SSL Certificate (Blue Address Bar)

• EV SSL Certificate (Green Address Bar)

Credit: https://www.techihawk.com/2012/07/site-is-secure-to-online-shopping.html

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Points should be followed for online banking security

Internet security is the most important requirement of online business. By following few steps you can secure your network from hackers and attackers. 

This stuff will help you to develop safe internet habits and keeps you away from unwanted security issues to your personal security.

Strong Password:-

There are some steps by following it we can improve chances of not being hacked. A person should always use a strong password and password would be with so many combinations. The password should be more than 6 characters long and combines both alphanumerical characters and special characters. It is highly recommended resetting your password at least every 1 to 2 months. 

Don’t use same password for your every account:-

Some users are lazy they keep same password for their every account but it is not good habit. Sometimes it might create a problem for them. It is not advisable to use Facebook login password as your web banking access password. Keep a separate password for your each login. You don’t need to remember them you can manage your password with password management programs like Keepass.

Be careful while answering security question:-

Security questions are for us. If we forget the password security questions might help us.  For example there is a question like what your birth place is person who knows you can answer the same question. Don’t answer such question or answer it on different way.

Increase the security level:-

Always secure your e commerce site with SSL Certificate to protect your customers.  Do not enter your personal details on those sites which are not having SSL Certificates. Always trust on https instead of only http.

Authentication provides an effective benefit to your site and ensures that the people who are your customers are safe in your network. There is wide range of various level of encryption. You need to select the solution level that is appropriate for your business.

No matter what business you run but the main factor of your securing your internet security. Always deal with trusted, reputable and reliable certificate authorities like Symantec or SSL certificate provider. ClickSSL is one of the most reliable SSL Provider and reseller of trusted Certificate Authorities.

Credit: https://www.itmashable.com/2012/07/4-steps-to-better-online-banking.html

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Internet Marketing – An Advance Approach

Marketing frolics an essential role in business enterprise it is an archaic term. In former time marketing has limited concept for only production and selling preference. But as time moved on the scheme and construct of marketing is changed it is not just bound by production and selling but expands with the horizon of service, relationship between customers and business, branding, industrial marketing, social marketing, relationship management and business marketing. As its horizon expands its technique also varies from time to time now the up most concept in marketing is Internet Marketing. The concept of web marketing or Internet marketing is spreading heavily now a day. It is to tell in elementary phrase that it is a selling platform of product and service over the internet.

If you await at this concept deeply it is a cost saving effort for business individual it is like a branch office of your company. Secondly you don’t have to assign a sale person. Thirdly the information provide on web is like crystal clear one can judge your product and goodwill through internet. Fourthly people can shop anytime at their will. Fifthly solve their query with troubleshooting guide listed on your site. Sixthly write any product related message or query or suggestion in provided forum. The main reward that you are alive to the world anybody can take vantage of your product and service.

It also build network of social as business relations without cost and helps in business success. There are some proficiencies by which you can administer your product and services to the world like display advertise or banner on third party’s website, e-mail marketing, social media marketing via social sites like facebook, twitter, LinkedIn etc, referral marketing include promoting products through current customers, affiliate marketing, inbound marketing, search engine optimization which ameliorates the profile of a site.

Social media security is most important part of internet marketing. You can note that most usable social media like facebook and twitter now secure with SSL Certificates. You just login that networks and enable to HTTPS security that can build your social media account now a bit secure. Generally, you will desire to allow SSL on as lots of websites as you can for added security. Now you can see Google also allows this.

Companies can ambit to a wide community through internet marketing. Consumer can experience the details and purchase product easily. Many website have images and videos of products and service which also impacts on customer’s mind and draw them to buy their product. All internet market campaign can be traced and measured for product performance. The minus of internet marketing is solely that a personal touch to consumer is lacking. One to one meeting impacts more for merchandising a product but online marketing lacks this element. Secondly security over the net is ponder able aspect while entering confidential details like debit card number, addresses, phone numbers. It may be misused by some illegal identity. So online business must comply with a security seal for accessing customer’s information.

Besides this online marketing provides one to one access via internet while entering right keyword for right product so the proper attention is gained through online marketing. As seen from this prospect the futurity of Internet marketing is astonishing and the latter generation will surely take interest in online theory, may be more advance than this.

Credit: http://www.esoftload.info/internet-marketing-an-advance-approach

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Twitter Turns on SSL Encryption for Some Users

Twitter is slowly turning on automatic encryption on its website, a move following other major providers of web-based services to thwart account hijacking over wireless networks.

Twitter has offered an option for users to turn on SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption, but said on Tuesday that it will turn the feature on by default for some users. It did not indicate when the option would be turned on by default for all users.

SSL encryption, indicted by "https" in the URL bar and sometimes a padlock in the browser window, is an encryption protocol used to protect communication between a client and a server. It is important to use because unencrypted information passed over wireless networks can be intercepted.

Many websites encrypt a person's login and password but will stop encrypting further data that is transmitted. A reason for not using SSL throughout a session is that it can occasionally slow interaction between the user and website.

Last year, a freelance web application Firesheep released, an add-on for Firefox that snatches cookies transmitted on unencrypted networks. Web sites drop a cookie, or a small data file, into a person's Web browser while they are logged into a session. Cookies are also used to "remember" people and keep them logged into the website.

Firesheep used an technique that was well-known but made it very easy for novice hackers to grab cookies and immediately log into a website as another person with just two clicks, known as session hijacking. If Firesheep detected someone logging into say, Facebook, on an open wireless network it would display their photo and name, which could be clicked in Firesheep, hijacking the person's account.

SSL Certificate would thwart such an attack since the cookie would encrypted. Other websites have started to step up their security as well. Facebook allows people to turn on SSL for a person's entire session in the "Account Settings" under "Security." In January 2010, Google turned on SSL for everyone using Gmail by default.

Credit: PCWorld Business Center

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Mozilla Firefox stopped accepting MD5# algorithm

Mozilla disabled MD5 in their environment from June 30, 2011 (https://wiki.mozilla.org/CA:MD5and1024).

This means that any SSL certificates containing an MD5 signature algorithm will not work in later FireFox browsers after that date.

RapidSSL does not use the MD5 in the certificates we issue. However, it is possible that a small number of older certificates may contain an MD5 signature.

In the next few months RapidSSL will be communicating to any affected customers that they should reissue their certificate.

Reissuing your certificate is a simple process and will ensure your certificate contains a with a SHA-1 signature algorithm.

For instructions on reissuing your certificate please contact support team at https://www.clickssl.com

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Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome Updated for Security Flaws

It's a big week for browser updates, as both Mozilla and Google are updating their respective Web browsers for multiple security flaws.

The Mozilla Firefox 3.6.11 update addresses at least nine security flaws, five of which are rated as being critical by Mozilla. Among the critical flaws are memory safety hazard issues, as well as a memory corruption issue that could potentially enable an attacker to run arbitrary code.
Additionally there is a critical fix for a use-after-free memory error, which could enable attackers to make unauthorized use of allocated memory.

"Security researcher Sergey Glazunov reported that it was possible to access the 'locationbar' property of a window object after it had been closed," Mozilla's security advisory states. "Since the closed window's memory could have been subsequently reused by the system, it was possible that an attempt to access the 'locationbar' property could result in the execution of attacker-controlled memory."


Mozilla also credits HP TippingPoint's Zero Day Initiative with the discovery of a JavaScript dangling pointer vulnerability, which could also lead to an attacker taking control of user memory.

"When 'window.__lookupGetter' is called with no arguments, the code assumes the top JavaScript stack value is a property name," Mozilla's advisory states. "Since there were no arguments passed into the function, the top value could represent uninitialized memory or a pointer to a previously freed JavaScript object. Under such circumstances the value is passed to another subroutine, which calls through the dangling pointer, potentially executing attacker-controlled memory."

Firefox 3.6.11 also provides fixes for a number of interesting vulnerabilities, including one related to how Firefox handles the nearly extinct Gopher (define)server system. The Gopher vulnerability could have led to a Cross Site Scripting (XSS) attack.

There is also a fix for an SSL wildcard flaw that Mozilla notes is unlikely to ever occur, since a certificate authority isn't likely to grant the wildcard certificate.

"Security researcher Richard Moore reported that when an SSL certificate was created with a common name containing a wildcard, followed by a partial IP address, a valid SSL connection could be established with a server whose IP address matched the wildcard range by browsing directly to the IP address," Mozilla stated in its advisory.

The issue of SSL wildcards was a topic that was first raised at theBlack Hat 2009 security conference. Famed security researcher reported that the major browser vendors all had SSL wildcard flaws that could potentially be exploited. Mozilla patched the specific flaws highlighted by Kaminsky in August of 2009 with the Firefox 3.5.2 release.

Chrome 7

Google is also joining the Web browser update parade this week with the release of Chrome 7.0.517.41 for its stable channel. The release marks the first stable Chrome 7.x release for Google, after having been in its development channel for the last three months.

With Chrome 7.0.517.41, Google is providing at least 11 security fixes, five of which are labeled as having high impact and one listed as critical. The critical flaw is a browser crash issue related to the form autofill capability.

As was the case with Firefox, memory corruption issues are part of the Chrome fix list. Google has credited researcher Simon Schaak with reporting memory corruption issues with animated GIF images in Chrome.

Chrome 7.0.517.41 also provides a high impact fix for a possible URL spoofing issue that could have occurred when the page is unloaded.

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Chrome extension forces secure Google searches

Google SSL Web Search adds encrypted Google search to Chrome's list of search engines.

Google now offers an extension for Chrome that automates the process of adding the secure Google search site as a search engine to the Chrome 6.x branch. Google SSL Web Search is an extension, still in beta, that works with Chrome 6.0.419.0 and later on Windows and Linux computers.

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