MELANCHOLY404 TECHNOLOGY

When it comes to online privacy and security, one of the topics that we always emphasize on is using a VPN service. Using a VPN, you can make sure that your online privacy is secured as you can browse the web anonymously. In case  you are looking for a VPN service for a similar reason, you should not really be looking for the free stuff. A paid VPN service is what would be ideal in such a situation. You might have to compromise on speed and privacy breach might also be an issue. Read our piece on the dark side of free VPN for the risk attached that comes with these free VPNs.

However, at times, you just want to bypass the country restriction while trying out a new service on Android, or you just wish to install an app not yet available in your country. In these scenarios buying a VPN service doesn’t really makes sense. A free VPN app would be ideal to bypass these restrictions. But here also you should be choosing a service which is comparatively secure and trustworthy.
So here are 5 free VPN services that can help you bypass country restriction on Android and at the same time protect privacy.

1. Betternet for Android

Betternet for Android is one of the best free VPN services for Android. The app has some ads to support its free services, but the ads are not at all irritating. From the homepage, you press the Connect button and wait for the connection to establish.

 
One thing to note here is that you cannot select the server/country you wish to connect to  manually. The app will auto-connect you to the best server using a load balancer. Most of the times, it’s US or Canada, but at times, you might also connect to servers at Singapore, Netherlands, and the UK. We have already covered all the details about the app in one of our previous posts which you can have a look at for more details.

2. FlinchVPN

FinchVPN is another free VPN service for Android that you can try. You need to create a free account and after successful activation, you will get a monthly bandwidth of 3 GB. FlinchVPN allows you to select the server/location from US, Canada, and France.
 
There are no ads in the app and as long as you are using the free servers and don’t need more than 3 GB of free data in a month, FinchVPN will work like a charm. However, for just $1 per month, you can get access to many fast servers and extend monthly data limit to 25 GB. For those who would like unlimited data, it would just be $3 per month.

3. Hideman VPN

Hideman VPN gives you a long list of countries to choose from even in the free mode and you don’t need to create an account to start the VPN service. Also, if you are looking for a VPN to download torrents, Hideman can help you with that. There are a few free servers which support torrents and there will be an icon next to the server which will denote the support for them.
 
You get a few free hours on the app and you can share links for the apps and do a few other things to get the time extended. For paid membership, there are hourly packages available for users who would like to have a reliable VPN service for just a few hours.

4. Hotspot Shield Free VPN Proxy

Hotspot Shield Free VPN Proxy, unlike the other apps, give you the power to start the VPN service automatically when a specific app is launched on your Android. This is apart from the usual overall VPN service that it provides. The advantage of using Hotspot Shield on just a few apps will provide more security and privacy.
 
In the free plan, you can change different countries/servers, but there is some time limit and also the app has ads. However, there is an option to upgrade to monthly and yearly elite plans to get better speed and an ad-free experience.

5. Tunnel Bear

Tunnel Bear is one of the most trusted names when it comes to VPN and if your monthly usage is anywhere less than 1.5 GB, you can trust this service even on blindfolds. There is a long list of servers/countries to choose from even in a free account and there are no ads in the app.
 
You get 500 MB of free usage every month on the limited account and a tweet asking Tunnel Bear for free data will give you another 1 GB of free data every month. The interface is one of the best when compared to other VPN apps available for Android. If you are looking for a premium VPN plan, I would definitely recommend this one because of its speed and security. Furthermore, if you’re looking for Android only plans, they have it at cheaper rates.

Conclusion

So those were some of the top free VPN services you can install on Android to bypass country restrictions. I would again suggest you to use these free services on a limited basis and look for a secure, paid service if you want to round the clock security and privacy.

We all love privacy. It gives us our peace of mind that there’s no one going through our stuff. Albeit, it’s the biggest issue in all fields of technology. No matter how hard you try, some or the other way it will be endangered. However, we should never stop trying. If you believe in that, then let me show you how you can hide your “personal stuff” stored in those specifically partitioned disk drives on Windows.

Here, I’ll show how you can password protect your disk drives and keep your sensitive data safe. So, without further ado, let’s dig in.

Hide Disk Drives in Windows

So, the software we are going to explore today is Hidden Disk. In the past, we had shared with you how you can hide a secret partition in your USB flash drive. But, today using Hidden Disk I’d like to show you how to hide disk drive and it’s content. And, not just hide but also add a password to it.
Download and Install the software to begin with. It does work well on Windows 10. And, using this software is really simple. So, let’s do it.

Step-1: Create Disk
On the home screen of the software, you’ll see a Letter X. Those are actually disk drive letters. You can choose whatever you want. Next, after you’ve chosen your disk letter click on Create Disk.

Now, the disk will be created and it should show you a warning that you shouldn’t format your system drive or reinstall your system. If you do so then the disk you created will get removed (along with the files stored in it). Also, with this warning, there’s an important point to note. The files that you store in this disk drive are being stored somewhere on your System drive. That is why you’ll see the new drive you created will be named same as your System drive.

Also, you can create other drives by changing the drive name in the software.
Step-2: Hide the Drive
Now in order to hide the drive click on Disable Disk. Before doing so don’t forget to add your files in the drive. After you’ve disabled it, the drive will disappear.

Also, another way to make it invisible is to shut down your PC. The disk will disappear every time you shut down. So now, how do you get it back?
Step-3: Open Hidden disk and Click on Create Disk again to make the hidden disk visible.
If you had added any files in the hidden drive then you’ll get them back in the drive after you hit Create disk (again). Yeah, that is a little time consuming but privacy comes at a cost bro.
Now, let’s see how you can add a password to this hidden drive.

Password Protect the Hidden Drive

Well, actually you won’t be adding a password to the Hidden disk but to the Software.
Step-1: Click on Create/Update Password

And, on the next screen add your password and recovery email. The email ID will be used to send you your password in case you forget it.

Step-2: Accessing Software with the New Password.
You can now test out if it works. Disable the disk drive and close the software. Next time when you open it, it should ask you for the password.

So you’ve now password protected your files and folders and also made them invisible.

DuckDuckGo is a fantastic search engine if you’re fed up with the spying eyes of Google and other search providers. The service vows to never collect information about you and certainly never sell your searches to advertisers.

While that’s enticing in itself, there are features within DuckDuckGo you can take advantage of to enhance your privacy and security even more. The search engine is highly customizable, so that puts the control in good hands: your own. Make the most of DuckDuckGo with these useful tips to boost your privacy online and intensify your security.

1. Turn on WOT Icons

Enabling WOT icons in your search results means you’ll be able to stay away from potentially dangerous websites. WOT stands for Web of Trust, which is a service that analyzes the possible security threats from each website. A green circle means it’s in the clear (safe), yellow means take caution before visiting the website and red means avoid at all cost.

Since DuckDuckGo has this functionality built in, you can turn this on from the Advanced Settings. Click the Menu icon at the top right of the DuckDuckGo homepage and choose Advanced Settings. Click the Appearance tab, then scroll all the way down to find the WOT Icons option. Click Off to then turn it on and be sure to click Save and Exit to apply the changes.



Tip: All tips in this article will require you to first click the Menu icon and choose Advanced Settings so keep that in mind for later.

2. Ditch Google Maps

If you’re particularly anti-Google and don’t want any aspect of your online life tracked, then you probably don’t want DuckDuckGo using Google Maps to find you directions. Depending on your current settings, however, this might be the case.

To ensure that DuckDuckGo uses a different provider for directions, head into your DuckDuckGo Advanced Settings to pick something different. Under the General tab, scroll to find Directions Source.

Then pick your preference: either Bing Maps, Google Maps, HERE Maps or OpenStreetMap. Apple Maps is also available if you’re using a Mac.

3. Prevent Websites from Knowing How You Got There

DuckDuckGo has a nifty little feature called Redirect. With Redirect enabled, websites won’t be able to track which search term you used to land on the page. This is because when you click a link, DuckDuckGo temporarily redirects to a subdomain before bringing you to the website. (You won’t even notice.)

Note: While this prevents the websites from gathering information about your search, it can still gather your information just from the browser itself. Check out our guides for enabling Do Not Track in Google Chrome and Internet Explorer to stop this snooping activity as well.
Head to the Advanced Settings on DuckDuckGo, click the Privacy tab then click to ensure that Redirect is on to enable this feature. Click Save and Exit to apply.

4. Anonymous Cloud Save

Since DuckDuckGo doesn’t collect information about you, that means it can’t always recognize that it’s you performing your search. However, if you’re one to tweak with settings (like the ones above) or the theme, you might want to keep these settings in sync across multiple devices. That way you don’t have to go back and make the changes every time.

DuckDuckGo’s Cloud Save feature is completely anonymous, so it still won’t collect information about you. When you have all your settings lined up that you want to sync, just click Save Settings under Cloud Save in the Advanced Settings. This will prompt you to Enter a pass phrase that you’ll need to remember for the future to restore your data later. Click Save and you’re all set.

Now, when you want to restore your DuckDuckGo preferences, you can do so in the same spot: click Load Settings under Advanced Settings and enter in that pass phrase.

Maybe you’re the guy who fixes computers or a generous friend wanting to help his less geeky friends. You must be using a USB Flash drive with some most important rescue software. And, one of them must be an antivirus software. It’s one of the most important software you need to have on your external drive. Well, if you don’t have one then here I’d like to show you some of the most used and free portable antivirus software that you can add to your portable software repository.

Let’s dig in.

1. ClamWin

ClamWin is one the most popular portable antivirus software. You can quickly plug in your flash drive and scan for viruses. You get to select which drive or which folder you’d like to scan. There is no limitation with scanning. The real-time scanner is not available. Also, scheduled scan is disabled because that’s not useful in a portable environment.
You can filter out specific extensions from scans and also limit your scan to a given number of files. Also, you can send yourself email alerts if any virus is detected. Most important is that the virus definition database is regularly updated.

2. Spybot – Search & Destroy

Spyware is one of those things that sometimes antivirus software can’t track down. So an antispyware is a must in your flash drive. Spybot – Search and Destroy is one of those most used portable antispyware available on the internet. You can perform a system scan or a particular file scan. Spyware gets quarantined and there after you get the statistics of the scan.

3. Kaspersky TDSSCleaner

Rootkits are one of the major problems in a computing system. Rootkits hide the existence of malware and antivirus software can’t scan them. In such case, an anti-rootkit software is also necessary. Kaspersky TDSSKiller provides the security and prevents the rootkit from exploiting the system. It can remove some of the common and known rootkits that might have affected your system.
You just have to start the scan and it will generate the report. You can change the parameters of scan where you can filter out system drivers and system memory from the scan. Also, you get additional options to check the digital signature of each software.

4. HijackThis

HijackThis finds out if any malware has made any changes in the Registry or in the system settings. It creates a log file and displays which files have been modified. You can then further reset the values that were changed. Along with the software, you get a bunch of tool including Uninstall Manager, Host file manager and Process manager.

5. FileAssassin

You might have come across warning like ‘Access is denied’ or ‘Cannot delete this file’ while performing deletion of files. This occurs when a malware has affected that file and it won’t let you delete it. In this case, FileAssassin can be your rescue. It will not just delete the file but also terminate the processes that were affected by it. You just have to select the file and hit Execute.
If you want to delete the file from the software itself then you’ll have to select the option for it. Otherwise, it will just unlock the file for you to manually delete it.

Did We Miss Any?

These were some of the popular portable antivirus software of each and every group. Right from rootkits to malware that won’t let you delete files. If you think I missed an antivirus that is worthy of this list then do let us know in the comments.

Apple's computers and mobile devices could be targeted more heavily by hackers in 2016, experts predict

According to security firm Symantec, the amount of malware aimed at Apple's mobile operating system (iOS) has more than doubled this year, while threats to Mac computers also rose.
Security firm FireEye also expects 2016 to be a bumper year for Apple malware.
Systems such as Apple Pay could be targeted, it predicts.
Apple is an obvious target for cybercriminals because its products are so popular, said Dick O'Brien, a researcher at Symantec.
While the total number of threats targeting Apple devices remains low compared with Windows and Android, Symantec is seeing the range of threats multiply.
Last year, it was seeing a monthly average of between 10,000 and 70,000 Mac computers infected with malware.
"This is far fewer than Windows desktops and we don't want to scaremonger. Apple remains a relatively safe platform but Apple users can no longer be complacent about security, as the number of infections and new threats rise," said Mr O'Brien.
The number of unique OS X computers infected with malware in the first nine months of 2015 was seven times higher than in all of 2014, its research found.
A significant amount of this spike is accounted for by so-called greyware - applications that may not have malware attached but can still be annoying to users, by serving up unwanted ads or tracking their web-browsing habits.
Symantec also found seven new threats aimed at Apple's mobile iOS platform, with jailbroken devices - those that have been unlocked - being particularly vulnerable.
And hackers are also increasingly targeting corporations, where Mac use is now more prevalent.
A corporate espionage group known as Butterfly which attacked multi-billion dollar companies in 2015 developed malware tools that attacked both Windows and Apple computers.

Walled garden

Traditionally iOS has been seen as a more secure platform than Android because of the more closed community that Apple runs for its apps but that is changing, according to FireEye.
While it found that the vast majority - 96% - of mobile malware is targeted at Android devices, iOS is no longer immune.
According to Bryce Boland, chief technology officer at FireEye, attackers are increasingly "finding ways into Apple's walled garden, and that will ramp up next year".
FireEye recently discovered that XcodeGhost, iOS malware that Apple acted quickly to remove from its app store, had found its way into the networks of 210 US businesses.
The attack was thought to be the first large-scale attack on Apple's app store.
The introduction of new payment systems, such as Apple Pay, will add a financial incentive for hackers, making it worth their "time and effort" to develop new malware, FireEye said.
Mr O'Brien said: "We haven't yet seen any threats targeting Apple Pay but anything that involves a financial transaction will be of interest to hackers."

1. 1Password

• 2-factor authentication support.
• iOS and Android apps.
• Sync passwords over local Wi-Fi instead of using the internet.
• Save everything that’s important – passwords, documents, credit cards and more.
• Browser extensions for easily filling in passwords on desktop.

2. KeePass

3. Dashlane

Newer, Smaller Alternatives

• Padlock
• Master Password
• Password Chef
• oneID
• Splikity

What Did You Choose?

Scareware window? Use Safe Mode to Get Un-Stuck

Download Adware Medic to Remove the Infections

Prevent Future Infections with Smart Browsing

Install Blocking Software

Safe Than Sorry

Don’t Panic

In our investigation, we have found no evidence that encrypted user vault data was taken, nor that LastPass user accounts were accessed.

The investigation has shown, however, that LastPass account email addresses, password reminders, server per user salts, and authentication hashes were compromised.

Prevention is Always Better Than Cure

Change the Master Password

2-Factor Authentication and Other Security Options