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Karma's anonymizing LTE hotspot arrives January 15th
Want to keep your internet activity under wraps regardless of what device you're using or where you are? You won't have too much longer to wait. Karma has revealed that its anonymizing Karma Black LTE hotspot will ship on January 15th, with pre-orders open now. Spend $149 ($249 after January 15th), plus $20 per month for security services, and you'll get a portable router that encrypts all your internet traffic while masking your location and other potentially identifying data markers. You can use it to boost the privacy of your home connection, too, and there's the promise of feature expansions that include Tor anonymity network services, antivirus safeguards, ad blocking and parental controls.
Senators want to know if Apple fought back on China's VPN ban
Apple CEO Tim Cook wasn't pleased about pulling VPN software from the company's App Store in China, but this July, it happened anyway. As a result, many users who once counted on such software to dodge the country's Great Firewall were left to their own devices (and we've explored the situation at length here). Now, senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) have called on Cook in a letter to explain in detail how that process went down, out of concern that Apple is "enabling the Chinese government's censorship and surveillance of the internet."
Amazon reminds cloud customers in China to avoid VPNs
Apple isn't the only company that's feeling the pressure from the Chinese government in its quest to limit internet access even further. According to The Wall Street Journal, Amazon also had to tell its cloud-computing customers in China to delete their VPNs and other tools that can be used to bypass the country's infamous firewall. Beijing Sinnet Technology, the tech giant's local partner responsible for sending out the message to customers, cited requests from China's public security ministry and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for the demands it made.
Karma's new hotspot gives users a cloak of invisibility
Personal hotspot hardware provider Karma has announced a new security-focused product, Karma Black. A specialized version of the company's KarmaGO hotspot device, Karma Black will provide anonymous browsing (Tor), an integrated Virtual Private Network (VPN), blacklisting and ad-blocking. KarmaGO allows users to establish a WiFi connection through 4G via a small portable device, either on a pay-as-you-go basis or through a monthly data plan -- it's particularly popular with business travellers. Karma Black will operate in the same way, but will act as an invisibility cloak for users, encrypting web activity and hiding physical location. It'll also provide beefier protection against intrusive advertising and viruses.
What you need to know about Apple, VPNs and China
On July 29th, Apple began notifying VPN companies that their apps would shortly be pulled from the App Store in China. In a statement, ExpressVPN said that the move was "surprising and unfortunate" and that it was "disappointed in this development." But is this a case of Apple essentially capitulating in a privacy and censorship fight with the Chinese government?
Russian censorship law bans proxies and VPNs
It's going to be much harder to view the full web in Russia before the year is out. President Putin has signed a law that, as of November 1st, bans technology which lets you access banned websites, including virtual private networks and proxies. Internet providers will have to block websites hosting these tools. The measure is ostensibly meant to curb extremist content, but that's just pretext -- this is really about preventing Russians from seeing content that might be critical of Putin, not to mention communicating in secret.
Apple pulls VPN apps following China crackdown (update: statement)
China might say it isn't cracking down on personal VPNs, but Apple would likely argue otherwise. ExpressVPN, Star VPN and other developers report that Apple has pulled their apps from the App Store in China for allegedly including "content that is illegal" in the country. Some clients are still on other platforms (including ExpressVPN, for now) while others remain, so it's not a uniform cull at this point. However, this is still a big blow to attempts to circumvent China's mounting internet censorship through encrypted communication -- not to mention companies that may have been depending on those apps for remote work connections.
Is your VPN lying to you?
It's no secret that there are oodles of shady VPN services that promise to protect your privacy as you surf the internet, but may, in fact, actually be worthless. After all, internet privacy is one part moving target and two parts shell game with your money and trust, so no one's surprised that the post-Snowden privacy panic turned into a gold rush for the unscrupulous. One method VPN providers use to bilk trusting customers is to do shady things with customer records. We've also seen them misconfigure critical security settings, de-anonymize customers and only take action when caught.
China might not block personal VPNs after all
With China making "unapproved" virtual private networks illegal at the start of the year, we previously reported that the nation planned to completely block public access to VPNs by February 1st. Now, just a few days later, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has issued a statement that appears to debunk the claims. The minister states that VPNs with "permissions" such as domestic and international companies won't be affected. The Ministry then goes onto say that "the majority of users" will also be safe, stating that it will only crack down on "unapproved" VPNs. Predictably, the statement doesn't clarify exactly how users go about getting said approval.
China orders telecoms to block personal VPNs by February
China declared that virtual private networks were illegal back at the start of the year, and now it's giving telecoms no choice but to fall in line. Bloomberg sources understand that the government has told carriers to block individual access to VPNs by February 1st. Companies can still use VPNs internally, and will reportedly be allowed to use leased lines (registered with officials, of course) to access the full internet, but everyone else appears to be out of luck.
ProtonMail makes its free VPN service available to everyone
ProtonMail, the encrypted email created by CERN and MIT scientists, has released a new product in response to the administration's roll back of Obama-era internet privacy rules. Starting today, you can try out the company's VPN service, which was in beta testing by 10,000 initial users for a year, by getting it from the official ProtonVPN website. The great thing about it is that it has a free tier that's free forever. It might not be as robust as the paid ones, but it still routes your connection through multiple encrypted tunnels in three countries.
Good luck finding a safe VPN
If you're most people, you just found out about the FCC's internet privacy rules by way of their untimely demise. Thanks to the FCC's new chief, Congress, and Donald Trump, ISPs are now free to track you like crazy and sell your data to the four directions. As a result, interest in VPNs exploded overnight.
China just made VPNs illegal
Chinese authorities block access to big-name websites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and numerous others, and to thwart these restrictions, many residents on the mainland use virtual private networks. Starting this week, that could be a crime. Use of VPNs and special cable connections in China must now be approved by the government, essentially making these services illegal in the country.
12 gifts for your NSFW neighbor
We're all adults here -- no shame if you want to get a certain someone in your life something naughty for the holidays. First, the obvious: We brought together a team of male and female editors to research the best sex toys for both men and women, because yes, we know that's where some of your minds went when we said naughty. But if a vibrator seems like a buzzkill, we also have recommendations for a vaporizer, VPN subscription and even a combination iPhone case/cigarette lighter. For our full list of recommendations in all categories, don't forget to stop by our main Holiday Gift Guide hub.
Apple loses FaceTime patent retrial, ordered to pay $302.4 million
In the continuing saga of Apple vs. VirnetX, Reuters reports that a federal jury in the Eastern District of Texas has ruled in favor of VirnetX, ordering Apple to pay $302.4 million in damages. This particular case has been going on since 2010, and in the last verdict, a jury ruled Apple owed more than $600 million to the "non-practicing entity (read: patent troll) over technology used in FaceTime. However, in August the appeals court threw that ruling out, saying jurors may have been confused by references to the first iteration of this case.
Opera's VPN-equipped browser is now available to everyone
You no longer have to grab test software to try Opera's VPN-toting web browser. The company has released the finished version of Opera 40 for desktops, which revolves around a free virtual private network (provided by SurfEasy) that offers both a more secure connection as well as access to foreign content that would otherwise be blocked. Hi, Hulu and Pandora! It can automatically choose whichever VPN server will provide the fastest connection, but you can specify one of five countries (Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Singapore and the US) if you're more concerned about visiting region-specific sites.
Opera's free unlimited VPN service is coming to Android
Opera previously launched an unlimited VPN service for iOS earlier this year as a result of its 2015 acquisition of SurfEasy, and now it's doing the same for Android users.
Here's how the NSA spied on Cisco firewalls for years
Edward Snowden leaks revealed that the NSA had the ability to spy on Cisco firewall traffic for years, but just how did the agency do it? We now have a clearer idea. An analysis of data from the Equation Group hack shows that the NSA used a specialized tool, BenignCertain, that uses an exploit in Cisco's Internet Key Exchange implementation to extract encryption keys and read otherwise secure virtual private network data. Cisco has confirmed that the attack can compromise multiple versions of its old PIX firewalls, which were last supported in 2009.
Opera's free VPN for iOS offers more control over your browsing (updated)
Opera's fondness for virtual private networks isn't limited to the desktop. The browser maker is releasing a free VPN app for iOS that should give you more control over how you surf the internet. It's helpful for usual VPN tasks like dodging corporate site blocks and regional content restrictions (shh, don't tell Netflix), but Opera sees it as particularly handy for the privacy-conscious -- it gets rid of advertisers' tracking cookies and makes you that much more anonymous. You can only pick from one of five simulated locations for the VPN (Germany, the Netherlands, Singapore, the UK and the US), but hey, it's the first free VPN app for iOS from a well-known tech company. Right now, just having that option is a big deal. Update 5/11: SurfEasy, which Opera acquired last year, says that the VPN app will "likely" include ads (albeit ones that can't identify you) in the future. That's the cost of going free, apparently. If you like the technology but don't want sales pitches, SurfEasy's paid VPN service is sticking around.
Opera is the first big web browser with a built-in VPN
If you've wanted to use a virtual private network to improve your web privacy or (let's be honest) dodge content restrictions, you've usually had to either install a third-party client or use a relatively niche browser with the feature built-in. As of today, though, you have a more mainstream option: Opera has released a developer version of its desktop web browser with native VPN support. You only have to flick a virtual switch to get a 256-bit encrypted connection that hides your connection details and prevents sites or governments from blocking content they don't want you to see.