A new, trackless search engine has recently arrived on the block -er pond.

The new critter is called duckduckgo.

Yes, really.  Duckduckgo.com.  Wierd, funny, (is this a joke, huh?)
And somewhat memorable, and evidently no joke.

She, or he (gender of duck yet to be determined) purports to respect your privacy by not remembering everything you do, as opposed to those neighborhood busybodies, Bing and Google, who love to gossip by passing on your search terms to sites that you visit.

Not only does she promise to not save your search history, she promises to not even save your IP address, nor pass on your search terms (in most circumstances), nor assign a ‘unique identifier’.

WHAT? A search engine that isn’t out to make money off your lack of direction in life, your need for speed, your thirst for knowledge, your seeking of truth, or at least the best price on the latest gizwangbam gadget?

And not only that, she will also encrypt your search by merely adding an “s” onto http. Whoa, doggies!  Er, Whoa duckies!

How about that, folks?

Give ‘er a spin!

https://duckduckgo.com

While you are at it, check out her privacy page for an enlightening discussion about search engine privacy, or rather, the lack of it.

http://duckduckgo.com/privacy.html

How to craft a well protected browser:

Practically  speaking, anonymity is very difficult to achieve on the web, but with some small effort, you can increase your privacy significantly.

Here is the recipe:

• the latest version of the Firefox browser (if you can keep up with their fast-track version cycle!)
• Always make sure that Adobe Flash is updated to the latest version.
• Firefox plugins

1. Better Privacy
2. Ghostery
3. NoScript
4. Https-Everywhere
5. Adblock Plus

Then set the browser options to:

1. Set the cashe to a relative small size, say 10 MB.
2. Delete cashe on exit (temporary files)
3. Delete history on exit.
4. Delete cookies on exit. Note: also set Better Privacy to delete ‘super cookies’ (flash cookies) on exit.
5. Select the “do not track” option (under the privacy tab)
6. Use a password manager such as RoboForm

Don’t forget!  You are still not private or anonymous. So be nice.

Remember “Practice Safe Computing”

Recently, Startpage.com made encrypted search the default.  They now use SSL for all searches.  Previously it was optional.  This may be of interest to anyone who doesn’t care for having extensive online search profiles stored by Google or Bing or other search engines.  We recommend it.

Opera?  No

Chrome? No

Firefox? No

Safari?  No

Internet Explorer 9?  Yes

As per the following source article, Internet Explorer is by far the best browser at keeping Malware off our computer. (But you do need to listen to it)

In this competition, IE9 was effective at preventing 92% of malware infections.  IE8 blocked 90%.

The nearest competitor only blocked 13%.

Note: SmartScreen Filter must be ON.

(this is about stock, off-the-shelf browsers, not security enhanced browsers such as Dragon, or add-ons and security and privacy plugins, etc.)

Source

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has produced a small add-on for Firefox, called “HTTPS Everywhere BETA” that causes Firefox to favor the SSL encrypted version (HTTPS) of a number of popular web sites.   We have tested it and found it works very well for the limited number of sites it supports. But then again, not many sites give you the option of connecting via SSL.

Source:  https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere

This video may give you a good idea as to why updating is important.

It is incredibly important to keep *all* the software on your computer updated on a very regular basis.  Do not leave this to chance.  Do not rely on programs to update themselves. 

Do use tools like Secunia PSI.  Secunia PSI can help you keep a lot of these programs up to date.  We highly recommend this tool, found at: http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/

 Do insure that you have the latest anti-virus software and  keep it updated with current definitions.

There is a list of software that *must* be updated on a regular basis (if installed):

• Sun Java Runtime
• Adobe Flash
• Adobe Reader
• Your computers operating system, be it XP, Vista, MAC OS, Linux or whatever.
• Your browser, be it IE, Firefox, Opera or whatever
• QuickTime
• Spybot Search and Destroy Immunization definitions
• Spyware Blaster
• Your antivirus software
• Your firewall softwares
• Your Security suite, it that is what you use
• CCleaner or whatever temp file and registry cleaner you may use
• Any other anti-spyware software you may use
• WordPress, or any server based blogging  or similar tools you may use

Everybody who uses the Internet uses  DNS servers.  DNS servers translate the familiar web site names to the numerical code of IP addresses. 

Think of DNS as the phone book of the Internet.  With a phone book, you look up a name and it gives yo a number.  Well, this is what the DNS system does for the Internet.  Only, it automatically looks up the numerical address for you, and tells your browser where to find that web site that you are after.

The DNS server address is actually entered in Network (TCP/IP Protocol) properties.  Most people use the address provided by their Internet Service Provider.  And most of the time these properties are set to ‘Obtain DNS server address automatically’.

Moat uses don’t realize that you are not required to use the DNS servers that your ISP provides.  You can enter any DNS server you choose.  But finding alternate servers is a problem.   We recommend that you consider using Open DNS.  This company is independent of any specific ISP and provided enhanced DNS services, some of which you may find valuable, such as correcting common misspellings.

 For more information and specific instructions, visit http://opendns.com

We have been testing the Comodo Firewall, and we have found it to be a top quality product. We like the ergonomics and look and feel, the intelligent pop-ups, and the easily customizable options, the automatic setup and best of all, it’s reputation for toughness with the bad guys.

It is our new favorite firewall. We previously recommended the Zone Alarm free edition, but it has fallen further and further in the rankings as Check Point apparently seeks to drive customers to the more profitable products. Zone Alarm Pro still stands near the head of the line. But the free edition is near the bottom of the ratings.

Install the COMODO firewall, Scan for Known Applications and set the security level for Low and you will minimize the pop-ups and be well protected.

Courtesy of Gibson Research, you can have your own, personal, unique, custom generated, random password generated for you, simply by visiting this page:

https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm

Please note that these are loooong passwords, 63 and 64 characters in length. But you can cut and paste to pare them down.

These passwords are useful in a number of applications including securing wired and wireless networks and Virtual Private Networks (VPN).

These passwords are about as perfect as you can get.