Swiss Army Knife for Security Enthusiasts

Imagine a single device that combines the functionality of multiple tools into a sleek, pocket-sized package. The Flipper Zero is precisely that – a Swiss Army knife for security professionals. Equipped with a 1.54-inch touch screen and a built-in keyboard, it opens up a world of possibilities for interaction and manipulation of various devices and systems.

RFID and NFC Emulation Mastery

One standout feature of the Flipper Zero is its ability to emulate a wide array of RFID and NFC cards. Whether you need to clone access cards, key fobs, or other contactless devices, the Flipper Zero has got you covered. This feature not only simplifies testing and experimentation but also provides an invaluable learning experience for those delving into the world of security research.

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Capabilities

Staying ahead in the technological landscape requires the ability to interact with diverse communication protocols. The Flipper Zero goes beyond by supporting Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) communication. This opens up new avenues for users to interact with and manipulate a variety of Bluetooth-enabled devices, showcasing its versatility and adaptability.

Infrared Capabilities

Adding another layer to its versatility, the Flipper Zero features an infrared transmitter and receiver. This capability is particularly useful for tasks involving the analysis and control of infrared signals. Whether you’re exploring the security implications of infrared communication or simply want to broaden your hacking horizons, the Flipper Zero has the tools you need.

Open-Source Freedom

The Flipper Zero embraces the spirit of collaboration and continuous improvement through its open-source nature. This means that users can tailor and customize its functionality to suit their unique needs. The community-driven approach to security research is fostered, creating an environment where knowledge is shared and innovation thrives.

Educational Empowerment

More than just a tool, the Flipper Zero is a gateway to education in ethical hacking and cybersecurity. Its user-friendly interface and extensive documentation make it accessible for enthusiasts of all levels, from beginners to seasoned professionals. Learning becomes an interactive and engaging experience, demystifying complex security concepts and paving the way for skill development.

Portability and Convenience

The Flipper Zero’s compact size and portability make it an indispensable companion for security professionals on the move. No longer confined to a static workstation, you can carry this powerful device wherever your curiosity and skills take you. Stay ready to tackle security challenges anytime, anywhere.

Community and Support

Owning a Flipper Zero means becoming part of a vibrant and supportive community. Engage with like-minded individuals, share experiences, and stay updated on the latest developments in the world of ethical hacking. The wealth of knowledge and camaraderie within the Flipper Zero community enhances the overall ownership experience.

Our conclusion

In conclusion, the Flipper Zero is not just a tool; it’s a key to unlocking the vast potential within the realms of ethical hacking and cybersecurity. With its myriad advantages, from RFID emulation to BLE capabilities and beyond, the Flipper Zero stands as a beacon of innovation and education. Embrace the power, convenience, and community that come with owning a Flipper Zero – the gateway to a more secure and informed future.

Don’t just observe the evolution of cybersecurity; be at the forefront of it with your very own Flipper Zero. Take the plunge and open the door to a world of possibilities today.

The post Unlocking Possibilities: The Irresistible Advantages of Owning a Flipper Zero appeared first on SafeWebGuard.

Inaccessible via search engines

The deep web is not accessible via search engines like Google, Bing or DuckDuckGo. Why? Simply because the pages of this unknown part of the internet are not indexed by the engine or stored in their databases. As part of the ‘regular’ internet, it is estimated to be approximately 90 to 95% of the (known) world-wide web.

Gaining access: easier than you think!

This hidden part of the internet might be big, but it is also easily accessible. How? Not that complicated as you think.

To understand what the deep web is, you must know that it is defined as that part of the (regular) internet that is not indexed by search engines. It’s a well-known part of the net you use a lot: everything which requires a password or access code to read, is part of this hidden web. Not that strange if you remember not everything must be shared with the world…

Some examples? Easy! It is home to

• the logged-on part of your banking software,
• your private photos stored on your iCloud or Google Drive,
• the administration interface of your own website,
• your company’s intranet,
• your OneDrive or private DropBox-account
• your “friends-only” Facebook page or private Instagram
• …

All of these require some sort of authorisation to view the stored information. Most of the time you do not need any special browser or software. That are the basic differences between this deep web versus the dark web.

Safely using the deep web

Lots of things you hold dear like your bank transactions and sensitive documents are stored on this part of the internet. When accessing the web  use a decent web browser. Also, it is a good idea to protect yourself from malware and viruses. Optionally, when on holiday in countries ‘with a reputation’, you might want to consider using a VPN to access the deep web safely.

The post What is the deep web? appeared first on SafeWebGuard.

Step 1: randomize your MAC address when connecting to Wi-Fi

Many devices like iPhones offer you the option as a simple toggle to connect to a Wi-Fi with a (fake, private) MAC adress in stead of exposing your real MAC address. So, with this method your device cannot be tracked when connecting to different Wi-Fi’s with different IPs. One small step for you, one big step for privacy.

On Android and iOS the procedure is similar:

• go to your standard settings-app
• go to network or Wi-Fi settings
• open the details of the Wi-Fi by link or (i)-icon
• sometimes you need to click “advanced” and/or “privacy”
• Enable “randomized MAC” or “Private Address“

How to switch on private Wi-Fi (MAC) addresses for iPhone (Apple)

Step 2: use a VPN: the best answer on the question “How to hide my IP?”

With a Virtual Private Network you can ‘cloak’ your IP. Thanks to a VPN-service your IP can be anywhere in the world. When you use a VPN, your internet traffic is routed through a server located in a different country, and your IP address is masked by the server’s IP address. Easy peasy: activate the VPN, hide my IP, nothing to see!

P.S. Beware: only use Wi-Fi hotspots you trust. Do not use public Wi-Fi. You do not know who is listening in…

The post How to hide my IP address? appeared first on SafeWebGuard.

Your browser, step one towards a safer surfing experience

You do not want to be on the receiving end of a phishing attempt. Also, tracking en leaking private information are things to be avoided.

A safe browser blocks ads and cookies, avoids the tracking of your online activities. It also helps to prevent your personal information from being collected and sold to third-party companies. Your online searches and transactions remain preferably private and secure.

Additionally, safe web browsers often come with built-in encryption and extra features that protect you from hackers and ensure that your data is not intercepted by unauthorized parties.

Let’s determine: what is the safest browser for daily use?

Lets make a list of criteria

Our ideal browser…

1. blocks ads natively, without extra ad-blockers as plug-ins.
2. blocks cross-site tracking: website 2 does not need to know we visited website 1 just moments ago.
3. blocks cookies: some cookies are useful, most of them are not. (We do want to store our site-preferences, but we do not want to leave unnecessary traces behind.)
4. makes sure we cannot be uniquely identified (= avoids fingerprinting)
5. protects us against malware and phishing
6. avoids bounce tracking
7. allows us to surf anonymously using the Tor-network when needed

Let’s compare browsers

In our comparison table we compared the most frequent used browsers like Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome to lesser known browsers like DuckDuckGo and Brave.

Our recommendation: the safest webbrowser is…

• From the standard well-known browsers available Safari and Firefox are by default the winners, with small preference towards Firefox.
• Including the lesser known browsers however, Brave is the best of them all. We can confidently say that Brave is the safest web browser for daily use.

Meet the winner! 

The post What is the safest browser? appeared first on SafeWebGuard.

What do you need an antivirus to do?

Actually, quite easy: be the best antivirus software around. Let’s break it down into handy items on a list.

Our shopping list for the ideal virus scanner

1. The antivirus software must be able to detect new viruses rapidly and keep us secure. Reliable and frequent updates are a must.
2. The virus scanner must help to protect our privacy: we want no malware on our computer that will expose our identity to the outside world or to hackers.
3. The application must be easy to use: no hassle, no fuzz. You do not need to have an extra degree to use or customize the scanner.
4. High speed & low system load: we do not want an application that hogs all the power of our system, while ‘simply running in the background’.
5. The solution must be cheap: we do not want to pay a huge amount of money for this (relatively simple) task. Also, if we can avoid it: no subscription-based models and no hidden fees.

The consequences of our wishlist

• The list of what we want is extensive: we want frequent updates, and an excellent protection from (un)known malware and, above all, our privacy protected. With this in mind we can forget -any- “free” (trial) versions, but the challenge stays to keep it affordable. Does quality come for an economic price?
• Big brands make “suites”, bundle everything and aren’t cheap. Remember al the bloat ware on your brand new pc you bought with all the trial software on it? Remember how slow it was until you uninstalled all that crap? Big names make big applications. We do not need all the extras, we need a simple but effective, cheap antivirus. Exit big brand names like Norton, McAfee or the Russian Kaspersky. Too slow and too big (and too expensive). A best practice anyway: if a hacker would write a new virus or malware, it would target those well-known brands first to disable their detection software…

Our recommendations

Base on our investigation, we can recommend you 2 solutions which won’t break the bank, but which will keep you safe and secure. These antivirus software packages do what they promise to do:

Antivirus #1: Panda

Panda as a trustworthy brand for 30 years has recently been making waves in the antivirus market. The first antivirus by Panda was released in 2005 and they have been improving it since. Their unique approach of cloud software helps to isolate and protect against the latest zero-day malware threats, keeping your devices secure from day 0 (and believe me, that’s better than from day 1)

• Most important features:
  • Blocks 99.9% of available malware samples (EICAR, 2020)
  • Easy interface
  • Low impact on your computer system
  • Very good speed performance on scanning while handling files
  • Some false positives while scanning
  • very basic VPN included (but not that usable)
  • Works on Windows, MacOS and Android
  • 30-day money back guarantee
• Price: between $23.99 (essential) and $166.99 (premium), depending on the active promotions. We link to the best deal for you. Panda proves you can get a lot of value for almost no money.
• Our advice: buy the essential version. More than enough, unless you are an advanced user, than consider getting the premium version

Alternative choice: antivirus #2: AVG

AVG boasts more than 200 million active users, and has also been growing in popularity on mobile devices. Like Panda, they have solutions available for home and business users.

• Most important features:
  • Blocks 99.7% of available malware samples (EICAR, 2020)
  • Good interface
  • Normal to low impact on your computer system
  • Good speed performance on scanning while handling files
  • Few false positives while detecting
  • Works on Windows, MacOS and Android
  • 30-day money back guarantee
• Price: between $69.99 (Normal) and 119.99 (Ultimate)
• Our advice: buy the regular version if you need protection for 1 PC only. Advanced users might want to opt for the Ultimate version on superior systems

The post Compare antivirus software – editor’s pick for 2023 appeared first on SafeWebGuard.

When surfing online you do not want to think about every click. Why not rely on a suite of tools, including a decent browser that takes away a lot of hassle.

Meet Brave: privacy, speed, Tor and protection

Privacy is key

Brave is a privacy-focused web browser that is gaining popularity due to its exceptional security features. Unlike other browsers, it blocks trackers and ads by default, which significantly improves online privacy.

Some useful features you certainly need to know about are not only the advanced ad blocking, but also how it prevents cross-site tracking out of the box. Do know that sites nowadays are devious. Cookies are not the only tracking methods available, but also cookie-less trackers like ‘fingerprinting’. Brave knows all the tricks in the book.

Page speed and speed for the user: you.

Moreover, Brave’s speed is unmatched. It uses a compression algorithm that reduces page load times, making it faster than traditional browsers, while blocking all those nasty extras. This increased speed helps to save data and battery life, making it (also) an ideal choice for mobile users.

The browser has an excellent user interface that is clean and easy to navigate. It supports multiple tabs, bookmarks, and extensions. This way it becomes a well-rounded browser that can meet all of your online needs. Even getting started is easy, with its 60 second import function.

Tor: fully integrated.

Another advantage of Brave is its Tor integration, which enables users to access the web in a secure and private manner. This feature makes it an ideal browser for those who value their online privacy and security.

While browsing the Tor-network you can count on Brave’s malware and phishing protection. Another way this super-app of a browser keeps you safe. This browser also sports its own basic VPN if you want to. Do know that there are better VPN solutions on the market today if VPNs are concerned.

Extra features

Also, Brave is packed with extra features: a fully independent search, free video calls, offline playlists, customizable news feeds, while respecting your privacy.

Our recommendation

In conclusion, Brave is the best internet browser for those who are looking for a fast, secure, and private browsing experience. With its built-in ad blocker, token-based rewards program, and Tor integration, Brave is a well-rounded browser that sets the bar for online privacy and security. So, switch to Brave today and experience the best of the internet, securely.

The post Brave: the safest web browser for daily use appeared first on SafeWebGuard.

Imagine you were on holiday, looking at that one great series as a Netflix subscriber, got to the last season and had to take your flight. When arriving home you notice you do not have access to that show anymore. “How does it end???” 

Or how to check up on your favorite show at home when on holiday and not able to access it?

Or why even settle for a limited catalogue when Netflix happily takes your monthly fee time and again for a inferior service as an inhabitant of any other country? Let’s change Netflix region and solve your problem, so you can access for example the larger American or British version of the streaming service.

Step 1: get yourself a decent VPN

Many Virtual Private Network services (VPN) promise you to deblock Netflix content, but they fail miserably. Some of them are really expensive for the service they do not provide and free VPNs lack the promised security, the needed speed and data throughput to achieve this goal. Also, a lot of VPNs are ‘capped’: you are only allowed a maximum number of gigabytes a month, what makes video streaming virtually impossible.

Also, Netflix as a company is always improving its proxy-detecting capabilities, so better go with a service you can trust and safeguards your personal data and protects your privacy.

A good VPN does not need to be expensive. We tested a lot of them and found 2 low-cost VPNs delivering on their promise. We recommend one, feel free to compare to check out the other one.

Discover the best & cheapest VPN

Step 2: get your streaming going in 1,2, 3

1. Install your VPN as described.
2. Log out of your Netflix account.
3. Clean your cookies and cache if needed. Do this regularly to protect your privacy. As an alternative you can enable the privacy mode on your favorite browser or even better, use a specific dedicated browser when doing this.
4. Select the (virtual) country to watch Netflix in. Connect to a server in that country.
5. Log in to your Netflix account
6. Enjoy the (better, richer, different) Netflix content of the country you selected.

The post How to change Netflix region appeared first on SafeWebGuard.

The Internet: the Surface Web

When most people talk about “The Internet”, they actually mean the regular collection of publicly available websites as indexed by search engines like Google or Bing. Those are also the websites you can surf to using your favorite browser like Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Edge. This part of the World Wide Web is called “the Surface Web”. All of the information on these sites is freely available.

In reality, the Surface Web is about 5% of the Internet.

The Internet part deux: the Deep Web

No, the Deep Web isn’t anything strange. You might actually be more on it than you realize: “the Deep Web” is the 2nd part of the Internet where information requires a password or login to access. This information is

So, whenever you visit the information on the private portal of your organization, or read the newspaper as a subscriber, or surf on private profiles on Facebook, you are using the Deep Web.

Even secure services like Messenger, Whatsapp, Twitter, Paypal, DropBox or the administration side of your personal website are part of this Deep Web. Also banking transactions and confidential government information are part of this side of the WWW. Thus it will not surprise you that the Deep Web is almost 95% of the Internet.

The undiscovered country: the Dark Web

So, what is it?

The Dark Web is the collection of websites not connected to the regular World Wide Web. It is not indexed by search engines like Google and Bing, and are not accessible by regular Internet browsers (like Chrome, Firefox or Safari).

How do I surf on the Dark Web?

You need a TOR-browser to access these special websites. As a special part of the Deep Web, it is decentralized, a bit like the blockchain infrastructure we know from cryptocurrency like Bitcoin.

The Dark Web does not operate from one specific place and is hard to take down or regulate. it does not work with the known structure of domains ending on .com, .net or .org. However, it operates in a similar way with (almost unreadable) domains ending on ‘.onion’.

Is it dangerous to access the Dark Web?

Not everything on the Dark Web is illegal as rumors will make you believe. This means that you can surf safely on the Dark Web, if you take the necessary precautions. These precautions are necessary:(as mentioned) this hidden part of the Internet infrastructure is not regulated.

The post What is the dark web? appeared first on SafeWebGuard.

So, what is a VPN?

First of all, you guessed correctly: VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. However, it has in reality nothing to do with “Virtual” or “Network”, but does ensure your privacy on the internet.

Imagine yourself surfing on the Internet. Your smartphone or computer constantly sends information to other places on the web, like a regular website for example. Your connection to and from that website you are visiting is somewhat secure (that’s what the ‘s’ in https stands for), but anyone with bad intentions, including the government, can see what it is your doing with minimal effort.

Now imagine a concrete tube through which all your internet (encrypted) traffic goes, and nobody knows the origin of that tube, only you. That’s what a virtual private network is. Even the government can’t locate which country you’re actually surfing from.

This gives you loads of advantages:

• A VPN helps you to hide your identity;
• The data you transmit and receive is highly secured through a strong encryption
• You can enjoy the freedom of access to all the information on the Internet, even in countries that censor some websites (or on websites that have different content from country to country (for example: streaming websites))

How does a Virtual Private Network work?

Whenever you use the Internet normally, “the internet knows”:

• where you are located
• who or what your are contacting
• what you are transmitting and/or receiving

With a VPN you first contact a secure VPN-server. This service encrypts your data and routes (for you) your data on the internet. The server’s location can vary, anywhere in the world, and thus it becomes your new ‘point of origin’. In this way you also protect your location. The minimal fee you pay for the use of such a VPN is to keep those magical servers in the air, allowing you to pick and choose which one to use, based upon your needs.

What should you do?

Be smart. Get a VPN if you value your privacy and the safety of your data.

The post What is a virtual private network (VPN)? appeared first on SafeWebGuard.

The cheapest VPN isn’t necessarily the best VPN

Most of the time when you go for the cheapest Virtual Private Network solution, you do not get the best service. However, we from SafeDarkWeb tried compared a lot of VPNs for you to find one that really delivers, even for an affordable VPN cost. We look at a lot of use cases and update this page regularly with the best bang for your buck.

Let’s compare VPNs

NordVPN

NordVPN is a Virtual Private Network provider that was started in 2012 by a group of friends. In 2019 Russia asked NordVPN to ban websites not authorized by the government, but NordVPN declined.

NordVPN also has a public bug reporting program, that gives out rewards for reporting crititical flaws in the system. They are really serious about security and privacy of their users.

They are one of the founding members of the VPN Trust Initiative, ensuring transparency, security, privacy and social responsibility.  At this moment, this friends initiative is worth approx. 1.6 billion USD.

VPN cost: available from 2.99 USD a month

SurfShark

SurfShark is a Virtual Private Network provider that started in 2018. They were first located in the British Virgin Islands, but have ties tot the Baltic Region, more specifically to Lithuania.

In 2019 they launched Trust DNS, an app to have access to websites in countries that are highly restrictive. In 2020 they got the seal of approval of AV-Test, an independent IT Security firm.

Mid-2021 they got Nord Security as parent company, the company also behind NordVPN, while still staying in business independently. 

VPN cost: available from 2.05 USD a month

Comparison table: NordVPN vs. SurfShark

Prices might vary a bit based upon your location. 

Expert recommendation: the best VPN for the lowest VPN price

Both of these top-competitors have the same great encryption, safety protocols and speed.  They also both respect your privacy at the fullest. Even the installation of the VPN is a breeze for both VPNs and remarkably similar. They are also available on all major platforms. (Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android, Linux,…)

When focussing on the VPN price the winner is SurfShark as cheapest VPN, if you plan on using the VPN for a few years. The VPN cost for 1 month only however, puts NordVPN on the first place.

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