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Ask Slashdot: Most Secure Browser In an Age of Surveillance?
An anonymous reader writes "With the discovery that the NSA may be gathering extensive amounts of data, and the evidence suggesting makers of some of the most popular browsers may be in on the action, I am more than a little wary of which web browser to use. Thus, I pose a question to the community: is there a 'most secure' browser in terms of avoiding personal data collection? Assuming we all know by know how to 'safely' browse the internet (don't click on that ad offering to free your computer of infections) what can the lay person do have a modicum of protection, or at least peace of mind?"
I'll be uncharacteristically calm here, and ask that someone provide this, "evidence suggesting makers of some of the most popular browsers may be in on the action."
And in any case, let's be realistic. The NSA doesn't really need help from your browser if they're watching all your traffic. :p
Yes, but how do you know that MS hasn't inserted a nice big back-door for the spooks?
From a "security" perspective, you'll have to go with an open-source browser -- but even that's not a guarantee.
To be sure, you'll have to compile it yourself from a set of source files that you have gone through with a fine-toothed comb, checking each line for any chance of hidden functionality.
Oh, come to think of it -- you'll also have to assemble all the libraries from similarly vetted sources -- oh, and that means you'll need to use a compiler you've built from vetted sources -- but hey, that would involve using another compiler that could already be compromised so...
You'll have to hand-code (from source to binary) every bite of the compiler you use and then type it in through a BIOS that you've also hand coded -- entering the BIOS code through a set of toggle switches on the front panel.
Bottom line -- you don't *know* for sure that *any* browser is going to be secure.
Security should begin at the hardware level, the kernel should be inaccessible from a hardware perspective. The next best thing is a complete secure OS, so your options are limited to something like TAILS.
https://tails.boum.org/
I wouldn't say its 100% secure, its certainly not, but it does raise the bar a little and for them to use anything against you, they would need to admit to having the ability to break encryption. That's not going to happen. That said, always be careful as it will be used in other ways should it be required.
Other than that, there is no such thing as "safe".
Face it, who's going to bother writing anything to exploit flaws in lynx? It just isn't worth it.
Well he is technically correct. IE is as of version 10 actually a good browser. The only problem is that it's only available on Windows and the source code is not available under an open source license. If both of these were false I then I wouldn't mind running it.
... the snooping is done on your ISP's backbone, and the browser you use makes little difference. Government level snooping is a whole different kettle of fish to bad companies stealing info from you via tracking cookies.
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
Considering that the internet transmits your public IP address in every header you send across the internet and also contains the IP address of the destination, there is no way for you to hide what sites you visit without going through a proxy server. As far as I know, Header information in every packet is plain text and there is no way to encrypt that because if it was encrypted then no router would be able to forward your packets onto the next step in its final destination. So your browser, e-mail program, or anything else that sends and receives data through the internet is going to leave a trail for the government to potentially record. It may not lead back to you specifically, but it will lead to someone in your household or in your neighborhood that is using your wi-fi for internet access, provided you haven't locked down your wi-fi. If you have locked down your wi-fi then the government can claim it was only you, someone in your household or someone you have given your wi-fi password to, which significantly lowers their potential suspects or targets.
If you send everything you do through a proxy server with a vpn connection to the proxy, then that has a very good chance of making you mostly anonymous. However, a warrant and the cooperation of the proxy service owner might make it possible for the government to still connect the dots back to you. Also, sending everything through a proxy server with all the non-routing information encrypted (via vpn) may actually lead to you being watched more closely then if you don't.
If what you are really after is encryption of the contents of what you see and do on the internet, your best bet is probably still a VPN through a proxy server. Especially since SSL and some of the other methods for encrypting data between two end points on the internet aren't as secure as they were once thought to be. I don't know of anyone that has come up with a replacement for SSL that has been adopted by very many content providers. And even if the web browsers may have adopted some new security encryption scheme, it won't be effective until most if not all content providers also adopt and implement it.
None of the browsers will protect you from surveillance.
Work on the basis that your ISP is compromised and that the web services you use have shared their databases with Government agencies. When you consider this, changing your browser is going to have little to no impact.
I think the only way you can really be secure from surveillance is to use the tor browser and only use web services which can't trace you. So, no Google, Apple, social networking or any of the cool stuff we take for granted these days.
Backup not found: (A)bort (R)etry (P)anic
I always love how people simultaneously believe that the NSA is so technically brilliant that it can collect and analyze every message sent by every random person on earth, but also so stupid that they name their secret backdoor key _NSAKEY.
Life needs more saving throws.
Some of those AV companies are Chinese.
Care to list out the name of the AV companies which are owned and/or operated by the CHINESE ??
I am interested in factual information, not fear mongering !!
The MAPP program is public. You can find the list of MAPP partners at Microsoft Security Response Center
Huawei is there, as well as several Beijing companies.
My emphasis on Chinese was tongue-in-cheek. They get a few days advantage to develop scanning signatures. Yes, some of them may go rogue or (more likely) some of the employees. I would think that is why they only get a few days head start and not several months.
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