"Cryptography for dummies": The expert advises how to protect yourself from surveillance on the Internet

Modern Internet offers the user ample opportunities, including using services such as Google, Facebook, Dropbox and others. However, they also enable the authorities to follow every inhabitant of the World Wide Web, which is eloquently talking about the recent confessions of these companies.

The conclusion of the experts is simple: if the user wants to protect himself from surveillance, he must take care of this himself, writes The New Times magazine with reference to the opinion of the director of the Creative Telematics & Trade (Prague), Alexei Terentyeva.

According to the expert, often the issuance of data on users by the competent authorities is carried out "quietly", without court. Moreover, a similar situation is characteristic not only for Russia, but also for the United States and Europe.

In the USA, control over the Internet and voice traffic was significantly strengthened by the laws adopted after the attack on September 11, 2001. They allowed special services to order the development of the Prism monitoring system, which makes it possible to receive information about users of the world's largest IT companies and online services (Microsoft, Apple, Skype, Google, Facebook and others) directly from their servers.

In Russia, Internet traffic is read "from the late 1990s, when the implementation of the system of technical means to ensure the functions of operational-search measures (SORM) began. From the point of view of the Constitution, its application, as in the United States, requires the sanction of the court, but the big brother has de facto distance access to users.

Those who strive for anonymity are the interlocutor of The New Times advises to remove ICQ and Google Talk messengers from their devices and laptops and learn how to use encrypted anonymous Tor (The Onion Router, “Onion Routizer”).

Another option is to take care of the issue of a reliable and preferably personally tuned VPN service. You can also think about your own Jabber server - a specially created technology for quick messaging and information about the presence between any two users of the network. And finally, it’s never too late to study some kind of "cryptography for dummies."