A presentation on how to protect your internet identity, become anonymous online and VPNs. What is encryption, Edward Snowden, NSA scandal, methods of protecting your online identity and statying away from the dangers of the Internet.

1. How to protect your
identity on the Internet
and VPNs
Iulia Porneală
CyberGhostVPN.com

2. Internet in numbers
• 7.1 Billion people in the world
• 2.5 Billion internet users in the world

3. Internet in numbers 2014
Source: wearesocial.net

4. Internetul in numbers 2014
• 1.1 Billion Facebook Accounts
Source: wearesocial.net

5. What does the Internet know
about you?
• Computers and all other devices save traffic information about
you
• Each servers saves a log where the following information is
recorded:
• Your IP address associated with the content you are interested
about
• Your Downloads
• Your Clicks
• Your Internet Service Provider can easily associate your IP
Address with: your name, your address, your age, your phone
number

6. Activities that contribute to
defining your online identity
• Website navigation
• Using a Search Engine
• Registering to a Social Platform
• Connecting your phone number to
your accounts
Every one of these activities is
registered in a database (or several).

7. How is your online identity
identified
• Internet users are identified by their IP address alocated by the
Internet Service Provider.
What is an IP?
• There is a communication standard called Internet Protocol / IP
• IP is a number used exclusively by all the equipment related to
information techonology (printers, routers, modems, computers)
which allows them to identify and communicate between them in a
computer network.
• IP can give all the parameters determining the location of the
internet user. From this point of view Internet access is completely
transparent and can be dangerous

8. Internet today
• Till 10 years ago the Internet was a place of diversity where
everything was tolerated.
• A place where everybody was feeling safe and communicating
in complete freedom, practicing a new type of democracy.
• Nowadays more and more organizations, entities and persons
are interested in analyzing the internet traffic of individual
users.
• Practically at this moment freedom, security and anonymity
online are only ideals hard to reach.

9. Who’s interested in your identity?
• Website owners want to know everything there is to know about your
interests to deliver you ads suited to your wants and needs. Or, bluntly
put, to be able to sell your data to a third party or entity that solicits
those.
• Store owners who practice price discrimination policies, originating
establishments or previous behavior (recurring visitors get higher prices,
as the probability to buy the products increases).
Movie industries from Hollywood to Bollywood, want to know where
and what kind of videos are you viewing.
• Governmental authorities, like secret services, want to know where you
live, if you are planning to relocate, what you do, what you think, your
political beliefs, your religious views – if you agree with them or not.
• Organized and not-so-organized criminals, are closely watching your
moves, especially the financial ones. Business owners are followed.
Industrial espionage has never been as easy as it is today.
• Companies which hire can investigate the behavior of their future
candidates and choose discriminatory according the private life
information of the applicant.

10. Comparison virtual identity
versus real-life identity
• If in real life we have organic systems that help us cope with
dangers (hormonal, lizard brain, primary instinct or whatever
you want to call it) in our virtual life this is not valid;
• When you talk to somebody privately in real life, and a 3rd
person is eavesdropping, you can notice, well online you have
no idea when that is happening

11. Facebook
• Facebook tracks activities for its users even when these are not
logged in anymore. There are transmited towards the Facebook
servers informations regarding your IP address and all websites that
have a Like or Recommend button integrated.
• The tracking is done based on cookies which remain in your browser
even after logging off Facebook. The only method to stay safe is by
periodically deleting these cookies, using different browsers or
special apps that prevent this.
• Facebook does not delete the information the users delete. Even
the ones who have deleted their accounts are still monitored.
• Both the website and mobile apps from Facebook are permanently
monitoring your location. It seems that retaining users coordinates,
will allow the company to sell publicity “calibrated” to the daily
habits of the users.

12. Online Privacy
• In current context, it is obvious to everybody that online
privacy is a simple illusion.
• You need to start from the premise that nothing we are doing
online does not belong exclusively to us, that in the moment
we share something, this thing is possible to be not only
viewed by the recipient, but by many others also.

13. Methods to stay anonymous
• If you use social networks, or other websites where your data is required, use
aliases and not your real name
• Use Security Questions instead of alternative email addreses
• Make sure that the passwords you use are secure and different for every account
• Use a disposable email address
• Avoid using Google Search (you can use DuckDuckGo as an alternative search
engine)
• Avoid using websites which request your phone number, or at least do not
provide it to them
• Do not link your accounts between them
• Check that all payment pages start with HTTPS
• If you need to make online payments, use alternative methods to credit
cards(paysafecard, Paypal)
• Regularly update your operating system and antivirus
• Use a firewall
• Restrict remote access, except for very secure sources
• Download only from trusted websites and sources
• Install a VPN

14. What is a VPN?
• A VPN or Virtual Private Network is a method used to add
security and privacy to private and public networks, like WiFi
Hotspots and the Internet.
• A virtual private network (VPN) extends a private network
across a public network, such as the Internet.
• VPN enables a computer to send and receive data across
shared or public networks as if it is directly connected to the
private network, while benefiting from the functionality,
security and management policies of the private network.
• A VPN is created by establishing a virtual point-to-point
connection through the use of dedicated connections, virtual
tunneling protocols, or traffic encryptions.

15. How does a VPN work?

16. Encryption
• In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding messages or
information in such a way that only authorized parties can read it.
• Encryption does not of itself prevent interception, but denies the
message content to the interceptor.

17. What are the advantage of
using a VPN?
• You can protect your online identity
• You can get access to content and websites that are otherwise
restricted (at the office, at school, in political context)
• You surf the Internet seen as a user of the country of the IP you are
using
• Your internet identity becomes anonymous
• You can view georestricted content (videos from Youtube,
www.cbs.com, www.hulu.com)
• Using wireless networks in public spaces without worries

18. Cybercrime
The term of cybercrime is applied in the case of 3 categories of plică în
cazul a trei categorii de criminal activities
• The first category includes traditional form of crime like fraud or forgery,
although in the case of cybercrime the context refers especially to the
crimes committed using electronic communication networks and
informational systems (electronic networks)
• Second category includes publishing of illegal content in electronic
environments (for example materials regarding child sexual abuse or
incitement to racial hatred)
• Third category includes crimes referring directly to electronic networks,
for example attacks on the informational systems, A treia categorie
include infracţiunile proprii reţelelor electronice , de exemplu, atacurile
împotriva sistemelor de informare, denial of service and piracy. These
types of attacks can target infrastructures of high importance in Europe
and can affect the rapid alert systems from several areas, with
potentially disastrous consequences for the entire society.

19. Online Censorship
• Sorry, this website is not available in your country.
• Online censorship represents a range from geo restrictions to
political censorship like the Great Firewall of China.
• Exemples:
• In Iran Facebook is forbidden
• In 2011 Egypt’s president, Mubarak, has banned Internet
• In China (500 milion Internet users) Facebook, BBC, Youtube,
Google, Twitter are banned

20. Victimes of the Internet
• 35 killed journalists
• 178 arrested journalists

21. Online identity theft
• Internetul offers criminals new ways through which these can steal
personal information and commit fraud.
• Criminals ca use ways like spreading viruses which once they reach a
comupter transmit username, passwords and personal details (like
credit card details)
• Phishing emails
• Most of the webstes store information regarding the users, beeing
exposed to such risks.

22. Edward Snowden and the
Scandal NSA - PRISM
• Snowden worked in the physical security department or technical
department for the CIA and NSA
• Until May 2013 he worked as a secret agent in the administration
and consulting system for Booz Allen Hamilton
• Through his job as a technical collaborator he had access to the top
secret information of the American espionage system, of which we
notice the ones obtained through the program of the agency NSA
PRISM surveillance and espionage of the Internet networks
• The program was making giants in the Internet domain like
Microsoft, Apple or Google deliver their data to the NSA, in the basis
of a "programatic warant " emitted by the IRS every year.

23. Thank you!
@iuliamp
Useful links
• http://en.rsf.org/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSXlKdWF5HE
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcPLdRJyFuE
• http://mashable.com/2013/03/27/tips-against-identity-theft/
How can use VPN
• http://vimeo.com/64800089

24. WORKSHOP