13.10.2023

Safe browsing in the Internet. New tools.

In today's Internet, there is a constant struggle between the desire of so many to know everything about us and our desire to maintain our privacy. Along with simple cybersecurity rules, cyber hygiene:

- Not to scatter your personal data in various resources,
- Use secure e-mail services
- Create complex passwords
- Purchase domains in reputable zones, such as .am .հայ, com, net, org
- Buy a domain from a reliable registrar domain-registration
- Use of the services of a reliable hosting provider hosting-packages
- Create your website using the constructor-packages builder
- Do not forget about the need to purchase an SSL certificate ssl-packages

You can use new tools, one of which we will consider below.

You can use new tools, one of which we will consider below. VPN – virtual private network – allows you to remain anonymous when visiting various sites; the site administration can only know the address of the VPN server from which you visited this site. But your ISP can figure out which resource you're connected to. This is because, along with the request to the VPN server, you also provide the SNI (Server Name Indication). This parameter is necessary for those cases when the requested site is located on a server with one IP address, on which, in addition to the requested site, there are many other sites from different domains - .am, .com, .net, .հայ and others. This is a common practice today. This way, your provider will be aware of all your interests.

Today, it is already possible to hide SNI sing Encrypted Client Hello technology. However, this requires that the remote server where the site you are interested in is located supports ECH. There is no doubt that site owners will strive to support ECH, which allows these sites to remain invisible to third parties as well. Today, CloudFlare https://www.cloudflare.com/ supports ECH for all sites that use CloudFlare protection, which is millions and millions of sites.

How do I activate this feature in your browser?

First, you need to activate DNS over Https or DOH. This is necessary that your request to obtain the IP address of the site has been encrypted. Each operating system has its own procedure, for Windows 11 it is quite simple: https://learn.microsoft.com/ru-ru/windows-server/networking/dns/doh-client-support. After that, your requests will be encrypted. To hide SNI, you need to enable this feature in your browser, for Chrome this can be done by typing chrome://flags/#encrypted-client-hello in the search box and then activating this function. Instructions for other operating systems and browsers can be easily found by asking Google.

search box and then activating this function. Instructions for other operating systems and browsers can be easily found by asking Google. However, it is always necessary to take into account that the very fact that you are using technology to increase your privacy can already alert those who would like to watch you. This also applies to the fact of using a VPN. Do not forget that our intermediary, the VPN server, stores the history of its use. Under certain circumstances, this history may become available to third parties. ECH technology, along with increasing your privacy, creates conditions for concealment and source of information, which infringers of intellectual property rights will not fail to take advantage of. Technology continues to evolve, stay up to date with new opportunities and to not forget to visit www.internet.am.