These services will help you stay safe online, especially if you are in a dangerous environment such as a profession. 24 Channels is launching the “Info-Mist” project that will help you ensure the safety of yourself and your family during the occupation. How to learn objective information and not become a victim of criminals. How you can independently distinguish between lies and truth, threatening and safe – we will tell you further.

What is VPN?

Now in simpler terms: You connect to a VPN server, which acts as a kind of intermediary between you and all the threats that appear on the Internet. VPN protects any information you use (send or receive) during a session. No one will be able to track your location, browsing history, time and purpose of your activity.

What does it look like in practice?

Here you are going from point A to point B and you are walking on the road, how you are dressed, how you look, etc. everyone sees it. VPN is as if this entire path is covered with an opaque dome, a black film. So it is clear that someone is walking there, but it is not clear who and where,
– explained cybersecurity expert Kostyantyn Korsun.

For example, you went to a cafe and scrolled through a news feed on the Internet. A public provider can access your information: what exactly you viewed, how much time you spent on the site, etc. Turn on the VPN – all that data, which may belong to the Internet service provider, government, hackers or corporations, becomes inaccessible to prying eyes.

Why should you install a VPN?

It’s worth starting with the prerequisites – there is an institution in Russia that monitors communications. It literally controls the information space and user actions on the Internet.

In such cases, it is not surprising that a large number of Russians use VPN services. First, it allows you to protect your data from being tracked. Secondly, it helps to find out what is really happening in the world: Ukrainian media and some Western content are blocked in Russia.

When using a VPN, your web traffic and IP address can no longer be monitored. But this only applies to reliable VPN providers; a low-quality VPN will not provide such protection. But even here there is a nuance:

“It’s not clear exactly what you were doing, but it’s clear that you were connecting at that time, sending that much data, going somewhere, and being active until 12:48. And it was home internet, so you were using internet at that time, too, at home.” – explains cybersecurity expert Kostyantyn Korsun.

Human rights activist Pavlo Lysyansky also recommends resetting the settings on your phone.

“You see, if you feel something there or your intuition suggests something, there is a button on the phone – reset to factory settings. And everything – a photo or something else, it resets everything and there is nothing left”– notes the human rights defender.

How to reset settings/screenshot from video

How to use VPN?

Go to the online market of your mobile – this app store for iPhones and game market for androids. If you are using a personal computer, go to your browser’s virtual store. Or, simply type the name of your chosen VPN into the search engine you use.

Download the VPN, sign up for the app if necessary, and start a secure network. Now you can use the internet safely. If you turn off the network or restart the device, the connection will be lost. In this case, you need to join the VPN again.

You should not use Russian Yandex, it may “merge” your search history. But even here you can “bypass” harmful rules only if you have access to Yandex.

“You must understand that this traffic will be tracked and somehow indirectly form your questions. For example, “do not download VPN”, but read an article about protection tools when using the Internet. Usually there are those in the top 5, top 10, top 20, see. So : no, you are not a Ukrainian saboteur, you are interested in protecting privacy from cybercriminals.” – cybersecurity expert Kostyantyn Korsun.

Go to YouTube; The only thing visible is that you went to YouTube. YouTube’s security system is set up for you to log in, log in, and that’s it. So you search for the channel you need, view it and when you exit, your search history can be deleted,
– noted the expert.

And one more important point: Please check whether your application is safe. In the “trusted” knowledge base they say that the service is safe if it was not created in Russia or China, and its developer is a well-known company. You can Google all of these; A simple check will tell you the most important thing: isn’t this a hostile service?

Also check if this VPN has any recorded cases of data leaks regarding its users and whether there have been any successful attempts to hack it. Google is better in English (data leak VPN, data breach VPN, hack VPN).

App recommendations

To make this easier, we have prepared several recommendations on which VPN service will be useful and will not harm your security.

It would be appropriate for you to use the Privacy Tools website. It is home to the world’s best VPNs: those that are secure, those not compromised by data leaks or ties to totalitarian regimes.

“I advise you to pay attention to those who use the so-called Kill Switch function. It may be called differently, but the bottom line is: VPNs are sometimes arranged in such a way that they “fall” – they stop working , and the user does not notice this. Thus, he burns his real IP to the provider. No signal or message is opened. And the Kill Switch is just something that blocks access to the internet in such cases.” – Pointed out by cyber security expert Kostyantyn Korsun

Such services include:

• NordVPN ($60/year)
• Surfshark ($48/year)
• ExpressVPN ($100/year)
• ProtonVPN (72€/year)
• Mullvad (60€/year)
• psiphon.ca ($72/year)

These services are paid, but they have proven themselves well on the world stage. But you don’t need to subscribe to a VPN for a year. Some apps offer a lower payment for a shorter period of time.

If this is not available to you, use the recommendations in the Trusted knowledge base. Its experts offer the following free VPN services:

Human rights defender Pavlo Lysyanskyi also talked about another important rule of Internet security: “clear everything”, that is, clear the history. To do this, go to Google and type: “Google, how do I clear history on Youtube” etc.

It’s worth connecting a VPN when you call your relatives. And here we have some suggestions:

• First: If you are connected to Russian operators, you can be tracked by special services. That’s why it’s better to use secure messengers.

These are, for example, Signal, WhatsApp and Threema – although the latter are paid. These applications can also be downloaded from the virtual stores of your phones or laptops. These apps support end-to-end encryption for all messages by default. It is a data transfer method in which messages can only be accessed by users participating in the communication.

Use secure messengers / Channel 24 infographic

• Second tip – enable VPN even when calling via secure messengers. This is double protection against someone else interfering with your private communications.

Human rights activist Pavlo Lysyansky recommends having a separate phone to access the Internet.

“I mean, you have a phone; a smartphone, you use it as a phone. You went there, talked – maybe social networks, but not politically. Another phone – should never connect to the 3G network, so it should not connect to the 3G network. Be SIM -Russian Federation And accordingly, with this phone you can already go out and watch Ukrainian news, Ukrainian content, etc. via VPN”– advises the human rights defender.

A number of other recommendations on how to secure communications:

1. Be careful about the information you store on your phone. Clean up photos, screenshots and messages that may pose a threat to your security.

2. Use secret chats – In some messengers like Telegram or Instagram, you can send messages that will disappear after a while.

3. Set a lock on the device and set up two-factor authentication on important services (mailbox, social networks, bank accounts, etc.).

4. Store important documents in cloud services or secret albums.

5. And of course, use a VPN to protect your personal data from the enemy.

Tips for internet security / 24 Channel infographic

We will talk about other important aspects of digital security in future issues of the “Info-bridge” program. If you have relatives in temporarily occupied areas, please share this material with them. Help anyone who needs protection of personal data with this instruction.

This article was prepared within the scope of the ‘EU’s Eastern Neighbours’ project. The views expressed in the article belong solely to the author.