Open Source Projects to Improve Security and Privacy

open-source-security-programSecurity is a very important factor for both private users and companies. There are many threats that can affect our devices. Now, luckily we also have at our disposal a wide range of possibilities to protect ourselves. We will talk about it in this article. We will name a series of open source projects that we can use to preserve our privacy and improve network security.

The importance of maintaining security and privacy

Keep in mind that maintaining our privacy and security when surfing the web is very important. On the one hand it is essential to preserve the proper functioning of the systems. There are many threats that can affect the performance of our equipment and make them malfunction.

On the other hand it is also something vital to avoid security problems that may put our privacy at risk. It is a reality that today our data on the network has great value. Marketing companies look for ways to steal information. This way they can include us in spam lists, advertising campaigns, etc.

All this makes it necessary to maintain security and privacy when we navigate. Luckily we have at our disposal many tools, services and methods that can help us. We are going to talk about this in this article, although we are going to focus on open source projects.

Open source projects to maintain security and privacy

We can make use of different open source tools that help us maintain security in our day to day. Many types of programs and software in general that we can use.

Using tools, operating systems and programs that are open source provide us with more information that allows us to improve security and privacy. That is, by using an open source program we can know exactly what is inside and analyze possible problems that compromise our security.

This makes many users appreciate the importance of having software that is open source . Especially if we refer to security and privacy tools we can find many. Let’s name some of the most interesting projects.


OpenVPN

Another very interesting open source project is OpenVPN . In this case we are facing a service that allows us to encrypt the connection for free. But beyond being free you have to keep in mind that it is open source, something that users value very much when using this type of services.

But also a VPN service gives us security and privacy. It allows us to encrypt the connection. Let’s take as an example that we connect to a public Wi-Fi network. There our data may not be safe. We could be victims of different types of attack and our information leaking into the network. A VPN service helps us encrypt that connection.

The best way to use OpenVPN is through a well established VPN service. We can easily choose OpenVPN once we sign up for a VPN service and configure it on the device. The importance of having certain knowledge to use it correctly must be taken into account.


The Tor Browser

There is nothing more important to surf the Internet than the browser itself. It is something that we use every day on mobile devices and desktops. We will need such a program for our day to day. Now, it should be mentioned that it is also a very important source of threats.

This makes many users choose other browsers alternative to the most common. One of them is Tor, which is also open source. It is a browser based mainly on the privacy and security of users.

Tor allows us to encrypt web traffic through different routes. This makes it impossible for any intruder to track our identity. This way we can improve our privacy and avoid problems.

Beyond that it also allows us to anonymously access what are known as .onion sites . These pages are only accessible through this browser. Many users worldwide use this open source browser to improve their privacy on the network.

Red Tor vs navegador


Tail OS

We cannot ignore the importance of the operating systems we use. In this sense one of the most popular based on security and privacy is Tail OS . It is an open source project that allows us to use different tools that are very complete and useful to test computer security.

This operating system comes with a large pack of open source tools . The peculiarity is that they are based on security and privacy. It is a widely used operating system worldwide and has very interesting options.

Keep in mind that our operating system can obtain information from users. This could be used to send targeted advertising, for example. The fact of using an open source operating system allows us to know at all times how it works.


KeePass

We also want to include the KeePass password manager in this list. It is a tool that allows us to manage our keys and which is also open source. We already know that if we want to have really strong and complex passwords we will have to have a key manager.

A password manager allows us to control all keys. So we can log in without having to remember complex passwords. But they also serve to even generate keys. We can create passwords that meet requirements that make them really safe.

In short, these are some open source projects that we wanted to show and that are based on security and privacy.