Leo Laporte & Steve Gibson on set for Security Now
Why use a virtual private network (VPN) connection when you’re online? If you’re paying attention to the NSA scandal, Edward Snowden’s revelations and the erosion of our civil liberties, then that is one big reason why. Watch PBS Frontline’s United States of Secrets and NBC’s Brian Williams interview with whistleblower Edward Snowden to catch up if you haven’t been paying attention.
Another big reason to use a VPN is the sheer number of companies tracking your activities online. Called behavioral targeting it watches everything you do online in the hope advertising or recommendations are targeted to what you’re interested in. As we’ve seen from the NSA revelations, it can do alot more than that too.
Your IP address can say A LOT about where you come from, your device and more. Look here now to see for yourself.
Steve Gibson, a long time security researcher and podcaster on the very popular show on TWiT.tv called Security Now, has this page called ShieldsUp! (a phrase that harkens back to Star Trek when shields would protect the ship from incoming attack) and the page is about what you reveal online. The ShieldsUp! page has a section that looks at your IP address which is often dynamically given to you by your ISP, but lasts so long that it can act like a “SuperCookie” and be an easily trackable digital fingerprint for any traffic coming from that IP address, even if you obscure everything else you do online!
BEFORE I USED MY VPN AT SHIELDSUP!
Here is what appeared when I came in to the Shields Up! page without my VPN being connected (and I’ve used x‘s to obscure my IP address) and what Steve explains on this page is very informative and worth a read:
The text below might uniquely identify you on the Internet
Your Internet connection’s IP address is uniquely associated with the following “machine name”:
c-75-xx-xx-2xx.hsd1.mn.comcast.net
The string of text above is known as your Internet connection’s “reverse DNS.” The end of the string is probably a domain name related to your ISP. This will be common to all customers of this ISP. But the beginning of the string uniquely identifies your Internet connection. The question is: Is the beginning of the string an “account ID” that is uniquely and permanently tied to you, or is it merely related to your current public IP address and thus subject to change?
The concern is that any web site can easily retrieve this unique “machine name” (just as we have) whenever you visit. It may be used to uniquely identify you on the Internet. In that way it’s like a “supercookie” over which you have no control. You can not disable, delete, or change it. Due to the rapid erosion of online privacy, and the diminishing respect for the sanctity of the user, we wanted to make you aware of this possibility. Note also that reverse DNS may disclose your geographic location.
If the machine name shown above is only a version of the IP address, then there is less cause for concern because the name will change as, when, and if your Internet IP changes. But if the machine name is a fixed account ID assigned by your ISP, as is often the case, then it will follow you and not change when your IP address does change. It can be used to persistently identify you as long as you use this ISP.
There is no standard governing the format of these machine names, so this is not something we can automatically determine for you. If several of the numbers from your current IP address (75.73.89.242) appear in the machine name, then it is likely that the name is only related to the IP address and not to you. But you may wish to make a note of the machine name shown above and check back from time to time to see whether the name follows any changes to your IP address, or whether it, instead, follows you.
Just something to keep in mind as you wander the Internet.
AFTER I USED MY VPN AT SHIELDSUP!
Here is what appeared after I connected via my VPN and, as you can see, that digital fingerprint is no longer visible:
Your Internet connection has no Reverse DNS
Many Internet connection IP addresses are associated with a DNS machine name. (But yours is not.) The presence of “Reverse DNS”, which allows the machine name to be retrieved from the IP address, can represent a privacy and possible security concern for Internet consumers since it may uniquely and persistently identify your Internet account — and therefore you — and may disclose other information, such as your geographic location.
When present, reverse DNS is supported by Internet service providers. But no such lookups are possible with your current Internet connection address (216.227.128.50). That’s generally a good thing.
VPN STUFF
That digital fingerprint/supercookie is yet another reason to use a VPN. Here are some VPN services for you to consider:
- Private Internet Access (the one Steve Borsch uses)
- TorGuard
- IPVanish VPN
- CyberGhost VPN