Heads up! To view this whole video, sign in with your Courses account or enroll in your free 7-day trial. Sign In Enroll
Preview
Start a free Courses trial
to watch this video
We’ll take another look at our core internet traffic model, this time using the new tools and behaviors we’ve learned in other videos.
Further Reading:
Mozilla Thunderbird (email client)
Enigmail (Thunderbird Plugin)
Related Discussions
Have questions about this video? Start a discussion with the community and Treehouse staff.
Sign upRelated Discussions
Have questions about this video? Start a discussion with the community and Treehouse staff.
Sign up
Let's return to our illustrated
model of Internet traffic.
0:00
We've explored quite a few concepts since
this model was first introduced, so
0:04
let's see how they work in practice here.
0:07
While not everything we've covered
will be directly applicable,
0:10
we'll still get a reasonable view of how
our new tools can improve the privacy and
0:13
security of our lives online.
0:18
Returning to our scene in
a coffee shop in Portland,
0:20
Oregon, our laptop is still
connected to an open WiFi network.
0:22
You may recall that the open WiFi
allows anyone else on the network
0:27
to see our traffic.
0:30
But now that we've taken this course,
we know that a VPN is a great solution.
0:32
We've already researched a VPN service
that fit our needs and budget, so
0:37
we'll just enable it for our connection
and now our traffic is private and secure.
0:41
You'll notice now that all of our
traffic is routing through the VPN,
0:46
whether it's going to Google,
Facebook, or any other site.
0:50
This means that the only activity anyone
attempting to eavesdrop will see will
0:54
be to the VPN and back.
0:58
You may also notice that this
applies to the ISP as well.
1:00
Comcast or Verizon or
1:04
whichever provider the coffee shop uses
will only see requests for the VPN.
1:06
This is a nice property for
privacy protection
1:10
where some legislation may make it legal
for ISPs to sell your browsing history.
1:14
It's worth noting here that a VPN service
does have access to your browsing activity
1:19
if you use their network.
1:23
What they do with that information,
including if they even keep records of it
1:25
at all,
is dependant on which service you choose.
1:29
This is why I suggest
you do your research.
1:32
If a VPN service is free to use, there's
a good chance they are selling other data
1:35
about your traffic in order
to run their business.
1:40
If you pay for their service, and
you've researched their policies,
1:43
you may find that they likely have
more to gain from your trust and
1:47
word of mouth by actually
keeping your info private.
1:50
As someone once described it to me, using
a VPN is essentially moving your trust.
1:54
Now let's return to our friend
sending us an email from home.
2:00
The main vulnerability for this flow was
that the email service was insecure so
2:04
messages to and
from that service were exposed.
2:08
Let's expand this scenario to say that
your friend used the same username and
2:12
password with this email service as they
did with another site that was reported
2:16
on haveibeenpwned.com.
2:20
This means that potentially anyone
with access to that breached data
2:23
could log into our friends account and
even impersonate them in an email to us,
2:27
severely compromising the authenticity
of the email messages.
2:31
But luckily, we told our friend not only
about the have I been pwned site, but
2:35
also showed them our
favorite password manager.
2:40
So they immediately changed their
password and generated a new,
2:43
super strong one to replace it.
2:46
But they didn't stop there.
2:48
They also installed Thunderbird with
Enigmail, so now they can encrypt their
2:50
emails for us and be absolutely certain
that no one else will be able to
2:54
read the content, even while using
the same insecure email provider.
2:59
They also used a cool feature to
cryptographically sign the email, so
3:04
we can be absolutely certain that
the message really originated from them.
3:08
Nice.
3:13
Now I'm using the phrase
absolutely certain
3:14
to describe certain
cryptographic properties.
3:17
While it's true that someone could
come along and invent a crack for
3:20
the crypto and render this statement
false, the world has actually been using
3:23
variations of the same strong
cryptography for decades.
3:27
So until such a crack arrives, be
confident that these are in fact tried and
3:31
true solutions to protecting
your privacy and authenticity.
3:35
Now that we've looked back at our original
view of common Internet traffic and
3:40
made some improvements,
we're a lot safer and more secure online.
3:44
It didn't take much.
3:49
Just a VPN for us and a password
manager in email client for our friend.
3:50
But we actually protected ourselves
against many of the common threats we've
3:55
covered in this course.
3:58
Both the VPN which utilizes HTTPS and
4:01
the signed email are strong defenses
against man in the middle attacks,
4:03
as well as encryption strategies
to protect our privacy.
4:08
Our friend also upgraded their leaked
account credentials, which could have
4:13
allowed someone to impersonate them
to create a spear phishing attack.
4:16
Just a few easy to use tools made
us significantly more secure.
4:20
You need to sign up for Treehouse in order to download course files.
Sign upYou need to sign up for Treehouse in order to set up Workspace
Sign up