How to encrypt all your communications without being a security expert

Image courtesy of Christiann Colen

at Flickr.com

We live in an ever-connected world. Today we can access almost any service from our smartphones, desktops or laptops, in the comfort of our own home. And we do it casually, usually regardless of who we share the network with or if data is transmitted securely. So today we will take a look at how to encrypt all your communications without being a security expert.

We must combine two issues here: the first one is safety, and the second is usability -that is, the fact that something is simple to use, that it does not involve a delay in our communications and so on. The objective is to make communications secure in a transparent manner for the average user.

 Secure connections that are already encrypted even if you don’t know it

In many cases we are already using secure connections, where the traffic between one point, for example our computer, and another, such as the website of our bank, is already encrypted. We are talking about https connections that guarantee that the information is exchanged safely.

Normally those are the connections used by banks, but also by the servers of many email services to ensure that, even if the traffic between your computer and the server of the page that you entered to make any sort of query is intercepted, no one will have access to the information that was exchanged.

 VPN connections, a guarantee for our security

But not all pages use this communication protocol and often we want to maintain the privacy of our Internet communications. In these cases we can use a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Put simply, we could say that it is useful to connect two points safely, be it connecting to the Internet or accessing remotely to another computer.

To use it we have free and paid alternatives, going from services that only require a registration to use a VPN, to others in which we have to install an application, which is the most common practice in order to create the tunnel through which data will be transferred securely.

Once the application has been installed or the service has been accessed, navigation for users is the same as usual. This can be very interesting if you are connected to a public WiFi network where we share it with a lot of people and we want to keep our data safe.

Another use for VPNs is to access services that have a territorial restriction. For example if we want to access Netflix, Hulu other streaming sites from a foreign country. The connection is made between our device and the VPN servers, which are responsible for sending connection requests to these services, so the request is made from the place where they are located, thus avoiding territorial restrictions. This is very useful if you have to travel to a country that censors Internet access.

 Encryption of messages and voice calls

Not only must we protect Internet communications, but in some cases we may want our messages and voice calls to be encrypted as well. In these cases we can also do it very easily with applications such as Seecrypt, which is available for Android and iOS.

To use it, it is necessary that both users have the application installed in order to talk or exchange data, which greatly reduces the usability of the application. Anyway these apps slightly exceed the scope of an average user.

 Encrypting files easily

Sometimes we don’t mind the communications not being encrypted, but we do want to exchange protected files. In this case you can use encryption apps on a folder on your computer or mobile phone. Most operating systems today offer some encryption options and, if not, you can always resort to third party apps.

One of those apps can be run directly from a USB stick and it is called Toucan. Besides encrypting, it also allows us to create backups or synchronize folders between two devices. One advantage is that even if you access remotely to an online encrypted folder, running Toucan from a USB drive you can decrypt files by simply typing your password.

 Safe spaces in mobile devices

Image courtesy of Kārlis Dambrāns at Flickr.com

If you need to carry certain important files on your smartphone, such as a scanned copy of your ID or Social Security Number, you can create an encrypted folder in your SD card, for instance.

Depending on the type of smartphone that you have, you’ll be able to do this from the operating system itself, which is the case with certain Samsung devices. You can choose to encrypt a folder or even the entire device. The greatest part of this is that when it comes to using the phone, it will behave as if the files were not encrypted, but if you lose the phone it will not be accessible without a password.
As you can see, it is not necessary to be a security expert to have secure connections, it is enough with having the appropriate apps or access services that can provide a reliable connection, which give you peace of mind while surfing the web.