| | |  Technology News | April 2009 
Quincey Technology: Hide and Seek
 Quincey Hobbs - PVNN
We live in a time when information is exchanged faster and more frequently than any previously known period of time. This is in conjunction with the various uses and misuses of information. The interception and misrepresentation of personal information has opened the eyes of many computer users to the fact that information is not a dormant item.
Unfortunately, there is rarely a week or month that goes by without the report of personal information being taken and used for purposes unintended by the owner of the information. This can range from government programs that monitor online and email activity, to online hackers and scam artist, to websites that track your online habits. Other trends are the selling of information by legal and illegal data collectors.
Such online trends have given rise to a new trend, hiding online activity. The idea is that if you can hide or disassociate online activity with a person then there is no information to glean. The prominent method of hiding online activity is by hiding your computers' IP address.
An IP address is a set of nine digits that are unique to each computer that are used for identification purposes. There are two types of IP address, static and dynamic. Static IP's don't change while dynamic IP addresses change on a set schedule. Most businesses or commercial ventures have static IP addresses and most personal users have dynamic IP addresses. Your Internet Service Provider determines the recycle schedule for your IP address if you have a dynamic address.
There are both web based and software based solutions to hide you IP address. Both services work in essentially the same manner. They have to log onto their server via a connection called a VPN or Virtual Private Network. Once you have logged in you can surf the net virtually untethered.
For those that like to lace their security needs with a dollop of paranoia, some services offer to bounce your anonymous IP address through other servers. This adds to the difficulty in discovering your true IP address. GhostSurfer is an IP hiding program that can be found locally. The only store that I know of that carries it is Office Depot, and it set you back about $60 USD.
Other notable services are disposable email addresses. As the name suggests, these are email addresses that expire and thus reduce your exposure to spam and phishing expeditions. Jtan.com is an online service that offers both IP address hiding and disposable email addresses.
For those of you that have designs to use anonymous IP addresses and disposable email address in the commission of illegal activities, forget it. Both of those services are great for getting most hackers, spammers, data collectors, and general novices of your scent, but not the government. In the end, you have to have an Internet Service Provider to use these servers and government agencies have the time, money, and resources to trace you back to your ISP. |
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