StackSocial.com Giveaways and deals available for just few days of normally paying software, hardware, tutorials, bundles, gadgets... Some discount are up to 99%, some are free or you give your own price!
Pay attention, some offers can be cheaper on other shopping sites.
Envato.com Everything to make a site: themes, UI kits, programming codes/snippets, photos, videos, audios, icons, flyers, 3D objects, images and backgrounds...
Each month one free item is offered with all the licences.
VPN - Virtual Private Network
A VPN is must have these days, it greatly enhances your safety and privacy on Internet.
Until today, January 27, 2016, I have tested on Macintosh or Android the following VPNs, either in paying, trial or free version: NordVPN, CyberGhost, VPN Unlimited, TigerVPN, IPinator, PureVPN and ZenMate VPN.
Don't be a fool, totally free VPNs are taking something from you, data, statistics, injecting/replacing ads in the sites you visit, selling your coordinates,...
For example, the free version of hola is a peer-to-peer VPN, you share your internet connection and bandwith! It's up to you to decide what you do with your data.
The most important criteria, is trust!
Why some VPNs do hide their coordinates, have no term of services (TOS), are just hidden-resellers, are without any contact information?
Do carefully read their privacy policy, TOS and refund policy!
Don't think you are totally hidden behind a VPN, Tor or whatever, so think twice before crossing the yellow line!
VPN Reviews
Do your own researches, but do not believe all the best-vpn-in-the-universe recommendation sites, most are just making money through their affiliations.
VPNreviewer.com provides unbiased and truthful VPN reviews, evaluations and conclusions. VPNreviewer does not have any affiliate link.
Don't miss these great articles:
- Which VPN Services Take Your Anonymity Seriously? Editions: 2016 - 2015
Security
SSLenforcer.com SSL Enforcer, for Mac and Windows, blocks insecure HTTP connections and switch to corresponding secure HTTPS alternative. It works for any software connected to internet. It does not use proxy, vpn/tunnel server keeping your connection at full speed.
DNSCrypt-Proxy 2 It's a powerful DNS proxy, supports latest encrypted DNS protocols DNSCrypt v2 and DNS-over-HTTP/2.
It authenticates and encrypt the communications with a DNS Resolver. It prevents DNS spoofing and uses cryptographic signatures to verify if DNS resolver exchanges have not been tampered with.
DNSCrypt-Proxy 2 has a lot of features: DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH), DNSCrypt, DNSSEC, Monitoring and logs, DNS and IP blocking, Local blocking, DNS Caching, Scheduled filtering, Load balancing, Redirections, Tor, Auto-update...
It's available for BSD, Linux, MacOS, Windows...
DNScrypt is no more maintained, and its domain .org is lost.
Comodo.com Comodo free email certificate provides digital signature for confidentiality, secure encryption, protect against identity theft, integrates with MS Office and usual applications, trusted by most email clients.
Check their free products: antivirus, security tools, total uninstaller, firewall, rescue disk, backup...
Free for personal/home users and 12 USD/year for business users.
95 percent of breaches involve the exploitation of stolen credentials
Free multi-platform advanced password manager and secure digital wallet. I have tried a dozen on mac, windows and android... don't waste your time, it's the best. Pay only for the online access and synchronization among your devices. Stop using simple passwords or worst, several times a password.
Authy.com Free powerful multi-platforms Two-Factor Authentification (2FA) to add a second layer of security to any type of login in addition to your password.
HE.net - Hurricane Electric HE Network Tools, for Android and iOS, has all tools for thorough IP4/IP6 network diagnostics: DNS lookup, iperf, Ping, Traceroute, Ports Scan, SSL/TLS check, Whois...
One Time Password as Manage time (TOTP) or counter (HOTP) based OTP passwords, with optional sync with iCloud Keychain.
TrueKey.com An interesting app from Intel, always 2FA, login by face recognition, login, passwords, e-wallet... Multiplatforms. Free for 15 ID/login.
It is time for the web to take a big step forward in terms of security and privacy
LetsEncrypt is a new Certificate Authority by the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG), it is totally free, automated and open. Take a look at gethttpsforfree which uses LetsEncrypt certificates.
PreyProject.com Lightweight theft protection program for MacOS, Windows, iOS and Android. Track your devices, recover them if lost or stolen, remotely lock... Not a duplicate, it's far more hidden than those included in your OS.
Don't think you are safe for whatever reason! I saw friends and clients crying because they have lost everything, personal, private or professional files. Which in most cases can not be restored because recovery specialists are very expansive, or the devices are physically missing or too badly damaged.
Before choosing one, or better, several backup solutions, keep in mind the following points.
Location - Locally on external hard-disk, NAS, tape, other local computers
- Remotely in other physical places, houses, offices, friends, co-workers
- In the Cloud on your own server or using commercial services
ProtectedText.com To save several texts, locally encrypted with password then saved online. Very safe as no information is sent, just encrypted text. Don't loose your URL or password!
Wickr.com Very secure messager used by world leaders, managers, journalists, activists. Wickr is an encrypted messaging app, to chat, video chat, send and receive secure messages, documents, pictures, videos and audio files.
Encrypto MacPaw's Encrypto quickly AES-256 encrypt files or folders and save them or share/send them very easily.
Anti-Virus, Malware, Adware and Browser-Hijacker
Stop pop-up ads and adware in Safari Very interesting and detailed explanation regularly maintained by Apple Support Team. This article gives step by step instructions to find, remove and stop dozen of pop-up ads and Adware/Browser-Hijacker in Safari, including all their hidden files spread inside OS X System Library.
These tools DO NOT protect your devices in real-time! Use them only when you want to scan manually you devices or just check suspicious files, email attachments or websites.
VirusTotal.com Online tool. Analyzes sites and files to detect viruses, worms, trojans and malware. Search for existing hash, file, domain and IP among all previously submitted scans.
MetaDefender.com Online tool. Scans sites and files with 43 anti-malware engines, check URLs by 12 services, or verify if a hash has been compromised. Former MetaScan-Online.com.
Bitdefender Virus Scanner for Mac Scans applications, daemons, archives, critical and specific locations or the entire system for OS X malware and Windows viruses. Removes or quarantines affected files.
These tools provide various types of protection, detection or just warn you about unusual activities, which does not always mean that something is going wrong.
OSX Lock Down is a Bash command for terminal to audit/reduce OS X 10.11 security settings.
If Ostiarius is activated, either uninstall it temporarily or change the quarantine attribute (xattr) of osxlockdown!
- BlockBlock prevents installation of any persistent programs without your authorization.
- TaskExplorer lists all the tasks/processes running, reports if it is signed, its dylibs, opened files, network connections,...
- KextViewr lists all modules (a.k.a. kexts/kernel extension) loaded in Mac OS kernel.
- Ostiarius blocks all unsigned internet binaries from executing in Mac OS X El Capitan (no more required on macOS Sierra 10.12.2 and above) to reduce Gaterkeeper's weakness.
- LockDown is a GUI application for OSXLockDown Bash tool.
No need to disable Ostiarius.
- RansomWhere? protects your files from ransomware, it monitors and stops suspicious processes from creating encrypted files on your disks.
- What's Your Sign? adds a menu item to the Finder, a right-click on a file shows its cryptographic signature info.
- OverSight warns you when your macintosh microphone or webcam are activated or accessed. It's better than Micro Snitch because it will warn you also when a second process do the same, which might be a malware.
- LuLu is a macOS firewall to block or allow unknown outgoing connections.
Suspicious Package allows you to inspect macOS Installer Packages (.pkg) to get detailed information, view its files and scripts before installing it on your Mac. Suspicious Package is an application and a Quick Look plug-in.
Opswat.com is a network monitor solution, for Mac or Windows, to detect and find compromized or non-compliant devices on your network and to monitor applications installed on them.
Gears checks antivirus, backup, encryption, firewall, public file sharing, patch management, user authentication, antiphishing, infections, OS updates,... and send alerts about potential problems.
Security-Growler is a tool accessible in the menubar, it displays a notification whenever SSH, VNC, sudo, or any other Auth events occur.
MBR Filter by Cisco Talos blocks write access to the Master Boot Record and prevents malware, like rootkits, bootkits and ransomware, to override the OS boot loader and temper with the file system, partitions, file tables...
Firewall
Different methods exist to block various kind of sites or to protect you from unwanted 'visitors', human or bots. But one in another, it's the principe found in usual firewall.
To block unsafe, adults or not suitable for work web sites, you can simply black-list their addresses and/or IP in your system 'hosts' file.
Gas Mask which unfortunately is no more maintained, is an editor to manage sets of hosts files.
Note You can modify your hosts file (OS X 10.11 path is '/private/etc/hosts') with a text editor, be sure to always save in pure text only!
Verification and Information
SSLlabs.com Free online security testing tools: SSL Server Test checks the configuration of SSL web server, SSL Client Test lists all SSL/TLS capabilities of your browser and SSL Fingerprint test.
See also HowsMySSL.com
IPleak.net Shows your IP, DNS Resolver IP, WebRTC detection, TOR exit node, geographic location, ISP, browser, plugins, scripts, OS...
Panopticlick.EFF.org Reveals your 'Browser Fingerprint'. Depending of your browser configuration, websites may still track you, even without cookies.
See also BrowserLeaks.com.
IPv6-Test.com Checks your IPv6 and/or IPv4 connectivity, DNS4+IP6, DNS6+IP4, DNS6+IP6 and your internet speed, without requiring Flash plugin, from 5 countries (fr,us,uk,nl,lk).
DNSinspect.com Reliable tool to check your domain's servers for DNS and email errors, explanations how to fix them are included in the report.
Mail-Tester.com Various tests to see if your emails are valid and if they will be not blocked by spam filters.
Stop Email Fraud Analyse your email authentication settings, SPIF, DKIM, DMARC, to see if it is DMARC ready.
ZScaler.com Dozen of security tools, try the unusual ZAP App Profiler to verify iOS or Android applications, and ZULU Risk Scoring to thoroughly check the safety of a web site, a must see!
HaveIBeenPwned.com Check if one of your account, all your data, credit cards, SSN, phones, email-passwords..., have been stolen, pwned, in a data breach or if they were in the underground market.
BadSSL.com Several tests by Google, which are regularly updated, to verify your browsers.
IP-API.com Some unusual information about your IP: DNS, VPN, MTU, real Browser Agent, OS...
DrownAttack.com Tests if your server is vulnerable to a Drown Attack, a security bug discovered in February 2016.
Apple Macintosh - OS X Applications
DiskMakerX.com Makes a bootable OS X installer disk, it supports several OS X versions, including OS 10.11 - El Capitan.
You will be able to install OS X on a newly formated drive.
Übersicht Display what you want on your Desktop using HTML5 and Coffee script.
SpamFence.net Free spamfilter services, 99% accuracy and no false-positive!
Abine.com Free temporary masked emails. Also encrypted passwords, protect credit card and phone numbers, block hidden trackers, auto-fill, sync...
Mobile Phone - Cellular - GSM
Fruux.com The easiest way ever to manage and synchronize contacts, calendars and tasks.
MightyText.net Send & receive SMS (Texto) and MMS from your computer or tablet, using your current Android phone number. Messages, photos and videos synchronisation, Text from Gmail, Get notifications, safe and secure.
Tools and SaaS for Webmasters
Gandi.net Search available domain names with all TLD.
LuaDNS.com Free DNS hosting for 3 domains, fast propagation, all features available.
Record types: A, AAAA, ALIAS, CNAME, FORWARD, MX, NS, PTR, REDIRECT, SOA, SPF, SRV, SSHFP, TXT.
DNS Resolvers in DE, NL, JP, USA-NY and USA-CA.
StatusCake.com Fast accurate global website monitoring, lot of features, easy integration with third party applications/SaaS.
Grav Amazing Open Source Flat-File CMS with skeleton, templates, and 140+ incredible plugins... don't miss it!
Tools and Sites to Fight Spam
KnowEm.com Search 500 social networks, 150 domain names and USPTO Trademark Database to instantly secure your brand on the internet.
QuickEmailVerification.com Check 1000 emails per day for free. API available for curl/php/node.
Verifications: Bad Domains, Role Accounts (info, webmaster...), Catch-All and Disposable Email Address (DEA). No Honeypots/Spam trap detection.
PageZipper Merges all "Next" web pages into one, no need to click "Next" anymore.
RSS Readers List of RSS readers still available in 2018.
Free Books, Courses and Tutorials
Computer Science from the Bottom Up Free book to teach computer science from the bottom end up.
Topics: binary and binary logic, operating systems internals, toolchain fundamentals, and system library fundamentals. PDF version (1 MB).
DNS for Rocket Scientists Open Source Guide about DNS. Mostly BIND 9.x on Linux; FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD; and Windows (XP, Server 2003 and 7). For newbies to expert and in between.