Latest news with #internetsecurity
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The 3 Best, Most Secure Web Browsers That Are Better Than Google Chrome, Experts Say
We may not think hard about our web browsers, but they have huge power over our lives as the gateway to the internet. Every day, we use them to search for answers, talk to friends and learn new if you're on the internet long enough, your default web browser is likely Google Chrome. Google's dominance over how we search the web and browse the internet is by design, and even illegal, according to a federal ruling in the company's online search monopoly case. Last year, a federal judge ruled that Google broke the law by making it harder for consumers to use anything else. The judge found that Google had paid companies like Apple and Samsung billions of dollars a year to have Google become the default on smartphones and web beyond the question of legality, consider that using a different web browser just might be better. You might even be surprised by how much more secure your browsing experience becomes when you leave the walled Google ecosystem. When you make Google your default search engine, default browser and default password manager, you are making yourself less secure online, said Mishaal Khan, a chief information security officer for several mid-sized companies. 'Putting all your eggs in one basket is pretty dangerous,' he said. 'Especially in a basket that's owned by a huge conglomerate whose entire goal and existence is based on... collecting information about you to earn money.'HuffPost asked a range of tech and security experts about their favorite non-Google browsers. Khan said his favorite web browser is Firefox, which was developed by the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation, because it focuses on privacy and is open source for tech-savvy people to customize and learn from. 'It does not track users. It does not send any tracking information back to its headquarters, whereas Google Chrome and the entire ecosystem is monetizing off of what you do on the internet,' Khan said. Every time you are signed onto Google Chrome, meanwhile, you are helping Google build a detailed profile of your interests and habits for ad trackers. You can erase your web and app activity from Google's records, but the idea behind privacy-focused browsers is that they do not do this to begin also noted that on Firefox, you can open '345 times as many tabs' than you can on Google Chrome without it crashing because the browser is less resource-intensive than Chrome is on your computer. And if you're loving Firefox, try Firefox Focus, a free and open-source privacy-focused mobile browser that is also developed by Mozilla. Thorin Klosowski, a security and privacy activist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said this browser is a useful option for mobile devices because 'it has solid tracking protection out of the box, and the big delete button makes it simple to wipe your history.''It can be useful for all the random, often pointless searches you might do on your phone so they aren't used for ads or whatever else,' he noted. 'The reason I use Brave is because I just frankly got sick of ads and ad tracking, and what I perceive to be an incredible invasion of privacy,' said George Kamide, co-host of the cybersecurity podcast 'Bare Knuckles and Brass Tacks.'When you use Brave, the browser blocks trackers and third-party cookies that are monitoring your activity as you tap and click through the web. 'You can still have Gmail open in Brave. It's just disrupting some of the cookies and stuff like that, but you can still get it functional,' Kamide said. 'I have converted family members because just on the user experience alone, they were like, 'Oh, I can, like, finally read the BBC and not have shoe ads in my face.'' Digital product leader and AI researcher Jill Heinze said she purposefully switched from Chrome to DuckDuckGo as her default web browser earlier this year after an 'increasingly polarized political environment made me question more seriously how my data privacy in many ecosystems could be infringed,' she said. 'Government phone searches at the border, for example, made me newly sensitive to what's in my browser history.'Heinze likes DuckDuckGo because this browser has 'a solid reputation for not storing, and therefore not sharing, your history. It surfaces general ads based on your present search, but doesn't use other targeting methods.'Now, 'any time I have a random curiosity, DuckDuckGo is my first stop, and I don't have to worry that my freely exploring topics will be forever tied to my identity or pushed to me in ads across all of my devices,' Heinze said. 'I find it simple and clean, and with one-button press, I can wipe out my tabs, which does give me at least a feeling of more control over my data.' No matter which browser you choose, give it a try for at least two weeks. You might be instinctively missing Google the first few days, but by the end, you might be surprised by how much you like your new browser. When researchers for a National Bureau of Economic Research study paid people to use Microsoft's Bing for two weeks, a significant number –– about 22% –– chose to keep using it even after the bribes ended, with most of those users reporting that Bing was better than expected. In other words, many people are willing to switch to a new browser if they are just given the chance. Major tech giants like Google win when you don't realize you have other options that can give you equally, if not more, secure browser that's a choice that's still in your power to make. Experts Reveal The 7 Hidden iPhone Hacks That Help Them Be More Productive 4 Password Rules Everyone Should Follow, According To Data Security Experts PSA: Don't Be Like JD Vance And Leave Your Venmo Public
Bloomberg
5 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Vista-Backed KnowBe4 Looks for $1.46 Billion Debt to Replace Private Credit
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is sounding out investors for a potential $1.46 billion debt deal for the internet security platform KnowBe4, according to people familiar with the matter. If successful, KnowBe4, which is backed by Vista Equity Partners, will use the proceeds to refinance loans from private credit firms at a significantly cheaper borrowing cost, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss a private transaction. Blue Owl Capital, Blackstone Inc. and Carlyle 's credit business were some of the lenders on the original loan. The debt was arranged at a rate of 7.75 percentage points over the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, regulatory filings show.
Washington Post
6 days ago
- Washington Post
Technology spawned a child porn boom. Can it now help catch abusers?
Smartphones, social media and secret chat apps helped fuel an unimaginable internet flood of sexually explicit images of children, with more than 60 million such photos, videos and files reported circulating online last year. A common technology used by law enforcement agencies now says it can help fight fire with fire, by using new software to speed up the identification of child exploitation images from accused people's phones and computers.
Yahoo
20-06-2025
- Yahoo
What to know about online passwords after a massive breach
An alleged breach of 16 billion passwords including some for Apple, Google and Facebook accounts has cybersecurity experts warning people to change your passwords and stop recycling them. They say using the same password on every site is dangerous because of what hackers can do if the info leaks just once. Multifactor authentication, password managers and passkeys are options for those seeking additional security. (June 20, 2025)
Yahoo
20-06-2025
- Yahoo
Newsroom Ready: What to know about online passwords after a massive breach
An alleged breach of 16 billion passwords including some for Apple, Google and Facebook accounts has cybersecurity experts warning people to change your passwords and stop recycling them. They say using the same password on every site is dangerous because of what hackers can do if the info leaks just once. Multifactor authentication, password managers and passkeys are options for those seeking additional security. (June 20, 2025)
