In this ever-evolving world of the Internet, the safety & security of the user and their data is a primary concern. Many third-party applications have strived to enhance it. The following apps will help you to improve your security online and protect your devices and app/web accounts from threats.
Remote Fingerprint Unlock
Do you have a laptop/desktop with an in-built fingerprint scanner or an IR scanner with support for Windows Hello? There is a good chance that you do not, leaving you with only a PIN or a password as the means to log in to your computer. This app allows you to use your mobile device’s fingerprint scanner to unlock your computer without the hassle of remembering passwords or PINs. Setting up Remote Fingerprint Unlock is also fairly simple. Firstly, you need to do is download the Android app. Secondly, install the Windows Fingerprint Credential Module. Finally, go through the setup process in the app. This app is available on devices with Android 6.0 & above and supports all Windows PCs with Windows Vista & above.
The free version of the app allows you to set up a single computer with a single account. Features it provides are unlocking your computer with either Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and support for both local and Microsoft accounts. With the Pro version, you can add multiple computers, multiple accounts on a single computer. Use a widget instead of opening the to unlock the computer and get an ad-free experience within the app.
Get the Windows Fingerprint Credential Module
Last Pass
Keeping track of dozens or hundreds of strong, unique passwords just isn’t possible without a password manager. LastPass offers plenty of top features including secure sharing, a password strength report, and dark web monitoring. With LastPass’s free version you get auto-filling capabilities. A password generator, one-to-one sharing capabilities, secure notes, a password strength report, and support for multifactor authentication.
Unfortunately, LastPass is changing device-syncing rules for free users on March 16. Previously, free users could sync passwords across any platforms LastPass supports, including desktop and mobile devices. Now, LastPass makes users without a Premium plan choose between syncing passwords with only Computers (browsers) or only Mobile Devices (phone & tablets). We can change the primary device upto three. If you only intend to use LastPass on a single type of device, it is the best password manager in the market.
Microsoft Authenticator
The Microsoft Authenticator phone app gives you easy, secure access to online accounts, providing multi-factor authentication for an extra layer of security. The app also supports the industry standard for time-based, one-time passcodes (also known as TOTP or OTP). Because of that, you can add any online account that also supports this standard to the Microsoft Authenticator app. This will help keep your other online accounts secure with 2-factor Authentication enabled. You can also access the passwords that you save in the Microsoft Edge browser from the app.
ProtonMail
It is an end-to-end encrypted email service founded in 2013 in Geneva, Switzerland by scientists. It use client-side encryption to protect email content and user data before they are sent to ProtonMail servers, unlike other common email providers such as Gmail and Outlook.com. The service can be access through a webmail client, the Tor network, or dedicated iOS and Android apps. The default account setup is free, the service is sustained by optional paid services.
ProtonVPN
It is one of the best VPNs available for Windows 10, Android and iOS and perhaps the best when it comes to privacy and security. It is created by the CERN scientists behind Proton Mail, the world’s largest encrypted email service with 20 million users. Proton’s engineering and research teams are well-known in the security industry, and they maintain some of the world’s most widely used open-source encryption software.
It offers unlimited data with 256-bit encryption and has a no-logging policy for both free and paid users. When signing up for a new account, you get a 7-day free trial of the Premium tier without the need for a credit card. Under the free tier, multiple servers from the US, Netherlands, and Japan are available for use but other than that, most countries are behind the paywall. ProtonVPN also supports DNS Leak Prevention and Kill-switch to shut off the VPN tunnel in an emergency.
Firefox Focus
Firefox Focus is the lightweight, privacy-focused mobile edition of Firefox it comes with a native ad-blocker. Its goal is to help you ‘stay focused’ by blocking annoying ads and trackers. This is designed to block online trackers, including third-party advertising, with the end goal of both improving browsing speed and protecting user’s privacy. It erases your history, passwords, and cookies as soon as you close the app, so you won’t get followed by things like unwanted ads. On December 20, 2018, Mozilla announced that Firefox Focus now checks all URLs against the Google Safe Browsing service to help prevent people from accessing fraudulent sites.
Tor Browser
Tor is a free and open-source software for enabling anonymous communication by directing Internet traffic through a free, worldwide, volunteer overlay network consisting of more than seven thousand relays to conceal a user’s location and usage from anyone conducting network surveillance or traffic analysis. This Browser for Android is the only official mobile browser supported by the Tor Project.
With this Browser for Android, you can block trackers from sites such as Google and Facebook, defend yourself from surveillance and access content that may be blocked by your service provider. Depending on individual user needs, the Tor browser offers three levels of security – Standard (Default), Safer, Safest. In addition to encrypting the data, including constantly changing an IP address through a virtual circuit comprising successive, randomly selected Tor relays, several other layers of security are at the user’s disposal.
Signal Private Messenger
Signal is an open-source service that allows you to communicate securely with contacts, using end-to-end encryption and without any of your data ever being accessed or stored on a remote server. The app also now allows you to conduct encrypted voice and video calls with other Signal users. You can find people from your regular contacts or simply enter a phone number to start a conversation.
If the other person also uses Signal, the conversation will be secure — and you’ll see the option to launch a secure voice or video chat as well. If the recipient isn’t using Signal, you’ll still be able to text normally and will see a prominent “Unsecured SMS” warning in the message field. Signal is free, and no accounts are required; you just open the app, input and then verify your phone number, and you’re ready to roll.
