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ProtonMail: How to create a strong password

A guest post from the ProtonMail Blog

You probably already know some obvious password safety tips, like don’t use “password” as your password. But did you know that a password like “Ch@ll3ng3r%$” is not much more secure? Sure, it mixes upper- and lower-case letters, numbers and special characters, like you’re often advised to do when creating a password for a new account. And yet a hacker could crack it using a dictionary attack in an hour or two. “Challenger” is a common base word, and the modifications are too simplistic to fool most hackers.

You may be thinking that no hacker would bother attacking you personally, and you’re probably right. The danger is not that a hacker will target you, but rather that your password will be part of a larger data breach. If you use a weak password, hackers can extract it from the database along with all the other weak passwords.

Therefore, your goal is to create a password that will be difficult for a hacker with a powerful computer to crack, while also being simple enough to memorize. This article will explain exactly how to do that, as well as offer some advice on what to do with your strong password once you’ve thought of it. But first it’s helpful to understand a bit about how online services use passwords to manage account access and how hackers can steal your credentials.

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The ProtonMail guide to taking control of your online privacy

A guest post from the ProtonMail Blog

Written by Ben Wolford • Find the original posting here

Updated July 2019

Improve your online privacy with this comprehensive guide, developed by the ProtonMail team. Here, we’ll help you determine your threat model and take steps to achieve online privacy that meets your needs.

Total Internet privacy is impossible, but you can get close by adjusting your online behavior — and a few of your privacy settings. This guide is designed to help you with simple, practical solutions to keep prying eyes away from your personal information.

Many Internet privacy guides promote unrealistic solutions, like using Tor all the time (which will slow your Internet) or communicating only through Signal encrypted messenger (which is useless unless your contacts are using it too). While such technologies provide a high level of privacy, they may not be necessary under your personal threat model. In other words, you probably don’t need to take the same privacy precautions as a Turkish dissident or an NSA whistleblower. And the best privacy recommendations can be counterproductive if you burn out following them, like one writer for Slate did.

So, in this guide to Internet privacy, we’ll show you how to understand your own threat model, followed by some practical steps you can take. Each of the sections has a simple recommendation you can follow to increase your online privacy. This page is designed to be a handy, ongoing resource rather than a quick checklist, so consider bookmarking this page to come back to it later when you need a refresher.

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Proton Technologies need help to test new hardware prototypes

Proton invite you to join their first community usability testing for some new prototypes. They’re looking for people who love ProtonMail and want to try out a new product. For the first stage, testers will get to meet the team in Zurich (Switzerland) this summer. For the second stage, scheduled for later this year, testers can be located anywhere in the world; we’ll send the prototypes to you. Space is limited, so apply today on their blog HERE.

This is ProtonMail’s first hardware prototype, and it’s the first time they invited in-person feedback. Last year, they partnered with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich), one of the leading technical universities in the world, and applied for a research grant from Innosuisse. The proposal was accepted, and with this support they’ve been studying how to use hardware to secure digital communication and empower users to secure their digital identity.

After many months of research and development, they are now looking for users to test a variety of early stage prototypes and give feedback about their impressions while using them. For this project, testing will be performed in two or more phases over the coming months.

Besides the chance to directly influence the development of the latest features and products, testers will get the chance to talk to some of our team members about their hopes for future Proton Technologies products.

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Essential Apple Podcast 81: Dr Andy Yen of Proton Technologies

As Mark is planning to take two weeks away to relax and enjoy his birthday we recorded this early in the week. Since then it’s all been about Facebook (and done to death by everyone else). With a view to presenting something different to everyone else this week, we are proud bring you an interview with Dr Andy Yen, CEO and founder of Proton Technologies – the company behind ProtonMail and ProtonVPN.

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ProtonMail and the Bridge

Although this sounds like a title for some science fiction book or movie, it is in fact a way to see your ProtonMail in mail clients such as Apple Mail.

A Review by James Ormiston

For those who don’t know ProtonMail is a secure, encrypted, open source, email service based in Switzerland and has a variety of free and paid options. It offers mobile apps and a web client for desktops.

Using iOS, it’s very simple to see emails sent and received via the ProtonMail app, but on macOS the only way, until now, was to use a web browser login page. This worked fine on the whole, but it wasn’t as convenient as with most other dedicated mail apps. Now, that has all changed with the release of the ProtonMail Bridge… with one small caveat.

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