Building a Better Private Network

All our devices and apps use the internet these days. But what are they doing on the internet, exactly? Who are they talking to? You’d be surprised. But there are tools which will not only let you see what they’re up to, but also let you have fine-grain control over what communications you want to allow. But just the mere fact that they’re sending and receiving data to and from multiple sources can be revealing, too. While VPN’s are good for adding a layer of security, they’re really not great at adding privacy – despite having “private” in the name. Thankfully, there’s a new service that can help there, too. We’ll be discussing network privacy and how we can improve it with the CEO of Safing, Raphael Fiedler.

Raphael Fiedler is the CEO of Safing, a speaker on topics about privacy, and a regular co-host on an InfoSec podcast.

Interview Notes

• Safing.io, Portmaster, Safing Privacy Network (SPN): https://safing.io/ 
• Securitized podcast: https://www.securityzed.com/ 
• The Hut Six Story: Breaking the Enigma Codes https://www.amazon.com/Hut-Six-Story-Breaking-Enigma/dp/0947712348 
• Naomi Brockwell, The Dark Side of VPNs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MHBMdTBlok 
• OSI Layer Model: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_model 
• Nym network: https://nymtech.net/ 
• SPN white paper: https://safing.io/files/whitepaper/Gate17.pdf 

Further Info

• 300th episode promotion: https://fdsd.me/ep300 
• Patron promotion: https://fdsd.me/coinpromo 
• Send me your questions! https://fdsd.me/qna 
• Support me! https://fdsd.me/support 
• Subscribe to the newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter 
• Check out my book, Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons: https://fdsd.me/book 
• Would you like me to speak to your group about security and/or privacy? https://fdsd.me/speakerrequest 
• Generate secure passphrases! https://d20key.com/#/ 

Table of Contents

• 0:00:35: Promotions update – last call!
• 0:02:11: Interview preview
• 0:04:41: How did Safing start? What problems are you trying to solve?
• 0:07:57: What are the most likely threats to our home network?
• 0:10:12: Are our devices and apps tattling on us?
• 0:14:14: What can an application firewall do for us?
• 0:17:04: Given broad use of HTTPS, do we need VPNs like we used to?
• 0:19:30: Can we collect useful analytics and still preserve privacy?
• 0:23:46: Which VPN marketing claims are bogus or misleading?
• 0:29:31: How does a decentralized VPN work?
• 0:33:10: What is the value of a decentalized VPN?
• 0:35:13: How is your SPN different from a VPN?
• 0:41:10: Who owns the SPN exit nodes?
• 0:43:27: Can your SPN mix traffic amongst backbone providers?
• 0:48:18: Can an SPN do anything to prevent fingerprinting?
• 0:51:14: Does a multi-connection SPN confuse some websites or apps?
• 0:54:28: How does the SPN compare to Tor or Apply Private Relay?
• 1:00:22: What’s the roadmap look like for Portmaster and SPN?
• 1:03:30: Wrap-up