Anonymous Surfing When Off Base
Anonymous surfing can increase the security for U.S. Military Personnel when off base. Due to call of duty, many US military personnel have to leave the U.S. and live in other countries. They are found almost all over the world, and they are used to maintaining constant connection with the U.S. There are times when they decide to use commercially available networks in order to watch US TV on the Internet, access US websites, or communicate with their loved ones. This makes them vulnerable to losing their anonymity.
Taking into consideration their need to do surfing for personal reasons, there has to be a safe and secure way of doing so. It is here where the use of an anonymous proxy becomes very relevant. By definition, “an anonymous proxy is designed to protect the privacy and anonymity of web browsers from web site operators, Internet snoops, and even unfriendly governments.”
For military personnel who live off base, their identity can be safely hidden by choosing a proxy server that they trust. Through this proxy, a specific website URL can be connected to without actually requesting it through their computers’ unique IP address. Instead, it is the proxy server that forwards their request to the URL thus their identity is completely hidden.
Indiscriminate use of commercially available networks for personal surfing without the use of an anonymous proxy can be very dangerous, especially when the same computers are used for work-related transactions. Important information that involves national security could be easily stolen along the way.
This is the reason why U.S. Military Personnel living off base should avoid using just any network and why they should never send even trivial information about their work from their home PC.
Forgetting about military information for a moment, even when using an anonymous proxy, it is still a good idea to take extra care when giving personal data. If the website that asks for personal information is a scam, your information can be used against you.
Last, access the Internet more securely by using a proxy with which you are familiar. This means that you should know the protocols that it supports. Proxy servers may support FTP (File Transfer Protocol), HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) or for the better ones, HTTPS (Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol). In order to prevent packet sniffers from intercepting your data, find an anonymous proxy that allows you to set up an encrypted tunnel.
