xeovo

Our team is happy to introduce our new status page. We are still tweaking some small things, but it's a stable version, which we will maintain and improve over time.

Why a new status page?

Our previous status page was running on an open source solution named "Cachet". The main problem was a lack of updates and missing functionality.

Forking other open source solutions would require a lot of time and resources. Paid solutions didn't meet our criteria. That's why we decided to build our status page from scratch.

We achieved everything we wanted:

Fully automated monitoring solution for our infrastructure.
Server load is shown per region and updated every 5 minutes.
Messages are sent automatically to our separate Telegram channel and Twitter account, if something is not working.
Building transparency by informing quickly our customers and explaining why the specific server was down.

We won't post maintenance or down/up messages on our main social accounts anymore. Please follow our standalone accounts for live updates.

New locations

Initially, we wanted to add three new locations but decided to stick with two new ones. Instead, we expanded our network in Finland due to increased popularity in this region.

• The United Kingdom, London (1 server)
• Poland, Warsaw (2 servers)
• Finland, Helsinki (3 new servers in a different data center)

Both locations were requested by our customers. Remember that, if you are using our VPN you can share your feedback through the dashboard and request new locations!

Enjoy the update and have a nice weekend!

Most likely you are already using a password manager (if not, please get one and don't reuse your passwords), but have you ever through what happens when your password manager gets breached and how you can mitigate such risk?

Here comes peppering to help you. Whenever you don't trust your password manager or want an extra layer of security. Peppering has many names, such as a “secret salt” or “salting“. Or we can keep it simple and call it “password splitting”.

Peppering rules

Before you start peppering your passwords you need to follow these rules:

1. Pepper only important passwords (bank, email, messengers, etc).
2. Your pepper should blend well with generated passwords.
3. Don't use website names as your pepper.
4. Try to avoid creating multiple peppers. Use one.

How to pepper your passwords

Add pepper at the end of your passwords. If you are using randomly generated passwords such as "EaqbrfbX6KA7" you can just add a simple PIN that won't stand out, for example "wu30".

If you are using a passphrase, like "leverage-viper-scallion", you can just add "bobcat", or any other word, that you will remember.

To put it into practice, you need to save your passwords without pepper in your password manager. Add your pepper manually whenever trying to sign in on the website.

Benefits of peppering your passwords

1. No need to trust your password manager.
2. Most important passwords will be safe if someone accesses your password manager or manages to hack the master password. Hackers will think that you already changed passwords.
3. Peppering can protect you from apps, which use clipboard snooping or have access to your clipboard. It protects you because you copy/paste your password without your pepper.

Downsides of peppering your passwords

1. It will require more manual work.
2. Modern password managers can search for your passwords in data breaches and inform you what you need to change the password.

Frequently asked questions

Q: Which password manager does Xeovo recommend?‌‌
A: We won't mention any brands here. Preferably choose open source and audited password manager.

Q: Does peppering replace 2FA?
A: No. It was never meant to replace it. Always use 2FA, if possible.

Q: What if my pepper leaks?
A: This scenario is unlikely to happen. You are still safe because no one knows the first generated part. Just don't pepper your passwords for every website you use.

Silence censorship. Protect your privacy and bypass restrictions with Xeovo VPN. Starting from 2,99€/mo.

It's that time of the year again. Just like last year we are publishing our new transparency report for 2020. We believe that transparency reports are an important part of our company. We will keep publishing them annually.

Law enforcement and police requests

• Search warrants - 0
• Subpoenas - 0
• Court orders - 0

Other legal requests

We receive other requests such as DMCA, DDoS, login attempts, spam, port scanning, etc. Currently, we don't include this in the report. All of these requests have been denied because we have no information to provide.

How we handle requests?

Our legal department handles all the requests and ensures that they are legit. They do investigate every request, but as we don't store any information, we do not have any data to provide when requested.

Got questions?

Send your email to legal@xeovo.com

Xeovo does very little advertising. Most of our new clients come from word of mouth — meaning, they come from you when you invite your friends and colleagues. We appreciate that and believe that such loyalty deserves a reward.

That's why we took an extra step and improved our current customer referral program. Before this update, if your friend signs up and buys our VPN you get an extra month for free. Now your friend will get an extra month as well. We want to reward both parties and find it fairer.

To access your unique referral link and stats open the dashboard.

Possibility to subscribe

This option will save you time if you are tired of manual renewing. This option is only available for payments with credit/debit cards and PayPal. You can cancel your subscription at any time in your profile.

For now, you cannot apply any coupons if you want to subscribe. In case you have an active coupon, you should make a one-time payment and later subscribe.

One-time payments will always remain as a default option when trying to purchase our VPN.

Changelog

• Possibility to subscribe with Stripe and PayPal
• Revamped referral program and page
• Referral links are now shorter (only for new users)
• Bug fixes and stability improvements
• Profile page looks better now

We thank you for your patronage all these years and hope you'll enjoy this update. Thank you!

You might want to do this before you delete your account, or just to reduce the amount of data Facebook has got on you. We highly recommend all our users to minimize data sharing with such companies.

Facebook puts profits over people's privacy. Breaches, leaks, storing passwords as plain text, third-parties accessing your data — the list goes on.

Additionally, we recommend downloading a copy of data from your Facebook account, before you start deleting it. Open "Settings" -> "Your Facebook Information" -> "Download Your Information".

Step by step guide

1. Change your Facebook language to English.
2. Open "Activity log" or just access it through this link.
3. Open browser and press F12 to open developers tools. Now select "Console".
4. Copy and paste the JavaScript code below and hit enter. It will start automatically removing all comments and likes.

setInterval(() => { for (const Button of document.querySelectorAll('div[aria-label="Action options"]')) { Button.click(); for (const remove of document.querySelectorAll('div[role="menuitem"]')) { remove.click() } } }, 1000)

API limits

Most likely you will hit API limits in ₁₀ minutes if you have a lot of comments and likes. You should use the filter to delete month by month. Wait for API limits reset and repeat, until all comments and likes are gone.

Conclusion

Currently, this is the fastest and easiest way to remove all the comments and likes, but there is no way to verify if Facebook removes them. All the deleted data may be retained for an unknown amount of time.

Recently we noticed many popular blogs covering this topic and recommending to readers to blur their house on "Google Street View". At first glance, it might seem like a no-brainer, and you should do it to improve your privacy.

But this is not so straightforward and most likely will cause more problems. We want to cover all cons and pros and why you might not need to blur your house on Google Maps.

Cons:

1. This is permanent. You won't be able to unblur your house. There will be no more updates in your area.
2. Google is not the only one website having a picture of your house. Bing, Apple Maps, or Yandex is a good example. Let's also add here Redfin, Zillow, and other real estate websites.
3. This might complicate selling your house in the future.
4. Most likely, your house will be the only one blurred in the block, which might bring more unwanted attention.

Unless you live in Germany...

Google map shows quite well how much Germans value their privacy. After the launch of "Street View", a lot of people and politicians were unhappy with the fact that a foreign country is going to have access to the images of Germans' houses.

Even though Google blur license plates and faces it was not enough for Germans. Google had to implement the possibility to blur houses.

The number of requests was so high that Google gave up. So it became a new norm in Germany. Google still have Street View in big cities, but other places are not getting updated anymore and most likely will be removed in the future.

Pros:

1. You want to improve your house security. It is a powerful tool for burglars to reconnaissance. They can spot your security cameras, gates and find hiding spots without showing at your house. Remember that your house is still visible from the satellite view.
2. You want to improve your privacy (don't forget about cons).
3. You don't want Google to have images of your house.

How to blur my house?

1. Search your address in Google Maps.
2. Drag and drop yellow guy from the right bottom side.
3. Get a good view of your house and click "Report problem" on the right bottom side.
4. Select that you want to blur "My home" and fill other required fields.
5. Submit and wait. Google might request more information.

Conclusion:

We think and believe that every person should have the right to blur their houses on any public map. Just remember that you might achieve the "Streisand effect" by doing this and bring more attention.

In the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak late last year, some countries deliberately shut down the internet in an attempt to curb the spread of information about the pandemic.
Digital censorship and internet shutdowns are rising

33 countries participated in digital censorship by either shutting down the internet or filtering information accessible to the people. These countries ended up hurting their economy, as well as the world economy with their actions.

So far, internet shutdowns in various countries are said to have cost the world economy up to $8 billion in losses.

Understanding what digital censorship is

One in every six countries has, in one way or another, participated in some form of censorship.

What this means is that some countries blocked some apps, cut-off access to the web, or throttled the internet in the name of controlling the access and flow of information.

Amidst a global crisis, a lot of inaccurate information can be peddled around, leading to unnecessary panic and unrest. The internet is the fastest way to make both correct and incorrect information go viral.

Some countries partake in digital censorship to protect its people while other countries do so to shape opinions, control, and manipulate information accessible by the public.

Here’s a closer look at the specific tools used mostly by these countries to shut down or control the flow of data across the internet.

Affected countries

People living in countries like India, Iraq, Yemen, Algeria, Bangladesh, Venezuela, and Myanmar still have little or no clue about the real state of events even as Covid-19 cases continue to rise.

Countries like Ethiopia have ceased censoring information and have lifted the ban. Other countries continue to order internet shutdowns intermittently, India leading with up to 121 recorded shutdowns in total. In Yemen there were 12 shutdowns, 8 in Iraq, 12 in Venezuela, and 6 in Algeria.

Such countries disrupt the internet, partially or completely, to protest or tame civil unrest. They also do so to forge election results and cause political shifts or to nullify the law in the absence of evidence.

So how do such countries manage to completely or partially shut down the internet?

Tools used to shut down or monitor the internet

For the longest time, different countries have deliberately controlled access to information by disrupting social media, through internet blackouts and using diverse technical measures to mess with digital communication.

The emergence of Covid-19 has seen digital censorship cases double across the globe. This because most political leaders have a say or already own the main Internet Service Providers-ISPs in their countries. This is how they succeed in putting up firewalls without the civil society being able to detect what is behind the interruptions.

Some of the intricate tools or techniques used to control or filter the internet include:

Deep Packet Inspection – DPI

Governments are using DPI to monitor network traffic and block access to resources that are harmful to their interests. DPI is capable of locating, detecting, categorizing, blocking, or rerouting packets.

IP Blocking

IP blocking targets specific IP addresses by placing barriers that keep people from accessing certain sites or social media platforms. IP blocking aims at blocking traffic to platforms like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat and so on.

The authorities involved targeting the main servers belonging to these social media sites. The use of specific internet service providers to hinder or distort the exchange of information between content providers and the end-users.

HTTP-Based Blocking

Say a user tries to type in something on their search bar. If the phrase they wrote features sensitive keywords, then it acts as a red flag for the firewall already set up to stand guard. As a result, the user will not be able to find the information they are looking for as it is either blocked or the search will fail.

The firewall here is programmed to block content specific questions and phrases automatically.

DNS Poisoning

DNS poisoning is the cheapest of all tools and techniques mostly used to censor the internet. Instead of working to filter traffic on a particular network, this technique otherwise targets content. It’s like software that lurks online looking for specific content only to redirect the user somewhere totally different.

If, for example, a user typed the name of a particular site that they wanted to access, their computer would first need to contact its DNS server before gaining access to the site in question. DNS poisoning comes in to alter the search results and redirect you to another site leaving the user with the wrong site/information.

The techniques listed above are normally used individually, however, some countries combine two or more techniques to make their censoring efforts more effective. In most cases, IP blocking is combined with DPI to make the searcher's efforts of seeking certain information harder. This method is powerful enough to cause internet blackouts across an entire country. But countries like India are too large and may have to target regions at a time for the technique to work.

The Bottom line

The spike in the number of countries undertaking digital censorship means that more and more leaders are choosing to block and cut off access to information by their people in fear of criticism. The countries listed here are notorious for having internet shutdowns.

What the digital future for countries like Venezuela, India, Yemen, Iran, and Algeria appear to point towards a sovereign internet that is easier to control and manipulate. This as other countries not on this list seems to be heading towards autonomous networks that are much harder to control.

It’s now a game of ‘wait and see’ to find out where the weight tips as more countries join the digital censorship bandwagon to block and mask information.

In the mid-nineties, the US Navy devised a concept called “onion routing”, as a way that the Navy could ensure secure communication when trying to transfer sensitive intelligence.

It was further developed in the late nineties by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and released in 2002.

By 2006, The Tor Project had been founded - a Massachusetts-based 501(c)(3) research-education nonprofit organization responsible for maintaining Tor.

At its absolute most basic level, Tor uses its network of volunteers to create relays for internet traffic that allow for user anonymity.
How does Tor work?

To understand how Tor works, you need to understand a little bit about how the internet works.

Usually, when you connect to the internet with a web browser, not only are you accessing ‘packets’ of information (like apps, websites, etc.), but you are also sending out packets of information about yourself (IP address, browser, device fingerprint).

The Tor network is accessed through its browser (based on the Firefox codebase), and it strips all of your packets. The browser then bounces your information to the various nodes, encrypting your data at every layer.

Think of Tor as an anonymity onion.

You go through the onion and hit an “exit node” before you’ve even gone to a website. The Tor network bounces around the location of a user, essentially rendering it impossible to track.

How do I use Tor?

While all of that might sound complicated, at the user end, Tor is simply a web browser that you would use like Safari, Chrome, or Firefox.

Download the browser from the official website, and it will establish necessary connection details for you.

Once you hit connect, it may take a few minutes to connect you through the relays, but from there it will work just like a standard browser.

You will also gain access to .onion domains, which are not accessible thought regular browsers.

Take-Aways

While Tor has become synonymous with the idea of accessing the ‘dark web’, or illegal activity, the truth is that people do all of those actions once they’ve entered the network.

The browser itself is simple and easy to use and is not at all illegal.

So if you’re concerned about your anonymity, Tor might be the perfect choice for you.

This month we worked hard to improve WireGuard stability and extended our generator functionality. Today we want to share with you more information and show some tips.

Updated generator for WireGuard

The biggest change is that keys are not associated anymore with countries. This way you can use one key for all locations and you won't need to delete them or generate a new one.

The best way to use a new generator is to generate new keys for each device. You can choose to download all locations in .zip archive. Archive files can be added to WireGuard on desktop, or smartphone without unzipping it in one click.
IPv6 support

Now WireGuard and OpenVPN support IPv6. This means that you get IPv6 address and have access to websites which have only IPv6.

Custom ports for WireGuard

Now you can choose which port you want to use for WireGuard keys. We offer 53, 80, 443, and 51820.

Without custom ports it was impossible to use public WiFi, because they are blocking most of the ports.

This is also great, if your ISP is blocking or throttling a particular port.

Stability improvements

This month we had some issues with generating new keys for WireGuard. We fixed this issue and improved overall stability. Now there will be less downtime and issues with WireGuard.

We would like to thank all of our customers for providing detailed feedback. We built this update based on your feedback.

From now on, we are going to publish a short annual transparency report at the end of each year. We believe that trust is the key and we should always be fully transparent regarding government requests.
Law enforcement and police requests

• Search warrants - 0
• Subpoenas - 0
• Court orders - 0

Other legal requests

We receive other requests such as DMCA, DDoS, login attempts, spam, port scanning, etc. Currently, we don't include this in the report. All of these requests have been denied because we have no information to provide.

How we handle requests?

Our legal department handles all the requests and ensures that they are legit. They do investigate every request, but as we don't store any information, we do not have any data to provide when requested.

Got questions?

Send your email to legal@xeovo.com

Why?

Our customers ask us how much VPN will consume their smartphone battery. That's why we decided to make a proper test to show real usage across different devices. So, who is going to win this battle?

How we did it?

It took us a good amount of time to optimize testing rules. Early tests failed due to instability and difference in the results. Here is our final list with requirements and rules.

Device rules:

1. Factory reset each device and update everything
2. Uninstall unnecessary apps
3. Disable auto-updates and notifications
4. Turn on airplane mode
5. Use the same versions of WireGuard and OpenVPN across all devices
6. Use default browser to download a dump file

Network rules:

1. Setup WiFi and limit the speed to 2,5 MBps
2. Only one device is connected to WiFi during test
3. Upload 1 GB dump file to the dedicated server (Frankfurt)
4. Deploy servers for WireGuard and OpenVPN (Luxembourg)

Duration rules:

1. Each test duration is 1 hour
2. Perform 15 tests in total per device (no VPN, WireGuard, OpenVPN)
3. With speed limitations, it will take around 1 hour to download a dump file
4. Reboot device before each test
5. Charge device up to 100% each time

Results

It's a draw! Both protocols will consume on average 1% more of your battery. It's worth mentioning what WireGuard is still under development and it's not optimized.

Versions used:

Android OpenVPN 3.0.7 (3565)
Android WireGuard 0.0.20191018
iOS OpenVPN 3.0.3 (2104)
iOS WireGuard v.0.0.20191015

Update 29/12/19

There is a plan to test out Android 9 and 10. Also, we want to test usage during sleep.

WireGuard has a mode where you don't send keepalives when the device sleeps, it will not initiate network connections at all. While OpenVPN needs keepalives so it will wake up the device from time to time and consume more battery.

WireGuard® is a registered trademark of Jason A. Donenfeld

Xeovo VPN provides both OpenVPN and WireGuard protocols. Protect your privacy and bypass restrictions. Starting from 2,99€/mo.

To improve the user experience we made a new dashboard. You can easily access the most important features in one place. You can now check, if you are connected to our servers, or not. We will keep tweaking dashboard and listen to your feedback.

It's been over 2 months since we added the WireGuard protocol and kept testing it every day. Overall we are really happy that we added this protocol and it performs way better than OpenVPN. There is still room for improvement and we can't wait for WireGuard stable 1.0 release.

All active customers are welcome to join our survey (closed). You can help us improve our product and shape it in the way you want it. For completing the survey we will extend your subscription for one month.

Our status page got totally changed. Now it's a separate system which can show more detailed information regarding our servers health status.

For everyone who loves writing about security and privacy, you have now the possibility to write for us and get paid for each article. Learn more about our guidelines here.

We decided to make a transparency report only once in a year, instead of each month. The next transparency report will be posted next month.

WireGuard® is a registered trademark of Jason A. Donenfeld.

Silence censorship. Protect your privacy and bypass restrictions with Xeovo VPN. Starting from 2,99€/mo.

Ready to shake-up the industry, WireGuard is a new, dynamic VPN protocol - offering faster speeds and greater reliability than other VPN solutions.

What is a VPN?

A Virtual Private Network gives you an added layer of security and privacy on the internet. It accomplishes this by masking your IP address, giving you an encrypted connection and allowing you to go undetected with your online browsing activities.
How does a VPN work?

To protect your privacy, a VPN produces a data tunnel between your local network and a node in a different location. This makes it appear as though you are located elsewhere. You might be based in New York, but a VPN could say you are located in the Netherlands.

What is a VPN Protocol?

A VPN protocol is a set of rules which VPN software has to follow to establish a connection. For the past 17 years, OpenVPN has dominated the VPN protocol space. When effectively implemented, OpenVPN can be a secure, stable and dependable solution for a VPN protocol. However, the emergence of WireGuard has thrown a challenge to the industry leader...

What is WireGuard?

Utilizing state-of-the-art cryptography, WireGuard is currently being regarded as the most secure, easiest to use, and simplest VPN protocol solution available today. The developer behind this innovative open-source software is Jason Donenfeld, the founder of Edge Security, who wrote only 4,000 lines of code for the initial release.

WireGuard is simple yet secure

When compared to the 600,000 lines of code written for OpenVPN and OpenSSL, it becomes apparent that simplicity is WireGuard’s biggest strength. WireGuard’s smaller approach makes it much easier to audit and search for vulnerabilities in the code.

WireGuard is mobile-friendly

Unlike OpenVPN, WireGuard has been created in a time when people are increasingly looking for a mobile-friendly VPN solution. With WireGuard, if your mobile device suddenly switches from WiFi to cell data, the connection will remain for as long as the VPN client continues to send authenticated data to the VPN server.
WireGuard is available cross-platform

Whilst it may not be quite ready for prime time just yet, WireGuard is expected to function well across many different platforms. WireGuard currently supports Windows, Mac OS, Android, iOS, and Linux.

WireGuard is still under development

With WireGuard’s attractive abilities allowing it to stand out from the crowd, many people are readily eager to adopt it as their primary VPN protocol as soon as possible. Because it's still in beta we advise using it for testing. This is because WireGuard has not yet undergone proper degrees of security auditing, with the protocol still being subject to change.

WireGuard support

We are happy to announce what we finally added WireGuard protocol support for our customers. Now you can use both WireGuard and OpenVPN protocols with Xeovo. Head to our new page to find more information!

WireGuard® is a registered trademark of Jason A. Donenfeld.

Silence censorship. Protect your privacy and bypass restrictions with Xeovo VPN. Starting from 2,99€/mo.

Lately, we have been focusing on improving our website and adding requested features. Our new features and UI/UX improvements are listed down below:

• Added dark mode
• Improved mobile and tablet version
• Improved sidebar and navigation
• Many other small QOL updates
• Minor bug fixes

Beginning of something big

Our blog was deployed in April. We did not make any announcement regarding this, because the blog was quite empty.

In our blog, we are going to make important announcements, monthly updates and blog posts about privacy and security.

Goodbye MTProto proxy

Since 2018 we have been offering free MTProto proxy for all Telegram users, but now it's time to let it go. Next month we are going to shut down all our MTProto proxies and stop supporting them.

We have deployed MTProto servers to help bypass Telegram blocks in Russia, Iran, Indonesia, and other countries. Some statistics:

• 5 active servers
• USA, Netherlands, Brazil, Singapore and South Korea
• Each server has around 1k continuous connections

Transparency report

From now on, Xeovo VPN is going to publish a short transparency report each month. We believe that trust is the key and we should always be fully transparent regarding government requests.

• Search warrants - 0
• Subpoenas - 0
• Court orders - 0

What's next?

Right now, our main focus is to implement Wireguard protocol. We strongly believe Wireguard is going to replace OpenVPN one day. It's a matter of time and we don't want to be behind everyone when it happens.

There will be changes to our current locations. We plan to add new locations, but we may also remove some servers due to the high cost or low usage.

Don't miss our next important announcement and subscribe to our newsletter.