New developments and ShadowVPN

Greetings everyone. It has been a while since we posted an update here. Xero Network's ShadowVPN discount brand has officially launched, I've been working on some of our software and design, and Kyle has new projects underway.

First things first. ShadowVPN is a new $10/month VPN-only service from Xero. Many folks have asked me how this compares to XeroBank. First off, ShadowVPN has no encrypted email or other features that come with it. It is pure vpn for those who just need to do a little web surfing. How little? 10GB/month, whereas Xero give 75GB/month. How does ShadowVPN compare to the XeroBank network? Shadow is a 1-hop network in the Netherlands, XeroBank is a multi-hop international network with many cascade anonymity techniques. Shadow allows only 1 connection, XeroBank allows unlimited concurrent connections so you can sure all your computers at one time.

That begs the question, why ShadowVPN? Many people want the promise of secrecy that Xero brings, but can't afford XeroBank's luxuries. We encounter folks from all walks of life that really believe in XeroBank and want to support it, so they buy a ShadowVPN account. At the end of the day you have lots of VPN services you can choose from. Almost none of them cost as little as $10/month that provide true OpenVPN. The others provide terrible PPTP or L2TP. So this is a great value, especially if you just want a taste of privacy. Not to mention, the privacy provided by ShadowVPN is high than others, why? Because ShadowVPN user traffic mixes with XeroBank client traffic, so there is even higher crowding and anonymity. Anyone spying on our network can't tell if you came from the 1-hop network, or if you came from XeroBank!

My projects have been something different as of late. We recently added MD5-RSA checking against weak SSL certificates into xB Browser. This was exactly what was needed due to the recent threat that was demonstrated at 25C3 recently. I am proud to say XeroBank got there first, and is the only browser with this protection. I am also working on a new auto-updater that works outside the browser, that stays as a live service quietly updating your components in the background. As many of you can tell, we have restructured the site and have brought back the forum and blog and will be opening up two or three new areas on the site for community interaction. You said you wanted it, so we're doing it for you.

Kyle's new projects include the DeAnonymizer that will check for anonymity leaks via a website. This will be a free new service so those of you without VPN anonymity can see what everyone else can see about you. The issue is companies like who provide pseudo-anonymity and little to no privacy for their users. These users get a false sense of security, and we will show them why. This deanonymizer tools will bypass those "anonymity" company's products and reveal the true IP of a visitor. Kind of cool. Kyle has also been working on our junior CryptoRouter, codenamed the JanusPA. It is a consumer-level product that locks down your internet connection to an anonymity service without the use of any software. It is all plug and play hardware. Kyle thought it would be nice to give away the design to the Tor community, and I agree. Their reception of it has been positive thus far, with much clamoring for purchases. We'll see what we can do for them, and for our users. Surprisingly, you know what the biggest hurdle here is? Enclosure fabrication. Who knew? Kyle is going to be showing more projects at XeroBank shortly, so get ready users and competitors to have your minds blow.

2009 is going to be a great year!