Jigsaw is the name of a company within the Alphabet conglomerate that was born as a project incubator within Google. The group’s new app is Intra, a program that serves to encrypt the DNS connection on Android.
The DNS (Domain Name System) server is a kind of contact book. Whenever your cell phone tries to access a website or application server, the device searches the DNS for the correct address of that web page or app.ADVERTISING
The problem is that DNS is fairly easy to corrupt. This week, for example, GhostDNS was discovered, a virus that modifies the settings of a router to divert traffic from devices on the network to malicious pages.
A tampered DNS can, for example, take you to a fake page whenever you try to access your bank’s website. This fake page can trick you into entering sensitive data, such as your card number and password, while you think you are on your bank’s official website.ADVERTISING
Intra serves to protect your Android phone from this type of tampering. The application encrypts the data leaving your smartphone and guarantees that it will be taken, without deviation, to a secure DNS server. The system resembles that of a regular VPN, but it is a little different.
A VPN encrypts your data, takes it to its own server, and from there, it is taken to the web. Intra does not take your information to another server, but only hides the direct connection to the DNS server using local encryption, with no loss of internet speed.
By default, the app connects your Android to Google’s public DNS (8.8.8.8), but the user can change this setting and choose a server they trust. Intra is also used to circumvent blocks that try to prevent access to certain sites.
The application works in the background and, according to the developer team, it does not slow down the internet connection or consume data from the mobile network. The company, although closely linked to Google, guarantees that it does not monitor the sites you access and does not collect sensitive data.