Encrypts browser-based HTTPS traffic to protect your data on public Wi-Fi.

In the morning, the mining magnate would wake to a phone ringing off the hook. Journalists from three countries would have copies of the ledgers. And somewhere in the server logs of a dozen ISPs, there would be only gaps—silent, encrypted gaps where a Firefox browser, armed with a tiny blue "U," had passed through like a ghost through a wall.

The download finished.

For years, it worked. It was lightweight, required no installation (you could run it from a USB stick), and it bypassed deep packet inspection filters that stumped other tools. It was the quintessential "anti-censorship" tool, lauded by human rights groups for giving a voice to the silenced.

As the download began—a slow, agonizing 12 MB—Alex watched the UltraSurf icon. Every sixty seconds, it flickered. New exit node. New identity. Finland. Then Germany. Then Canada. The file kept streaming, unbroken, because the tunnel was persistent even as the masks changed.