Internet Technology
TL;DR
- Sunday, April 30, 2023 11:14 (GMT+7)
- 11:14 April 30, 2023
Although VPNs are increasingly popular with Internet users, security experts say the tool is fraught with problems.
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VPN (Virtual Private Network) creates a private network connection between devices over the Internet. VPN is used to transmit data securely and anonymously. This tool offers several benefits when accessing blocked or geo-restricted websites and applications.
However, the explosion of VPN services has raised concerns about legal and privacy issues. Many experts believe that using VPNs is not really safe.
Camouflage for criminals
Despite the popularity of VPNs, the companies that provide them are often legally opaque. They tend to maintain sketchy and complicated policies and data ownership chains.
One of the largest virtual private network service providers today is NordVPN. Founded by two entrepreneurs, Tom Okman and Eimantas Sabaliauskas, the company currently has more than 5,500 servers located in 60 countries around the world.
Time magazine named NordVPN one of the best inventions of 2022 and said it is an essential security tool. However, its ability to hide browsing data has been exploited by cybercriminals and illegal activities.
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NordVPN office in Vilnius, Lithuania. Photo: Kayla Kauffman/Felix Von Der Osten. |
Rapper Drake's Instagram posts have shown him using NordVPN to gamble online. Meanwhile, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has been banned by a court from using a VPN after reportedly using a private network to watch the Super Bowl while on probation.
Earlier this year, police in Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Latvia, Ukraine, the United States, and the United Kingdom took down “VPNLab.net,” an online security service used by cybercriminals to spread ransomware.
According to data from Top10VPN , after the conflict between Russia and Ukraine broke out, which resulted in people in the country being blocked from accessing Facebook and Twitter, Russians' interest in VPNs increased by more than 1,000%.
Nord Security went on to become the world's most valuable VPN startup, raising $100 million in funding and valuing it at $1.6 billion . Along with Kape's ExpressVPN, Nord became the face of a rapidly growing industry.
Most VPN security measures we studied were ineffective.
Roya Ensafi, professor of computer science at the University of Michigan
Still, security experts warn that users should not rely on VPNs as a guarantee of privacy. Roya Ensafi, a professor of computer science at the University of Michigan, said she and her colleagues have found that VPN manufacturers misrepresent their services.
According to her, Internet service providers (ISPs) can easily find out who is using a VPN based on traffic. In some cases, governments or ISPs can temporarily disrupt VPN connections and expose users' sensitive personal information.
“Most of the VPN security measures we studied were ineffective. Some companies were also found to collect user data or store traffic logs,” the expert said.
In 2017, the Wall Street Journal reported that Onavo Protect, a free VPN service run by Facebook, had been tracking how often users visited competing social networks. Facebook later made public the information it was collecting and shut down Onavo.
Not really safe
Jack Wilson, a PhD student at Scotland's Abertay University, said all VPNs really do is “transfer trust” from users to the companies providing the service.
“The VPN ecosystem was born to serve hackers,” said Jovan Petrovic, an employee at HideMyAss, who said the service is mostly used to watch Netflix or download blocked content. He explained that VPNs have never been a great security product.
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NordVPN founders Tom Okman and Eimantas Sabaliauskas. Photo: Kayla Kauffman/Felix Von Der Osten. |
“All it does is download data, watch movies online and porn,” he told Bloomberg .
Nord and other VPN companies often prey on consumer concerns about data privacy. In 2017, the US government overturned a law that required ISPs to ask users for permission before sharing or selling their browsing history to marketing companies.
This caused NordVPN's US user base to nearly quadruple shortly thereafter.
Kazimieras Celiesius, a former NordVPN employee, said the company's advertising campaigns over the years often targeted a customer base with little or no expertise.
“I call it the ‘tech-illiterate’ segment. They see the ad on TV, buy it, and don’t even know how to turn it on. Some ads promise military-grade encryption and claim your data will never be compromised,” Celiesius said.
VPN businesses have also gained customer trust through marketing. Celiesius also hinted that Cybernews, a reputable VPN review site, has a direct relationship with NordVPN.
In short, who do you trust more? ISP or some VNP company.
Jack Wilson, PhD student at Abertay University
“Customers can’t find a trustworthy VPN. They can’t access the data center to check if the provider’s servers are protected, or make sure Nord is hiding their web traffic,” the former employee continued.
In 2019, Bloonberg reported that Nord’s infrastructure at a data center in Finland had been breached, raising concerns about the potential for NordVPN user data to be leaked.
In September 2021, Kape bought the ExpressVPN brand for $936 million . This raised further questions about the safety of virtual private networks because Kape's products previously allowed developers to sneak ads onto users' computers.
Security experts also warn VPN users that they are not immune to attacks. NordVPN keeps users’ email addresses and payment information on file, and there are multiple ways to identify users.
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