US senator calls on the NSA to give guidance for use of VPNs
Open source, commercial, single-hop, multi-hop, mixnet? The array of options is dizzying.
A prominent US senator is urging the National Security Agency to offer guidance to the public on the proper use of virtual private networks (VPNs) for securing communications from foreign spying. VPNs encrypt all internet traffic between a user and a remote server, hiding the user's IP address. However, concerns have been raised about the extent of protection VPNs offer.
While US agencies have previously advised using VPNs, no recommendations have been made on which VPNs provide sufficient protection. The nuances of VPNs are complex, as many limitations can undermine the protections users believe their VPN provides. For example, the encrypted tunnel often terminates once a single server decrypts the traffic, potentially allowing access to decrypted traffic or IP addresses by rogue employees or attackers who compromise the server.
Additionally, VPNs do not encrypt certain metadata, such as timestamps, enabling nations to create profiles for intelligence purposes.
Written by urgent.news from Ars Technica's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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