VPN

I want a "secure by default" internet with all the things encrypted all the time such that people can move freely between networks without ever needing to care about who manages them or what they're doing with them. I'm a massive proponent of Let's Encrypt's and Cloudflare's missions to secure the web and of browser paradigms such as HSTS and upgrade-insecure-requests via content security policies to help make it a reality. Yet I also find myself constantly using VPNs for a variety of security and privacy related reasons and it got me thinking - why? I mean what's the remaining gap? Last month I announced I've partnered with NordVPN as a strategic adviser and as part of that effort, I...

I love security. I love privacy. Consequently, it will come as no surprise that I love tools that help people achieve those objectives. Equally, I have no patience for false promises, and I've been very vocal about my feelings there: But one of them is literally called “Secure VPN”, how is this possible?! “Are You Using These VPN Apps? Personal Info Of 20 Million Users Leaked: That’s 1.2TB Data” https://t.co/BPDww70Pgo — Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) July 20, 2020 VPNs are a great example of where a tool can be used to enhance security and privacy but often, they fall short of delivering on the promise. When you use a VPN, you're trusting a third party with...

Well, good one Australia, UK and whoever else has embarked on this hare-brained scheme, you've just made things a whole lot worse. Our respective governments (in all their ivory-towered wisdom), have decided that because one of us could one day decide to become a terrorist, they'd better keep a big whack of our internet browsing history just in case. The theory these genius policy makers have is that if they can probe into all our lives far enough, they'll be able to see when we're doing terrorist kinda stuff. And really, what better way is there than siphoning up info on the websites we go to? Job done, beer o'clock, glad we solved that one. Except no, they've just made...

I went to Helsinki a couple of years ago. I was there running a security workshop for a local company and whilst in town, I caught up with Mikko Hypponen: Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) in Helsinki today. Troy's http://t.co/zOiZnkMpNo service is highly recommended! Use it. pic.twitter.com/lf59Hz7zvI — Mikko Hypponen (@mikko) May 28, 2015 Now Mikko is a very interesting bloke having been around in the security industry since just about forever so he's seen a few things. There's a great TED talk where he talks about the first PC virus and actually travels to Pakistan to track down the guys who wrote it. He's also the Chief Research Officer at F-Secure who make...

Let’s go through just some of the ways you can hand your valuable datas over to people that want to get somewhere in between you and whatever service it is you want to talk to at the other end. You can get pineappled and certainly that’s been a favourite of mine to demonstrate because it’s just so damn easy (it’s also kinda cool, if I’m honest). The router you connect through can be pwned and its DNS changed to help pay for Brazilian hookers (yes, you read that right). The Tunisian government can just siphon up all your packets as they pass through the ISPs under their control. Ok, maybe...