Half of the worlds VPNs would not be secure – InTallaght

The VPN they are essential tools to avoid internet censorship, as well as to browse safely encrypting our entire connection and hiding it from the eyes of authorities and operators. However, many of the VPNs would not be secure, a new report reveals.

The report states that in the data they have collected, the 46.6% of all VPNs of the world are based in countries that participate in the pact of 14 eyes, where 14 countries of the world participate sharing intelligence, among which is Spain. This group includes, in turn, the Five Eyes and Nine Eyes, formed by:

Members of these agreements may share intelligence data, and you can even skip the laws that prohibit citizen surveillance. Various VPNs warn of the possibility of this type of situation, and therefore warn that using one of a specific country can lead to security problems.

Thus, a VPN could be forced to share user information with the government, which in turn would allow any member of the 14 countries to obtain such information for being part of the intelligence pact. For example, the United States might know the browsing history of a user who has committed a crime.

The eyes pact began with five countries in the 1940s and aimed to share information of military origin in the face of the Cold War. However, little by little, it was expanding to intelligence, and now it also affects the information that is available online.

The Fourteen Eyes group is also better known as SIGINT Seniors Europe, or SSEUR, according to documents leaked by Edward Snowden. The relationship between the countries that make it up is not as close and intimate as that of the Five Eyes, but even so, they can share sensitive information belonging to users.

Thus, 46.6% of VPNs are present in one of those 14 countries, and the figure increases to 48.4% if we consider that there are countries that also collaborate at the intelligence level such as Israel, Singapore, Japan and Korea from the south. The risk is even higher by users using free VPNs, most of whom do not guarantee 100% anonymity; especially if a judge asks them to identify a user.

Among the data collected by VPNs are the websites visited, connection times, bandwidth, server location, and even the original IP address with which they can contact an operator to help them identify the real user with the name. And surnames.

Therefore, the key is to use a VPN that does not keep records, and that is located in a country that does not fall within the Fourteen Eyes alliance. For example, Express VPN is based in the British Virgin Islands, while Nord VPN It is found in Panama, so they would be the best VPNs that we can use at the privacy level.

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Half of the worlds VPNs would not be secure - InTallaght