1/25/2017 discussion by John Stampfel

In a few workshops there has been discussion of using VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) to provide better privacy and maybe security. This recent article evaluating (and testing) 283 free and paid VPN services found many did not provide what users want. Specifically, they open wide security and privacy holes. This article on lifehacker.com started me reading a little more.

http://lifehacker.com/researchers-issue-security-warnings-about-several-popul-1791617644

The ten with the worst VirusTotal AV ranks are:
OkVpn; EasyVpn; SuperVPN; Betternet CrossVpn; Archie VPN; HatVPN ; sFly Network Booster ; One Click VPN ; Fast Secure Payment

The research paper itself, which has additional information has a link at the lifehacker.com link, or is at

https://research.csiro.au/ng/wp-content/uploads/sites/106/2016/08/paper-1.pdf

Krebs on security had an article about proxies back in 2015 with similar warnings. See

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/06/free-proxies-arent-necessarily-free/#more-31322

A comment in the Krebs article has a link to another article describing how to build your own VPN if you REALLY need one.

John Stampfel