Not all VPNs are the same. Some do a great job, others do not. Most VPN experts have known for some time that most of the free VPNs are risky. This week, a security researcher has published code that exposes users’ names and locations in Hotspot Shield, a very popular free VPN. In short, using Hotspot Shield isn’t much more secure than using no VPN at all.
Hotspot Shield, developed by AnchorFree, has an estimated 500 million users around the world relying on its privacy service. By bouncing a user’s internet and browsing traffic through its own encrypted pipes, the service makes it harder for others to identify individual users and eavesdrop on their browsing habits. However, an information disclosure bug in the privacy service results in a leak of user data, such as which country the user is located, and the user’s Wi-Fi network name, if connected.
You can read the details in an article by Zack Whittaker in the ZDNet web site at: http://zd.net/2El2yVN.
If you want a VPN that offers true security, it appears that you need to pay for it. Even that is no guarantee.
- New Jersey Governor Signs Net Neutrality Order
- Use Encipher.it to Quickly and Easily Encrypt Your E-mail Messages
Categories: VPN (Virtual Private Networking)
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Privacy Blog 