Notebookcheck | December 27, 2019
Ookla, the company that owns and operates speedtest.net, will soon offer another free service for savvy Internet users: a VPN. The Speedtest VPN, as it’s being called, is available through Ookla’s Speedtest apps for iOs and Android. On paper, it looks fairly good, especially for a free VPN. Ookla promises that its free VPN keeps no logs and doesn’t track user activity. It also taps into a shared pool of over 40,000 IP addresses and assigns them to users randomly to help bolster anonymity. However, like all free VPNs, there are a few catches. Firstly, the Speedtest VPN is currently in Beta, so there are bound to be a few bugs as Ookla hammers everything out. Additionally, users are capped at 2 GB of bandwidth every month. Perhaps a bit ironically, the data sent and received in Ookla’s speedtest eats up this allowance.
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The Hacker News | June 06, 2018
It turns out that the threat of the massive VPNFilter botnet malware that was discovered late last month is beyond what we initially thought. Security researchers from Cisco's Talos cyber intelligence have today uncovered more details about VPNFilter malware, an advanced piece of IoT botnet malware that infected more than 500,000 routers in at least 54 countries, allowing attackers to spy on users, as well as conduct destructive cyber operations. Initially, it was believed that the malware targets routers and network-attached storage from Linksys, MikroTik, NETGEAR, and TP-Link, but a more in-depth analysis conducted by researchers reveals that the VPNFilter also hacks devices manufactured by ASUS, D-Link, Huawei, Ubiquiti, QNAP, UPVEL, and ZTE. "First, we have determined that are being targeted by this actor, including some from vendors that are new to the target list. These new vendors are. New devices were also discovered from Linksys, MikroTik, Netgear, and TP-Lin," the researchers say. To hijack devices manufactured by above listed affected vendors, the malware simply relies on publicly-known vulnerabilities or use default credentials, instead of exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities. Besides this, the researchers primarily shared technical details on a new stage 3 module, named "ssler," which is an advanced network packet sniffer that, if installed, allows hackers to intercept network traffic passing through an infected router and deliver malicious payloads using man-in-the-middle attacks.
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SecurityWeek | May 31, 2018
Encrypted email service provider ProtonMail on Wednesday announced the availability of a virtual private network (VPN) service for macOS users. Initially introduced for some of its paid ProtonMail users in early 2017, the VPN service saw a wider launch on Windows last year, and also arrived on Android in January 2018. Last year, the CERN-founded company also launched a Tor hidden service and an encrypted contacts manager. Following a beta testing period, the Swiss-based service provider is now making the VPN application available for all macOS users, allowing them to easily protect their Internet connections. Users who already have a ProtonVPN or ProtonMail account only need to download the application, log in, and start using it immediately. Developed by the same team behind ProtonMail, the VPN service takes advantage of technologies such as Secure Core and Tor integration and is available for free with no ads. Furthermore, the company claims that users can enjoy it without worrying about malware or monetization of user data. “With our VPN for Mac application, it is now extremely simple to switch countries, create custom profiles, connect to the Tor network, and route your traffic through our Secure Core servers. Not to mention all the essential perks of ProtonVPN, like hiding your IP address, defending against cyber-attacks, and unblocking censored content,” ProtonMail says.
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