Choosing a VPN service can be a very tiresome task, considering that you are choosing a middleman between you and your ISP, so going with a reliable provider is of the essence.  However there are shortcuts to every tiresome task and working smart rather than working hard proves true in the case of VPN review platforms also.

There’s a multitude of reviews for every VPN product out there and no shortage of vpn review platforms, moreover every major technology site seems to have a dedicated section for reviews and vpn reviews in particular.

However, being passionate about data security as we are, we recently discovered a new site, vpnetic.com, that contains all the good stuff in terms of VPN reviews with dozens of reviews for  every popular VPN service and a bunch of new comers and new names in addition to  the most coveted.

All good stuff, no nonsense . They also do analysis on IT and security related topics such as: cloud storage and software, they give advice on password managers and antivirus, so they focus both on the educative and the lucrative. If you too are looking to set yourself up with a VPN service checking their reviews out first is probably for the best as you can get a tone of information about a lot of VPN providers, all in one place. You can also expect to get a good VPN deal with their affiliate links.

RESIST FALLING FOR A FREE VPN DEAL

Beyond reviews, it is important to choose a paid VPN service as going with a free one might defeat the purpose of having a VPN service in the first place by harming your computer.

“When the product is free. You are the product”

A VPN service implies having servers in various countries, so the maintenance or renting costs can amount a few figures, depending on volume.

While most legit businesses will offer 7 days of free trial, a free connection on a indefinite period of time is sure to get its profit elsewhere; in ways that may harm your security and defeat the whole purpose of having a VPN in the first place.

Even more compelling evidence on the security risks one might face when exposed to a FREE vpn surface once you start doing research. Take the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) the federal government agency for scientific research of Australia. In a study performed a few years ago, they analyzed no less than 283 VPN services only to find that 75% of the free ones contained tracking possibilities. You can read the entire CSIRO white paper here.

We list the most common of these corrupt practices that some VPN providers have been revealed to apply, while others admit as comme d’habitude use in their lawyer-eese terms of service or in very fine print.

SELLING USERS BANDWIDTH

using their users as servers by converting them into a botnet, some VPN providers appropriate their user bandwidth as their own and are resellling it through third parties or sister companies.

In other words, by searching a bargain you can be faced with two main issues:

1. Slower computer and internet connection: as you’re sharing your bandwidth and processor with others;

2. Higher Security Risks: assuming responsibility for what other users do online, that can be tracked down back to your IP.

DATA COLLECTION

In depth analytics of your use data can be sold to third parties companies also. In this case, your FREE VPN becomes a data collection machine that can use your browsing history and online habits to target you with spam, ads and may even compromise your banking accounts or hold you for ransom. Choosing a VPN provider, like My IP.io, that goes on a “no log kept” policies is the best approach to the matter.

ADS

modifying the web code to show ads is a common practice for “free” VPN services.

CSIRO identified FREE vpn apps “actively injecting JavaScript codes using frames for advertising and tracking purposes, while the static analysis of source code revealed apps that actively use up to 5 different third party tracking libraries.”

TRACKING LIBRARIES

The same study examined through ApkTool “the presence of embedded third party libraries (in the form of external hat files) for analytics, tracking or advertising purposes in the source code of free android apps. […] Since most VPN apps intend to provide online anonymity, the lower presence of tracking libraries is actually meaningful. However, we identified the presence of at least one tracking library in 75% of the FREE VPN apps claiming to protect user’s privacy” is stated in the same study.

POOR ENCRYPTION OR LACK THEREOF

The CSIRO research revealed worrisome aspects regarding encryption: “18% of the VPN apps implement tunneling protocols without encryption despite promising online anonymity and security to their users. In fact approximately 84% and 66% of the analyzed VPN apps do not tunnel IPv6 and DNS traffic through the tunnel interface respectively due to lack of IPv6 support, misconfigurations or developer-induced errors. Both the lack of strong encryption and traffic leakage can ease online tracking activities and by surveillance agencies.”

MALWARE

According to the CSIRO study “38% of the analyzed VPN apps by CSIRO have at least one positive malware report according to VirusTotaagencies.”

The Paid vs. The FREE VPN Issue

A good VPN will have its own servers and encryption protocols designed for it, reducing possible security failures to a minimum. Free VPN servicesare often an open door to malware and can be easily used by scammers.

In the FREE vs. PAID matter, its is important to understand that most legit businesses will offer 7 days of free trial, but a free connection on an indefinite period of time is sure to get its profit elsewhere; in ways that can harm your security and defeat the whole purpose of having a VPN in the first place.

We suggest you do yourself a favor and invest a good 5 bucks for a reliable VPN like the dedicated VPN you can get from My IP.io or from another reliable provider. You can check reviews for MyIP.io too on VPNetic.com here.

As a general rule, mundane but so incredibly important, reading the company’s Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy, before buying a vpn service is a thing you should really consider. Ideally, these documents are in plain English and not lawyer-eese.

All in all, when choosing a VPN service one should check reviews and avoid free VPN deals beforehand. VPNetic is the this month’s finding in terms of vpn reviewing platforms. Go give it a try, browse through and make an informed decision when setting yourself up with bulletproof VPN protection

 

 

 

At MyIP we believe in the power of small acts of kindness done consistently. We believe in global solidarity and global support. That is why we are writing to let you know how we can enable you to stay safe offline and online.

We remain fully operational so that you can remain home.

During these moments of social anxiety and economic uncertainty, we remain fully operational, while taking all necessary precautions to ensure the health of our employees and the same level of performance of our service.

 

 

 

This is how we are handling the situation

Even if we can’t be closer physically, we remain connected.

We enabled all our employees to work remotely while keeping the same working hours in place.

If you need support on all things MyIP.io or want to say hi, feel free to reach out to us via live chat, email, phone or by leaving a ticket inside your member’s profile.

MyIP.io is a cloud-based company and can easily adapt to fulfill orders and requirements from anywhere on the globe.

You are safe with us.
The storm will pass, but the decisions we take now might change or greatly impact our future.

 

 

At MyIP.io, we take data security very seriously. That’s why we want you to be in charge of your online footprint and not compromise while in distress.

Our VPN service is geared with military-grade encryption so that your personal information doesn’t “fly” to unknown servers where it can be stored indefinitely. We operate by a strict “no logs” policy (read it here).

Encryption of our service.

Keep in mind that we offer static IPs, on all dedicated plans and tier 1 peering.

Our VPNs support all the latest security protocols including SSTP, PPTP, IPSec, L2TP, SSTP and 128bit  – AES, OpenVPN cipher.

When using our service you can easily switch between protocols, although we recommend you stick with the defaults.

 

 

 

The power of what you can control. Stay safe. Stay home.

Whether you’re using our service to work from home, access personalized content overseas or unblock geo-restrictions, rest assured you can count on us.  We will be providing you with great connectivity, no disruption of our service and round the clock technical support, as usual.

 

 

Guiding your way to recovery

On our road to global recovery, we advise you get your information from official sources, only. We recommend that you refer to sites such as World Health Organization’s  or CDC  and avoid all non-essential contact during this time, contributing to flattening the curve. Together, we can do this!
In the end, it is not the world that’s getting increasingly complicated, but it is only us that are becoming more aware. And to that, we say: “alright, alright, alright!”

 

 

Heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran only three days into the year, bush fires of catastrophic proportions in Australia, and a novel coronavirus spreading fast in China and 2020 seems like is off to a rough start.

Is the world becoming an increasingly complicated place or are we simply becoming more aware?

 

History would disagree with the premise. 2020 seems like a walk in the park compared to 1945 of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki or 1941, the deadliest year of the Holocaust, when 6 million Jews died at the hands of Nazis. And if we continue to go back by the same principle, naturally, matters only worsen, like in 1914 when World War I begins or 1492 when Columbus reaches what is now America setting in motion a vicious process of enslavement and destruction causing the near-decimation of the indigenous, native population.

I could go as far as mentioning the plague or even the asteroid that stroke the dinosaurs, but I feel like we’re getting a little bit ahead of ourselves. And perhaps the mere comparison is just as unsettling and ultimately defeats the purpose of my premise, and I digress.

From the pragmatic to the existential, to the obscure, 2020 debuts with significant challenges, from Burkina Faso to Venezuela to Australia.

Maybe not as critical as all of the above, but certainly troubling is Microsoft’s 250 million customer service and support records that were breached due to server misconfigurations, leading to a rough start of the year in Silicone Valley, as well. 

Microsoft Data Breach – What happened?

 

 

More than 250 million Microsoft customer service and support records were exposed for two full days. The data consisted of 14 years of customer and support records, dating back to 2005, mainly logs containing personally identifiable information such as email and IP addresses, payment information, locations, claims, cases, resolutions, and remarks. While payment information was redacted, everything else was in plain text form, so anyone with an internet connection could have accessed the data. 

A team of security researchers first discovered the data breach at Comparitech, who spotted 5 Elasticsearch servers where Microsoft stored the data set. Shortly after, they notified Microsoft, which secured the data, conducted an investigation in the next two days, and issued an apology. 

According to Microsoft, there were no signs of malicious use, assuring users that most personally identifiable information was scrapped before it was stored. For the rest of the information that was entered in non-standard formats, some of the data may have survived automatic scrubbing remaining as plaintext. On all these accounts, Microsoft claims everyone affected by the latter, was personally notified. 

What caused the data breach?

Upon investigation, Microsoft admitted to having misconfigured rules following a change in the database network security group. The company says they will be auditing policies and implement new tools to redact stored sensitive information and a new system to better monitor misconfigurations. 

What does the incident tell us about 2020?

After the 250 million records data breach, happening end of December, Microsoft experienced more security issues as 2020 started. An emergency security update was pushed after the NSA found a glitch in Microsoft’s cryptographic system. 

According to Chris DeRamus (Co-Founder of DivvyCloud), misconfigurations tell us a lot about the current state of affairs in 2020 network security: 

“Misconfiguring a cloud server can have massive consequences, especially when the server contains hundreds of millions of customers’ records. Aside from this incident with Microsoft, we have seen misconfigured Elasticsearch servers become an increasingly common culprit that recently caused data leaks at companies including Rubrik, Voipo, Gearbest, Meditab, and Dow Jones.

[…] What sticks out about this incident is the fact that in early November 2019, Microsoft announced that it will honor CCPA throughout the U.S., and it was the first company to extend GDPR rights to customers around the world. This shows that even a forward-thinking company like Microsoft, who is unrelentingly dedicated to protecting their customers, can suffer a data breach due to misconfigurations. If they can be affected, anyone can.”

He then goes on by saying that being compliant does not necessarily imply being secure in 2020, primarily for cloud and multi-cloud environments, as cloud by nature is made to accommodate frequent changes. Continuous automated cloud security strategy to detect and remediate misconfiguration needs to be in place, in real-time.

In 2020 data is the currency and sometimes even a political weapon to be reckoned with. In other words, data is today an informational, political and economic asset capable of traveling the speed of light in a vacuum( able to operate at 99.7% the speed of light according to researchers at the University of Southampton in England, source: Extreme Tech).

The digital world is now creating tangible value from big data so expect internet privacy to take an even more prominent route in the future. (Ain’t no going back)

Nowadays, security must come in layers, not only in the corporate environment but on a personal level also.

The number one thing you need to get in line with is being more security-aware. Having a VPN connection, for starters. It’s really simple to use and just like that poof! your data travels through an encrypted tunnel, safe from prying eyes and encrypted all the while.

It won’t save you from server misconfigurations, but it will make you less vulnerable while online.

Fact is, not only in Silicon Valley but across the continents, 2020 seems like a challenging time to be alive. Provided we survive the climate change, nuclear race and everything else in between, technology can either save or endanger us, leading to simplification, complication or both. And maybe, this is just the way things should go. In order to simplify, we must first face all possible complications, readjust, re-adapt and ultimately learn. In the meantime, reminding ourselves that trouble doesn’t operate on the Gregorian calendar is probably the most accurate image we should keep in mind about 2020.