Lawsuit names NordVPN, Tesonet in proxy data extraction scheme

https://restoreprivacy.com/lawsuit-names-nordvpn-tesonet/

by anigbrowl • 8 years ago

31 20 8 years ago

restoreprivacy.com

eropple• 8 years ago

Wonder if this is why the long-running Something Awful deal went away.

EvangelicalPig• 8 years ago

So is the NordVPN client app using users computers as a glorified proxy network, or is it something else?

hiciu• 8 years ago

It should be pretty easy to prove with tcpdump or even a decent firewall; their app should make connections only to their server.

jhanschoo• 8 years ago

TLDR: Lawsuit alleges NordVPN's parent company is employing botnet code that is patented by Luminati. Article author suspects that if NordVPN is doing it, it is probably in the vehicle of their VPN app.

It seems to me that suspicious users can avoid this by either connecting to NordVPN VPN proxies using a client they trust rather than through the app. Alternatively, for those on macOS, use the version of the app published in the Mac app store.

binomialxenon• 8 years ago

If the mobile apps have this shady botnet stuff in them, why would the macOS app be assumed safe? I wouldn't trust it either. I'd stick to using a trustworthy VPN client program that's not affiliated with the VPN provider.

cutety• 8 years ago

Anyone have a good VPN recommendation? My NordVPN subscription actually just recently expired, and I was going to renew it, but in light of this, I’m open to other options.

heliostatic• 8 years ago

Somewhat expensive, but I've been very happy with Encrypt.me since the beta of Cloak here several years ago.

dawnerd• 8 years ago

Private internet access. They’ve been pretty solid for me the last few years.

theossuary• 8 years ago

Been a fan of vpn.ac, simple and easy, supports any protocol I'd care to use.

maxyme• 8 years ago

AirVPN has worked well for me. They show the bandwidth capacity, use and current users of each server online so you can always make a informed decision. They let you use full capacity of the servers (I've brought a server from 100mbps usage to 900mbps on my gigabit line). They also have pretty good tooling, openvpn profile creator online, port forwarding, dns proxying servers...

spindle• 8 years ago

I also like AirVPN, and ExpressVPN - I'd choose between them based on the location of servers and which client software you prefer.

einmus• 8 years ago

Just fire up a VPS instance and set up a VPN on it. It's much cheaper, you get more control over it and it's dedicated to you so less crowded traffic. e.g. Vultr instance is just $3.5 a month and they're pay by the hour. There's many one-key VPN script. So set up is easy too.

blacksmith_tb• 8 years ago

I agree with everything except "it's much cheaper" - Private Internet Access, for example, is $3.33/mo. if you pay annually. A DO instance running Algo or Streisand will be $5/mo. I know Vultr offers some even cheaper VPS tiers, but they have more limited bandwidth (500G/mo. - which might or might not be problem, depending on how much traffic you wanted to send through them).

PinkMilkshake• 8 years ago

I'm with ExpressVPN. The performance is fantastic.

bjoli• 8 years ago

I am very satisfied with Mullvad,but they are maybe not as hip as the new kids on the block, but I have never really had a reason to switch. Reasonable speed (at most about 100kByte performance penalty for a 30mbit connection), and a very nice support with lots of knowhow.

I don't like their new application, but I do like that I can use them to play with wireguard.

tmikaeld• 8 years ago

I was sceptical against NordVPN too and have been checking wireshark traffic for other requests a few times every month, and have seen nothing out of the ordinary. Little snitch have shown no non-vpn connections either.

Apparently they are doing an independent audit to prove they are legit.

https://nordvpn.com/blog/nordvpn-false-allegations/

I'd hope they would open source their VPN client, makes inspection and audits easier on the user side.

meanmartine• 8 years ago

I don’t know, but this whole scandal looks really ridiculous to me. I mean VPN users are usually more techy and should notice that the Internet connection is being used by another service (by really dropped speed and/or used bandwidth). I’ve checked it with Wireshark and everything seems alright to me — only connections are being made to the VPN servers. Read that they are doing a full audit in 2 months or so about the whole zero log policy so it will be interesting to see, even though I doubt anything scandalous will come out.

Lawsuit names NordVPN, Tesonet in proxy data extraction scheme

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