Can a VPN be hacked? What makes a VPN secure?
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Key notes
- If you browse the Internet regularly, it's a wise decision to invest in a trustworthy VPN. However, since VPNs can be hacked (in theory), what makes a secure VPN?
- Instead of wondering whether a VPN can be hacked or not, you should be thinking about what data will potential attackers find.
- Check out our best VPNs that keep no logs of their user activity.
- Visit our Security Hub to discover more awesome articles on keeping your cyber-assets safe.
If you browse the Internet regularly, it’s a wise decision to invest in a trustworthy VPN. Not only can it preserve your online privacy, but can also secure your connection.
Additionally, it can help you tackle a wide variety of connection issues.
For instance, you can use it to circumvent geo-restrictions, curb the packet loss percentage, and even improve in-game ping if you’re an online gaming aficionado.
However, you can’t, or better yet shouldn’t try just anybody when it comes to handling your online privacy.
What makes a VPN safe?
There are several power players in the VPN field, and each one of them wants the thickest slice of the metaphorical pie, which is the customer base.
The reason why we’re telling you this is that no fortress is truly impenetrable. Not even VPNs. So, before you go ahead and randomly make your pick from the VPN basket, take a few steps back and consider the following:
- What’s their logging policy?
- Do they keep personal data for a very long time?
- Did they ever share personal data with third parties, if needed?
- Is there anything on them installing backdoors on their service?
- Which type of data do they collect, if any?
- Will they keep my online privacy safe?
Don’t even think about trivial things like how much it costs. If you really care about your privacy, you should give it more credit than a few bucks every month.
Here’s the thing. A lot of customers already take these things into consideration. There’s another thing that’s not to be overlooked, and that’s why we kept it last because it’s so special in its simplicity.
Can VPNs be hacked?
Although the severity of said scenario is quite alarming, we insist that the question might stray you away from its true meaning. To keep it short, we’ll tell you up straight: yes, a VPN can be hacked.
However, you’re missing the point here. Instead of wondering whether a VPN can be hacked or not (we’ve already told you the answer), you should be thinking:
- If (when) the VPN gets hacked, what will the attackers find on the customers?
To simplify it even more:
- What personal data will hackers find on the hacked VPN servers?
Really puts things in a different light, doesn’t it?
Now that we’ve cleared this up a bit, let’s talk about what matters. If the VPN does indeed get hacked, the perpetrators go after certain things, such as personal info, payment details, things they can use to blackmail and extort money from you.
Now back to the first question in our original set: what’s their logging policy?
Maybe you never realized it, but a VPN‘s logging policy makes all the difference between whether or not it matters (to you, their customer) that they’ve been hacked.
- Scenario 1: the attackers find a goldmine worth of personal data that they could sell on underground forums
- Scenario 2: they find nothing
What’s the best VPN that can’t be hacked?
We’ve already ruled out the possibility of a VPN never getting targeted by a successful attack. Therefore, we’re going to focus on the bigger picture.
With that in mind, instead of searching for the perfect, hack-proof VPN, maybe you could look just a pinch lower and see all those zero-logging services.
| Product Name | Keeps logs? | Company Name |
|---|---|---|
| Private Internet Access | No traffic logs | Kape Technologies |
| CyberGhost VPN | No identifying data | Kape Technologies |
| Express VPN | No identifying data | Express VPN |
| NordVPN | No logs | Tefincom & Co., S.A. |
| Surfshark VPN | No logs | Surfshark LTD |
Keep in mind that these services offer more than just keeping it on the hush about your online whereabouts.
For instance, they all come with Internet kill switches. These tools interrupt your connection in case your VPN drops so that you won’t leak any data.
VPNs can be hacked, but that’s not what should concern you
All things considered, there’s a risk that at some point, VPNs can be hacked. However, depending on their data management policies, this incident could affect the end-user a lot, a bit, or not at all.
Thus, instead of searching for a full-proof, unhackable VPN service, it would be wiser to invest in a VPN with a strict zero-logging policy and less prone to be compromised by government regulations and mandatory backdoors.
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