Do Hackers Have Any Chance Of Hacking VPNs? All About Vpn Security

Can Hackers Hack VPNs? How will it affect you as a user of thisservice?

Well, we will answer these questions by taking a live example documented ofa real hacking case of one of the best VPNs out there in 2018, NordVPN .

What can the NordVpn hack tell us about VPN security?

The answer is, yes, VPNs can be hacked, but it really cannot be considered adirect hack or hack of service servers.

Hackers know that brute force hacking for VPN encryption is useless,however, they exploit some vulnerabilities that exist within the VPN networkand whose security is not often updated, so a hacker may succeed indiscovering a crossing point inside the network.

NordVPN is a good example of a vulnerability that was exploited inthird-party servers, because it is configured incorrectly or does not havethe necessary protection against a possible hack, so the physical VPN serverwill become an easy target for hackers.

The breach on NordVPN’s servers was due to a vulnerability discovered by ahacker in a server located in a Finnish data center, but due to thecompany’s policy of not keeping any user logs, no sensitive user passwordswere exposed.

After discovering the security breach, NordVPN implemented new securitymeasures, including server upgrades to RAM-only servers, comprehensivesecurity audits, and installation of troubleshooting software.

Is NordVPN safe after these updates?

The answer is yes, and the evidence is that it occupies one of the firstpositions in the list of the 5 best VPN services on the Internet, and this was evident in their taking very strict measuresto avoid any future hacking operations, and this is a sufficient reason touse this service comfortably.

However, not all VPNs can afford maintenance and high-level securityimprovements, especially when it comes to the core aspect of a VPN, ashackers don’t hack into the server, but look for holes in directconnections.

Can a VPN be hacked while online?

Usually this is not possible, but it is very likely that there are some VPNsthat still use old tunneling protocols that contain a great securityweakness, and therefore they will be exploited during the connection andused as a port to access the server.

At the moment there are several protocols in use, which are still considereda weak, like as PPTP which is very weak and easy to break, L2TP and SSTPwhich are vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks.

Do VPNs still use this type of protocol?

Many weak private networks that do not bear maintenance costs still use thistype of protocol, but for strong companies, very modern and powerfulprotocols have been supported in their servers such as IKEv2, OpenVPN, andWireGuard, which are considered more secure and reliable.

There are also private protocols like NordVPN’s NordLynx or ExpressVPN’s LightWay .

Are these modern protocols secure when connected?

Very safe? This is because of the high level of encryption that is builtinto these modern protocols, usually, starting with a key length of 128Bit,it is really difficult to crack this encryption, in the cases of AES-256 andChaCha20 encryption we would say it is very impossible for a crack to occur.

So far, no network or service has been hacked when using AES-259 encryption,but despite this, a leak may occur during the connection, as it is possibleto leak the IP address of your device if the VPN does not encrypt IPv6requests from your browser.

Also, IPv4 leaks can happen if you are using an untrusted VPN or a free VPN service , as well as DNS leaks when your ISP ends up managing your DNS requestsinstead of the VPN service.

Are solutions to these leaks provided by VPN service providers?

Most reputable companies are aware of these leaks, so they provide withtheir services solutions and protection for any leakage that may occur, inaddition to providing keys to lock this leakage or the so-called KillSwitch, which is an important feature that prevents any leakage that mayoccur during a network outage or connection instability.

How do we know this VPN is good?

I believe that the VPN, which provides the following options, is a verysecure and reliable network

Therefore, the availability of these features on the VPN will greatlyincrease the user’s security and give him great comfort while browsing theInternet or using applications.