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On Wed, Sep 23, 2015 at 04:35:59PM +0100, Neil Winchurst wrote: > I can see the idea but, as ever, the more I research the more I get > confused. Is a VPN a good idea, mainly to help with personal security? > It seems that some of them are for Windows only, so which are > recommended for Linux? If necessary I don't mind paying. > > If anyone can point me in the right direction I would be very grateful, > even if the advice is 'don't bother'. Before deciding whether to use a certain security tool - such as a VPN - it's always worth looking at what your threat model is. In other words, what kind of "attacks" (a term used loosely here, to include targeted and non-targeted snooping) you want to protect against. What a VPN does is make all your traffic go through a remote server in a way that can't be read* by anyone with access to connection between your device and said server. If you don't trust your ISP not to monitor your Internet traffic, a VPN to any VPN service you do trust is a good idea. If you don't trust your government not to monitor your Internet traffic, a VPN to a VPN server located in a country whose government you do trust is a good idea. If you don't trust people on the same open WiFi network not to tap your Internet traffic, again a VPN to any VPN service is a good idea. If you're worried that someone has physical or remote access to your computer, then using a VPN isn't going to help you. If you're worried a service you connect to can trace you, a VPN is only useful if a) you don't use the same VPN for a very long time b) you don't think whatever you are doing will be a reason for the service to contact your VPN provider and c) you're not leaving personal details on the service. (Assuming c) doesn't apply, Tor is a good defense against both a) and b).) Etcetera. * there's reasonable evidence that the NSA and its allies had been able to read a significant portion of VPN traffic (probably using a Logjam-like vulnerability). But assuming your threat model doesn't include the NSA going after your specifically, there's not much you can do as an individual against such threats. Not using a tool like a VPN is rarely going to make you more secure. Martijn.
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