NordVPN: An Insecure Security Service?

October 22, 2019

In 2016, one of the DarkCyber research team signed up for NordVPN. We wanted to test several of the companies offering enhanced security products. After filling out the form in April 2016, the service did not activate. We heard from a person calling herself “Christina.” She was a floundering professional. We explained the misfire. The we heard from Zack in 2017 who wanted us to renew the service which was not available to the DarkCyber professionals. We concluded that NordVPN was more trouble than it was worth, and the company could take money via a credit card, fail to deliver the service, yet spam DarkCyber for a renewal. Now that’s more than foundering. That’s either clumsy, misguided, or what the Wall Street crowd calls Black Edge behavior.

We thought about Christine and Zack when we read “NordVPN Confirms It Was Hacked.” If the write up is accurate, the security company NordVPN is not completely secure. The write up reports:

NordVPN, a virtual private network provider that promises to “protect your privacy online,” has confirmed it was hacked. The admission comes following rumors that the company had been breached. It first emerged that NordVPN had an expired internal private key exposed, potentially allowing anyone to spin out their own servers imitating NordVPN.

We are fascinated with VPN services. Some are free and some like NordVPN seem to collect money and leave their systems vulnerable.

What’s our recommendation? DarkCyber thinks ignoring NordVPN might be a pre-installation step to consider.

Oh, Christine, when you take money, you should deliver the product. And, Zack, no, DarkCyber will not renew.

Why?

Read the articles about NordVPN finding itself which may be the digital equivalent of a security soup from a questionable cafeteria.

Stephen E Arnold, October 22, 2019

Comments

One Response to “NordVPN: An Insecure Security Service?”

  1. Frederik on October 29th, 2019 9:42 am

    Its funny how everyone is linking a Techcrunch article as if its some reputable place. Did you know that they are owned by Verizon and have a vpn of their own? Pretty peculiar if you ask me, like they are trying to undermine other vpns to make their own look better.

  • Archives

  • Recent Posts

  • Meta