{"id":1088,"date":"2014-08-06T00:12:31","date_gmt":"2014-08-06T00:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/?p=1088"},"modified":"2020-08-26T15:17:19","modified_gmt":"2020-08-26T22:17:19","slug":"about-the-pia-client-security-and-vpn-security-in-general","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/about-the-pia-client-security-and-vpn-security-in-general\/","title":{"rendered":"About the PIA Client Security and VPN Security in General"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s been much discussion recently about the security of PIA\u2019s VPN services in particular and of VPN as a technology in general. This post should help both put our customers\u2019 minds at ease and also better educate them about how VPN technologies work and how they interact with the larger ecosystem of applications and network infrastructure.<\/p>\n

First things first, no solution is 100% secure by itself. Applications depend on other applications and hardware in order to function properly, and compromise anywhere in the stack can be used to attack your privacy and anonymity.<\/p>\n

In order to understand how PrivateInternetAcces works, you need to have a basic understanding of VPNs in general and how networking and routing interact to protect your data.<\/p>\n

A VPN is an encrypted tunnel that works by creating a network interface in your computer similar to a simulated Wifi\/Network connection. When your computer sends data to that simulated interface, your VPN software encrypts the data and sends it to your gateway through your actual network interface. This gateway then decrypts the data and sends it to whichever original destination you want it to go to.<\/p>\n

Your computer knows which connection to send data to by checking your \u201cRouting Table\u201d. When you\u2019re using the VPN, it usually says something like \u201cin general, always send data to my simulated vpn interface\u201d. Aside from that, it often has other more specific rules, depending on your network configuration.<\/p>\n

One other rule that you\u2019ll always have on your routing table when using a VPN is \u201cwhen sending data to this VPN gateway, use my WiFi interface\u201d. Otherwise, your VPN software won\u2019t be able to connect to your VPN server and send your encrypted data to it. Thus, your routing table needs to have connections that allow it to be sent directly to the network.<\/p>\n

This means that if your computer is behaving in a way that you don\u2019t want it to behave due to a compromise, the setup above can be exploited. By having a malicious actor take control of different parts of your computer or your network, your security can be put at risk.<\/p>\n

Web browsers, albeit a fundamental part of our internet experience, are also a critical part of our security profile. Not only are they powerful applications in what they can do on our computers, but they are constantly communicating with servers which might not have our best interest in mind. This is always extremely dangerous: our browser is running attackers\u2019 commands on our computers. Also, browsers are really complex applications, and are often capable of running even more powerful plugins like Java and Flash, all of which have had vulnerabilities disclosed in the past.<\/p>\n

The fact is that browsers can for instance, on the behalf of the website you\u2019re visiting, open arbitrary network connections from your computer to pretty much any other server in the internet. This means there can be amazing power over your computer in the hands of a malicious website operator once you give him free-reign over your browser by accessing his web page.<\/p>\n

But the question is: can a malicious website still threaten my security or anonymity by just visiting? The answer is, like in so many complex situations, it depends. Here are some of the scenarios in which the answer might be yes:<\/p>\n