VPNs - Speaker Deck

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VPNs Luke Crouch

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About Me • Privacy & Security Engineer, Mozilla • Board Member, Techlahoma

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Disclaimer: I work for a VPN company • Mozilla VPN • We partner with Mullvad • (more details later)

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What’s a VPN?

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Virtual Private Network

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restoreprivacy.com/vpn

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How to pick a VPN?

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Easy, right?

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Oh wait

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The dreaded question from tech support …

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What are you trying to do?

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What are you trying to protect?

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What are you worried about?

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Mozilla Research “Thinking about an average day in your life what risks or threats seem important to look out for in your world, whether online or not?”

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Top 5 Answers • Malicious software (spyware, viruses, ransomware) • Someone getting my password and taking over my accounts • Scams that trick me into giving up personal data (online, email, or phone) • My personal data being stolen when it’s sent between my computer and the internet • Someone hacking a service that I use and stealing my personal data from the service

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restoreprivacy.com/vpn

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Let’s dig into that a bit …

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https://www.eﬀ.org/pages/tor-and-https

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protects user/pw & data

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If you’re only worried about a hacker stealing your password over WiFi, https is probably enough* * attacks against https are possible, but harder than http

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If you’re worried about … • A hacker on WiFi attacking https • A hacker on WiFi seeing which sites you visit • Your ISP seeing which sites you visit • Your government seeing which sites you visit

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Then you want a VPN

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So what does a VPN do?

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VPN connection VPN Provider

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VPN

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VPN VPN VPN

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A VPN protects ~all the data from “local” hackers and your ISP

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But … once your data leaves the VPN …

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VPN VPN

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The VPN is only hiding your location* * more on this later

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VPN VPN VPN VPN

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So what you really like is VPN AND https

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VPN VPN

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VPN VPN VPN VPN

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Now, almost all VPNs solve the “local hacker” and ISP problems (or they’re not really a VPN)

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When you use a VPN, you’re basically using a different ISP

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VPN

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But some VPNs are as bad or worse than your ISP

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Again: how to pick a VPN?

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You probably don’t want a free one

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VPN > 💰

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So, how to pick which VPN to pay for?

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Well, if they all protect from local hackers and your ISP, what else are you trying to do?

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What else are you trying to do? • Bypass geographic restrictions on websites or streaming services • Hide your true location • Bypass internet censorship • Avoid online tracking • Downloading media

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Not everyone wants to know about everything, so …

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let’s talk about 3 main features

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3 main features • How fast is the VPN? • Where is the VPN based, and where does it have servers? • Does the VPN log your data?

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3 main features • How fast is the VPN? • Where is the VPN based, and where does it have servers? • Does the VPN keep logs of its data?

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How fast is the VPN?

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Because if it’s great at privacy but terribly slow, you won’t use it

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restoreprivacy.com/vpn/fastest

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fast.com

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show more info

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What affects speed • Your physical connection: WiFi or wired Ethernet • note: wired Ethernet also most secure • The physical distance between your computer and your destination • The bandwidth of the network between your computer and your destination • The networking protocol used

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2 kinds of speed • Ping/Latency • Bandwidth/Speed

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2 kinds of speed • Ping/Latency • Lower is better • Important for fast web browsing, gaming • Bandwidth/Speed • Higher is better • Important for streaming, downloading

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Ping/Latency has a lot to do with the 2nd main feature

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3 main features • How fast is the VPN? • Where is the VPN based, and where does it have servers? • Does the VPN log your data?

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If there’s a server close to you, you’ll get better speed

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Most VPNs show you where they have servers

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If you care about security but not privacy, you might be able to stop paying attention now

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Next, you might want to see where the VPN company is based

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privacytools.io/providers

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Basically, these countries may be sharing data with each other

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And corporations in these 14 countries may be sharing data with each others’ governments

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So if you’re worried about hiding your trafﬁc from your government …

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You may want a VPN provider who is NOT based in one of “5 eyes” countries US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand

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privacytools.io/providers/vpn

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3 main features • How fast is the VPN? • Where is the VPN based, and where does it have servers? • Does the VPN keep logs of its data?

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restoreprivacy.com/vpn-logs

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Types of VPN logs • Usage logs - mostly free VPN apps, which are basically spyware • Connection logs - used to optimize and trouble-shoot the VPN network • Some VPNs do this while claiming to be … • No logs - don’t log anything • Makes it hard for the VPN operator to enforce some restrictions

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3 main features • Main Security Feature • How fast is the VPN? • Where does it have servers? • Privacy Features • Where is the VPN based, and where does it have servers? • Does the VPN keep logs of its data?

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Here comes the shameless promo for Mozilla VPN …

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privacytools.io/providers/vpn

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privacytools.io has the highest standards for recommendations I’ve seen on the ‘net

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and they recommend Mullvad

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Mozilla VPN uses Mullvad!

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We also use WireGuard for speed

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We’re actually cheaper than Mullvad $5/mo vs. $5.50/mo

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How?

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Mullvad gives us a discount because we can help them reach so many Firefox users

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Speaking of Firefox …

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If you already have a Firefox Account (of course you do) …

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Signing up is super easy!

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vpn.mozilla.org

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And speaking MORE of Firefox …

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Live Demo!

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Questions? • What is a VPN? • How a VPN works? • How to pick a VPN? • How is a VPN diﬀerent from HTTPS? • How fast is a VPN? • Where does a VPN have servers? • Where is a VPN based? • How do I give you cash-money for this awesome Mozilla VPN?