Here is what a VPN really is — it’s a point-to-point or site-to-site connection tunneling through existing networks to reach a local area network.
This is how (a) people Work From Home (b) regional/branch offices connect to each other and to their corporate headquarters. This is a point-to-point, site-to-site, or host-to-network topology. This is not the “VPN” we subscribe to. This is what makes industry possible, connecting intranets and extranets.
All VPNs log … so what and how can I be sure?
When you get into the field of networking you spend a lot of hours doing “labs” which involves reading logs. And you spend a lot of time with software like WireShark, Packet Tracer, GNS3 where you capture traffic in the form of packets and analyze them.
A router or a switch doesn’t have a monitor so in order to see what is going on you view the log or diagnostic messages and it tells you things like what port x came in on, with which protocol, the packet size, etc.
You can see “handshakes” between client and host and gather information like cipher strength, IP addresses, data encryption. DNS queries, which version Internet Protocol is being used, live data can be read back, you can do basic things like trace a route and obtain its average meantime in roundtrip.
You can filter wireless, USB, VoIP connections, as well. You use things like Port Mirroring to debug and diagnose errors and monitor inbound and outbound traffic. You are basically watching data streams flow across a network. Managed Service Providers do this for their customers.
When things get more advanced you analyze the packets, examining the TCP/IP Stack itself; you learn to record the headers. You can learn to tell the difference between what a real SSL/TLS handshake looks like and an artificial one, used to cloak packets in the shape of SSL to help them pass through filters.
A general task would be to analyze network problems, detect intrusions and anomalies, monitor bandwidth utilization, keep an eye on endpoint security, consistently verify Access Control Lists, firewall status, spam filters, watch for misuse by both internal and external users. The VPN’s routing table only knows of specific addresses so it has to figure out how to get you to your destination (and which protocol to use). Often, they rely on the security of a single provider's network to protect their traffic in transit.
How did we get so good at this: Signals intelligence (SIGINT) — the NSA taught us.I don’t see it as a problem if they keep logs. I expect them to profit off us in some way or another. But I do not envision legal problems, either.
The smaller the VPN company, the more dangerous it is for you. Like Tor, there is significant safety in numbers.
It is not a good habit to use the same geographic location permanently as you creating a discernable fingerprint. It is best to mix things up.
A VPN is a tool, good at what it’s meant for.
VPN Usage
You use it in a coffee shop, airport or wherever there is public WiFi for security—to encrypt your traffic.
Hides, to the best of its ability, activity from the ISP.
Presents the entry guard with the VPN’s IP and not the ISP’s IP.
Bypasses censorship by routing you to various locations.
Can influence your obtaining of Tor bridges based on your starting geography.
Allows you to Torrent without receiving notices from the ISP.
Can influence where your exit node will be as a security measure.
Tor Usage
Obfuscates all information about traffic by routing you through three independent Tor nodes.
Tor browsers makes all users look the same, making it nearly impossible to identify a single user.
Privacy and anonymity by design: each node only knows the hop before and after it and nothing else.
No party knows the identity of the user.
Entirely open-source and under constant peer audit.
Has safety countermeasures built in per Tor-Specs to prevent adversarial attacks.
The circuit path can be changed at random; a new identity can be taken on, unlinking all previous activities, giving you even more safety.
Nothing is bulletproof — your ISP can still detect Tor usage, if it cared to. Especially on systems like Qubes, Tails and Whonix.
It can be used as an extra layer of security or it can harm you so use it accordingly.
So, if we aren’t using a VPN what are we beings sold?
VPN as a service…basically a secondary ISP.
If your payment to your VPN is not an anonymous payment method then you’ve messed up, need to cancel and play the game from scratch, somewhere else.
Do not be mistaken that a VPN makes your internet "private". You can still be tracked through tracking cookies and device fingerprinting, even if your IP address is hidden and in no way are you protected from ransomware or hackers.
Always use the strongest encryption algorithms available to you. See if your provider offers SOCKS5.
Remember, Tor does not use UDP, so make sure your settings are configured for TCP only.
Find out if your provider offers WireGuard, supports multihop, Obfsproxy, and SSH tunnels.
Don’t go weak: select their strong data encryption, data authentication and handshake encryption.
The more number of countries they are in and subscribers they have, the safer you are.
Many have Warranty Canaries. See if yours does.