Twitter Ban in Nigeria: Top 10 Security Risks When Using a VPN
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cyber security
Twitter Ban in Nigeria: Top 10 Security Risks When Using a VPN
By Ya Mukhtar
Due to the recent indefinite suspension of the Twitter operation in Nigeria by the Federal Government, the only option left now for Twitter users is to bypass this restriction by using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) in order to quench their thirst.
Meanwhile, the emergency summary I gathered that using a VPN makes the user feel invisible, but there are still some potential risks involved with the service that users should keep in mind.
According to internet experts, VPN users may be exposed to potential dangers and risks from some VPN service providers. Cybersecurity experts, including John Anthony of Addictive Tips and Tim Mocan of Cactus VPN who have covered the topics of VPN, Internet privacy and cybersecurity, are raising some concerns about VPN for users looking for new ways to secure their rights online.
Below are some of the potential security risks associated with using a VPN.
1. Registration Policies
Using a VPN to hide your browsing activities becomes useless if the provider is now logging users instead of the ISP. The user is exposed to severe security risks in a VPN just because the user is no longer in control of his/her privacy. Usage logs are the most dangerous because they track information about what users are doing on the web while using a VPN.
2. Data leakage
Data leak occurs when a user uses a VPN to hide the traffic and his/her IP address, but they still leak through the VPN tunnel. IP leaks, DNS leaks, and Web RTC leaks are all good examples of this. If they do occur, they make using a VPN pointless.
3. Shady Privacy Policies
A VPN provider can claim to respect user privacy and offer first-class security in their marketing copy, while their privacy policy tells an entirely different story. Free VPNs are the services that do just that. Thus, in order to make money, advertisers will pay large sums for users’ data, which they will use to create personal profiles so that they can send spam emails to users with targeted ads.
4. Badly configured encryption
It is very likely that some VPNs have an encryption flaw. Cybercriminals and monitoring agencies may actually be able to intercept and decrypt a user’s web traffic by exploiting or indirectly enforcing weak encryption. The trusted VPN provider will have no problem sharing encryption details with its users.
5. Malware infection
The user may end up dealing with serious VPN risks – such as injecting malware into their device when they download a VPN client, which will start spying on their activities, spamming with malicious ads, and stealing their personal and financial data. If users are very unlucky, they may expose their devices to ransomware that will encrypt their data, and demand a large ransom in return.
6. Forced to use PPTP
PPTP may be fast and convenient, but it is very dangerous for users who value their privacy. This is because the NSA was actually able to decrypt PPTP traffic some time ago. And cybercriminals know this, so they are more likely to target PPTP traffic when they are looking for victims. Therefore, a VPN provider that only offers PPTP connections is a risky option.
7. The provider uses the user’s IP address as an exit node
This happens when the VPN provider runs their own network of users who “volunteer” their bandwidth and IP address because they don’t read the provider’s terms of service and privacy policy. Using their IP address as an exit node is dangerous because a cybercriminal or scammer can do illegal things on the Internet while using users’ IP address – like downloading illegal torrents or sharing child pornography.
8. No additional security features
While having a VPN with good encryption and a favorable no-logs policy is great, many VPN providers lack DNS leak protection, internet kill switches, and application-level Kill Switches among other very useful security apps for torrent and email apps .
9. Traffic restrictions
VPNs are often caught artificially throttling or blocking the traffic of their users. This most commonly appears as firewalls blocking P2P network access or torrent downloads, both of which can slow down the entire VPN service depending on the nature of the connection. Sometimes, though, VPNs will hamper the connection if the user downloads or streams a lot.
10. Jurisdiction
Where in the world a VPN is registered makes a huge difference in how secure it is. Even if the VPN announces a strict no-logs policy, if it is located in a country whose government requires data retention laws, the VPN can be forced to secretly store user information. In this case, no matter what the VPN policy is, your data can be compromised.
Ya’u Mukhtar is a staff writer emergency summary
kidnapped school children
Yauri FGC students, Kebbi
203 days 22 hours 8 minutes 39 seconds,
Students of Baptist School, Kaduna
185 days 23 hours 50 minutes 4 seconds
Disciples of Islamic Tigina, Niger (Editor)
Spent 88 days from May 30, 2021 to August 26, 2021
Report by: PRNigeria.com
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