Y’all might be traveling during the holidays (I know I am! As I’m posting this video I’m
on my way to Japan!), so accessing your data or getting online while on the go
is essential to stay connected - but ya gotta do it safely and securely.
Today I’m sharing my top 5 VPNs that are easy to setup and feature security and privacy options
that rival their competitors. I can hear the comments already so let me go ahead and start
with the best option, which would be building your own. But since my channel is crafted for
folks like myself who don’t really have the time to build our own VPNs anymore and just
want something that’s easy and plug and play, let me recommend the many DIY VPN videos I’ve
already done on the Hak5 channel. But if you want a solid VPN roundup of consumer friendly options
to share with your family so that you don’t have to do the tech support, this video is for you.
Keep in mind some businesses and organizations have their own VPNs already set up too,
so if you’re traveling for work, you may want to ask your IT admin about this,
but note that whomever controls the VPN would also have access to the data on that VPN. You
may also have a free VPN through other workspaces or apps. For example, if you use Google Workspace,
you might already have Google One VPN through your membership. Since this is a Google owned VPN,
that means data is running through their servers, but if that’s not a worry for you, it’s an option.
Before we get started, I’d like to thank my sponsor, who is not a VPN,
it’s DeleteMe. While you're shopping online for holiday gifts, one of the biggest threats
to consider is how criminals can steal your data to cause financial harm or steal your identity.
That's one of the many reasons I recommend using a VPN, but also using DeleteMe. While a VPN will
protect you from people on the same network snooping on your online actions, DeleteMe will
help with stopping criminals from using data like your legal name, your physical address and more.
Criminals can use this data to build a profile of information about you, which they can use in
social engineering attacks, pretending to be you in order to open accounts with your information.
DeleteMe finds data broker sites, searches for your data, and sends opt out requests to those
Data Brokers for you. And they do it continuously, every quarter, to give you peace of mind,
because data brokers really like to republish data they scrape up online. I’ve been using DeleteMe
for years as a paying customer and it’s one of those services I just can’t live without. Sign up
for DeleteMe using the link right down below and get your first data broker report from DeleteMe.
Thank you to DeleteMe for sponsoring this video!
First up is Surfshark. This VPN is pretty inexpensive at around $2 per month depending on
current promotions, they have over 3200 server locations around the world,
and they offer unlimited simultaneous connections. The app is available to
download on desktop PC and Mac, Linux, iOS, Android and more. The
speeds aren’t the most amazing, but I do find connections to be reliable.
I added Surfshark to my roundup because they don’t log your data (though they will be logging
billing data), they haven’t had problems with DNS leaks, and they’ve gone through independent
security audits of their server infrastructure via Cure53, a German cybersecurity company.
They also offer 2 factor authentication for your account. They use WireGuard,
IKEv2 IPsec and OpenVPN UDP and TCP protocols and encrypt data using AES 256 bit encryption.
SurfShark does include a lot of the basics you usually find in VPNs: a kill switch,
auto connecting, rotating IP addresses, and MultiHop as well.
Next is ProtonVPN at about $5/mth (or a free plan). This one is the one I’ve been favoring
over the past few years. ProtonVPN is very privacy-centric and was created by the same
folks who made ProtonMail for encrypted email. ProtonVPN is located in Switzerland,
and a big plus about that country is their strong privacy laws. Many other VPNs are
located in countries under five, 9 or 14 eyes, which are nations that participate
in intelligence gathering and sharing. As such, choosing a VPN that doesn’t fall within those
jurisdictions may be better if you’re worried about intelligence gathering and staying alive,
but for most people just looking to protect your data at a coffee shop or an airport,
this is kinda a moot point, especially since a lot of non-14 eyes countries do share data
with the 14 eyes through signed treaties like the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties. As such,
I’ll harken back to my original point of - if you’re that worried, run your own.
ProtonVPN has also been independently audited by SEC Consult, it’s open source,
and offers popular capabilities like a kill switch and an always on connection.
The company doesn’t log user data, traffic is AES 256 bit encrypted,
they use the same protocols as SurfShark, and they do have a free option which is limited
but lets you test it out before paying for it. I’ve not experienced any issues with
connection speeds and the app is available to download on mobile, desktops including Linux,
along with chromebook and TV ecosystems. Their service only allows for up to 10 simultaneous
connections though. They recently introduced their own VPN protocol called Stealth which
just launched, and you can now choose between the default ones or the new ProtonVPN built one.
Now for TunnelBear - this one I’m going to delegate as the VPN for beginners,
because it’s so, so easy to use. They have a free plan that’s limited to 500mb / mth, with the
lowest priced unlimited devices option being about $3.33 per month. This is the one I’d download on
my sister’s phone because she can open the app and just click on a map to choose a VPN server,
it’s relatively cheap, and it’s available cross platform. TunnelBear also recently had an updated
independent security audit by Cure53, they have a strict no logging policy, and the popular features
like a kill switch. TunnelBear is located in Canada so it falls under 5 eyes countries.
My last 2 are owned by a company called Kape Technologies. Many folks have chosen
to steer clear of these three due to the company that owns these VPNs,
Kape Technologies, since Kape was rebranded from Crossrider, which used malware injection
to redirect traffic to advertisers on user browsers. According to Kape Technologies,
they rebranded and completely switched over to being a cybersecurity company, and since
they’re purchase of these VPNs, we haven’t seen any major changes with how these VPNs do business.
Now for CyberGhost. This one lets you connect up to 7 devices simultaneously and costs
about $2/mth. It’s also available on all your popular platforms, they have a no logs policy,
and use that same AES 256 bit encryption. CyberGhost is also outside the 14 eyes as
their headquarters are located in Romania. The company has over 6000 VPN servers around
the world and also uses OpenVPN, IKEv2 and WireGuard protocols. Similar to the others,
this one also has an automatic kill switch, protects you from DNS and IP leaks,
and they have a no log policy. CyberGhost has also been through independent audits with Deloitte.
Let’s chat about PIA VPN or Private Internet Access VPN - a Denver,
US based VPN which offers more customization features than most, but can be a little less
user friendly to set up. PIA VPNs apps are open source and they have a no logs policy,
while using the same encryption and protocols as their competitors. It’s available on all the
popular OSs and costs about $2/mth. Their most recent independent audit was done by Deloitte.
I’d love to know which ones you use, so share them below. If you're new here, subscribe to
become a part of this awesome community, I'm Shannon Morse and I'll see ya soon. Bye yall!