(dramatic music)
- The best way to ensure your privacy online,
at least according to Hollywood,
is to hop or bounce your connection all across the globe.
It's virtually untraceable, or is it?
(dramatic music)
Welcome to All Things Secured.
I'm Josh and my goal here
is to de-mystify the marketing hype
surrounding online security software.
And trust me, it's mostly hype.
Recently I had someone ask me about this idea
of a double VPN feature.
So today I wanna take a few minutes
to answer three important questions.
First, what exactly does a double VPN do.
Two, what are the advantages and disadvantages
of using a double VPN?
And finally, we'll finish with the ultimate question,
is this really the best way to ensure privacy online?
The short answer is that any extra security
or privacy offered by a double VPN is mostly redundant.
So unless you're a journalist or a political activist
who fears harmful internet surveillance,
it's probably not necessary for you,
but it's still fascinating.
So let's dive in with an explanation of this process.
Double VPN, which has been called double hop, multi-hop,
cascading, nested, chained, whatever you call it,
the basic premise is that you're adding additional privacy
and security by running a second, third, fourth,
or if you're truly paranoid,
even more layers of encryption on your internet connection.
Normally, a virtual private network is a connection
between your device, a computer, a tablet,
or your mobile phone, and another server.
This could be your office server or a commercial VPN server
located in another country.
A double VPN goes a step further
by adding yet another VPN server connection to the mix,
thus hiding both the original source of the connection
from the second VPN server and the final destination
of the connection from the first VPN server.
Like I said earlier,
it's redundant security measures in the event that one
of the servers or encryption protocol
is somehow compromised.
In practice, double VPN could be set up
in a number of different ways.
For some VPN services,
and I'll use Surfshark as an example here,
they have what they call a multi-hop feature
where you can choose a preset series of servers
through which your traffic will be encrypted and routed.
In every case that I've seen,
you can't switch which server is part of the double hop,
you just have to accept the options
and the locations they give you.
Another option would be to connect
to a server using one VPN service,
and then while remaining connected,
use a different VPN software to connect
to yet another server elsewhere.
But this requires a subscription
to two different VPN services so keep that in mind.
Before you put yourself through the trouble
of doing all this, though,
it's worth asking what kind of advantages
and disadvantages this feature offers.
It should be obvious that adding extra encryption
and additional routing
will slow down your internet connection.
Like a lot.
It's also resource intensive,
which means that devices engaging in a double encryption
will likely drain battery faster and run slower.
As far as advantages go, there really aren't that many.
It's a redundant layer of security.
And if you're using a VPN to do anything illegal,
I'd like to also point out that no single piece of software
or encryption, even if it's doubled or tripled up,
can guarantee 100% protection, period.
So is Hollywood right?
Should you consider using a double VPN?
More than likely, the answer to this is no.
I mean, honestly,
a VPN is already a redundant layer of security
in most cases.
If you're connecting to a website that uses HTTPS
at the beginning, which at this point is most of them,
then a VPN is just doubling what you already have.
If you have some reason to believe
that you're being surveilled,
like those engaging in high-stakes journalism
or activism in a hostile country,
it might make sense.
But for the average internet user,
there are more practical ways
to ensure privacy and security.
For example, you could strengthen your online accounts
with stronger passwords using a password manager.
You could enable two-factor authentication
on any account that allows it.
Heck, you could just learn to be more careful about when
and where you share your personal information online.
All of these are much better,
more practical ways of adding layers of security
to your online identity.
And I've got a lot of great videos
that can show you how.
Check these out.
Don't forget to subscribe to All Things Secured
and I will catch you in the next video.