23% Of VPNs Leak User IP, Researcher Finds

Virtual private networks (VPN) are popular because they help hide the identity and personal information of users as they surf the web. However, it would seem that many prominent examples of these services are not really living up to their end of the bargain. In fact, it would seem that some VPNs are actually leaking the IP addresses of their users.

The researcher, in question, is Paolo Stagno and he looked into 77 VPN providers to see just how secure they are. As a result of his research, he found that of those providers, 16 leaked the IPs of their users. That makes up about 23 percent of them.

Now, this isn’t to say that this figure is representative of the VPN market as a whole. With a bigger sample, the results could indicate a smaller number of leaks, though it could also just as easily be bigger.

In any case, this is an alarming development because these services are meant to protect users from surveillance whenever they are browsing the web or conducting any kind of online activity. They aren’t used just for goofing around or for the superficial suspicions of government spying, either. Many users actually need the protection that VPNs provide on a life and death level.

Journalists and activists use VPNs to communicate or get information out of oppressive countries. Citizens of such nations also use the services to get around the firewalls that some of these places employ to block the flow of information both from the outside and from within.

As ExtremeTech notes, this isn’t the only time that research has found VPNs to be full of holes or vulnerabilities either. Past findings indicate that some service providers are actually logging the information of users, which then make them vulnerable if the information is ever leaked.