So far I mentioned the word VPN in a number of lectures but I never really explained what it is.
So in this lecture I'm going to explain what a VPN is how it works and how we can use it to bypass censorship
and protect our privacy anonymity and security.
So VPN stands for virtual private network.
And to understand how it works let's first have a look on a normal scenario where we have a user trying
to access Google dot com.
As we mentioned before usually this traffic is sent unencrypted unless Google or the website they're
trying to access uses encryption.
And like we said this traffic passes through a number of routers it passes through your Internet service
provider and so on.
And all of these stops can see the data that you're sending and manipulated profile you gather information
about you and so on.
Now if you use a VPN you will first connect to the VPN server which you can think of as a computer that
exists on the Internet on the cloud with really good resources.
And what happens is you create an encrypted tunnel an encrypted connection with this computer.
So whenever you want to access anything on the internet you send that first to this computer.
But the request is sent encrypted hence I used a green arrow in here to indicate that the data sent
is encrypted.
So whenever you want to access something both you and the VPN server will be able to read this data
and understand it.
But if anybody intercepts this data whether it's your internet service provider whether it's your network
admin whether it's a hacker they will not be able to read this data or manipulated or profile you because
this data will be encrypted.
It will be gibberish.
Then once the VPN receives the data once it sees for example you want to go to Google dot com.
It will simply forward the request to Google.
And then the response will follow a similar path.
Again keep in mind traffic leaving the VPN will be unencrypted.
It'll only be encrypted if the service that you connect in to uses encryption.
Hence I used a red arrow in this case.
Now you can also use a VPN and connect to the TOR network.
So you'll first connect to your VPN again green arrow means your traffic is encrypted and then it leaves
your VPN connected to the network and then you can either access an on your service or go to Google
or any other Web site on the clear net.
Now this architecture of first creating a secure tunnel and connecting to a server and then go to the
Internet or to the tower network or to whatever service is really really useful.
Because first of all it adds an extra layer of encryption.
This means that it's going to improve our privacy and anonymity because it will prevent anybody that
intercepts this connection that intercepts this flow of data in here from seeing what data you're sending
or receiving.
Again whether it's your network admin whether it's your internet provider whether it's a government
it doesn't really matter.
Your data in here is going to be encrypted therefore it'll be useless to any entity that intercepts
it.
It will also help us bypass censorship.
So we've seen previously that we can use plug mobile transports and bridges in order to bypass censorship
and connect to the TOR network even if it's being blocked by your network admin or by your internet
provider.
A better solution in my opinion is to simply use a VPN because let's assume we have an Internet service
provider in here that doesn't allow the users to access tor when you use a VPN.
Again you're creating a secure encrypted tunnel between you and the VPN provider.
So the Internet service provider cannot see that you're trying to connect to Tor all it can see is encrypted
data go into some server on the Internet.
Therefore in the case of the plug all transports and bridges in worst case scenario the Internet service
provider or the admin or the government will be able to see that you are trying to connect to tour which
could cause problems in some countries.
In the case of using a VPN the worst case scenario is your Internet service provider will be able to
know that you're trying to connect to a VPN.
That said they want to know that you're trying to use Tor and they want to be able to see any data you
send because like I said the connection is encrypted and hence the use of the green arrows in here on
top of all of these features using a VPN protect us from hackers because it is very easy for anyone
connected to the same network as you to intercept your data to redirect the flow of data so that it
flows through their computer.
I actually cover this in my network hacking and in my ethical hacking courses.
So whether you're connected to a public network such as an airport network or a hotel or a college network
or even at your own home network anybody connected to that network can redirect the flow of data so
that it flows through their computer.
And once they do this they'll be able to see all the websites you visit all the usernames and passwords
you send.
They'll even be able to modify data on the fly and backdoor files you download.
And in many cases even gain full control over your computer now if a VPN is used the hacker will still
be able to redirect the flow of data and they will still be able to intercept your data.
But this data again will be encrypted.
Hence the use of the green arrows so they won't be able to see the usernames or the passwords or anything.
And even if they try to modify this data they wouldn't be able to do it because it will be simply gibberish
and they wouldn't be able to analyze it or do anything with it.
That's why using a VPN is a really good solution to prevent man in the middle attacks with that being
said there is a number of things that you need to keep in mind when using a VPN.
First of all we are introducing a man in the middle and here.
So if we go back to the previous diagram you can see that our connection was going directly to the Internet.
But when we're using a VPN we're literally adding an extra node to our connection.
So the data is encrypted between the user and the VPN provider with the VPN provider is able to see
this data.
Therefore you have to make sure that you pick a reputable VPN Provider and avoid free providers because
a lot of them keep logs and analyze you.
You also want to make sure that you use a provider that keeps no logs.
And with keeping all of these things in mind with picking a reputable provider avoid free ones and make
sure that they keep no logs.
Also use hasty tepees everywhere.
This really solves the problem of having a VPN here.
Even if you trust them even if you think this company will never do anything bad will never keep logs
and analyze your traffic when you use hasty tepees everywhere.
You're adding another layer of encryption so your connection between you and the VPN provider will be
secured by two layers of encryption.
First the encryption used by the VPN and the encryption enforced by TTP as everywhere which is tier
less.
And then when traffic leaves the VPN provider you will have less encryption up to whatever destination
you're going to.
Therefore even the VPN provider in this case will not be able to see your data because it will be encrypted
with Telus which is a very very secure encryption.
Last but not least when signing up with a VPN you want to make sure you use a VPN that does not require
a lot of information.
Again at the end of the day we're trying to improve our privacy and it doesn't really make sense to
give them my address and all this information.
You can also take this one step further and pay with crypto.
But this is optional.
It really depends on you and your threat model now there are a lot of VPN providers out there.
I highly recommend you go and do your own research.
Me personally I use our own VPN that we provide adds security which you can get at Z as VPN dot com.
So I have the website already here and I'm already at the download section.
It supports all platforms so you can use it on Windows OS X Linux ISIS and Android.
Doesn't really matter.
And using these VPN providers is actually very very simple.
All you'll have to do is first of all obviously sign up with the ones that you want download their client.
And once you have the client downloaded you simply want to select a server and connect to it.
So I already have the client downloaded and installed and I'm simply going to connect to the Australia
server and right now as you can see my location change to Australia.
So the websites that I visit will think that I am visiting them from Australia because going back to
this diagram I connected to a VPN server that is in Australia.
So anything I send will be leaving this server and therefore I'll appear like I'm coming from this country.
So that's another benefit of using a VPN.
You can change your location and access websites or content that is only available for a certain country
by simply connecting to a VPN that is in that country.
So now that I am connected we can see that as seen here Australia we can double check on the website
itself or fire refresh it here you'll see this bar will tell me that I am protected by that as VPN my
IP appears to be this one which is not my real IP and I seem like I'm coming from Australia.
So that's perfect.
And now that we are connected to the VPN we can go ahead and use the Internet normally and will appear
like we're visiting these websites from Australia or you can use your tor browser.
And this way will connect to the TOR network from the VPN server that is in Australia and then bounce
through another three nodes and then access the Web site that we want or access Tor hidden services
so we can just go to check the Tor Project dot org to confirm that we're connected to the terror network
properly.
And as you can see that's perfect we're connected to it.
This is the IP this is the end IP.
The IP of the exit node and we can even click on the eye here to see the nodes where bumps and through.
So what's happening right now is we have an encrypted connection from my computer to a VPN server in
Australia and then from there reconnect in to Netherlands to Germany to the United States and then we
access the third project Web site or whatever Web site we want.