A US senator has called on the NSA to provide official guidance on virtual private network selection and usage, citing confusion over the growing array of available options.
The request addresses a gap in federal cybersecurity recommendations as VPN technology has become increasingly prevalent. Citizens and organizations face a complex landscape of choices: open source solutions, commercial services, single-hop connections, multi-hop networks, and mixnets—each with distinct security and privacy tradeoffs.
The NSA, as the nation's primary signals intelligence and cybersecurity authority, has historically issued technical guidance on encryption and secure communications. The senator's push suggests similar clarity is needed for VPN adoption.
Current NIST guidelines and NSA recommendations focus on cryptographic standards but lack comprehensive VPN-specific protocols. Industry players offer conflicting claims about security models, jurisdictional advantages, and logging practices.
Official guidance could standardize best practices for government agencies, contractors, and civilians seeking secure internet access—particularly relevant given increased remote work and heightened cybersecurity concerns.
France's data protection authority (CNIL) has fined Hôpital privé de la Loire €500,000 for failing to adequately protect the personal data of 727,000 patients and their relatives.
The FBI is investigating a possible security breach at an ID verification company that may have exposed driver's license scans belonging to millions of Americans. The agency confirmed the investigation to Bloomberg News on Thursday.
Attackers compromised Coder's Cloudflare infrastructure and injected malicious Terraform modules designed to steal credentials. The unauthorized registry servers delivered the infected packages to users.
Utah will not enforce its groundbreaking VPN age-verification law while a legal challenge proceeds through the courts. The state became the first to target VPN usage alongside broader age-verification requirements.