Wyden seeks upgraded NSA security guidance on commercial VPN use
Senator Ron Wyden asked the NSA to update public guidance on commercial VPN security risks and answer questions about foreign surveillance threats against single-hop VPNs.
Sen. Ron Wyden sent a letter to NSA Director Gen. Joshua Rudd urging the agency to revise public guidance on commercial VPNs, following earlier letters to federal agencies in March and July. He argues single-hop VPNs offer little protection against sophisticated adversaries able to compel or compromise the single provider, citing a Congressional Research Service paper favoring multi-hop and mixnet architectures. The letter references a September NSA advisory on a China-sponsored campaign against telecom, government and military networks and asks unclassified questions about multi-hop systems such as Apple Private Relay, Tor and Nym versus mixnets.
- Wyden says consumer VPNs are marketed as privacy shields but insufficient against state adversaries
- Letter cites CRS findings that multi-hop and mixnet architectures mitigate single-provider compromise
- NSA asked to update VPN configuration guidance issued after China-linked telecom intrusions
- Questions posed on effectiveness of Apple Private Relay, Tor and Nym
- Products
- Apple Private RelayTor
- Organizations
- ODNI
- Countries
- United StatesChina
From the original article
3 min read at cyberscoop.com
it’s the latest in a sequence of letters to feds from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. , on commercial VPNs.
By Tim Starks · cyberscoop.com
A short excerpt; the article and its images belong to the publisher. Summary, key facts and assessment above are AI-written from the article and can be wrong.