Is Nord VPN safe to use?

Soobee38 wrote:

Is Nord VPN safe to use?

Yes.

When I try & login on my Mac, it is stating:

’NordLynx wants to use your confidential information stored in “NordVPN” in your keychain’

It won’t be able to steal any other information from my keychain will it?

No. It is normal for apps to store login information in the keychain. The keychain is an encrypted database. It was designed specifically for apps to use for this purpose.

It is not going to steal any other information from your keychain. This is actually impossible. Each keychain entry has its own password.

I'm not sure what sequence of events led to this particular message. Perhaps you just need to update the software.

When you installed this, you created an id and password. They were stored in your keychain. That allows you to find that information or to use it automatically.

It's been set up to automatically start at the beginning, so it's asking to use the id/pwd. You have one id/pwd set up for both the VPN and lynx. The Operating system wants to be certain that you want to share that ID/Pwd. Imagine the possibilities if software used ids/passwords without you knowing about it. This helps protect you and gives you a bit of insight into one possible way software can exploit other information. You know the two apps work together and should share the id/pwd Say yes and sleep well tonght

Jarmaracark wrote:

The Electronic Freedom Foundation has some good informatioin for you to determine the right level of protection. They have a link (that I always have trouble finding) to https://www.safetydetectives.com/about-us/

I sincerely doubt that.

That is just an advertising site. There are hundreds of similar sites pushing various products. If there is any true indicator of the value and reliability of a given product, it would be its absence from such sites.

The worst part of VPNs is their association with the security industry. Even more so than with antivirus apps, VPNs are multiplying like crazy. There are hundreds of them. The vast majority are junk and scams. Even many of the top VPNs are junk.

And just like security software, there are lots of strong opinions and misinformation circulating. By now, there shouldn't be any debate on the inherent value of privacy. Even Apple is going to include a VPN in iOS15 and Monterey, see About iCloud Private Relay - Apple Support. It is true that a VPN doesn't automatically provide any privacy. Rather, it lets you control who has access to your web browsing activity. Does everyone know what web sites you visit? Or just you and NordVPN? Or just you and Apple? When your internet traffic is mixed in with all the other users of your VPN, it makes the global advertising and tracking networks less effective. They can still track you, of course. It is just more difficult with a VPN.

And all of this only applies if you have a legitimate VPN. For example, if a VPN advertises a "no logging policy", see if they have been audited by a reputable company. That doesn't necessarily mean they aren't logging or that you should be doing anything where you wouldn't want logs. It is just a performance of reliability and security. But the point is, who do you want to trust? Do you trust the companies that pay big money to get that certification? Or do you trust the companies that don't even bother? Or do you trust the companies that just lie about it?

You should NOT use any vpn software unless it is to connect securely in a vpn tunnel, like to your workplace network, and if so follow the instructions that are provided to you.

"public vpn" are anything but private, and make your mac less secure.

Public VPN are anything but private

Adding to the already excellent responses:

Something to think about→Don't use VPN services. · GitHub

There are two legitimate purposes for using VPN:

• To allow access to a private network such as a school or business when you are not on site. 
• To allow access outside of a country with a repressive government that has restricted Internet access.

Any other use is risky, and can lead to problems like the one discussed in this thread. VPN disguises your location by making you appear to be somewhere else in the world. But you usually can’t control that “somewhere else”, and if it is in a location that an app isn’t approved for the app won’t work. Plus the fact that the provider of the VPN knows everything about you and your location, as well as what sites you access through the VPN. So you are totally dependent on the VPN provider’s honesty. As a start, if the VPN is free, DON’T USE IT. The provider has to make money somehow, and if you aren’t paying them then they are selling your private data to make money. But even those that charge can’t necessarily be trusted.

You don’t really need VPN when using public Wi-Fi, because all communications between your iPhone and the servers it accesses are end-to-end encrypted.

There is no reason or benefit to using a public VPN service. The only reason to use a VPN is to create a private tunnel between you and your workplace/school/etc. Public VPNs have access to all your Internet traffic and they will do with it as they please, sell it, distribute it, store it, etc.

Each person's risks and needs are different.

A government official with top secret information.

A corporate executive concerned about corporate spies.

A politician.

A reporter in a foreign country

Someone coordinating a protest under an authoritarian government.

A drug dealer.

The person with winners names for the emmies

The average person logging into their bank.

Finding a recipe stored on a website that requires a log in.

How dangerous is the information? Who is likely to be looking? What's the risk?

If you have different id/pwds, going to that recipe site exposes you to very little.

If you are arranging to sell illegal drugs, there could be a court order that would expose that.

If you are a politician, thousands of individuals want to crack your system.

A dissident may have an entrie government working against them.

If you were worried about law enforcement, or corporate spies, or an entire government going after you, you would probably not be posting your question here and would already know this.

The Electronic Freedom Foundation has some good informatioin for you to determine the right level of protection. They have a link (that I always have trouble finding) to https://www.safetydetectives.com/about-us/

This looks at different VPNs znd can help you decide wihich is best.

One person is protecting themself from someone stealing an id/pwd. Another needs to be concerned about law enforcement or the entire government

Soobee38 wrote:

Wow! Who knew - well most of you guys do!

Well, I don't know about that.

Thanks for your help & have decided that I’ll be removing this VPN from my Mac!

What do you mean by "this VPN"? If you were scared off from VPNs in general and would prefer to just stick with Apple's VPN when it is released, then do that. That would be a great option.

But if you think that there is something wrong with NordVPN in particular and then you go install one of the many scam alternatives, you are totally going in the wrong direction. If you want to use a VPN, NordVPN is about as good as they get.

etresoft wrote:

But if you think that there is something wrong with NordVPN in particular and then you go install one of the many scam alternatives, you are totally going in the wrong direction. If you want to use a VPN, NordVPN is about as good as they get.

But far from perfect: https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/21/nordvpn-confirms-it-was-hacked/

Lawrence Finch wrote:

But far from perfect: https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/21/nordvpn-confirms-it-was-hacked/

Define "far from perfect". This was a single server managed by a 3rd party data centre. If this is the basis for measurement, NordVPN is actually 99.98% perfect. I don't think that's very far at all.

Even Apple's new Private Relay service is going to use 3rd party data centres. That would make Apple just as vulnerable to these kinds of hacks as any other VPN provider.

The NordVPN hack could have only affected people who were using that one data centre in Finland. Apple's Private Relay has already been shown to leak IP addresses for all users. I'm sure Apple will fix that eventually, but these kinds of risks are old news to NordVPN.

It may be safe, but it is a pointless app (as explained previously). My personal opinion: do not use a VPN of any flavor and do not install anything.

Jarmaracark wrote:

The Electronic Freedom Foundation has some good informatioin for you to determine the right level of protection. They have a link (that I always have trouble finding) to https://www.safetydetectives.com/about-us/

FYI

and

Here is a link to the article itself: https://restoreprivacy.com/kape-technologies-owns-expressvpn-cyberghost-pia-zenmate-vpn-review-sites/

Point # 2 A - Commercial VPNs should only be used if Mandated by Corporate Head Office for working remotely. Otherwise - ones Privacy and Security touted by the VPN is suspect.

Unless you're using a true VPN tunnel, such as between you and your employer's, school's or bank's servers, they are useless from a privacy standpoint: Public VPN's are anything but private.  

Personal VPNs only offer the illusion of privacy. Personal VPNs collect and sell your persona data while promising you privacy and anonymity. Nothing could be further from the truth.