About us
VPNpro is a consumer-focused cybersecurity website, bringing you software reviews, comparisons, guides, and other useful information. Our primary focus is the VPN industry, but we also cover other cybersecurity topics and tools, such as anti-malware, password managers, SmartDNS services, and more. The goal? Empowering consumers to make informed decisions about digital safety in this interconnected world.
Our group of seasoned tech experts is constantly working on tests and experiments, designed to deliver a look beyond the marketing efforts of cybersecurity companies. Since our inception in 2018, VPNpro has written well over 1,000 pieces discussing tools, trends, and practices. These include large industry research pieces that have been featured in many authoritative tech publications around the world. Our review and research guidelines.
Seasoned experts
We have a team of cybersecurity experts specializing in Virtual Private Networks and other online privacy technologies – password managers, encrypted messaging services, secure email, anti-malware, and more. VPNpro has tested hundreds of VPN services, ranging from simple free mobile VPNs to sophisticated global networks containing thousands of servers.
VPNpro in the news
The VPNpro expert team works hard to uncover stories behind the scenes, offering consumers a rare glance at the complex and growing VPN market. We are always at the forefront of everything related to VPN services, and our research and commentary has been featured on a number of respected international news outlets. Here are some highlights.
ANDROID USERS BEWARE: 100 MILLION USERS MUST DELETE THIS ‘VERY DANGEROUS’ APP NOW
The latest security warnings about his app came from VPNpro, as I reported in February, and I have been in contact with Google since then, as has the research team, seeking the app’s removal from Play Store.
ANDROID ‘VERY DANGEROUS’ APP WARNING: 105 MILLION OF YOU NOW HAVE THIS THREAT ON YOUR PHONE
VPNpro has focused on the most popular free VPNs returned by a Play Store search. The team then “developed a proof of concept for creating a man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack.” This all took place last year, and the culpable developers were informed of their vulnerabilities in October. One of the apps, Best Ultimate VPN, responded and patched its software. VPNpro says that the others did not respond to the disclosure or take any action. Google is now investigating.
ANDROID USER WARNING: HERE ARE 24 ‘DANGEROUS’ APPS WITH A DARK SECRET—AND 382 MILLION INSTALLS
Latest warning from VPNpro in a new report claiming that a large, government-linked Chinese company is “secretly behind 24 popular apps seeking dangerous permissions.” And while such apps are often dismissed as a nuisance, the team warns that these ones may be involved in “much more malicious behaviour.”
NEW ANDROID ALERT: THESE SIX ‘DANGEROUS’ APPS WITH 1.66 BILLION DOWNLOADS NEED TO BE UNINSTALLED
VPNpro’s latest research has exposed six free and “potentially dangerous” antivirus apps which “have a total of 1.66 billion downloads already in the Google Play store” and which have resulted in “users putting themselves and all the precious data on their phones at risk.”
NEW GOOGLE WARNING: 280M+ ANDROID USERS AT RISK AS CHINA ‘MANIPULATES’ PLAY STORE
The VPNpro team found that “seven out of the top ten apps,” found to be manipulating the Google Play system, “ are either based in Hong Kong, have Chinese directors, or are located in China.” VPNpro security researcher Jan Youngren warned that “at best we’ve uncovered companies using underhand, unethical tactics to mislead consumers and make millions. At worst, there’s a much more sinister strategy at play.”
TOP VPNS SECRETLY OWNED BY CHINESE FIRMS
Almost a third (30%) of the world’s top virtual private network (VPN) providers are secretly owned by six Chinese companies, according to a study by privacy and security research firm VPNpro. Six of these companies are based in China and collectively offer 29 VPN services, but in many cases, information on the parent company is hidden to consumers.
SMALL BUSINESS GUIDE: HOW TO KEEP YOUR ORGANISATION SECURE FROM FRAUDSTERS AND HACKERS
VPNpro security researcher Yan Joungren shares his know how with ComputerWeekly readers on how doing a few things well can keep your organisation protected from common cyber attacks and fraudsters.
NORDVPN DOMINATES VPN MARKET SHARE, AND THAT WILL LIKELY CONTINUE
New report by VPNpro.com spells out exactly who the number-one vendor is in the consumer VPN market. VPNpro looked at the top 10 most popular VPNs on the market today. It checked on a few publicly available marketing metrics, such as search frequency, social media mentions, installs according to the mobile app stores, and website traffic.
MILLIONS OF VPN USERS AT RISK OF HACKING – HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
VPNPro’s investigation found that the app SuperVPN Free VPN Client, which has over 100m installs, contains critical vulnerabilities that open users of the app up to man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks.
INVESTMENT WEEK WEBSITE SUFFERS DATA LEAK
Thousands of readers of a major UK financial news sites may have had their personal data leaked after the site suffered a major data breach, researchers at VPNpro report. As many as 330,000 financial buffs may have had their details revealed after the Investment Week website was found to be failing to protect user details securely.
RESEARCHERS FIND 24 ‘DANGEROUS’ ANDROID APPS WITH 382M INSTALLS
Security researchers have identified 24 Android applications seeking dangerous and excessive permissions, all of which come from app developers under Chinese company Shenzhen Hawk Internet Co., Ltd., and have a combined total of 382 million downloads.
DELETE THESE SCAMMY ANDROID APPS THAT DROVE 382M DOWNLOADS
According to a new report from VPNpro, the Chinese company Shenzhen Hawk appears to have launched 24 different sketchy apps into the Google Play Store that have racked up a total of 382 million downloads.
STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING AND DELETE THESE ANDROID APPS RIGHT NOW
The report’s bottom line is that the apps in question come via a Chinese company that VPNpro says has a history of malware, rogueware and unethical practices. And that these apps also ask for a large amount of unnecessary and dangerous permissions.
ANDROID PULLS 24 ‘DANGEROUS’ MALWARE-FILLED APPS FROM PLAY STORE
VPNpro researcher Jan Youngren said in a blog post on Monday that when his team analyzed 23 companies behind 100+ VPN products, a developer called Hi Security with three VPN products under its name popped up. As the researchers kept digging into the excessive, unnecessary, dangerous permissions these apps ask for, the name Hi Security popped up again.
MALICIOUS APPS NOW POST THEIR OWN POSITIVE REVIEWS ON GOOGLE PLAY
VPNpro and Trend Micro made public 24 and four apps, respectively, that are either capable of downloading further malware or conducting ad fraud and in some cases can post fake information to the Play Store to make them appear more desirable.
ARE VPNS LEGAL OR ILLEGAL? EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW
Additionally, according to VPNpro, 30% of all commercial VPNs have Chinese ownership. If true, that spells problems for privacy on a global scale.
MALICIOUS VPN APPS: HOW TO PROTECT YOUR DATA
Recent VPNpro research uncovers concern over the common use of malicious apps, including VPN apps, largely due to the fact that Google Play has failed to warn against or restrict download access in its store.
SOME COMPANIES ARE BUYING UP VPNS – SHOULD YOU DO IT TOO?
Recent research by the cybersecurity experts at VPNpro revealed that there were only 23 companies behind 97 VPN brands they looked at.That means that not only are big companies buying up smaller VPN brands, but they’re buying them in bulk. This sets them up to get an even bigger piece of the $54 billion pie as more consumers start using VPNs.
HERE’S WHAT ENTREPRENEURS MUST KNOW ABOUT THE BOOMING VPN INDUSTRY
Cybersecurity experts at VPNpro recently analyzed the marketing impact of 100 popular VPNs. According to their VPN market share research, there were three real leaders over the last year: ExpressVPN, NordVPN and Hotspot Shield.
ESTAS SON LAS 24 APPS QUE GOOGLE PLAY QUITÓ DE ANDROID Y QUE DEBERÍAS DESINSTALAR
El riesgo que suponen estas plataformas fue dado a conocer por una investigación de VPNpro que señaló que estas apps piden al usuario una “gran cantidad de permisos peligrosos” como la capacidad de hacer llamadas y grabarlas, tomar fotos, grabar videos y más. Incluso, algunas de estas apps están infectadas con “malware” que recopila datos del celular del usuario.
HOW MUCH DOES GOOGLE REALLY KNOW ABOUT YOU? ONE CLICK CAN REVEAL WHAT THE INTERNET SEARCH GIANT TELLS ADVERTISERS ABOUT YOU (BUT HOW ACCURATE IS IT?)
Security company VPNpro has revealed that Google trackers are the most common on the internet’s top 50 websites. After counting up those found on popular websites including Amazon, Reddit and WordPress they found that Google had five times more trackers on the sites than the runners up.
WARNING OVER 24 ‘DANGEROUS’ ANDROID APPS INSTALLED 384MILLION TIMES THAT COULD SPY THROUGH YOUR MICROPHONE AND CAMERA
Investigators at cyber security site VPNpro expressed concerns that the software was involved in “malicious behaviour”. “They’re asking for a huge amount of dangerous permissions, potentially putting users’ private data at risk,” researchers wrote in their report.
ANDROID WARNING: USERS URGED TO DELETE EVEN MORE ‘DANGEROUS’ APPS IMMEDIATELY
VPNpro said: “Our research has uncovered that they’re asking for a huge amount of dangerous permissions, potentially putting users’ private data at risk. “These dangerous permissions include the ability to make calls, take pictures and record video, record audio, and much more.”
MEET THE NEW VPN, SAME AS THE OLD VPN
A report from VPNpro shared with The Register examined 97 popular VPN products and found that all were the work of just 23 companies. In most instances, developers maintained multiple VPN apps. VPNpro researchers note that with so much consolidation, users have far less choice than they think, and by hiding the owners of an app the chances of being exposed to surveillance increase dramatically.
PORN LAWS MAY BE EXPLOITED BY CHINESE TO SPY ON BUSINESSMEN AND CIVIL SERVANTS, SAY THINK TANKS
A report by a security and privacy experts VPNpro, last month found that 28 virtual private networks are ultimately controlled by Chinese-owned firms. According to the report, with six VPN ‘parent companies’ or firms that own multiple products, China is the single largest source worldwide and that Chinese market dominance is particularly pronounced in VPNs designed to only work on mobile devices.
29 VPN SERVICES OWNED BY SIX CHINA-BASED ORGANIZATIONS
Analysis of the world’s top VPN services conducted by the privacy and security research firm VPNpro revealed that the top 97 VPN services are owned by only 23 parent companies. Of those parent companies, six are based in China, and information on these companies is often hidden to consumers, according to VPNpro.
ELIMINA DE TU DISPOSITIVO ANDROID TODAS ESTAS APLICACIONES
El sitio VPNpro denunció 24 aplicaciones que contenían malware y rogueware, las cuales sumaron 382 millones de descargas. Todas estaban asociadas a una compañía china llamada Shenzhen Hawk, que está “secretamente detrás” de cinco desarrolladores de aplicaciones, entre ellos Hi Security.
UN TIERS DES VPN LES PLUS POPULAIRES SERAIENT SOUS PAVILLON CHINOIS
L’idylle entre les VPN – ces réseaux privés virtuels permettant de garantir une connexion anonymisée à Internet – et les entreprises chinoises se porte bien. Telle est la conclusion d’une étude menée par la société VPNpro qui rapporte que près d’un tiers des principaux fournisseurs de VPN au monde appartiennent en réalité à six sociétés chinoises.
CUIDADO CON LAS VPN GRATUITAS: CONSIGUIERON HACKEAR 10 DE LAS MÁS DESCARGADAS
Los investigadores de VPNpro lograron hackear 10 de las VPN gratuitas más populares de Android, entre ellas SuperVPN Free, que tiene más de 100 millones de descargas en Google Play y es el quinto resultado al buscar “VPN”.
ELIMINA AHORA MISMO DE TU TELÉFONO ESTAS 24 APLICACIONES MALICIOSAS
Según un informe de VPNpro, la compañía china Shenzhen Hawk, una filial del gigante TCL, ha lanzado 24 aplicaciones fraudulentas en Google Play que acumulan un total de 382 millones de descargas.
VARIAS APPS PARA FALSEAR LA UBICACIÓN DE ORDENADORES MANIPULAN A GOOGLE PLAY Y SE COLOCAN ENTRE LAS MÁS DESCARGADAS
La investigación la ha llevado a cabo VPNpro, que ha elaborado un informe detallando las prácticas de estas aplicaciones. Los investigadores de VPNpro no tienen claro si las apps lo hacían para sacar rédito económico o para delatar a los usuarios ante los gobiernos (y así sacar rédito político).
SI TIENES UNA DE ESTAS 24 APPS, ELIMÍNALAS CUANTO ANTES: QUIEREN HACERSE CON EL CONTROL DE TU MÓVIL
La firma de ciberseguridad VPN Pro ha alertado, a través de un comunicado, de la proliferación de una veintena de aplicaciones que tienen como objetivo hacerse con el control de tu teléfono móvil.
ESTAS APLICACIONES MALICIOSAS SE INSTALARON 382 MILLONES DE VECES: BÓRRALAS YA
La compañía VPNpro se encontraba analizando a las 23 compañías que poseen algunas de las 101 aplicaciones de VPN más famosas cuando descubrieron un caso muy curioso. El desarrollador Hi Security, propietario de 3 de estas aplicaciones, destacaba por hacer un uso fraudulento de los permisos de nuestro móvil.
LOS MEJORES PROVEEDORES DE VPN PARA NAVEGAR SIN LÍMITES
Para ayudarnos a decidir qué proveedores VPN son los más recomendables hemos contado con el análisis realizado por VPNpro, un portal especializado en estudiar y catalogar los VPN del mercado según distintos varemos.
¿DE QUIÉN SON LAS MANOS TRAS LOS HILOS DE LOS SERVICIOS VPN?
La firma especializada VPNpro realizó un estudio analizando 97 servicios VPN distintos que, curiosamente, se concentran en tan solo 23 empresas distintas.
PLAY STORE : DES APPLICATIONS VPN GRATUITES PERMETTENT LE VOL DE DONNÉES BANCAIRES
Les analystes de chez VPNpro ont ainsi découvert que plusieurs des applications VPN les plus populaires du Play Store présentaient de nombreuses failles de sécurité qui, si elles sont exploitées, peuvent avoir de lourdes conséquences pour les propriétaires des smartphones sur lesquels elles sont installées.
ANDROID : 24 APPLICATIONS SIPHONNENT LES DONNÉES PERSONNELLES DE SES UTILISATEURS
La société VPNpro vient de publier un nouveau rapport révélant la présence d’applications particulièrement intrusives sur le Play Store. Ces dernières sont très variées, cela va de l’app de météo à l’application de selfie amélioré, en passant par les jeux mobiles.