PIA VPN to be acquired by malware company founded by former Israeli spy

Re:PIA VPN to be acquired by malware company founded by form... by pron on Tuesday December 03, 2019 @06:54AM (#21691633)

Israel does allow it in some cases, but the security conditions in Israel and Germany are very different, as is the size of their population. But I have some bad news for you: you are most likely using technology made by people who've worked for intelligence agencies. For example, if you're using Intel chips, many dozens of their designers served in Israel's military intelligence. Same goes for Google, Apple and Microsoft products. It's just that a very high percentage of engineers in Israel served in military intelligence, and a lot of technology companies do R&D in Israel. But if you use Wikipedia, it's OK: its PHP engine was made by someone who served in the Israeli airforce, not military intelligence. Although, your packets are probably routed through Cisco routers, so maybe not so OK. Oh, Akamai servers, too. Also, there could be an issue with your Qualcomm Wifi chip.

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Re:PIA VPN to be acquired by malware company founded by form... by kuschku on Tuesday December 03, 2019 @10:03AM (#21692809)

In the end, it still makes sense to realize this, and to be cautious. The NSA, Israeli Intelligence, BKA, FSB, etc are all not much better than the StaSi, and one should treat them, and their (ex-)employees with as much trust and respect.

Of course using SELinux or TOR, or Intel products is something that’s hard to avoid, but one shouldn’t trust blindly.

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Re:PIA VPN to be acquired by malware company founded by form... by pron on Tuesday December 03, 2019 @10:31AM (#21693140)

> The NSA, Israeli Intelligence, BKA, FSB, etc are all not much better than the StaSi

I guess it depends on your definition of "much better", but for roughly the same definition you'd need to use to make that statement, you could also make it about Google and Facebook. And note that we're not talking about Israeli intelligence; we're talking about people who, when they were in their late teens and early twenties served, like a big portion of tech workers in Israel, did their mandatory service in a military intelligence unit. I know it's hard for people not familiar with it to understand, but most of these people don't have contacts in intelligence, as the personnel circulation in those units is very high -- almost everyone is just serving a few years for their mandatory service.

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Re:PIA VPN to be acquired by malware company founded by form... by kuschku on Tuesday December 03, 2019 @01:21PM (#21694995)

> you could also make it about Google and Facebook

Would you trust Google or Facebook to run a VPN? No, I don't trust them at all. I only use them in the most limited amount necessary, and only entrust them with data which is already public.

I self-host everything else, because I don't trust them at all.

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Re:PIA VPN to be acquired by malware company founded by form... by pron on Tuesday December 03, 2019 @02:26PM (#21695723)

That's fine, but you should know that VPN implementors often particularly seek out former intelligence agency people to design their security, and that's pretty much where VPNs started. Feel free to trust whomever you like, but the assumption that people who've served in an intelligence agency can be trusted less than those who haven't isn't very logical. Those are often the people who understand security best, and as far as allegiances go, how can you trust anyone? When intelligence agencies want to insert backdoors etc., they can and do cover up their tracks. I.e., you won't know that the people involved are doing their bidding, nor would you have some special reason to suspect them. Your point of view might well lead to a less secure system.

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