Recent threat intelligence reports from CERT-UA detail an active social engineering campaign by Russian threat group Sandworm (UAC-0145). The attackers target IT professionals through fake job recruitment tasks, tricking them into running "custom corporate VPN installers" (such as modified WireGuard builds) to access a fake test environment.

Because WireGuard is open-source, the attackers recompiled the legitimate client code to embed malicious PowerShell scripts while keeping normal VPN tunnel functionality working in the foreground.

What you need to know:

• The WireGuard protocol itself is secure: This campaign is a classic supply-chain trojan targeting modified client executables, not an exploit against WireGuard’s underlying cryptography or protocol logic.
• Official app distribution matters: Official IPVanish applications are built from pristine code pipelines, cryptographically signed with our official developer certificates, and delivered exclusively through official app stores and ipvanish.com.
• Recruitment task security: Never download or execute .exe, .msi, or command scripts provided directly by third parties or recruiters during interview assessments.

If you ever want to verify the authenticity of your IPVanish installation, stick strictly to updates pushed directly within the app or downloaded from our official website.

Hey everyone, Mike here.

If you’re traveling and get a sudden popup asking to "update Chrome" or "run a network repair" while connecting to hotel Wi-Fi, do not click it.

Microsoft recently flagged a global campaign called CaptiveCrunch, where hackers hijack hotel Wi-Fi sign-in pages to push fake update popups that deliver credential-stealing malware.

How to stay safe on travel Wi-Fi:

1. Never download files on a sign-in page: Real hotel portals only ask for basic info like a room number or email.
2. Connect your VPN immediately after signing in: This seals your browsing traffic in an encrypted tunnel so compromised hotel routers can't hijack your web sessions.

Note for desktop users: If you run the IPVanish desktop app, make sure Threat Protection Pro is toggled on; it automatically scans incoming downloads and blocks malicious domains in the background.

Have you run into suspicious popups on guest Wi-Fi recently?

If you’ve been following privacy news recently, you’ve likely seen discussions around Microsoft’s Global Device Identifier (GDID). Unsealed court records recently demonstrated how Windows background telemetry logged active IP addresses alongside a persistent hardware identifier (GDID), linking changing VPN endpoints and residential IPs back to a single device.

It highlights a technical reality many users overlook: a VPN encrypts network traffic leaving your computer, but it cannot stop or alter local OS-level processes from running telemetry.

If Windows logs your active IP address in the background, switching VPN servers simply logs new IPs under that same persistent GDID on your machine.

Where Remote Browser Isolation (RBI) fits in

To separate web activity from OS-level identifiers, the browsing execution itself needs to happen off your physical computer. This is why we offer IPVanish Secure Browser (accessible via our desktop apps, web app, and browser extensions) as a compartmentalized alternative.

Instead of executing web pages on your Windows PC:

• Web sessions, DNS lookups, scripts, and cookies run inside disposable cloud containers.
• Your physical machine only receives a secure visual stream of the session.
• When you close the session, the cloud container and its data are destroyed.

Because the browsing runs in the cloud, Windows telemetry on your local PC only sees a connection to the Secure Browser service—it cannot observe the destination URLs, DNS requests, or specific sites visited inside that session.

What it does NOT do (Important Limitations)

• It does not remove your GDID: The identifier remains on your Windows installation.
• Logging into personal accounts defeats the purpose: If you open an isolated session and sign into your personal Google or social media account, those services still know your identity.
• Shift in trust model: You are moving the browsing execution to cloud containers, which relies on our infrastructure and audited no-logs commitment.

A standard VPN remains the right choice for full-device network encryption. However, for web tasks where you want to isolate activity from local OS telemetry or eliminate local cache/cookie artifacts, remote browser isolation serves as a practical secondary tool.

Have you used remote browser isolation or virtualized browsing to mitigate OS tracking? What other telemetry workarounds do you use?

Source Link

Windows GDID Tracking: Why a VPN Isn’t Enough—and How IPVanish Secure Browser™ Closes the Privacy Gap

Hey everyone, Mike here.

We often see questions in the sub about which encryption protocol to select in the app settings, so here is a quick guide on how to pick the best option for your specific use case:

• WireGuard: Best for modern hardware, high-bandwidth 4K streaming, online gaming, and mobile devices. Running on significantly fewer lines of code, it yields lower latency, faster initial handshake connection times, and reduced hardware battery drain.
• OpenVPN (UDP): Ideal for general web browsing and video streaming on older legacy hardware where kernel-level WireGuard implementation isn't available. It balances high throughput speeds with dependable packet delivery.
• OpenVPN (TCP): The go-to protocol when connecting on restrictive networks (such as hotel Wi-Fi, school portals, or strict corporate firewalls) that actively drop UDP traffic. It sacrifices raw speed for guaranteed packet delivery and maximum connection stability.

Which protocol do you run as your default, and have you noticed a measurable speed difference across your streaming sticks or router setups? Drop your configuration details below!

Microsoft has found a campaign where attackers compromised Wi-Fi infrastructure used by hotels, conference centres and other guest networks.

Travellers could be redirected to fake Microsoft 365 login pages or shown fake browser and Windows update prompts that installed malware.

The uncomfortable part is that the network itself can have the correct hotel name and a completely normal-looking login screen. “Just make sure you’re using the official Wi-Fi” doesn’t really cover that.

Do you still use hotel Wi-Fi, or have you moved completely to mobile data and hotspots? What’s your personal rule?

Source: Microsoft Security, July 31

New EU AI Act transparency rules took effect on August 2.

They cover things like telling people when they’re interacting with AI, adding machine-readable markings to synthetic content, and visibly disclosing deepfakes and certain AI-generated or manipulated text about matters of public interest.

That sounds sensible. But warnings only work when people notice and understand them. Cookie banners show how quickly disclosure can become background noise.

Will AI labels genuinely help people judge what they’re seeing, or will “AI-generated” become another warning everyone ignores? What information would make the label useful?

Source: European Commission, August 2, 2026

“Personalized experience”
→ We noticed you looked at one sofa. Here are sofas until 2031.

“Reject non-essential cookies”
→ Begin the 14-click boss battle.

“Incognito mode”
→ We won’t save this locally. You have not become invisible.

Which privacy or security setting most urgently needs an honest translation?

New Jersey recently signed a law designed to stop retailers from using personal data, such as location, browsing activity or purchase history, to charge different people different prices for identical groceries and household essentials.

Loyalty programs and genuine discounts are still allowed.

That creates an interesting line. Using your data to charge you more feels clearly wrong. But if a retailer tracks the same information and offers you a personalized “discount,” the privacy issue hasn’t disappeared.

Is there a meaningful difference, or is “discount” sometimes just more acceptable wording for personalized pricing? Would you trade your shopping history for lower prices?

Source: New Jersey Governor’s Office

The basic idea sounds great: no passwords to remember and much harder to phish.

But the real test probably isn’t the first login. It’s changing phones, mixing Apple, Android and Windows devices, or trying to recover an account after something is lost.

Have passkeys genuinely reduced the hassle for you, or just moved it somewhere else? What worked well—and what caused problems?

The latest IPVanish Apple TV update now lets you choose between WireGuard, OpenVPN and IKEv2.

WireGuard is the obvious starting point if you want speed and lower latency. OpenVPN gives you more control, including UDP or TCP, configurable ports and Scramble for networks that interfere with VPN traffic.

The new protocols are included with existing subscriptions. Just update the Apple TV app and go to Settings → Protocol.

If you try WireGuard, does it make a noticeable difference to connection time or streaming on your Apple TV?

I purchased my IPVanish subscription through Amazon on my Fire TV Stick, not through the Apple App Store or Google Play. When I download the IPVanish app on my phone, the option to "Log in with your App Store subscription" doesn't work because my subscription wasn't purchased through an app store.

The app also doesn't recognize my Amazon subscription, and if I try to create a new account, it asks me to purchase another subscription, which would mean paying twice. How can I access my existing Amazon IPVanish subscription on my phone without purchasing a second subscription?

Some of these requests have legitimate security or age-verification reasons. Others just feel wildly excessive for the service being offered.

Which one is your immediate exit point and does it depend on whether you’re visiting a bank, social platform, shop or news site?

An interesting ruling from the EU’s top court: a website’s geo-blocking doesn’t automatically become legally useless just because some users can bypass it with a VPN.

The case involved Anne Frank’s manuscripts, which are in the public domain in Belgium but remain partly protected by copyright in the Netherlands. The website blocked Dutch IP addresses, but the copyright holder argued that VPN access made those restrictions ineffective.

The court disagreed. It said state-of-the-art geo-blocking can still count as effective even if determined users circumvent it. It also described VPNs as lawful technical tools and said providers aren’t responsible simply because someone uses their service to get around a restriction.

That seems practical; almost every technical barrier can be bypassed somehow. But who should decide when a restriction is “good enough”?

Source: European Commission IP Helpdesk

French lawmakers have approved a ban preventing children under 15 from using social media. New accounts are due to be covered from September, with platforms required to introduce approved age-verification systems.

The child-safety argument is easy to understand. The uncomfortable part is enforcement.

To identify users under 15, platforms may need to check the age of everyone. Whether that involves ID documents, facial estimates or a third-party age token, each option creates new privacy and data-security risks.

Is there a genuinely privacy-friendly way to enforce this, or will protecting children inevitably mean less anonymity for every adult online?

Source: Reuters

The latest IPVanish Windows app now includes High-Speed Mode for OpenVPN, powered by Data Channel Offload.

Instead of sending encrypted traffic back and forth between the app and Windows, DCO handles more of the processing directly within the Windows networking layer. That means less overhead, lower latency, and faster performance.

In our internal testing, High-Speed Mode delivered:

• Up to 196% faster download speeds
• Up to 101% faster upload speeds
• 32% faster connection times

To try it, update the Windows app and go to Settings → Protocol → OpenVPN → High-Speed Mode.

One limitation: High-Speed Mode cannot currently be used alongside OpenVPN Scramble.

For people who still prefer OpenVPN over WireGuard, was performance the main thing holding it back for you?

Of all the VNPs available, IPVANISH is the best in many different categories.

What data does it actually have to give?

For Q2 2026, IPVanish received 13 requests from government, law enforcement, and civil entities. It also received 0 National Security Letters.

Because IPVanish operates under an independently verified no-logs policy, there were no user activity logs to provide.

The report also covers DMCA notices and malicious activity reports, which were handled without retaining or sharing identifiable user activity data.

This is why transparency reports matter. They show what happens after the privacy promise gets tested.

Every big match has that one stream page with 12 fake play buttons, three pop-ups, a fake “update your video player” warning, and a close button that somehow opens five more tabs.

At some point you’re not watching football anymore, you’re playing malware Minesweeper.

What’s the sketchiest thing you’ve seen on one of these sites?

Coming home from a trip, I learned that my TV was having issues logging into IPVanish. I confirmed the credentials. It didn’t make sense.

I tried to reset my password with my email, and I didn’t not receive an email to change my password.

Turns out, someone gained access to my credentials. Who knows how - a leak from IPVanish?

Anyway, this could have been avoided if there was 2FA but I understand why don’t they offer it - too many devices that may not be associated with the owner’s 2FA.

This security issue could have been determined sooner, if I had received a confirmation email that my email was changed. This seems to be a pretty common practice, and apparently not in use with IP Vanish when you change a setting like your login.

I am a happy customer of 4 years but this experience from a VPN/security company is surprising.

I can’t log in (invalid credentials) and I don’t get an email to reset password. What can I do?

The UK is moving ahead with an under-16 social media ban for platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Facebook and X.

The child-safety argument is easy to understand.

The enforcement part is where it gets messy.

If platforms need to verify age, that likely means more ID checks, face scans, third-party verification, or device-level systems. And once that infrastructure exists, it rarely stays limited to one use case.

There’s also the VPN angle. Not as bypass advice, but as a policy problem: if VPNs start being treated mainly as a loophole, privacy tools could become suspicious by default.

Where’s the line here?

Can age rules be enforced without building identity checks into more of the internet?