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Privacy and Security

NordVPN Says Its New Protocol Can Circumvent VPN Blockers

The company claims its NordWhisper protocol can mimic regular
internet traffic, making it harder for websites and ISPs to block.
Thomas Maxwell
By Thomas Maxwell Published January 29, 2025 | Comments (0) |
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NordVPN says its new NordWhisper protocol will help customers evade
VPN blockers. NordVPN says its new NordWhisper protocol will help
customers evade VPN blockers. NordVPN

NordVPN has announced this week a new protocol it says will enable it
to bypass VPN blocks in countries like Russia and India. The
company's new NordWhisper protocol, as it is called, is said to mimic
regular internet traffic so internet service providers and websites
do not know the traffic is coming through a masked service.

VPNs are a great way to not only keep internet activities obscured
for privacy reasons or access geo-restricted media, but they are
especially helpful in countries where authoritarian regimes try and
tightly manage the flow of information available to citizens.
Unfortunately, it is possible to identify traffic coming from VPNs
and cut it off. Way back before Spotify was available in the U.S., I
would access it through a VPN; the company would periodically
identify that traffic and cut it off.

VPNs like NordVPN work by routing internet requests first to one of
their own servers, and then passing the request along to the
destination. This allows internet users to hide their origin--an
individual may be in India and unable to access content on the U.S.
version of YouTube. By sending the request first to a VPN server in
the Americas, YouTube does not realize it is actually coming from
another country entirely. All it sees is a request for YouTube.com
coming from another computer in the U.S. VPNs also ensure all
requests are encrypted so they cannot be intercepted on their way to
the destination, which is particularly helpful for those in countries
less amenable to open expression.

Unfortunately, because VPNs will have many requests being sent from
one server, website hosts can recognize when a VPN is being used. A
constant stream of requests coming from one computer's IP address is,
of course, unusual behavior.

NordVPN claims to have found a way to make traffic from its service
look normal, though admits that it may not always work perfectly. It
also says the NordWhisper protocol may introduce more latency. The
protocol is rolling out first to users on Windows, Linux, and
Android. Support for other platforms will come in the future.

China and Russia in particular have cracked down on VPN use, forcing
Apple to remove related apps from their respective app stores and
using other means to block the traffic from passing through internet
service providers. Russia has been testing severing its domestic
internet connection to the global web altogether. But for now, VPNs
still appear to work there. Some VPNs have been criticized for
questionable data security practices--users are sharing all their
internet activity with a third-party company, after all, which could
be subject to government warrants or other intrusions.

PrivacyVPN

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