Using multiple VPN locations simultaneously. Does it add additional anonymity/security?

VPN
1

Genuinely curious. Our provider offers over 50 different locations around the world; however, I’ve always used one location. If true anonymity is what I’m after for a research project into the dealings of the deep/dark web – two curious questions:

  1. Does enabling two (or more) locations simultaneously, from the same VPN provider, provide additional anonymity? Why or why not?

  2. Would using two different VPN providers, simultaneously, provide additional anonymity?

Note: This will also go into my final report, so all detailed answers (they don’t have to be long) are greatly appreciated!

2

I don’t think it would. Most premium VPN providers use a AES-256-CDC RSA 2048 SHA1 key or greater. This is currently unbreakable, even for quantum computers. Much less some VPNs additionally add perfect forward secrecy which refreshes your encryption every so often. Modern VPNs aren’t beaten by breaking the encryption. They’re beaten by traffic analysis or botnets. My suggestion is if you want extra protection you should run Tor over your VPN. This prevents your ISP from seeing Tor, it also prevents Tor’s guard from seeing you, and you get all the benefits of the onion router. Plus if Tor happens to be compromised with a Javascript exploit or something, your VPN will prevent your real IP from leaking. Or if you have a third party app to connect to the internet while you’re using Tor your real IP won’t leak either. Essentially using Tor over VPN solves the cons of VPN standalone and the cons of Tor standalone.

3

If you do the following:

  1. Have VPN provider No.1 setup on your router for all data in/out of your network.
  2. Then use VPN provider No. 2 client on your desktop (or whatever) for data from that device.

If done that way, i’d say yes for sure.
Note, you would probably have a serious performance hit.

4

There is also a configuration called “multi-hop VPN”. It is not really “simultaneous”. Multi-hop simply lets the user route the connection through two or more VPN servers and each of them providing the user with a new IP. E.g.:

User → VPN server 1 → VPN server 2 … VPN server n → Internet.

5

Would using two different VPN providers, simultaneously, provide additional anonymity?

Yes, if you route one VPN through the other one. Then, an adversary would need to compromise both VPN providers in order to snoop on you. If each VPN is in a different national jurisdiction, even better.

You can add as many layers as you want, and you can even layer in some TOR routing.

6

  1. If the VPN provider keeps logs, they will hand over the logs to LE anyway if ever served a search warrant, regardless multihop. However, if they do not have logs and LE decides to go directly after the data centers instead, then they will have to go to 2 different data centers in different locations. Meaning than before they even do all this, your information has been most likely forgotten by the RAM (assuming your VPN set up the racks without HDDs)

  2. Yes it would. If VPN 1 is served a search warrant regarding user X and they hand over logs of user X, all what LE will get is going to be the IP from VPN 2. Meaning they will have to serve another search warrant to VPN 2. In that timeframe your information has been most likely forgotten by the RAM (assuming your VPN does not use HDDs in the racks)

7

My VPN has onion servers and the speed hit is ridiculous if you use a server outside of the US. Brings 150Mbps down to 8Mbps. It’s better inside the US but I don’t ever use US servers.

8

However, if the VPN provider is the one that is pressured and is capable – and willing – to link identities of their users with their accounts, this may not protect you. In this scenario it comes down to your VPN provider’s willingness and dedication to protect their users, and in which country they have based themselves.