Renting servers means the VPN provider does not have 100% control over the platform they use to deliver their VPN service. The cloud provider has access to the servers too. Two companies, and two groups of engineers are operating the platform. For a VPN provider who uses many different could providers (for different countries) there are many companies with access.

Importantly, not only the IT engineers working for the VPN provider, but also the IT engineers working for the cloud provider can access the servers. Even if the VPN provider rent what is called a “dedicated server”, the IT engineers of the cloud provider can still access this server with root access.

To some people this may sound strange. If you rent a dedicated server in the cloud, surely only you yourself can access it? But there is proof this is not the case.

We made a little test, and signed up for a dedicated server with a large cloud provider, which is used by many popular VPNs. We then asked their support “If we lose our root password, could you help us set a new one, without losing the data and configuration on the server?” The answer was “Yes” (see screenshot below). This means the IT engineers of the cloud provider can access the server (to set our new root password). It also means that if they can access it at the very deep level of setting a new root password, they have “full access” and can also for example look at or log at the internet VPN traffic passing through the server.

There have been known security incidents, such as this one, where a large VPN provider discovered that their cloud provider had backdoor access. This is one of few publicly known incidents, and for every known incident, there are at an estimated 10 similar incidents that are not publicly known. On other words, this is common.

How Hidden24 is different

 
At Hidden24, we fully own the hardware needed to provide the VPN service, and we operate our hardware in locked racks in data centers that only we have access to. No outsider have any access = we have full 100% control.

Back to Comparison: How Hidden24 is different from other VPNs