![]() ![]() One last consideration with VPN services is that they state they do not monitor or collect logs of users using their service, but this is known to be false. Learn more: What VPN and incognito mode still give away in your online identity > Malicious actors are sophisticated enough to identify that corporate network and ban that IP space from accessing their sites. If you are looking at malicious websites, your endpoint is still at risk.Īdditionally, pairing a VPN service with a VM doesn’t really add any significant protections, even if the VM is network-based: you could be using a corporate VM or virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) that appears to be coming from the corporate network. While this may provide some anonymity and privacy, there are still concerns about using the same endpoint you do your normal work on for research/investigative purposes, even with the VPN in place. VPNs are a little different, in that you are now representing yourself on the internet as coming from a different network or IP space. Secondly, you still have the potential to go to a malicious website that could not only infect the VM but also your endpoint, as they are connected. ![]() This means that you’re still presenting yourself to the internet as your work computer and not that new VM (even though you may think that you are). This is not the case, especially if you’re just running a VM on your standard workstation that you do your normal work on, as you’re still using the same network card. The first misconception with VMs is that if you are using a different operating system, you’re adding a layer of privacy, security and anonymity. While VMs and VPNs have their place in the tech stack for average users, they show their limitations when used for anonymous research or investigative purposes. The private connection to the internet allows a user to be sure that they are protected when browsing the internet but also provides a level of privacy or anonymity for the users. ![]() VPNs are used for providing either a secure, point-to-point connection to a certain network or they are available to provide a secure, private connection to the internet. They have become commonplace in nearly every business for users to see on a daily basis and understand if their network connection is secure. VPNs are also a virtual environment, providing a virtual network to connect users into the businesses’ internal network (intranet). This means that a user can be working on a Windows computer as their actual workstation but be running programs using a Linux operating system, for example this particular scenario is extremely important in many organizations, as there is the need for security engineers to be up to date on their Windows computers but use Linux or other operating systems to access key systems in the organization. VMs give users a virtual environment that is not associated with their actual workstation or endpoint. This is a problem that has outgrown the capabilities of cobbled together VMs and VPNs - and one which managed attribution is designed to solve. If their identity, affiliation to their organization or intent of their research can be deciphered, bad actors can spoil their investigation. This is different today, as you do not need to be a computer scientist to find or pull PII from the internet.įor researchers, this is a big concern. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, while there were bad people out there on the internet, they had to know what they were doing in order to gather any personal identifiable information (PII). Now add in the use of a virtual machine (VM), in conjunction with a VPN and TOR browser and many would think you have the most protection possible. When you mix a VPN and Tor browser together you are able to protect your identity - for the most part - when you surf the internet. In the early 2000s, all a researcher had to do was use The Onion Router (Tor) browser in order to hide their IP address and other information and while virtual private networks (VPNs) were around, they were not as common as they are now. Researchers have lots of options to manage their anonymity while performing online investigations, but not all solutions are created equally.Īs researchers, we are always looking for ways to protect not only ourselves but also our organizations from becoming vulnerable to anything that can happen on the internet. ![]()
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