Senator Ron Wyden has asked the National Security Agency to issue updated public recommendations on virtual private network configurations and security practices. In a letter sent to NSA Director General Joshua Rudd, Wyden noted that Americans facing heightened foreign surveillance threats—including government personnel, defense contractors, journalists, and human rights advocates—lack clear guidance on selecting appropriate VPN services.
VPNs encrypt user internet traffic through remote servers, masking IP addresses and preventing third parties from viewing communication contents. However, various technical limitations can compromise the protections users expect. Standard single-hop VPNs funnel traffic through one server that decrypts it before forwarding to its destination, potentially exposing decrypted data or metadata to compromised servers or rogue employees. Additionally, VPNs typically do not encrypt certain metadata elements such as timestamps, which nation-states can use for intelligence gathering purposes.
Wyden’s request addresses three primary technical questions: whether standard commercial single-hop VPNs adequately protect against foreign surveillance, whether multi-hop systems like Apple Private Relay, Tor, or Nym offer superior protection, and what technical features such as random delays and padding are necessary to defend against sophisticated monitoring. Multi-hop architectures route traffic through multiple servers, with each hop seeing only limited address information. Services examined include Nym, an open-source tool using a decentralized network with random delays; Apple Private Relay, which uses two servers operated by Apple and third-party providers; and Tor, which routes traffic through three volunteer-operated servers.
Each service presents distinct advantages and vulnerabilities. Volunteer-operated hops in Nym and Tor could potentially be controlled by nation-state actors seeking intelligence access. Apple Private Relay’s reliance on content delivery networks raises trust concerns for some users, and its functionality is limited to Safari on Apple devices. Academic experts have emphasized the absence of trustworthy standardization in VPN assessment, leaving ordinary users unable to make informed decisions based on reliable criteria. Wyden requested the NSA provide its response no later than October 14.
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