Hotspot Shield VPN (Secure?)

[Legu]

For quite a time i have been using hotspot shield vpn. It is a vpn service, where there is the free version and the elite one. Free is full of spam etc, therefor i got the elite one from kat.ph (obviously never pay for software lol), which allows auto updating too. Of course hotspot quickly found it out and blocked it in a funny way. Every time u tried to open a webpage it redirected u to the hotspot webpage saying...u should register etc.

So what to do? Easy. Block the redirect. *lulz* And then u can use the elite version without problems, since the redirect does not happen, but the program thinks it has blocked you from using it. Either way it works fine, but my question is, how secure is it compared to the famous tor.

There was already a thread (proxy vs vpn vs both), but in this one, i only want to discuss this individual vpn (hotspot).

If you believe it is not secure, im open for other recommendations. I also use tor sometimes, but i think it is much slower in comparison to hotspot vpn.

[Sethioz]

what is hotspot shield exactly?
what does it do, is it some type of proxy?

also what are you doing, hacking into FBI? if you mess with fake emails, keyloggers and such, no one gives a crap.

[Legu]

http://www.anchorfree.com/hotspot-shiel ... indows.php

"Hotspot Shield VPN from Anchor Free is the world’s most trusted internet security solution. With over 75 million downloads, Hotspot Shield VPN for Windows secures more Windows machines than any other competitor VPNs. Hotspot Shield free VPN for Windows secures your web browsing session, protects your online identity from snoopers, encrypts passwords, online shopping information, chats, and downloads. Moreover, Hotspot Shield VPN protects your IP address from snoopers, hackers, and ISPs to allow anonymous web surfing with complete privacy"

Kinda much explains it, also i would like to use DoS against some websites, to see whether they have protection against it. (layer 7, not layer4)
--> Slowloris, are-u-dead-yet etc.

If it works, i would not stop them for working from more than 1-2 minutes. Yet, i think it might be possible for them to keep logs, thats why i want to make sure that im secured.

[Sethioz]

I don't use such useless stuff.
if i want to "snoop" somebody's info who is using this, i would kick them off of wifi network, let them re-connect whole session and i would get the encryption keys :)
it only helps kiddies from reading your stuff you send over internet, most websites use https anyway, so there is no need for such stuff.
at least that's my opinion. if i want privacy, i use TOR, but it isn't safe either, some people in TOR may host server and monitor everything, stealing your logins and everything.

[Legu]

if i want to "snoop" somebody's info who is using this, i would kick them off of wifi network, let them re-connect whole session and i would get the encryption keys :)

Ehm, in that case would u not only get the wpa2 handshake? Which u might crack if u have a lot of time, but how would u get the vpn encryption? o_O *Tutorial? xp*

it only helps kiddies from reading your stuff you send over internet, most websites use https anyway, so there is no need for such stuff.

Well its not really about those kiddies, it is only about the people who run the website. Would they be able to see my real ip, so that i get in trouble? Or would the encrypted vpn connection hide my ass secure enough? I guess if they get the fake ip, they still can find out who provides it, contact "Anchor", and mybe they might even give out my real ip.

If i use tor, even if they find out that it is a fake ip, there is nothing really they can do about it i guess...since it is not possible to follow it back, except u have all the nodes or smt.

Yet, in tors case i had to configure my tools to work with it, whereas vpn encrypts your whole connection.

[Sethioz]

bahh ... hotspot shield is meant for open networks, where there is no encryption.
hotspot itself, is a free wifi network, either completely open or you have to pay before you can use it, either way, there is no WPA2 ..etc encryption on it, its open network. that's the whole point of hotspot shields lol.

if there is wpa2, why would you need VPN? only way to see traffic, would be to crack wpa2 and with good password, it will take billions of years.

[Legu]

Ahh i see the problem now...we are talking about two different things somehow. U are talking about hotspots, like wifi hotspots, and it seems u mean "hotspot shield" as a protection for wifi hotspots. But im not talking about the protection of wifi hotspots (if that is what u meant), im talking about the program "hotspot shield vpn" (http://www.anchorfree.com/).

So the only thing that interests me, is whether the owner of a site will be able to find out my real ip adress, if i use hotspot shield elite.

[Sethioz]

yes i know what you was talking about, but i did not go thru all the details of that program, common sense says that if it is called "hotspot shield" then it is meant to be used in places where you are afraid that your info is at risk (hotspot connections).
if it's not meant for that, then developer of this tool is a moron and don't know what hotspot means.

anyway, why not google for "current ip check" and load up a page that shows your IP, then enable it, and reload the page.
you see there, if ip changed or not.

finding out IP, is difficult question. if IP changes on such page, no website owner can't see your real ip, but there are ways of tracing you, like if they contact Hotspot Shield VPN developers and give them proof that you flooded their site or hacked their site ..etc and ask them who was it ..etc.

[Legu]

finding out IP, is difficult question. if IP changes on such page, no website owner can't see your real ip, but there are ways of tracing you, like if they contact Hotspot Shield VPN developers and give them proof that you flooded their site or hacked their site ..etc and ask them who was it ..etc.

Exactly.

IP does changes, traffic gets encrypted, etc. Everything works like it should. Yet, im not sure whether this is juts an illusion of protection when it goes down to some "funny" activities (DoS, Some port checking, etc etc). While it is true that my ip changes, im afraid, that if they somehow find out what happend, they had just to find out that "anchor" provides the ip, and then they could contact them. Give them the IP, the time the "action" occured, and this probably would be enough to get me.

Implying anchor would give out such information to a third party company which i certainly get say, yet the chance is not so small i guess.

Of course, nobody can truly tell what anchor could do, but yet if u have any alike stories where u have been using some vpn service, or even a single proxy and they somehow traced it back, i would be interested in them. (not fbi,cia or whatever, only small companies)

Till then, i think ill stick to tor.

[Sethioz]

such privacy services are meant for your protection and not for illegal activities, you should read their terms and conditions, im sure they mention it there, that they may give out details to authorities.
It needs to be serious, but im sure that almost every service like that would finally give out your details.