Mullvad VPN got raided by authorizes via a search warrant but No Customer data was compromised

https://mullvad.net/en/blog/2023/4/...search-warrant-customer-data-not-compromised/

Good to see a sensible company out of the pile of sad excuse of VPN companies out there.

Reminds me on a case at perfect privacy, they and mullvad are the excuse you are rright but good to see that no data leaked.. hope the best for staff

Just a regular search, police knew they would not find anything since servers don´t run with harddrives and do not log anything. But they must search because the justice system tells them to do it. There are a couple of Swedish good VPN companies servers configed this way. It is pretty much standard here.

Lol i downloaded the mullad browser because someone posted here.

They wanted data about me, hehe

xReminisce said:

pile of sad excuse of VPN companies out there.

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People don't seem to realize that for like $5-$10 per month they can rent a VPS anywhere they want and set it up as a VPN, or just use SSH tunneling. That way you'll never be a target for nonsense like this because you're just one of many VPS customers.

Exxtra said:

People don't seem to realize that for like $5-$10 per month they can rent a VPS anywhere they want and set it up as a VPN, or just use SSH tunneling. That way you'll never be a target for nonsense like this because you're just one of many VPS customers.

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Maybe you don't understand.
Some people don't know, understand or want to bother to do all that and is happy with just a solution.
Also, when you host your data on other people's servers, then there is a chance, they will have full access to it. Also, do you really have the skills and knowledge to apply or develop and delopy the same level of encrpytion as companies specailized for it? Probably not.
So, having your own vps server actually doens't acutally make it "safer" lol.
That's a total joke.

Exxtra said:

People don't seem to realize that for like $5-$10 per month they can rent a VPS anywhere they want and set it up as a VPN, or just use SSH tunneling. That way you'll never be a target for nonsense like this because you're just one of many VPS customers.

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can you set it up such that it won't log anything though? can you please send me a link to a guide?

I think the announcement is to show that they passed the fed "stress test". Alot of "privacy" ran company cut corners

Anne-Maree said:

I think the announcement is to show that they passed the fed "stress test". Alot of "privacy" ran company cut corners

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It is
and it's something to boast about

xReminisce said:

Maybe you don't understand.
Some people don't know, understand or want to bother to do all that and is happy with just a solution.

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If you're going to be lazy then you'll always be at the mercy of others, and that tends to put you in a bad spot whenever a difficult situation comes.

xReminisce said:

Also, when you host your data on other people's servers, then there is a chance, they will have full access to it. Also, do you really have the skills and knowledge to apply or develop and delopy the same level of encrpytion as companies specailized for it? Probably not.

Click to expand...

A VPN is literally just an enhanced form of proxy that allows a remote host to connect to a network as if it were part of the local network. The encryption is in place to prevent others from connecting to that network.

An SSH tunnel is an easy solution to establish an encrypted connection between your PC and a remote server. This can be down with the standard program OpenSSH using a simple command line. In this mode, OpenSSH will act as a SOCKS5 proxy once you log in via SSH. It is very easy:

1) Log into your linux server (VPS)
2) Type: ssh -N -D 0.0.0.0:1080 localhost
(If you enter 0.0.0.0 as the IP it will listen on all available system IPs so it is better to specify an exact IP)

To connect you have two options:

1) Connect to the IP and PORT you specified in (2) as a SOCKS5 server, but this will have no encryption.
2) Set up SSH Tunneling using a client like PUTTY SSH, where under the connection options for SSH you must go to "tunneling" and set up a port for the tunnel to listen on - like 2020. Then, in your software, you would configure it to connect as a SOCKS5 proxy to localhost:2020. Connect to your VPS via SSH, and then the connection between your computer and the VPS will be fully encrypted.

xReminisce said:

So, having your own vps server actually doens't acutally make it "safer" lol.
That's a total joke.

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Well, it sure is better, because you can ensure nothing gets logged. So, at most, there may be logs of the VPS making outgoing connections but if you encrypt those then that is evidence of nothing.

iCommunicate said:

can you set it up such that it won't log anything though? can you please send me a link to a guide?

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Yes, you set it up however you want. See above.

Makes me want to use them for my vpn services

Police went with a search warrant !!! What a joke !!!
Article mentions "We argued they had no reason to expect to find what they were looking for and any seizures would therefore be illegal under Swedish law ... they left without taking anything and without any customer information".
OK, so, how come it is a joke ?
A search warrant means that there was detailed analysis done prior to the police "raid". So, in that detailed analysis, the stupid authorities could not know that this VPN company has a "no log" policy and inspite of that a search warrant was issued SPECIFICALLY to seize computers with customer data !!!
Sorry to say, quite often, authorities do not understand even something VERY BASIC, as far as technology is concerned.
Take for example, crypto (which is based on blockchain technology) : Authorities around the world are still CLUELESS with even the VERY BASICS of crypto !!!
With emerging technologies, the world is becoming funnier and funnier, day by day.

Have been a satisfied customer of theirs for over a year or so. Even have a Mullvad VPN sticker on my laptop

Nice to see a VPN company that actually honors what they stand for - privacy.
I should probably also give their browser a try.

Exxtra said:

If you're going to be lazy then you'll always be at the mercy of others, and that tends to put you in a bad spot whenever a difficult situation comes.

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It's not being lazy, you are just being highly arrogant and maybe even an elitest about it.
Maybe, just maybe, learn that not everyone knows everything, and maybe just maybe, not everyone has the time and effort needed to learn, master or do it themselves.
Your entire argument makes absoutely no sense.
let's go ahead and delete the MP cuz you can just do everything yourself right so you can't be potentially screwed over ?

xReminisce said:

Maybe you don't understand.
Some people don't know, understand or want to bother to do all that and is happy with just a solution.
Also, when you host your data on other people's servers, then there is a chance, they will have full access to it. Also, do you really have the skills and knowledge to apply or develop and delopy the same level of encrpytion as companies specailized for it? Probably not.
So, having your own vps server actually doens't acutally make it "safer" lol.
That's a total joke.

Click to expand...

xReminisce said:

It's not being lazy, you are just being highly arrogant and maybe even an elitest about it.
Maybe, just maybe, learn that not everyone knows everything, and maybe just maybe, not everyone has the time and effort needed to learn, master or do it themselves.
Your entire argument makes absoutely no sense.
let's go ahead and delete the MP cuz you can just do everything yourself right so you can't be potentially screwed over ?

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I'm also one of the people who would never use a third-party VPN as a primary VPN. There are very good reasons for it, so let me destructure your arguments:

a) "joe blow doesn't have the skills to set it up securely"

That's why there are simple, straighforward scripts who do it for you. Download, run, answer a few questions, done.

b) "hosting companies have your data"

So does the VPN company. And it's much worse because a VPN company is a huge painted target. It's much better to be in a place where "privacy" is not the main focus instead. Much much smaller target.

c) "self hosting is arrogant and elitist"

More like, competent and realistic.

d) "I don't have time"

That's fine but it's irrelevant to the question of "which option is safer"

jazzc said:

I'm also one of the people who would never use a third-party VPN as a primary VPN. There are very good reasons for it, so let me destructure your arguments:

a) "joe blow doesn't have the skills to set it up securely"

That's why there are simple, straighforward scripts who do it for you. Download, run, answer a few questions, done.

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Rightfully so, but once again
You positioned yourself to do everything yourself because it is "safer", so how are you going to trust those scripts to do it if you have no idea what contained in it? or understand it?
Is that not one of the most common methods out there where people inject unwanted stuff into highly desirable things?
So once again from a point of view from someone who isn't knowledable, they have to "trust" someone or something regardless, whether its a company or some random/indivdual or another company offering a script right?

jazzc said:

b) "hosting companies have your data"

So does the VPN company. And it's much worse because a VPN company is a huge painted target. It's much better to be in a place where "privacy" is not the main focus instead. Much much smaller target.

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I can agree it is a smaller target, but that still brings towards the point
if you don't have knowledge, doens't matter if you have those 1 click scripts or not.
What happens when it breaks down. What happens when you need to troubleshoot?
Do you really have the time to sit there and fix all of that?
Do you really want to keep up with what is happening in the privacy world to make sure your own VPN is always protected and up to date?

jazzc said:

c) "self hosting is arrogant and elitist"

More like, competent and realistic.

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We can agree to disagree

jazzc said:

d) "I don't have time"

That's fine but it's irrelevant to the question of "which option is safer"

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Not saying neither of you guys are wrong
but it is an unrealistic situation where everyone should just do everything themselves.
Because at the end of the day, we don't have enough time to persue everything we have interest in

Exxtra said:

If you're going to be lazy then you'll always be at the mercy of others, and that tends to put you in a bad spot whenever a difficult situation comes.


A VPN is literally just an enhanced form of proxy that allows a remote host to connect to a network as if it were part of the local network. The encryption is in place to prevent others from connecting to that network.

An SSH tunnel is an easy solution to establish an encrypted connection between your PC and a remote server. This can be down with the standard program OpenSSH using a simple command line. In this mode, OpenSSH will act as a SOCKS5 proxy once you log in via SSH. It is very easy:

1) Log into your linux server (VPS)
2) Type: ssh -N -D 0.0.0.0:1080 localhost
(If you enter 0.0.0.0 as the IP it will listen on all available system IPs so it is better to specify an exact IP)

To connect you have two options:

1) Connect to the IP and PORT you specified in (2) as a SOCKS5 server, but this will have no encryption.
2) Set up SSH Tunneling using a client like PUTTY SSH, where under the connection options for SSH you must go to "tunneling" and set up a port for the tunnel to listen on - like 2020. Then, in your software, you would configure it to connect as a SOCKS5 proxy to localhost:2020. Connect to your VPS via SSH, and then the connection between your computer and the VPS will be fully encrypted.




Well, it sure is better, because you can ensure nothing gets logged. So, at most, there may be logs of the VPS making outgoing connections but if you encrypt those then that is evidence of nothing.



Yes, you set it up however you want. See above.

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Such a terrible idea. The hosting company will log the network activity, you can disable logging from your VPS os, but doesn’t mean the hosting company don’t log the network activity from all servers, they do to stay compliant. Also, if you were to do something shady/illegal, your private VPS ip would make so easy to trace to you. The police would just ask your hosting, who has this IP? And they will tell customer X, you, did. Enough to yield you a search warrant. Now when it comes to VPNs with no logging, they don’t know who had the IP. That’s the difference. And the IP pools are shared among many users. But even with a no log VPN, I recommend you don’t do anything shady or illegal, you never know.
I personally don’t care if the VPN company has my data or not, as I only use VPN for accessing more movies from streaming services region and also when connecting to airport Wi-Fi.

xReminisce said:

You positioned yourself to do everything yourself because it is "safer", so how are you going to trust those scripts to do it if you have no idea what contained in it? or understand it?
Is that not one of the most common methods out there where people inject unwanted stuff into highly desirable things?
So once again from a point of view from someone who isn't knowledable, they have to "trust" someone or something regardless, whether its a company or some random/indivdual or another company offering a script right?

Click to expand...

Personally I can verify if it's safe or not, as I am technical and used to be in the "security" field. But I rarely bother. There are people out there who breath & live for the day they'll be able to spot some "known" repository get injected. They practically pray for someone to do it So there are eyeballs, just pick a popular OSS script and it's perfectly fine.

xReminisce said:

What happens when it breaks down. What happens when you need to troubleshoot?
Do you really have the time to sit there and fix all of that?
Do you really want to keep up with what is happening in the privacy world to make sure your own VPN is always protected and up to date?

Click to expand...

These things are set and forget. The tech is ancient and battle-tested and it just works hands-off. On the off chance that hell breaks loose, you can spin off a new VPS instance and install the latest script version there.

TiagoS said:

Also, if you were to do something shady/illegal

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If you were to do something seriously illegal and your "protection" is **any** VPN, you're just asking to get the prison soap. VPNs are for privacy, not stuff live that.

jazzc said:

Personally I can verify if it's safe or not, as I am technical and used to be in the "security" field. But I rarely bother. There are people out there who breath & live for the day they'll be able to spot some "known" repository get injected. They practically pray for someone to do it So there are eyeballs, just pick a popular OSS script and it's perfectly fine.



These things are set and forget. The tech is ancient and battle-tested and it just works hands-off. On the off chance that hell breaks loose, you can spin off a new VPS instance and install the latest script version there.



If you were to do something seriously illegal and your "protection" is **any** VPN, you're just asking to get the prison soap. VPNs are for privacy, not stuff live that.

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I do agree, that’s my point.