Looking at the scale of NordVPN they either already have a liason with aurhorities inside, or are hacked by authorities.
The (law enforcement) agencies can just go to the few biggest VPN suppliers. Just like they go to FAANG.
The (law enforcement) agencies can just go to the few biggest VPN suppliers. Just like they go to FAANG.
Based on what? You just seem to be making a wild unsubstantiated conjecture here.
1. Do these agencies have the motivation to do the above? I think the answer here is an obvious yes to everyone
2. Do these agencies have the technical ability to hack the VPNs, the finances to pay them for access, or some other reasonable measure to coerce compliance?
If 1 and 2 are both true, then the OP claim is also certainly true.
Given that 1 is true, I don’t think it’s “wild” to claim that these agencies cannot satisfy 2. In fact I’d say given the historical record, the more wild claim is that the CIA/NSA etc is incapable of satisfying #2.
If you are using unknown exploits not passed on to relevant software projects each discovery further risks said exploit being discovered then used against us individuals and enterprise.
It is a potentially very high cost for mediocre gain as criminals can turn to more secure methods leaving you with a lot of data on whose hiding piracy from their ISP but little of actual value.
Meanwhile you can direct attack targets any other ways when they are likely to have actual intelligence instead of hoping they log into nord VPN.
In brief speculation is incredibly likely to be based on bad logic and should probably attend more to actual know.
Eg most people aren't important enough to directly target. Uncle Sam probably knows the entire contents of your Gmail but not what you do via nord VPN. At such time as you become an international drug lord your privacy is likely to fall apart when Sam starts serving providers who do business with you.
Could you point out one example where CIA/NSA faced any real consequences after being caught doing something shady?
And I'm sorry, you aren't entitled to any of that information one way or another it's CLASSIFIED.
Isn't your own government keeping secrets from you grand?
A crime in Sweden perhaps. Who will Sweden charge? Do they even have names for individual employees?
It’s also a “crime” to sell false and compromised products to customers yet CryptoAG existed for decades.
> At such time as you become an international drug lord your privacy is likely to fall apart when Sam starts serving providers who do business with you.
Then you’re simply agreeing under point 2, I.e they have they ability to coerce cooperation when desired
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A
No door handle!
Room 641A is located in the SBC Communications building at 611 Folsom
Street, San Francisco, three floors of which were occupied by AT&T before
SBC purchased AT&T. The room was referred to in internal AT&T documents as
the SG3 [Study Group 3] Secure Room.
The room measures about 24 by 48 feet (7.3 by 14.6 m) and contains several
racks of equipment [...].