2 min read
iPhone VPN security issue has gone on to create a large number of security debates amongst iPhone and Proton VPN, which is a VPN application registered on the iOS App Store. According to Proton VPN, iPhone despite its claims still continues to have the VPN security issue and also states that what the company claimed as a fix back in 2019 was just a temporary one thus the problem is still at large.
The problem was first highlighted by a security researcher named Michael Horowitz, who did some testing only to find out that VPN’s on the iOS are broken, therefore they can be used by hackers to send user data over unidentified links putting every iPhone user with a VPN under massive privacy risk.
Horowitz not only unveiled this issue in front of the tech world but also said that Apple has known about this issue for two and a half years now and the company still hasn’t done anything to solve it.
A normal VPN on a protected device works in such a way that is closes down all existing data connections and then opens them inside a secured tunnel thus protecting the user. However, Horowitzfound out that iPhone VPN’s are not able to close all connections and some data still continues to be sent over unsecured links affecting the user’s privacy.
This whole VPN problem just doesn’t occur with a single VPN or a single iPhone model, instead, the results were same for a bunch of different VPN’s testing on almost every iPhone model. Now that’s something to be worried about.
Once the test was completed in 2020, the report got backed by a Proton VPN complaint against the tech giant. Since then the VPN company has been requesting Apple to fix this issue, but there has been no action from the tech giant whatsoever.
Apple, however, gave a reply to the claims and said that it fixed the problem back in 2019. The fix however is turned off by default and is to be turned on by VPNs. Proton VPN while discussing the 2019 fix, said that they had tried it only to find out that it is partially effective since unsecured connections remain in place even after a VPN is turned on.
