Surfshark VPN switches to superfast WireGuard protocol

(Image credit: Surfshark)

One of the best VPN providers on the planet, Surfshark, has go the latest in a long line of virtual individual network providers to prefer the swift and concisely-written WireGuard protocol.

Available on all major platforms (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Linux), the introduction of WireGuard promises to boost connections speeds, make auditing easier and increase privacy and security for the user.

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While innovations can sometimes take time to be accepted into the information-security community, WireGuard has been has been gaining traction for some time now. Cheers to its early on adoption by some of the pinnacle VPN providers, such equally NordVPN and Mullvad, it'south becoming a respected and trusted protocol.

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Why WireGuard?

The established manufacture-standard protocol OpenVPN is well trusted and used past almost every VPN provider on the market.

Nonetheless, weighing in with roughly 400,000 lines of lawmaking, OpenVPN is bloated and can be troublesome to work on. And vulnerabilities are more than difficult to spot and rectify.

WireGuard, however, comes in at only 4,000 lines of lawmaking. That makes it easy to manage. Having been written from the ground up within the past three years, it's thoroughly mod and holds no legacy loopholes or lazy workarounds.

In plow, that makes WireGuard easy to work with and, for the end user, means faster apps and connections. Withal, it'due south not without its flaws, and many VPN providers are only at present considering it fit for purpose.

Plugging WireGuard's holes

WireGuard's primary vulnerability is the fact that although it practices perfect forrad secrecy and minimizes packet loss in its handshakes, it assigns the user the same static IP accost every time information technology connects.

While overall the protocol outdoes the rival OpenVPN and IKEv2/IPsec protocols in other respects, this privacy issue is a key stumbling block for WireGuard's adoption.

Nevertheless, Surfshark has addressed this itself past implementing a double network accost translation (NAT) organization. This ensures users are assigned a different IP accost on each connection, effectively eliminating this vulnerability and, in Surfshark's words, giving "no incentive to save any identifiable data on a server."

Avoiding user activity logs is an essential part of whatsoever VPN worth its salt, and combined with Surfshark's all-RAM server network (meaning no data can be stored permanently on these servers), this is an effective way of providing VPN users with the privacy and untraceability they likely desire.

What this means for Surfshark

In practice, Surfshark'southward WireGuard adoption means the cheap VPN should deliver infrequent speeds and quick connection times plus further security for its users.

Information technology'southward also been adopted just in the nick of time, equally nearly of the top-rated services are either taking WireGuard into the fold (Mozilla VPN uses it as its sole protocol), or developing their own protocols, like ExpressVPN'south LightWay and Hotspot Shield'south Catapult Hydra.

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Mo is VPN Editor at Tom'due south Guide. Day-to-solar day he oversees VPN, privacy, and cybersecurity content, and also undertakes independent testing of VPN services to ensure his recommendations are accurate and upward to date. When he's non getting stuck into the nitty-gritty settings of a VPN you've never heard of, you'll find him working on his Peugeot 205 GTi or watching Peep Show instead of finally putting up those shelves.