No matter how many times we were surprised by the progress of IT, we’d still like to know what lies ahead. So, let’s make a few educated guesses based on the current trends and developments. What will VPNs bring us?
Continuous development
Most of the modern IT corporations have adopted the model of small and frequent software upgrades. The times of revolutionary changes are mostly over. As it turns out, steady progress is more effective and user-friendly. Many VPN vendors are well aware of that. As a result, we may be quite sure there’ll be many upgrades to VPNs, like:
- Growing server capabilities – both in numbers of clients handled simultaneously and in connections’ speed. Simply because the Internet connections keep getting faster.
- More supported devices. The progress of the Internet of Things means more electronics will need cybersecurity features, including a VPN.
- Optimizations. This applies to any way of making a VPN more effective. That includes more devices with hardware acceleration for cryptography, better server resource management and updates to VPN protocol implementations in the apps.
New levels of VPN integration
As it has been proven multiple times already, when any service or app out there gets enough attention, sooner or later one of the big players of the Web will surely try to incorporate it. Hence came native VPN support in operating systems. Windows, macOS, Android and ChromeOS all have it. If your VPN provider supports that, you may enter the credentials of the VPN server somewhere in the OS settings, without any app. Truth be told, using the app is often easier, but that can change a lot in the upcoming years.
The integration has also started on other levels, and no doubt will proceed in the future:
Security suites all set up with a VPN
Those stopped being just anti-viruses long ago. With many free and paid options, the vendors turn to the idea of including a VPN. Some suites were a VPN from the start, like Surfshark. Many famous cybersecurity companies offer a VPN now: Norton, Kaspersky, McAfee, Avast. They all have room for improvement though in quality and in-suite integration.
VPN on a router for a network-wide protection
Nowadays, a standard HTTPS protocol is used for protection on a website level. In the future, VPN could protect a whole household by working 24/7 on the router. Such solutions already exist, but they’re far from being popular. A lot of new hardware must replace the older models incapable of ciphering a broadband link.
Browser support for VPN
With so many VPN extensions for browsers from many vendors, one would expect Chrome or Firefox to create their own VPNs, too. Sadly, only Microsoft Edge has included one so far, at least among the top browsers. The feature is called Secure Network, but for now it’s limited to a mere 5 GB monthly.
VPN + Cloud = Virtual Private Cloud
VPC is the next level of cloud computing. It’s a combination of a cloud and a VPN. Its point is to isolate storage and computing power assigned to an organization and supply all the users with safe access to it via a VPN. With all sorts of services migrating to cloud computing, VPC has a great future. Especially with giants of the Internet who develop their VPCs: Amazon and Google.
Future of cybersecurity in VPN
Cybersecurity evolves constantly, though an ordinary user can rarely see it. As an example, encryption algorithms keep employing bigger and bigger cryptic keys. For example, TuxlerVPN now uses 256-bit key for AES and 2048-bit for RSA algorithms. Extending them prevents brute-force attacks, which depend on computing power. Keys that big are redundantly safe nowadays, but sooner or later it will change with computers getting faster.
Moreover, VPNs will probably incorporate other encryption methods. This way they can be quickly reconfigured, for example if quantum computing enables cracking older algorithms or any vulnerabilities are found.
In recent years, VPNs started getting blocked by online entities, not wanting people to keep too much privacy. This forces improvements in VPNs to make them less detectable. For example, vendors are likely to implement protocol obfuscation. It has proven effective in disguising VPN as ordinary Internet traffic.
The reality tends to be far stranger than any expectations, but predictions need to be done all the time. Despite the fact that new solutions competitive to VPNs apper, the market share of VPNs is expected to grow. We may expect a lot of improvements in this area. If you’re interested, stay tuned!
