Tom Okman, of Nord's tech advisory board, told CNET that the process is still ongoing. In its public statement, Nord said the breach happened in March 2018, but that Nord only found out about it 'a few months ago.' The company's reaction to the news at the time was to immediately terminate its contract with the data center, and silently set about auditing every single one of its 5,000 servers for any similar risks. The attacker got ahold of some security certificates that, when combined with a bit of chicanery, hypothetically could have been used to create a fake Nord server until they expired.

An unknown attacker got root access to a single Nord server in Finland because that data center left its own server management system insecure. Just like nearly every large virtual private network (VPN) company, Nord rents server space from third-party data centers around the world. Read more: The best VPN services for 2019 What happened But for a company that advertises itself as a bulwark of personal security and privacy, any break-in is a serious matter - doubly so for a field as competitive as consumer VPNs. But to be clear, Nord wasn't ' Equifax hacked' - it faced a security breach more akin to someone rummaging through an unlocked car than to a thief committing full-scale grand theft auto. Yes, one of NordVPN's 5,100 servers got 'hacked' according to TechCrunch, though the company vehemently denies that characterization. But 'peace of mind' is the opposite of what Nord customers got last week, when the company was forced to acknowledge that a security breach through a third-party server affected its service back in 2018.

VPNs have grown popular in recent years as we seek out ways to shield our digital privacy from the likes of ISPs, advertisers and governments. 'NordVPN gives you peace of mind each time you use public Wi-Fi, access personal and work accounts on the road, or want to keep your browsing history to yourself.' That's just a small sample of the many advantages touted on the homepage of NordVPN, one of the best-known commercial providers of virtual private networking services, or VPNs.

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