ExpressVPN Shakes the VPN Market With TrustedServer

New methods

With the new TrustedServer technology, ExpressVPN is taking its commitment to the company’s no-log policy a step further by removing hard drives from the program’s servers. The software will now rely only on volatile memory (RAM). As the company explains, with traditional server administration, there’s a higher risk of data being compromised. With each new update, chances are that differences will arise between servers. In the long term, this means that servers could be running software in unexpected ways, making room for potential security breaches. On the other hand, since RAM requires power to store data, each time the server is powered on and off, data will be wiped. This way, it will be completely impossible to retain any kind of data from people using the VPN.

Additionally, if VPN providers run their servers exclusively on RAM memory, then data will be wiped and the OS will be reinstalled with each reboot, reducing the chances of software deviating from its intended purpose.

While this type of data processing is clearly beneficial and may be the future standard for VPN services, ExpressVPN isn’t the first provider to work this way. Despite the company claiming that no other competitor, including those outside the VPN industry, is doing this today, Perfect Privacy has constructed their infrastructure on a similar basis. Like ExpressVPN, its services are running with strongly encrypted RAM disks so that it is impossible for data to be stored on hard drives. The former explains in its privacy policy that no data can be recovered if the power is disconnected. As such, ExpressVPN’s announcement seems more like a marketing campaign than a real advancement when it comes to privacy.

Nonetheless, ExpressVPN customers will be happy that their provider is guaranteeing that servers are all running the same exact code. As the company puts it, “the more software consistency there is across a network, the less likely that there are vulnerabilities or misconfigurations”.