Author Topic: Hola extension - beware!  (Read 2861 times)

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Offline JohnF

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Hola extension - beware!
« on: June 02, 2015, 14:38:21 PM »
I know a fair few folks use Hola to bypass government site blocks, I've used it myself on the odd occasion.  Folks also use it to watch BBC iPlayer etc from outside the UK.

Unfortunately the owners of Hola have been a bit sneaky and have been selling off (your!) bandwidth to anyone who can pay - Hola is a peer to peer network, similar principle to torrents and rather than going into a long rambling technical explanation of how they manage it all I'll say is avoid (uninstall) Hola for the time being.

In addition, at least two major vulnerabilities have been uncovered both of which could potentially allow your computer (and internet connection) security to be compromised.

A more worrying aspect is that when someone pays for access (to your bandwidth), anything they do while connected via your computer appears to come from YOUR Ip address.  Now... just think about the implications there.

This article probably describes the main issues a little bit better than I have.


UPDATE:  Hola is definitely dead as far as casual users are concerned.  Vectra Networks have analysed it and found that malicious users can download software to other Hola users machines.

JF



Offline nichola

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Re: Hola extension - beware!
« Reply #1 on: December 20, 2015, 10:59:22 AM »
A windows update has affected some people's ability to use some VPN's on their devices so just a reminder for anyone intending to use Hola... unless this information has changed.

Anyone got any info we should know about on browsec which is an add on with Google Chrome.

Offline JohnF

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Re: Hola extension - beware!
« Reply #2 on: December 20, 2015, 13:02:51 PM »
Haven't seen anything to suggest it's a problem - just be aware that your internet traffic goes via their servers, which means you shouldn't use this connection for anything other than casual browsing or TV streaming.

JF

Offline nichola

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Re: Hola extension - beware!
« Reply #3 on: December 20, 2015, 15:13:51 PM »
Cheers John   :)




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