NordVPN

The HackerNews comment pool (top 25 of 842, all highly upvoted) reveals a deeply skeptical, technically sophisticated user base. Multiple threads dissect NordVPN's 2018 security breach in detail — specifically a leaked CA key that would have allowed MITM attacks on OpenVPN servers (quote: "traffic decryption to any Nord OpenVPN server became simple as network MITM"). Users note NordVPN's defense was to point to now-outdated keys, which commenters found inadequate given the attacker had direct server access. The Tesonet connection between NordVPN and ProtonVPN is debated extensively, with Proton representatives publicly disputing claims while users flag overlapping personnel and shared infrastructure ("huge overlap of people who created Nord that are now working on Proton"). One top comment flatly states "None of them" when asked which VPN to trust, linking to a detailed gist about VPN industry untrustworthiness and Kape Technologies' acquisition of review sites. NordVPN's aggressive YouTuber sponsorship strategy is called out: "Throw money at Youtubers, they make the ads for you. Indiscriminately approve the sponsor spots." A NordVPN employee (Vykintas) appears in threads defending the company, announcing open-source releases (Libtelio, Libdrop) and no-logs audits. Several users argue for self-hosted VPNs over commercial ones, calling commercial VPNs "a honeypot" — a concentrated target. ISP-level tracking concerns (DNS leaks, metadata profiling, code injection) are discussed as legitimate use cases, though multiple commenters note HTTPS adoption reduces much of the threat. Netflix streaming conflicts with VPN usage are flagged as a persistent practical problem. Overall: the community acknowledges VPN utility for specific threats but views the commercial VPN industry, NordVPN included, with significant distrust due to security incidents, opaque ownership, and aggressive marketing.

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