US Senator Asks NSA for Public VPN Guidance
Original: Confused about which VPN is right, US senator asks the NSA for guidance
Why This Matters
Federal VPN guidance could shape security practices for millions of high-risk US users and government personnel.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) sent a letter to NSA Director Gen. Joshua Rudd on September 3, 2026, requesting updated public guidance on VPN use, asking specifically whether single-hop, multi-hop, or mixnet tools like Tor, Apple Private Relay, and Nym adequately protect Americans from foreign surveillance.
Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) has formally asked the National Security Agency to provide the public with specific recommendations on virtual private networks, citing the complexity of available options and the threat of foreign adversarial surveillance. In a letter addressed to NSA Director Gen. Joshua Rudd, Wyden argued that 'Americans facing advanced foreign threats—including government personnel, defense contractors, journalists, and human rights defenders—deserve clear, honest advice about how best to protect their communications.' While US agencies have previously encouraged VPN use in general terms, no federal body has specified which architectures or services offer adequate protection. Wyden's letter highlights key technical nuances: standard single-hop VPNs terminate encryption at one server, potentially exposing decrypted traffic or IP metadata to rogue employees or hackers. Multi-hop architectures route traffic through two or more servers, limiting what any single node can observe. The senator asked five specific questions covering: the adequacy of single-hop commercial VPNs against foreign backbone surveillance; whether multi-hop tools such as Apple Private Relay, Tor, or Nym are preferable for high-risk users; and the effectiveness of random delays and cryptographic padding against traffic analysis attacks. Wyden requested NSA update its existing public VPN configuration guidance to address these issues.