- Surfshark Takes IP Spoofing to the Next Level with New Multi IP Feature
- The VPN has also recently updated its IP rotation feature.
- Multiple IP and Rotating IP options cannot be used simultaneously
Are you a highly secure VPN user who is really fed up with being profiled by third parties? Surfshark might have you covered.
The cybersecurity company is taking its VPN’s IP spoofing capabilities to the next level with Multi IP, its new feature that allows users to assign a different IP address to each website, app, or service within the same session.
This move contrasts with traditional VPNs, which tend to route user connections through a single IP address. Instead, Surfshark’s Multi IP provides multiple IP addresses for different websites, splitting up your online behavior and preventing snoops from correlating user data activities, brilliantly minimizing the chances of being shaped by third parties.
As it refines its IP spoofing techniques to stay ahead of the best VPNs on the market, Surfshark has also improved its IP rotation feature.
The service now automatically rotates a user’s IP address every five minutes, regardless of their location, further removing data collectors from knowing users’ digital whereabouts for potential phishing attacks and data theft.
How does Surfshark Multi IP work?
How does this Multi IP mojo work? Karolis Kaciulis, Surfshark’s chief systems engineer, tells TechRadar that it’s Surfshark’s infrastructure, Nexus, that makes the magic happen.
The multi-routing technology is the same that powers Surfshark’s FastTrack route optimization feature and Everlink persistence feature, and allows the VPN server to reach all other servers within the Nexus rather than through a single VPN tunnel. Since most websites maintain a single IP address, Multi IP can choose a new route for each connection.
“The feature takes advantage of the interconnectivity provided by Nexus and attempts to use all available Nexus connections as routes for users,” explains Kaciulis.
“The distribution of these routes is achieved through equal cost multipathing, or ECMP, which allows traffic to be divided equally among all available routes.”
Because different parts of your traffic come from different IPs, the system makes it much more difficult for snoops and large entities to track activity or link actions to a single identity.
Platforms with multiple services, such as Google Search and Maps, or Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, cannot reliably correlate behavior between their applications.
“This weakens the correlation between sites and apps, preventing advertisers and data brokers from easily linking visits or actions, which in turn severely limits profiling and the reach of targeted ads,” explains Kacioulis.
While the Multi IP and Rotating IP options cannot be used simultaneously, they work on the same principle: IP changes are made on the server side without interrupting the connection to the virtual private network (VPN), so there are no data leaks in user traffic.
Not for everyone
Multi IP is for users who seek the highest level of online privacy and are willing to compromise on some potential trade-offs.
For example, although the flexible Multi-IP settings allow users to choose whether different IPs remain in the same city, country, or around the world, selecting the global IP option within Multi IP can affect the daily Internet browsing experience.
This is because frequent IP address changes can cause some websites or applications to load or function incorrectly, explains Kacioulis.
“As many platforms have strict geo-restrictions, if you have different domains on the same website from multiple IP addresses, the platform could flag you as a suspicious actor,” explains Kacioulis.
Some platforms also use separate infrastructure for each region, meaning that if the website you are using has multiple IP addresses around the world, your session may not be transmitted globally.
So, if automatic logouts from your favorite websites drive you crazy, Multi IP may leave you disenchanted. That said, if your Instagram clicks are turning into Facebook ads that you just can’t stand, welcome to your new world.
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