Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection (review) comes from the Russian security company AO Kaspersky Lab.
The firm was founded in 1997 and offers a suite of related products that reach more than 400 million users and are supported by more than 3,000 employees.
These tools cover everything for the home and individual use, even to secure massive corporate networks.
But we’ve been here before. an excessive amount of something honest can definitely be something unpleasant.
Is Kaspersky spreading too much? Or do their enormous resources help them provide a superior VPN offering?
We’ll answer those questions and more at the top of this Kaspersky Secure Connection VPN review.
Table of Contents
Kaspersky VPN Review
| OVERALL RANK: | #60 out of 78 VPNs |
| USABILITY: | Simple interface |
| LOG FILES: | Some Logging Policy |
| LOCATIONS: | Limited |
| SUPPORT: | Slow customer support |
| TORRENTING: | Not Allowed |
| NETFLIX: | Blocks Netflix USA |
| ENCRYPTION/PROTOCOL: | AES 256-bit encryption; OpenVPN, PPTP, L2TP/IPsec, SSTP, IKEv2 |
| OFFICIAL WEBSITE: | www.Kaspersky.com |
Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection Pros
Kaspersky Secure Connection provides a large number of protocols to establish, along with the most up-to-date encryption standard.
That leads to a blocked connection that doesn’t filter your location.
Take a look for yourself.
Many protocol options with updated encryption
The industry-standard OpenVPN and AES-256 encryption are used by default in Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection.
Both are banking and virtually impregnable by external forces.
They will monitor 98% of users.
But for the remaining 2% running on outdated networks or devices, you’re in luck.
Because Kaspersky also offers the PPTP, L2TP / IPsec, SSTP, and IKEv2 protocols. So you’re pretty much covered anywhere you switch.
Changing these is additionally simple. All it takes is the flip of a switch within each app.
Free from leaks and viruses!
The good vibes from Kaspersky continued once we ran their connection through various leak tests.
We are happy to report that each of the five passed without a problem insight:
- https://ipleak.net/ – none
- https://www.perfect-privacy.com/check-ip – none
- https://ipx.ac/run – none
- https://browserleaks.com/webrtc – none
- https://www.perfect-privacy.com/dns-leaktest/ – none
- https://dnsleak.com – none
No IP leaks:
No DNS leaks:
No WebRTC leaks:
Here’s why that’s important.
All your internet traffic music is submitted to a DNS server. This is often where everything from who you are to where you go is recorded.
These DNS servers are usually owned by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Often, they will send over this information to the government or sell it to other businesses for marketing purposes.
Unless you’re using a VPN that redirects your traffic first.
That way, your ISP (or anyone else) can’t record all of your online activities.
Except when your data starts to leak through the connection.
In this case, all your personal information causes each party to double. All while you’re not the wiser.
However, you are A-OK with Kaspersky.
We then ran your installation files through VirusTotal.com to make sure everything related to your software was up and running.
Zero of 65 possible red flags were raised. so that seems to be the case.
Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection Cons
Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection got off to a good start.
Unfortunately, they didn’t end that well.
Despite a promising start, we saw a lot of problems trying to actually use the service.
Here is a summary of the most important defects to be aware of.
Some Records
Most VPNs will keep aggregated log data to observe service usage and verify to improve performance over time.
So a website’s “no registration” claim is often a myth.
Kaspersky supports some logs. But only you test the “usage restrictions” revealed by the full scope:
That vignette above admits that they will hand over your personal identification if a “violation” occurs.
Two things caught my attention, here:
- If they are going to link their personal identity, surely they must record some data such as visited websites, etc. (Otherwise, what use would your data be?)
- Most importantly, what exactly constitutes a “violation”?
The first answer is somewhat obvious. While the second is answered a bit within the first bullet above.
Violations are usually determined by the “laws or regulations of the country where the VPN server is located”.
Here’s another variation on an equivalent point of your legal troubles:
There doesn’t seem to be anything during this on the surface.
But this is the reason why we doubt.
Russian Jurisdiction
AO Kaspersky Lab is based in Russia.
Initially, that’s good! They are outside of the Eyes intelligence alliance, which suggests that their data (if collected) would not be shared in North America, Europe, and Oceania.
Leaked documents have revealed that these countries often help spy on each other’s citizens, circumventing local laws that might otherwise impede oversight.
Then they simply share those resources to drive what they’re looking for.
Russia is not a neighborhood of any known intelligence-sharing agreement like this one. But they need their own problems.
To begin with, Russia only accepts VPNs that have been approved by the government.
But.
Basically, they censor the web, except they disguise it in another colorful language.
And the authoritarian regime can basically decide what it wants when it wants, whether it wants it or not.
Take the recent case of Telegram.
They are a web messaging server with approximately 15 million users in Russia. The Economist reveals that companies and journalists love the anonymous channel feature so they are ready to share information freely.
Except the government doesn’t like that. And now they come for a pound of meat.
They demanded that the company fork the encryption keys in order to access these anonymous conversations. Telegram refused and tried to fight the charges.
Guess who they sided with in court?
Not only are they blocking the service, but they are also trying to funnel users towards a government-friendly alternative.
Does that sound like a jurisdiction concerned about the privacy of its citizens?
I do not believe it.
Limited Privacy Features and Device Compatibility
Kaspersky has native applications for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS devices.
That means no messy configuration files to deal with!
You can also connect up to 5 simultaneous devices on your paid plans.
Unfortunately, the good news comes to an end there as well.
Kaspersky does not support routers, smart TVs, game consoles, or perhaps Tor.
Torrenting is not that simple. They don’t necessarily deny it anywhere.
However, they do claim that ISPs and native laws supersede torrent restrictions. and that they specifically warn people not to violate copyright laws in their Terms of Service. Therefore, torrents are essentially frowned upon.
There is also no turn-off on your VPN apps to help prevent exposure of your browsing data when a connection drops.
Quite Slow Server Speeds
The server speeds of Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection were ranked 41st out of 78 VPNs.
This range comes from measuring the performance of multiple server speeds and compiling the information.
Here’s how it works in a nutshell:
First, we use Speed Test to find our benchmark upload and download speeds. We went down 97 Mbps and we went up 53 Mbps.
Now, we randomly select a server to urge a good test. Here’s how the main US server performed:
U.S. Server:
- Ping: 122 ms
- Download: 48.94 Mbps (Percent Change: -49.55%)
- Upload: 33.31 Mbps (Percent Change: -37.15%)
Not great, but not regrettable. Especially considering there was tons of distance between our physical location and this particular server.
But we don’t stop there.
The next step is to attach it to a different server, this point within the EU.
EU Server:
- Ping: 42 ms
- Download: 37.81 Mbps (Percent Change: -61.02%)
- Upload: 37.32 Mbps (Percent Change: -29.58%)
To be honest, the outcomes weren’t much better.
Finally, we add up these combined results and compare them to all or any of the opposing speed tests we’ve run.
Kaspersky’s average performance of both servers was not good at breaking the top half of the table.
If you want a faster VPN, take a look at our 7 Fastest VPNs here.
Zero of the 4 Servers that Worked with Netflix
While connecting to four separate Kaspersky servers, we attempted to watch Netflix.
And none of them worked.
I guess it shouldn’t surprise us too much. The details of your app usage restriction even warn people:
Surprisingly, we discovered evidence that utilizing a server in the user’s home country is still ineffective.
So you are screwed either way. Netflix has successfully bundled the Kaspersky servers. And it doesn’t seem that the company cares about trying to vary that in the short term.
Check out our list of the simplest VPNs for Netflix for some alternatives.
Slow Customer Support
Kaspersky does not offer a simple option for email or live chat support.
They have a radical knowledge base, but you will need to log into your My Kaspersky account site to access support options.
The experience is also cumbersome because there are many other competing VPN services. So you can’t just get a specific VPN option.
Instead, you have to browse literally dozens of options to find the right product. Then if you want to make a support ticket, you have to fill in a lot of additional details. This includes questions about your specific problem, license key number, device, application version, and even operating system.
Finally, fill out your support ticket, hit “Submit” and then wait.
And wait, and wait, and wait.
Here’s the thing.
They mention having more than 3,000 employees. They list more than 30 offices around the world. Your site will be geolocated to send to the acceptable country site (then fill in the local country office and contact information).
So … where are all the support reps ?!
It took hours to answer a simple inquiry during normal business hours.
Possible Errors or Fake Servers
Getting started with Kaspersky is pretty easy, assuming you are using their pre-built clients.
Simply look under “Downloads” for the one you want.
Grab the file:
And the installation process begins:
Pretty smooth sailing so far.
There’s even a tactile intro tutorial if you’re new to the planet of VPNs.
But a couple of quirks started to kick in when it came time to actually use the service.
First, if you tried the free version, you would like to uninstall it before downloading a replacement app for the paid version. Also, you may need to reboot for everything to work.
It’s a headache, but it’s not a deal-breaker.
However, this next one could be.
We found contradicting server data when testing servers and executing leak tests.
No leak tests were found to be positive, as you may recall. This indicates that the connection was not at all leaking.
However, the app told us that we were connected to a server in the Netherlands, even though whatsmyip.com showed that the server was actually located in Greece.
There can be two explanations for this.
The first can be a simple mistake or mistake. They might just have a technical problem or monitoring within the system that is mislabeling the servers.
OR…
The second answer could be that they lie about fake VPN servers.
It may seem irrational, yet it occurs frequently. VPN providers will set up shop near server sites to assist you to expand your network coverage.
Generally speaking, the more servers, the higher. To increase their numbers a bit. And most users are clueless as long as they put it on a server that is on the edge of the intended destination.
Either way, with mistakes or deception, neither is positive.
A Limited Number of Nations
Let’s go over the last point for a second.
These are the available country servers, according to the Windows application server location drop-down menu:
- Canada
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- France
- Germany
- Hong Kong
- Japan
- Mexico
- Netherlands
- Republic of Ireland
- Russia
- Singapore
- Spain
- Sweden
- Turkey
- USA
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom
You should notice a couple of things are missing.
They only show countries, not cities or locations. Does that mean there is only one server location in the US, for example?
That will force people in a huge area to travel far and connect with an equivalent saturated server.
And there are many large continents underrepresented on the list. Three in Asia, zero in Africa, the Central East, Oceania, and South America.
These people will need to connect to servers on the opposite side of the planet in some cases.
Here’s another weird quirk we noticed.
You can find the fine print below on the plans and pricing page before subscribing:
Many of those countries have specific equivalent government laws or regulations.
However, I see Hong Kong on the list. and that I saw Hong Kong upstairs in the Windows sink. So you can’t sleep in those places and use the service, but will you live somewhere else and connect to a server there?
These problems are not only strange. But it also means that Kaspersky probably won’t work well for half the world’s population.
Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection Cost, Plans & Payment Methods
Kaspersky has three plans.
The first may be a restricted free trial account. You’re only allowed 200-300MB of knowledge every day, which you’ll probably wear out pretty quickly.
The second can be a monthly option starting at just $ 4.99 per month. That’s a great deal considering that most monthly VPN options are closer to $ 7-9 / month.
But the simplest deal is saved for last. The annual plan will cost you just $ 29.99 per year. It’s probably one of the most profitable promotions we’ve seen.
Just keep in mind that this is often the low introductory price for new people, whose renewal fees can often increase in subsequent years.
Kaspersky will accept all MasterCard, Visa, American Express, and inquiries. otherwise, pay with PayPal.
At this time, cash and cryptocurrencies are not accepted.
As with all Kaspersky Lab products, there is a 30-day money-back guarantee. The free trial doesn’t seem to have time constraints either. (Beyond the information restriction). So you will use it until you can deliver or move on.
Do I Recommend Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection?
Not.
Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection looks like an honest and basic VPN. But there are too many problems to recommend.
Logging policy and jurisdiction raise some questions. They don’t really work much beyond essential devices or platforms. Netflix, tor, and torrents don’t work either.
Speeds were poor, assistance was poor, and the number of countries’ servers was insufficient (or buggy or fake).
Kaspersky isn’t worth recommending because there are so many other decent VPN services.
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