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We have successfully completed our migration to RAM-only VPN infrastructure - Mullvad VPN (mullvad.net)

submitted 1 year ago by Voyager@psychedelia.ink to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[–] lustrum@sh.itjust.works 81 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What does “without any disks in use” mean?

If the computer is powered off, moved or confiscated, there is no data to retrieve.
We get the operational benefits of having fewer breakable parts. Disks are among the components that break often. Therefore, switching away from them makes our infrastructure more reliable.
The operational tasks of setting up and upgrading package versions on servers become faster and easier.
Running the system in RAM does not prevent the possibility of logging. It does however minimise the risk of accidentally storing something that can later be retrieved.
https://mullvad.net/en/blog/2022/1/12/diskless-infrastructure-beta-system-transparency-stboot/

[–] KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 28 points 1 year ago (2 children)

While mostly true, there are ways to preserve ram if the device is confiscated.

Your local PD likely couldn’t pull it off, but if one of the larger abbreviation agencies were to get involved, data on RAM isn’t a huge hurdle. Assuming no one flips the power switch, at least.

[–] reluctantpornaccount@reddthat.com 19 points 1 year ago

Yeah, freezing and dumping RAM is a well known attack, even happening at some airports with laptops. But it still requires very recently powered ram, basically still in operation before extraction. It's a big step toward security at least.

[–] lustrum@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I guess it's going to stop any standard agencies with a warrant. Confiscating the machine for it to sit in a warehouse until some forensic techs get their hands on it.