After a severe global cyber outage disrupted websites and apps, Surfshark is offering its VPN service from £1.79 a month as part of its Black Friday sale, providing an affordable way to boost online security and privacy.
Cloudflare, a company responsible for a significant portion of internet services worldwide, detected millions of hacking attempts on online services using the PHP programming language, a foundational building block of the internet. The attacks posed a severe risk to many users' private data.
How the VPN helps
Surfshark's Virtual Private Network service adds a layer of protection by masking user activity, which can help prevent tracking and malicious interception. Customers also get an additional three months extra on their subscription, plus a 30-day money-back guarantee if they are not satisfied.
Surfshark notes that its service can help protect compatible devices from viruses and malware, minimise scams and spam, and block ads and trackers.
Alternative VPN options
Proton VPN offers its VPN Plus service from £2.79 a month, allowing users to secure 10 devices at once with its fastest speeds and a 30-day money-back guarantee. ExpressVPN is available for as low as £2.19 a month, with up to 80% off, supporting up to 10 devices and offering a dedicated IP as an add-on.
Customer feedback
Surfshark has received praise on Trustpilot, with one shopper writing: "Surshark is the best VPN by far, and beats every VPN on the market, I went with surshark because I did my research first and surshark came on top 100% and it's never failed me yet, and I would recommend this software to anyone."
Another added: "I find the regular scanning and reporting on potential issues very reassuring. And all at a very competitive price." A third said: "Great and fast customer service. The company listens to its customers and addresses their needs and concerns in a very timely manner. I've been a customer for several years, and I always been impressed by the quality of the services and products."
However, some users reported issues, including one who wrote: "Everything was going well until about 6 weeks ago when Surfshark started seriously slowing my internet." Another noted: "I like the reasonable price and functioning well in general but don't like the inconsistant connection time. It is quite often that I have to manually click the connection button when it should be connected automatically. Occasionally, it was so slow that I needed to switch to another VPN server."
While most services have recovered from the hacking attempts, the risk to internet security remains, making VPN protection a relevant consideration for users seeking to safeguard their data.
