- For
Immediate Release -
Baneki acquires vpntunnel.co.uk, a technological
leader in consumer-focused VPN
Baneki Privacy Computing, a private
company specializing in best-in-class privacy and security tools for everyday
users, has entered in a definitive agreement to purchase the operations of
vpntunnel.co.uk. The transaction, which had been previously approved by
Baneki's board of directors, closed on Tuesday the 1st of January
2008. Financial terms have not been disclosed. The full technology and customer-support
staff of vpntunnel.co.uk has joined Baneki as part of the transaction, along
with the technological and intellectual property assets of the company.
Expanding on Baneki's own in-house
development of the OpenVPN platform for secure private networking via encrypted
“tunnels,” the acquisition allows the combined companies to provide a service
that is currently unmatched in the market worldwide. “We concluded at an early
stage that the OpenVPN architecture and codebase are at the forefront of VPN
frameworks available today, both in terms of proven reliability and with
respect to the flexibility, extensibility, and capacity for transversing all
manner of complex network topologies it supports,” says Douglas Spink, Baneki's
CTO. “Along with vpntunnel.co.uk, we've been at the forefront of deploying the
OpenVPN package in an easy-to-use, customer-friendly service. Joining forces is
a great way to build on what we've done thus far.”
“The opportunity to do good things
in this market is nontrivial,” observes Jan Mulders, founder and CTO of
vpntunnel.co.uk - and now Baneki's network/protocol guru. “On our side, we've
built a foundation for technical delivery of VPN services that is robust enough
to scale to 100,000 customers and beyond – with capabilities for an entire
range of extensions, additions, and enhancements to the basic service that we
think our customers will genuinely value. We're glad to combine with the Baneki
team so that we can execute faster – and have more fun in the process. We think
in parallel, and it's optimal to work with folks who share your passions and
ideals.”
With the rising prevalence of
government surveillance and ISP-level snooping in all corners of the world,
many internet users are looking to virtual private networking (VPN) technology
to help secure their online activities in an easy, effective, reliable manner.
Particularly in countries with repressive governments, the use of such privacy
tools is essential for free expression online. Even democratic governments have
increasingly taken liberties in monitoring their citizens' online
communications – opening a vibrant and growing market for next-generation
privacy securing services. Unlike previous efforts at “privacy software” that
relied on closed, proprietary systems that lacked independent validation, these
new tools are built ground-up on opensource, community-reviewed code.
VPN technologies – originally
popularized to protect inter-office communications in the corporate world – are
increasingly used to “tunnel” data traffic out of insecure countries or
environments and into more privacy-friendly and censorship-averse
jurisdictions. Until recently, most tools were based on proprietary standards
such as pptp. The success of the OpenVPN project has opened the door to new,
independently-verifiable, robust services that protect and secure all online
traffic from the PC to the “safe zone” server. Like all VPN toolsets, the
OpenVPN code is only useful if there's a secure, trustworthy machine on the
receiving end of the connection – Baneki's specialty.
“We're excited to roll out a whole
range of useful, solid extensions to our core VPN services,” continues Spink,
“and I know that Jan's expertise will only help us to do even better things for
our customers; together, we're a great team. On behalf of both companies, I am
proud to continue our dedication to enabling free expression and open
communication around the world.” Baneki routinely provides diverse activists
and noprofit groups with free service in support of this goal.
Unlike many of the smaller VPN-based
companies in the market today, Baneki's products are designed ground-up to
support all manner of internet usage without the need for adjustment of
individual client software on its customers' PCs. From basic web browsing
through FTP, instant messaging, and streaming media – as well as VoIP and all
manner of peer-to-peer internetworking (including BitTorrent) - the core Baneki
VPN architecture imposes no limits on the network protocols it seamlessly
encapsulates in the secure tunnel to its back-end server farms in reliable
jurisdictions.
“We don't limit what protocols our
customers can use when using our service – ever,” agree Spink and Mulders, “and
we'll never store records of their usage or disclose their personal information
to anyone, period.” The company's deep respect for customer privacy is based
both on professional standards and the life experience and beliefs of the team.
Spink, in particular, has experienced both sides of the privacy debate in the
most public of ways, and has come out of those experiences with an intense
respect for individual privacy, diversity, and control over one's online
activities. Says Spink, “I'm not 'Normal' in my willingness to live out loud
online, but even I know that there are times where discretion is the better
part of valor. Our service puts that decision firmly back in our clients'
hands.”
Based
in British Columbia (Canada) and with operations in North America and Europe,
Baneki supports and develops several market-specific VPN services, including
goldensVPN (goldens.com) and TrueOnlineSecurity (trueonlinesecurity.com).
Primary operational infrastructure is based in the Netherlands, with additional
in-house server capacity in other non-repressive jurisdictions worldwide. With a
team of technologists, marketers, and customer service reps who share a passion
for solid, affordable, easy-to-use privacy technology, Baneki is proud to
support diverse communities both inside and outside the company. With the
acquisition of vpntunnel.co.uk, Baneki's European offices are now headquartered
in Glasgow, Scotland.
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