It's hard to believe that six months have already passed since the start of 2024. Though the world has been going through a gin-drunk divorcee's level of drama, at Windscribe, things have been sailing along quite smoothly. We've spent most of our time strengthening our product - adding more features, redesigning our website, hiring a ton of new engineers. The remaining time was spent mourning the demise of the Star Wars franchise, eating chicken nuggets and vaping because we are too cowardly to smoke cigarettes like cool kids.
Let's talk about the big juicy improvements we have been working on, shall we? Let's start with some older news - at the end of 2023, we migrated our core infrastructure to our own self-hosted and self-managed data center in our Toronto HQ. Why did we put ourselves through such a challenging and (let's be honest) annoying task? Because we love being in control. It spins our propeller. We also celebrated our 8th year of existence - and as you know, all good things come in 8s. Like hamburger buns, Octomom, and beer. Now let's talk about the rest of the toothsome delicacies we have prepared for you...
New Site, Same Old Windscribe
For connoisseurs of beauty, look no further than our new website. The rollout isn't quite complete, but it's pretty damn good looking already. We're not saying it deserves a spot in the Louvre, but we're not denying it either. That's for the people to decide.
Garry 2.0 In The Wild
Old Garry has sailed off into the sunset with Elvis and the OxiClean guy. It's New Garry's time to shine. With the perfect blend of wisdom and wit, Garry's got your back. Need support? He's on it. Craving some witty repartee? Garry's your guy. Payment queries? Consider it done. Investment tips? Sure, but only if you love losing money.
But Wait, There's More!
In the time since our last newsletter, we've been reaching milestones faster than the average politician changes their mind.
RAM-Only Nodes
By the way, 100% of our VPN node fleet runs entirely in RAM. This mitigates a wide variety of physical attacks on our infrastructure, primarily cold storage tampering or theft of hardware. Plus it sounds cool.
10 Gbps Invasion
Our servers have been upgraded with brand new hardware (better processors, more cores and more RAM), and they've become addicted to speed. We now have 61 total 10 Gbps locations worldwide, with almost 30 more coming later this year. That means less competition between users and a smoother experience overall. You’re welcome.
Generous VPN Users Move Over to Windscribe
Unfortunately, Generous VPN (that's literally the name) has shut down. We have welcomed all users to Windscribe, ensuring continuity of service, protection and privacy.
Chrome Extension Glow-Up
Quick reminder: Google has created a new standard for Chrome extensions, MV3. This month we begin the experimental phase rollout of Windscribe for Chrome. Our extension for MV3 does its best to mitigate some of the headaches Google loves to cause, like trying their hardest to make a fecal fiesta out of your web experience. If you're happy with MV2, rest easy, it will remain supported by our awesome web team (for browsers that still support it, like Firefox).
Quantum Proof
Windscribe is making preparations for a post-quantum world. We're in the process of beefing up our KEM (Key Encapsulation Mechanism) in TLS and OpenVPN protocols. For the non-cybertistic, that means our encryption covers more than a 14-year-old boy with a bottle of Axe body spray.
iOS App Sauce Available
You asked, we delivered: the source code for our iOS app is now fully available on our Github, alongside the source code for all other platforms we support.
PCMag Verified
It's official people! Our moms aren't the only people that think we're cool. PCMag awarded us an Editors' Choice Award.
Audit Incoming
An audit is an important milestone in transparency for any privacy software company, which is why we're proud to announce the completion of ours! What took so long? Well, we've been working on a MAJOR revamp of our entire VPN stack to improve reliability and addition of more valuable (and highly requested!) features. There was no point in auditing the old stack, so we needed to get our new architecture running before moving ahead with the audit. This spring, our new stack (codenamed "Freshscribe”) started beta testing, allowing us to proceed with the audit. So, without further ado, check out our blog post to read all about our new stack, upcoming features and audit results.You'll probably find yourself presently surprised (maybe even mildly aroused?). We're excited to announce this new architecture will be running system-wide in the coming weeks.
Like what you are seeing? If you haven't yet, you can go Pro for as little as $3 USD per month:
Yet Another Shameless Control D Plug
By now you are probably aware that Windscribe has a younger sibling named Control D. That little guy has finally become a man, and can now handle enterprise-level DNS query loads while also giving you ultra-granular control of your internet experience. Our lil baby's all grown up! Go check it out if you haven't already, it will change your browsing life forever. You can use it for free, by the way, so give it a look-see!
Make sure to check out our Telegram channel if you haven't already. There you can find the official latest Windscribe APKs as well as other company updates.
That's it for now folks! In the meantime, we'll continue on our path towards VPN-fection. If you have feature requests, comments, questions, or concerns that will aid us on this journey, email us at [email protected].
Lots of love, and unlimited good wishes,
Team Windscribe