Kaspersky Secure Connection VPN Review & Test 2023 - Good Overall, But Some Drawbacks

As a VPN from a leading cybersecurity company, you’d expect Kaspersky Secure Connection to be of a high standard. But its privacy policy has always concerned me because of its suspicious connections with the Russian FBS. Also, the US government has banned the use of Kaspersky software within its factions, which raises further concerns.

After conducting my testing and research, I can say that Kaspersky Secure Connection isn’t a safe choice for privacy enthusiasts. It keeps more logs than most VPNs and it’s still embroiled with its Russian accusations. However, it provides fast speeds and high-quality security features, giving you adequate protection from online threats like hackers.

If you’re not overly worried about privacy, then I’d highly recommend Kaspersky Secure Connection. Its low price makes it a great deal. You can even claim a full refund within 30 days if you’re not satisfied. But if you’re concerned about its privacy, or it doesn’t work out for you, you can always choose from a wide range of VPNs to better suit your needs.

Try Kaspersky Secure Connection Now!

Try Kaspersky Secure Connection Today!

Streaming — Netflix Unblocked

Kaspersky Secure Connection isn’t renowned for its streaming. However, it can unblock Netflix. This includes both US Netflix and other global libraries. When it came to other streaming sites like Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and BBC iPlayer, it couldn’t bypass geoblocks.

Unblocked: Netflix, France 2, SBS Australia

Netflix’s geoblocking technology can’t detect Kaspersky Secure Connection on most occasions. It doesn’t make any open claims about this on its website, so I wasn’t sure what to expect in my tests. I started by connecting to a US server in Washington, and after 30 seconds I was watching the movie London Heist, which is exclusive to US Netflix. There wasn’t any lag on my stream either.

From there, I connected to 4 server locations in the US (Miami, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago), and watched other US exclusive movies like Radium Girls and Gimme Shelter on the Washington and Chicago servers. Unfortunately, the Miami and New York ones didn't work. I connected to servers in Brazil, the Netherlands, Japan, Canada, and Germany, and unblocked Netflix libraries in Canada, Japan, and the Netherlands.

Kaspersky Secure Connection is a mostly reliable for unblocking Netflix libraries worldwide

Apart from Netflix, it also unblocks some other country-specific channels like France 2 and SBS Australia. If you want a VPN for unblocking Netflix, then Kaspersky Secure won’t disappoint.

Blocked By: Amazon Prime Video, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, ESPN+, DAZN, ITV, and YouTube TV

Kaspersky Secure Connection was unable to unblock popular streaming sites in the US and UK. These included Amazon Prime Video and BBC iPlayer, among others. After trying all of the 5 server locations in the US, I kept getting the following message on Amazon Prime Video:

“Your device is connected to the Internet using a VPN or proxy service. Please disable it and try again.”

A lot of VPNs have a hard time unblocking Amazon Prime Video, so this wasn’t surprising. I then tried out 3 of its UK servers to watch BBC iPlayer, but again I was denied access. Even though I had registered my account with a UK postcode and used a UK server, the platform could still detect my VPN use.

Similarly, I also couldn’t unblock Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, and ESPN+. As soon as I tried watching shows on these platforms, they detected that I was using a VPN or proxy. I experienced this issue on all of Kaspersky Secure’s US server locations.

Try Kaspersky Secure Connection Now

Speeds — Faster Than Expected

I was pleasantly surprised by how fast, and consistent Kaspersky Secure Connection’s speeds were. The speeds were fast on both its short and long-distance servers, and I could conduct all my usual online activities without interruption. To test its speeds, I used Ookla’s speed test tool, which tested the following factors:

• Download speed — How fast you can obtain files and data from the internet to your computer.
• Upload speed — The time it takes to upload files and data from your computer to the internet.
• Ping — How quickly a website responds when you click its link. In other words, your connection’s reaction time.

Local Speeds

To get a baseline for my speed tests, I tested my local, non-VPN connection in Australia. The results were:

• Download: 50.98 Mbps
• Upload: 20.76 Mbps
• Ping: 5 ms

When I connected to a Kaspersky Secure Connection server in Australia, the speed dropped significantly. It’s very common for your speeds to drop on a VPN connection because your internet traffic has to travel a further distance, and it goes through more layers of encryption. However, it was still fast enough to watch HD videos without lag, and it easily surpassed my expectations. My results were:

• Download: 29.73Mbps (41% decrease)
• Upload: 9.68 Mbps (53% decrease)
• Ping: 238 ms

While it might seem like a massive difference on paper, that was hardly the case.

Long-Distance Speeds

Kaspersky Secure Connection provides fast speeds across its global server network

I expected my speed to drop even further on its long-distance servers. Even though this occurred, it didn’t drop to the extent I expected. Its long-distance speeds were very similar to its local servers. The servers I tested first were its US and UK servers, probably the two most common server locations for accessing streaming sites. These were my readings:

US

• Download: 21.89 Mbps (57% decrease)
• Upload: 6.97 Mbps (66% decrease)
• Ping: 223 ms

UK

• Download: 22.49 Mbps (55% decrease)
• Upload: 5.65 Mbps (72% decrease)
• Ping: 327 ms

The US one was a bit slower, which was probably because it’s farther away. From there, I tested a wide range of different servers in various parts of the world, and the speeds were similar and fast. Compared to local connections, the long-distance connections took a little longer to download videos on YouTube. But once streaming began, I didn’t experience any lag.

Overall, I was amazed at Kaspersky Secure Connection’s speeds and consistency, which puts it right up with the best VPNs. There is honestly nothing bad to say here.

Are Kaspersky Secure Connection’s Speeds Fast Enough for Gaming? — Definitely

Kaspersky Secure Connection’s speeds make it an excellent choice for online gaming. Some of the advantages of using a VPN for online gaming are buying and downloading games from anywhere, bypassing geoblocks to play multiplayer games, and staying protected from DoS attacks.

However, the most important benefit is the improved lag and reduced ping rate, which is especially true for Kaspersky Secure Connection. I tested it out by playing Age Of Empires 2 Definitive Edition online, and I could game the entire time without any lag or interruptions.

As a baseline measure, I connected to a local server in Australia without a VPN, which produced a download speed of 49.63 Mbps and a ping rate of 5. The ping rate measures latency, so the lower the ping, the less lag. Then, I connected to Kaspersky Secure Connection’s servers in Australia and the US, which produces speeds of 28.63 Mbps and 21.07 Mbps and ping rates of 186 and 193, respectively.

Kaspersky Secure Connection works very well with online gaming

Even though the speeds dropped with a VPN connection, which was expected due to the longer distances, Kaspersky Secure Connection really surprised me with its gaming. It’s safe to say that you can enjoy a hassle-free gaming experience from anywhere in the world.

Try Kaspersky Secure Connection Today!

Server Network — Small Network but Secure Servers

With 2,000 servers in only 38 countries, Kaspersky Secure Connection’s server network is small for a paid VPN. This list includes major countries like the US, UK, France, Australia, Japan, and more restrictive countries like Russia and Turkey. A large number of server locations increases your likelihood of bypassing geoblocks and using a reliable connection.

It’s also impossible to know which cities their servers are located in and its total server count, which it doesn’t disclose. You can only choose the server location and not the exact server, which I found to be disappointing for a paid VPN. However, it gives you unlimited server switches.

Kaspersky Secure Connection also has thousands of IP addresses, which include both dynamic and static IP addresses. A dynamic IP address changes every time you use Kaspersky Secure Connection, whereas a static one stays the same. You have the choice of using either, so this is very handy.

Even though Kaspersky Secure Connection uses Hotspot Shield’s Hydra VPN technology, their server networks are entirely different. However, it leases its server infrastructure from Hotspot Shield, which means that Kaspersky Secure rents its servers. Since Hotspot is a secure VPN that’s had independent audits, it’s safe to say that Kaspersky Secure Connection’s rented servers are safe and secure.

Security — Highly Secure

Security Breaches

The parent company of Kaspersky Secure Connection, Kaspersky Lab, had its technologies infected by a type of Malware called Duqu 2.0 in 2015. Duqu 2.0 is well-known for infecting hotel computers in Austria and Switzerland, where international talks were taking place about Iran’s nuclear program.

It had infected Kaspersky Lab’s technologies for several months without being detected. It was believed to have been carried out by Israel to prove to the US of Kaspersky Lab’s collaboration with the FSB in Russia. Luckily, no such evidence was found, and none of Kaspersky Secure Connection’s customers were affected in any way.

Kaspersky Lab used the knowledge gained from this attack to improve their defensive technologies, so you could say that it has had a positive effect.

Independent Audits

Kaspersky Secure Connection passed a SOC (Service and Organization) 2 audit in 2019, which a “Big Four” company conducted. It’s essentially an international audit that reports the standards and procedures of cybersecurity risk management systems. The audit carefully examined the 5 fundamental principles of security, which are:

• Availability — How functional the security process is.
• Protection — How well the security process is protected from unauthorized access.
• Process integrity — How safe data is kept when delivered to another client.
• Confidentiality — The extent to which third parties can access data.
• Privacy — If and how the company stores personal data.

To examine these principles, the “Big Four” company looked at Kaspersky Lab’s services, systems interaction, process controls, users’ control tools, and service risks. The end result was that all of Kaspersky Lab’s services, including Kaspersky Secure, were well-protected against external security and privacy threats. Nothing was of concern.

The audit is only available to clients with a business account with Kaspersky Lab, so that I couldn’t get a copy of it.

Try Kaspersky Secure Connection Today!

Encryption and Security Protocols

Kaspersky Secure Connection uses the OpenVPN protocol on Android and iOS and Hotspot Shield’s Catapult Hydra protocol on Windows and macOS. Unlike many other top-tier VPNs, you cannot change protocol settings with Kaspersky Secure Connection, meaning that the two protocols listed are automatically selected by default. Here are the two protocols explained:

OpenVPN — A standard VPN protocol that’s commonly used and highly configurable with plenty of port types. It’s well-known for balancing speed and security, as well as being an open-sourced protocol. This means its source code is hosted publicly on the internet, which provides excellent transparency.

Catapult Hydra — A protocol that’s unique to Hotspot Shield. It establishes secure client-server connections and strong encryption by using TLS-based security. This level of protection is among the strongest for the transfer of data. However, since Catapult Hydra’s information level is limited, it hasn’t quite proved its worthiness like OpenVPN.

If you use an outdated network or service, you can choose to use other protocols like IKEv2, SSTP, and L2TP/IPSec. Also, Kaspersky Secure Connection doesn’t support WireGuard on any of its apps.

Kaspersky Secure Connection uses AES-256 bit encryption, which is the gold standard of encryption. It’s commonly referred to as military-grade encryption and is used by top intelligence agencies worldwide to protect sensitive information. 256 refers to the size of the key used to encrypt data, which involves 2^256 possible key combinations.

The processing power required to break this encryption is so big that it’ll take more than a few lifetimes for the world’s strongest supercomputers to crack. You can be assured that your data is protected to the highest degree.

Leak Tests and Leak Protection

Your DNS requests are protected from DNS leaks with Kaspersky Secure Connection. A DNS leak is a security flaw that accidentally leaks your IP address to your ISP, which can then leak your online data and activity to unauthorized third parties. It usually happens because of a VPN misconfiguration.

To make sure that Kaspersky Secure Connection protects against DNS leaks, I ran a few tests on IPleaks.net. When I connected to Kaspersky’s servers in the US, UK, France, Japan, and Russia, my DNS requests weren't leaked at all. My IPv4 connection was protected, and IPv6 wasn’t reachable because the fallback was a failure. It meant that my connection wouldn’t fall back to another protocol unexpectedly, which is a DNS leak.

Your DNS requests are well protected with Kaspersky Secure Connection

Other Security Features

• Kill Switch — Kaspersky Secure Connection has a kill switch that prevents your online data from being intercepted if your VPN connection unexpectedly drops. This can be turned on or off in the settings tab. When I tested it, I couldn't use the internet while changing servers.
• Smart Protection — This feature alerts you about possible internet threats like unsecured connections. It also enables a VPN connection when you’re using an unsecured WiFi network in a public place. I tested this out by using the public WiFi in my local library, and it automatically connected me to a Kaspersky Secure Connection server in the US.
• Secure Keyboard Input — This prevents any website data entered on a computer keyboard from being intercepted. You can enable this setting by installing the secure keyboard extension. It protects single-line entry fields more than 3 characters long and stops the autocomplete feature on browsers from working. When I installed it, my browser could no longer detect my standard inputs.

The only security features it lacks are split tunneling and multi-hop servers, also known as Double VPN. This means you can’t divide your internet traffic between VPN and non-VPN traffic and connect to 2 different servers for extra security.

Try Kaspersky Secure Connection Today!

Privacy — Not Great

Location — Controversial Russia

Kaspersky Secure Connection is located in Russia, which is outside of the 14-eyes alliance. However, Russia has its own controversies around internet freedoms and privacy. It only allows VPNs that have been approved by the Russian government and requested that VPN providers remove their servers from Russia unless they complied with Russian censorship. In other words, the Russian government fully censors the country’s internet use.

In February 2020, Russia orchestrated a brief disconnect from the internet to make all internet traffic go through Russian servers. According to the government, the reason for it was to protect Russia from cyber attacks. However, opponents would argue that it’s a way for them to spy and conduct their own cyberattacks. Kaspersky Secure Connection openly supported this initiative, which is of concern.

Also, a couple of former Kaspersky employees accused the company of creating fake malware to harm Microsoft and AVG in 2015. Luckily, these accusations have never been proven, and Kaspersky regards them as “unethical and dishonest.”

However, they are making an effort to steer away from the Russian controversy, which mainly comes from their antivirus software — not the VPN. Most notably, they’ve moved their core processors from Russia to Switzerland and have started a Global Transparency Initiative. This initiative aims to engage the broader cybersecurity community with stakeholders to verify the trustworthiness of their products. Still, many countries are concerned about their practices, and rightly so.

Ownership — Kaspersky Lab

Kaspersky Lab owns Kaspersky Secure Connection, which is a world-renowned cybersecurity company in Russia. Apart from Kaspersky Secure Connection, it provides anti-virus software, cloud storage solutions, endpoint security, and password management software, among other cybersecurity products and services.

It has a controversial reputation worldwide because of its perceived ties with the FSB (Federal Security Service) in Russia, which the company actively denies on an ongoing basis. Most notably, former President Donald Trump signed an executive order in 2017 that banned the use of Kaspersky Lab products on all US government computers and devices.

Its CEO, Eugene Kaspersky, had previously worked in the Russian military and studied at a KGB-sponsored technical college. In recent years, the company has fired high-end managers and replaced them with people who have close military and government ties — raising further concerns.

To help rid itself of these allegations, Kaspersky Secure Connection has solicited independent reviews and audits of its products and services. It has also moved a lot of its main infrastructure from Russia to Switzerland, alleviating such concerns.

No Logs Policy — Raises Concerns

Unfortunately, Kaspersky Secure Connection admits to some logging practices. While it’s common for VPN providers to collect some user data to improve their services, Kaspersky Secure Connection’s extent is problematic. This extent is revealed in their Application Usage Agreement, which states as follows:

Kaspersky Secure Connection admits to collecting some logs of its users

This final point is concerning because it states that they will hand your data over to authorities if you violate their terms and conditions. What makes it concerning is that we don’t know what constitutes a violation of their terms and that personal logging data must be collected to identify individuals and report them — should the situation arise.

What’s also worth mentioning is that Kaspersky Secure Connection uses the same infrastructure as Hotspot Shield, another VPN provider based in California. Even though Hotspot Shield claims to not record any logs of your online activity, they make it clear that they collect some data like your location, session durations, and IP address.

Combine all of this with Kaspersky Secure Connection’s perceived connection to the Russian FBS, and you have every reason to be worried.

Try Kaspersky Secure Connection Today!

Torrenting — Fast and Reliable

Kaspersky Secure Connection enables torrenting and P2P sharing services on its servers. Even though it doesn’t have specialized servers for P2P sharing, you can still torrent from any server. I connected to a US and Australian server for my tests to download a couple of movie trailers on uTorrent.

Please also note that downloading torrents of copyrighted material is illegal, and we do not condone such behavior.

The first trailer was for the film Bananas, which was 41.7 MB. My download speed averaged 1.4 Mbps on the US server, and I downloaded it in 40 seconds. Next, I downloaded The Princess Bride trailer, which took 1 minute and 20 seconds for the 30.9 Mbps file. Even though this was on the Australian server, it took longer because it had fewer seeds. The more seeds a torrent has, the faster it’ll download.

P2P sharing is enabled on all of Kaspersky Secure Connection’s Servers

It’s a solid choice for torrenting, especially with its fast speeds, but if you’re concerned about your privacy when torrenting, I wouldn’t recommend it. Kaspersky Secure Connection keeps track of some of your logs, which can be used against you for violating their terms and conditions. Torrenting can sometimes go against copyright laws in most countries, so you could violate Kaspersky Secure Connection’s terms and conditions for doing so.

Try Kaspersky Secure Connection Today!

Does Kaspersky Secure Connection Work in China? — No

Kaspersky Secure Connection cannot bypass the Great Firewall of China. It makes it very clear in its terms and conditions that it can’t be installed in China and some other nations because of their laws around VPNs.

Kaspersky Secure Connection can’t work in China and other countries with VPN limitations

However, Kaspersky Secure Connection does have servers in Hong Kong. This means that people in Hong Kong can’t use Kaspersky, but Hong Kong residents abroad can connect to a Kaspersky Hong Kong server, which is rather unusual.

Simultaneous Device Connections — The Standard 5 Connections

Kaspersky Secure allows up to 5 simultaneous device connections under one subscription. When I tested this by connecting my Windows laptop, Android tablet, smartphone, and old MacBook Pro, it worked. Kaspersky Secure Connection ran smoothly on all of my devices while protecting them at the same time.

The bad news is that there’s no way to increase the number from 5. Many VPNs can be installed on home routers to enable unlimited device connections at home, but Kaspersky Secure can’t be installed on home routers. Also, Kaspersky Secure Connection keeps track of all connected devices, which raises questions.

Device Compatibility — Compatible with Major Systems

Major operating systems like Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS are compatible with Kaspersky Secure Connection, but not Linux. It has a native app for these systems, so there’s no need for manual configuration. What’s also worth mentioning is that it has separate user agreements for each device, which is rather unusual. However, after having a look at them, they are mostly similar.

Devices that can’t support apps, like gaming consoles, certain smart TVs, and home routers, aren’t compatible with Kaspersky Secure Connection. This also extends out to some media players like Amazon Fire TV, Roku, and Apple TV, as well as the Tor network. It doesn’t have any browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox either, which means you can’t use it on Chromebook.

Try Kaspersky Secure Connection Today!