[R3d13]

Hey all

Is there a setting somewhere in the OS or some way to make sure that all network activity is disabled if the VPN connection goes down? Sort of like a "kill switch" in case the VPN connection is lost without your knowledge.

Either way it would be a great feature to have for a device that's supposed to be all about security.

Thanks

[Superdupont 2_0]

When you set-up any Wi-Fi connection you can add a VPN in the profile.

It's not a kill switch, but it makes sure that whenever your connect to this Wi-Fi, your VPN boots automatically and it would reboot in case the VPN connection is lost.

[R3d13]

With 10.3.1, there's a new option that lets you automatically connect the VPN to Wi-Fi and/or Mobile. But anyways, I went ahead and added them to the Wi-Fi profiles like you suggested. So if the VPN connection is lost, will it kill the Wi-Fi connection too? That's basically what I was hoping to achieve. Of course, if the Wi-Fi connection is lost, it reverts to Mobile, which will leak your data during the time that the VPN is down.

Same goes for Mobile. But there's no option that I can find that will enforce this for the Mobile data.

[Superdupont 2_0]

It is not a classical kill switch as I understand it, but your question is interesting.
I speculate that there is no data leakage while the VPN connection is (re-) established, otherwise this feature would have been very badly implemented by BlackBerry.

However, I didn't know this very useful feature you've described.
Thanks for that.

[R3d13]

Ya, it's fun finding those nice little features that BB sneaks into their releases without telling you about

Anyway, consider this simple scenario:

You're connected to Mobile (or Wi-Fi), through your VPN.
The VPN loses connection. It disconnects, for whatever reason. Maybe you went out of Wi-Fi range, in which case your device reverts to Mobile data, thus leaking information.
While the VPN is attempting to reconnect, which could take several attempts, your Mobile or Wi-Fi connection continues to function, transmitting data (maybe you were in the middle of a download or email sync).
Your data is leaked, even if temporarily.

Some VPN service providers offer a "kill switch" in their software. There are also more manual ways of doing this by editing routing tables in Windows and enforcing network traffic in a certain direction, for example. But on a BB??

[BCITMike]

Currently, you'd have to notice by the vpn icon in top right corner and take action. Coincidentally, I just heard of that feature yesterday on android or windows OS.

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