As a Senior Information Controls Fellow, William Tolley worked with the International Computer Science Institute to explore ways in which Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) leak private communications.

William investigated unexplored vulnerabilities in VPNs that can be exploited by malicious actors. The results of his research highlighted how the websites visited by a VPN user are leaked on nearly any platform and can be discovered or even hijacked. The vulnerabilities identified in this research were responsibly disclosed and the implementation of mitigations was encouraged. A summary of his work can be found on OTF’s blog.