Q&A With Cyberghost VPN's COO, Radu Armaziu

Top VPN service provider, Cyberghost VPN, just announced that it will be giving its product a high-tech makeover. We sat down with Cyberghost VPN COO, Radu Armaziu, to get the inside scoop on all of the new developments we can look forward to, and other insights into what makes this VPN provider so successful.

1. What are some of the new features we can look forward to seeing in the CyberGhost revamp?

Our mission with the CyberGhost 7 generation was to bring the best of both worlds together: make it easy for new users to use a VPN on a daily basis and build a highly customizable experience for advanced users.

We believe the key to making VPNs a common app on connected devices around the world is to lower the barrier to entry as much as possible. If VPN-enabled privacy is to become mainstream, people need to know that you don’t have to be a techie to start a VPN connection.

This is why we built a fresh and simple design, complete with a one-tap/one-click connect option. There’s also a clear separation of the VPN features in the tabs in the app, so anyone can find their way easily. What’s more, CyberGhost 7 can find the best server for any user in the world, making using a VPN a hassle-free experience from day one.

For those seeking to tailor CyberGhost to their specific needs, we added Favorites, a Quick Mode, the Advanced Mode and boosted connection times. Plus, we also made other technical improvements “under the hood”, such as adding new protocols that we already tested extensively in CyberGhost 6.

For the privacy-focused, we improved the killswitch feature and design, making it clear for the users when it gets triggered and guiding them towards having more control over their data protection.

You’ll also be able to spot all-around improvements that also touch the Wi-Fi protection functionality, as well as subtler aspects, such as VPN stability and reliability.

2. How does the new version make CyberGhost even more user-friendly?

There are a few things but the most important one is, by far, the one-click/one-tap connect button. This makes VPN connections accessible to any user, no matter his/her experience and skills.

In the CyberGhost 7 apps, you don’t even have to choose a specific server before connecting (unless you want to). The Best Location feature fires up fast, connecting the user to the perfect server based on his/her location.

The fact that any CyberGhost user can automate his/her Wi-Fi protection with Smart Rules also brings a big contribution to making VPN usage seamless. It’s the type of set-and-forget feature that makes privacy an everyday habit.

Another aspect we worked is to give CyberGhost users a better server overview. The new Favorites section means users can quickly add and access their favorite servers (out of over 3000 of them). We also included a filter for popular activities, such as finding servers optimized for streaming.

It’s worth mentioning that all these changes and features are designed based on the feedback we’ve been receiving from our community over the past years.

From a very simple and easy to use one-click solution to a more complex and dynamic interface for users who want to customize their experience, the CyberGhost 7 apps pack it all.

3. Tell us more about CyberGhost’s new ‘Smart Rules’

Our plan, starting with CyberGhost 7, is to build towards a fully automated experience for our VPN users.

Smart Rules allow the user to fully customize how CyberGhost works to protect them by assigning specific triggers for different actions.

Right now, Wi-Fi Smart Rules are part of the feature, allowing any user to specify if a VPN connection should be established, no matter the device used. For example, you can set CyberGhost to automatically start the VPN protection as soon as you connect to an unsecured Wi-Fi.

This is just the beginning though, as we already have more Smart Rules in our pipeline. Going forward, we’ll add App Smart Rules, allowing users to define which apps should trigger automated VPN protection (and which shouldn’t), and Website Smart Rules, that will enable the VPN tunnel when accessing specific websites.

4. Which countries show the highest growth in usage? Where do you see the VPN market headed 5-10 years down the line?

We believe that VPN will be the standard for every internet connection in 10 years’ time at most.

VPN providers will be the next generation of ISPs, adding additional services around privacy and security, making these feature a standard.

Going into specifics, we’ve observed an increase in usage happening across all over the globe in recent years. Some of the countries where interest in privacy has really spiked in recent times are France, Australia, and Russia. At the same time, in countries like the US, Germany, and UK VPN usage has been constantly rising for a lot longer.

Naturally, there are events that can increase VPN adoption exponentially, especially when it comes to politics, news or entertainment. This can cause spikes in specific areas of the world, followed by global ripples.

5. Do you feel that the current political climate is changing or contributing to the usage of the VPNs?

Yes, this is definitely the case and it’s a trend that is increasing as we go forward.

A few years ago, a change in the political climate would have caused an increase in the interest in VPNs in a specific country, but now things are more global.

News that affect people’s privacy in a certain country can cause them to consider what might happen if they were the ones affected. This determines them to be more proactive when considering their privacy and security needs, which is a behavior we try to strongly encourage through education.

I think it’s safe to say that the Snowden leaks showed us all how our privacy can be affected without us ever knowing, without a law being passed, and with everything happening behind closed doors.

This is a powerful reminder of why we should continue to be vigilant and use the tools and knowledge available to make the best choices for our privacy, both online and offline.

6. How does CyberGhost differ from its competitors and what makes it one of the best VPNs?

Our team is able to provide a very good user experience in terms of service quality and usability, built on top of a strong technology stack under the hood. In our opinion, this is a must-have for a modern, secure VPN.

We’re proud that CyberGhost automatically overtakes many configuration steps from the user, making it much easier and a lot more accessible for everyone. For example, CyberGhost 7 detects the best protocol, the fastest server and has outstanding killswitch protection featuring an additional layer of firewall technology.

Not only do we focus on the technology details, but we also pay attention to the small details and design elements in our apps, which include layouts, colors and animations, treating every aspect with utmost professionalism.

Our approach to our service, apps, and technology is what sets us apart. We don’t sit in a room and discuss what we believe would make for a great service. We prefer to get that from our users.

This is how we’re able to provide a very good user experience in terms of service quality and usability of our apps while, at the same time, making sure we have the latest technologies implemented.

7. What is the proudest claim you can make about CyberGhost?

It boils down to this: we’ve never put anything above our mission from day one, which is defending privacy as a basic human right and giving the people the necessary tools to achieve this.

8. What is your top priority when it comes to your customers?

Honestly, it’s the same priority as it’s always been: making sure that their privacy and security needs are met.

I would also mention the fact that we want to make sure that our users’ voices are heard and that their feedback has the big impact that is deserves in the way we further develop our service.

You can find out more about Cyberghost VPN by reading our in-depth review here.

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