Surfshark Has Just Released a Next-Gen VPN Protocol That May Be Faster and More Secure than Other VPN Connections

Surfshark today released its brand new Dausos VPN The communication protocol, which the company says offers three key features for VPN users: 30% faster speed than standard industry protocols, enhanced security with hybrid post-quantum encryption and dedicated, private server-side channels for each session.

This means that Dausos should provide Surfshark users with a smooth connection, enhanced privacy and fast performance to achieve data-heavy tasks, such as streaming and gaming.

VPN protocols are essentially rules that determine the encrypted communication between your device and the Internet while on a VPN. Gone are the days when OpenVPN ruled as the hot topic of the VPN protocol world. It’s still a great protocol with airtight security that would be great if you need a stable connection to any network or want to bypass firewalls, but it’s a hack not built for the speed or security needs of today’s VPN users.

Modern times call for modernity VPN protocolsand Surfshark latest for CNET’s top VPN picks to develop its own next-generation VPN protocol. Dausos feels ready to challenge WireGuard as the protocol of choice for Surfshark users who want fast connections without compromising security.

One of the biggest innovations Dausos brings to the table is its ability to deliver a dedicated tunnel for each user session, which Surfshark says can improve performance by adapting to network conditions and device capabilities for each connection.

Segregating user data traffic is an important factor here. “Although the risk of multipath exposure in modern VPNs is very low, our unique protocol architecture goes the extra mile to ensure a clean, private, and secure path for each user’s data,” said Surfshark lead systems engineer Karolis Kaciulis in a statement.

Surfshark representatives told me via email that this splitting happens on the server side, and every time a user connects to the server, the server creates a new network connection specific to that user and a VPN session. The representative explained that each user gets his own server-side tunnel, so there is no logic of network space or other shared resources when the user connects through the Dausos protocol. This differs from the traditional approach, where the server side has a single network connection that all users of a particular protocol share.

That’s all very technical, but it’s almost like building a highway directly to your Internet connection, instead of sharing that highway with other users.

“The unique design of the protocol avoids unnecessary and redundant testing of data packets, which improves connection performance and further prevents the possibility of data packets interfering with each other,” said Kaciulis in a press release.

Surfshark is also putting security in place after compromising its Dausos deal, which the company says it is considering full forward secrecy to the next level. With PFS, every time a user connects to a VPN server, a new set of ephemeral encryption keys is generated. Every few minutes, a new set of keys is regenerated so that an attacker can decrypt previous VPN session data from a single compromise key. However, new encryption keys are often derived from old keys, meaning that it is theoretically possible for an attacker to derive future keys from a previously compromised key.

But Surfshark told me via email that with Dausos’ post-compromise security, the new encryption keys are unique and completely unrelated to any other key, making it completely impossible to reverse engineer future keys from compromising the previous key. Essentially, post-compromise security gives Surfshark users an extra layer of privacy.

Dausos also includes post-quantum encryptionwhich can help protect against possible threats of decryption from quantum computers in the future. Much like him ExpressVPNSurfshark’s hybrid post-quantum approach helps protect user data simultaneously from today’s threats and future threats.

“We have introduced many measures, some of which have not been seen in any VPN protocol before, to increase the security of our protocol,” Kaciulis said in a statement.

To help verify its claims, Surfshark commissioned German security firm Cure53 to conduct an independent security audit of Dausos. Cure53 source code testing takes place between February and March 2026 and focuses on the connected architecture and cryptography of the Dausos protocol. The audit marked eight findings within the scope of the Dausos protocol that Cure53 rated medium or low difficulty — most of which Cure53 said Surfshark handled quickly.

“Without detections rated as Critical or High within the original Dausos protocol, the audit results show a stable and robust platform,” says Cure53’s research summary. “The Surfshark team has shown a significant commitment to security by fixing many of the findings immediately after the testing phase.”

The Dausos protocol is currently only available at Surfshark’s macOS VPN operating system. However, Surfshark told me via email that the team is working to roll out Dausos to other platforms “soon,” but could not share a specific timeline.

For more information, see the VPN settings to enable complete privacy, why VPN authority is important for your privacy, how to speed up your VPN connection and why VPNs cannot make you completely anonymous on the Internet.