Is VPN the Best Way to Hide Your Data on the Internet?
Experts state it doesn’t matter whether you surf the Internet for work or just for fun – it is still fraught with a lot of dangers for any user. With every online visit, persons and even whole companies become easy targets for advertising, government tracking, hackers, and thieves who hunt for information. Any online action can reveal your personal info, browser history, payment data, etc.
When considering decent web security tools for self-protection, you’ve probably faced such things as special browsers and VPNs. But which of these options should you choose, if any at all?
Simply and Briefly – What is VPN?
VPN means Virtual Private Network. The product works as an encrypting tool for every action you take on the Internet, i.e., the whole traffic and personal data. The net doesn’t protect against data stealing, but it makes its decryption and further usage much more complex.
How Does VPN Work?
The protection protocols are simple. VPN hides your IP address. To do it, it let your traffic through the chain of special remote servers tuned and managed by the VPN provider. As a result, you receive data from the VPN server as from the main source. Therefore, all experts state the primary Internet provider and unauthorized persons will not be able to track the sites you visit and the data you use. And as I read, VPN acts as a messing-mixing machine that makes all your information look like nonsense. So even if someone steals or sees it, they won’t be able to use it.
Apart from this primary function, VPN can fulfill more tasks. At the same time, it should also boast reliable protection against hacking itself. The complex options may include the following:
IP Encryption: The VPN priority task is to mask your IP address and make the information unreadable for the Internet provider and other persons. So you can exchange information on the web, and no one else will see it.
History Encryption: With VPN, you won’t leave the tracks of your activity (cookies, visited sites, passwords entered, etc.). This type of encryption has special significance for the preservation of the out-of-eye data, which you specify on sites and other non-intended for.
Anti-Failure Protection: In case of a VPN failure, your Internet connection will cut off too. A decent VPN tool will find the problem in time and close the pre-selected programs to reduce the risk of dismantling the data theft.
Multifactor Authentication: A reliable VPN should check any entry attempt using different methods of authentication. It means you will enter not with your password only but with some additional keys that periodically change (like SMS code). This will complicate the task of those wishing to get your data.
As for the variations of VPN, we can highlight the following options:
Remote Access VPN: The user gets the web with the help of some remote server. Servers get together and form a whole net. Thus, the connection is simple and fast, while the price stays low. You can quickly change your geolocation, IP address and veil your data. This option is great for personal use but may not meet professional/corporative needs.
PPTP or Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol VPN: This VPN masks private internal networks (or intranets). Several participants that share this net get mutual access to each other’s resources.A point-to-point VPN is suitable for companies with numerous offices, where departments have their local networks, but they all are united into one wide area network. You can share data without the threat of theft. But please mind that such tools are bulkier and more complex for use.
Client-Provider VPN: With this type of VPN, the user connects to the web directly through the VPN provider without the help of the Internet provider. As a result, instead of creating an encrypted tunnel for connection, the VPN encrypts the very data automatically. VPNs like these are gaining popularity, especially among unsecured public Wi-Fi providers. They encrypt data along the entire chain between the client and the VPN provider, preventing outsiders from intercepting traffic.
Why Do I Need VPN?
Though the Internet provider supports your connection, it also sees all your web activity and thus determines your location and tracks your actions online. Your provider may be reliable or look thus. But this does not mean that he will not pass the history of your search for state forces and departments, advertising corporations, and other unauthorized persons. In addition, the Internet provider may become the victim of invasion himself, and then hackers (or almost anyone) will get your personal data and use it as they like.
And if you’re a fan of free public Wi-Fi networks, get ready for the fact that such a scenario is especially possible. You will not even understand that someone else in the network monitors your actions and wants to steal your whole digital life!
How to Hide Your Data with a VPN?
A VPN tool protects you by encrypting your web traffic. To crack this cipher, one needs a special key. However, only the user and his VPN server have access to this key. Though you use your web provider’s services, it won’t know where you are accessing the Internet from.
Regardless of the VPN type you use, the process of encryption usually involves the following stages.
Step 1: When you go online, you activate a VPN. VPN works like a safe tunnel between the information source and your computer. It is impervious to others.
Step 2: Now, you start using some local VPN, but the net of connected VPN servers all over the world will change your IP address to hide you.
Step 3: After that, you can safely use the Internet and be sure a VPN protects all your personal data.
Is VPN Service That Reliable?
When it comes to information encryption, VPNs are one of the best tools of protection. So, if you want to hide the data, you can safely choose this option.
However, VPN is not omnipotent anyway. It’s important to remember that a VPN is not a replacement for full-featured antivirus software. It masks your IP address and encrypts your browser history – that’s all it can do. A VPN will not protect you if you download an infected file.
Even if you use a VPN, your system can still be infiltrated by Trojans, bots, malware, spyware, and viruses.
That’s why, though we recommend VPN, we also insist on their complex application together with comprehensive antivirus software to ensure maximum protection.
Conclusion
So, can we now conclude that VPN is a reliable way of data protection on the Internet? As we’ve already stated, VPN ensures an excellent level of traffic encryption; that’s why we do recommend this tool. Even if your data is stolen, no one will crack the cipher. But, once again, for comprehensive protection, a complex set of tools is required.