Protect Your Data Online: How Does A VPN Work!
Is someone from the coffee shop’s Wi-Fi snooping on your network? Or it’s the hacker infecting your internet? Have you ever felt the creeping sense of being stocked on the internet? This is completely true if we consider the forces that always try to encroach the privacy.
Furthermore, free WI-Fi is everywhere, whether it’s the coffee shop, restaurants, airports or hotels; but do you know that this free internet is a radio signal that hackers can easily intercept.
So, how can you stay safe on the internet? Through a VPN!
VPN or a virtual private network provides some control over how you browse and how safe you are on the internet.
Irrespective of your location; it will let you safely browse things and will also protect your data. It builds an encrypted tunnel between you and the remote server, which is operated by the VPN service. All your messages and browsing traffic will route through this tunnel, to protect things from the prying eyes.
The best part. Your device will have the IP address of the VPN server to mask your identity and location.
How Can A VPN Secure You Online?
While people think that they are safe online, but a survey conducted in the U.S, there are over 18% of the users who believe that their personal data is insecure on the internet. In fact, a recent survey also indicates that over 64% of adults in the US have experienced some kind of data theft. Apart from this, the stats also show that over 41% of people suffer from credit card fraud and over 50% and 29% identity theft and social media hacks respectively.
Nevertheless, the best VPN services creates an encrypted, private connection on the private network to send and receive data securely. This encryption is important for places like airports, coffee shops, restaurants and other public networks where data theft is most likely to happen.
Let’s say, you are in a cafe and want to browse a website. To do this, your device will generate a signal or request by sending different data packets. These packets will travel through different routers and switches through a LAN and then reach its destination. Amidst the path, there will be a series of servers that can translate the DNS for the IP address offering a secure connection between you and your destination.
Global Usage Of VPN:
Although everyone understands the need for online security, there are only a few users worldwide who value privacy the most. Users from the West value safe browsing the most with over 5% internet users from the US only.
How Effective Is A Vpn?
A VPN (virtual private network) will protect your device’s internet connection and will also ensure that everything you exchange on the internet is secure and encrypted from the prying eyes. Also, it’s one of the best ways to secure data from the untrusted networks. Besides, it takes ISP out from the browsing loop, thereby protecting the information from the endless logs of connection. You can use a VPN to protect BitTorrent and other P2P traffic, as they use different ISPs when sharing data.
A VPN works by encrypting the data packets from the device through which the request is sent. Then, the data as well as other information regarding the IP address are converted into codes and are sent to the VPN server. The software then decrypts the information, thereby securing data.
Uses Of A VPN:
- Apart from securing things online, the uses of a VPN server are endless. Some of them are:
- It lets you communicate with friends online
- Easy access to the files, services, sites and other things at work
- Secure access to social networks, websites and news services
- Better and safe access to entertainment content.
VPNs are quite powerful; just use them carefully and have safe online browsing.