A VPN – or a “Virtual Private Network” establishes a secure connection across the internet. These connections obscure your online identity and encrypt your internet traffic to keep it safe from prying eyes, including your ISP and government watchdogs.
Here’s how a secure VPN subscription helps protect your online activity and why you should consider getting one.
How Does A VPN Work?
How a VPN subscription works are that it redirects online traffic through a remote server hosted and configured by the VPN host. This means the VPN server becomes the source of the data and the server location doesn’t come back to your house like it would if you didn’t use a VPN.
Anyone watching your data, such as your ISP or a hacker, can’t tell which websites you visit and the data you send and receive online.
These subscriptions turn your data into rubbish that someone couldn’t piece together even if they could access it.
The Benefits Of Having A VPN Subscription
There are several benefits to using a VPN subscription, including:
Secure Encryption
Someone would need an encryption key to read the data. It would take even the most powerful computer millions of years to decipher the encryption key for a brute force attack.
These connections offer secure encryption even when using a public network like a Wi-Fi hotspot.
Hide Your Location
A VPN connection is an online proxy. Because the information data comes from a server in another location, even another country, no one can tell where your actual location is.
Most VPNs don’t log user activity while others do, but even ones that don’t pass that information on to third parties. Any record of your online behaviour is hidden away from prying eyes.
Access Region-Locked Content
Hiding your location means you get access to regional content. Some websites and services have content you can only access from certain parts of the world. In your home country, there may be things that aren’t yet released but a VPN can help you gain access to content from around the world without you leaving your home.
Anyone with a Netflix account knows there’s a vast difference between what American users can watch and what everyone else can. VPN location spoofing lets you alter your digital location and watch any region-locked content you want.
Secure Data Transfer
VPNs protect data during transfer, which is essential for working remotely and handling sensitive data.
Some companies require remote workers to connect over a VPN. VPN services encrypt data to reduce the risk of it getting into the wrong hands.
What Kind Of VPNs Are Available?
Choosing the right VPN subscription begins with knowing which types are available. Here are the different kinds of VPN to consider:
SSL VPN
Not everyone at a business has access to company laptops and computers they can use at home. Many companies relied on SSL VPN connections during the pandemic to allow remote workers to connect from personal devices.
These connections prevent regular internet users from accessing secure data and typically work through an HTML-5-enabled browser and hardware box.
Site-to-Site VPN
A site-to-site VPN hides private intranets and allows users to connect to a secure network to access and exchange resources.
These options are suitable for businesses with multiple locations that have individual Local Area Networks (LANs) connected to a wider WAN (Wide Area Network).
These VPNs are typically used by large companies. They are more complicated and less flexible than an SSL VPN but they offer superior protection and work well for large groups.
Client-to-Server VPN
A client-to-server VPN is the most common form of VPN and what most people think of when they think of VPN providers.
You’ll have to download a VPN client such as Kaspersky VPN but you’ll have more freedom over your internet connection and online connections.
A client-to-server VPN allows users to connect to the internet through a direct connection to the VPN provider rather than an ISP. This VPN type shortens the tunnel phase of a VPN connection.
Instead of creating an encryption tunnel to funnel an existing internet connection through, the VPN can automatically encrypt data before sending it to the user.
This form of VPN is particularly useful with insecure public connections. The encryption prevents third parties from getting into the network connection and seeing data packets.
It encrypts the data so that no one else has access to it. The VPN also prevents ISPs from accessing data and allows users to bypass restrictions on their internet access.
For example, people in heavily censored countries such as China and Russia can use VPNs to access websites and services that would otherwise be blocked.
For a company, this type of VPN offers more user efficiency and better access to company resources. With the right connection in place, an employee can connect to the system and act as if they were at their workplace.
A customer wouldn’t be able to tell whether employees are at their home, in an office, or even in an entirely different country.
Are VPNs Secure?
There’s plenty of debate over the security of VPNs – and rightly so. Please note that a VPN isn’t the same as an anti-virus program.
While this software will encrypt your internet history and will protect your IP, it doesn’t protect your computer against intrusion or malware.
Using a VPN doesn’t make you immune to hacking or phishing. That’s why you should always use a VPN alongside robust security software.
Many antivirus companies, such as Kaspersky, have proprietary VPN products to give you an all-in-one solution. Don’t forget that a VPN won’t protect your computer from malware such as bots and trojans.
When these viruses get on your computer, they can – and will – steal your data whether you have a VPN activated or not. Another thing to keep in mind that, like any connection, a VPN is only as strong as the weakest link.
For VPNs, this means that the connection is only as secure as the data storage and usage policies of the provider allow it to be.
The VPN provider transfers all your data to their servers, which then connect to the internet for you and transfer data on your behalf. If your VPN provider keeps data logs, ensure that they make it clear what they use that data for and how long they store it.
When choosing a VPN subscription, look for a provider that takes your privacy as seriously as you do. Also, keep in mind that a VPN only encrypts data sent across an internet connection.
While you can put a VPN on your phone, it won’t encrypt standard messages and voice calls. It will, however, encrypt things such as Skype conversations and calls.
Conclusion
A VPN subscription works by establishing a secure connection between the user and the internet. All data sent through a VPN is routed through an encrypted digital tunnel – a virtual private network.
This network hides your IP address when using the internet, hiding your location or even altering it depending on your settings. Some people tend to look at free VPNs but these services don’t work as well as the subscription paid VPN apps.
VPNs help to protect your personal and private data by ensuring anyone watching the network, such as a hacker or government agency, can’t see the data because they don’t have the encryption key for it.
In order to find a VPN that works for you, browse the web and research the VPNs and look for the deals that allow you to have one or more devices connected with a VPN subscription.
These connections let you access region-restricted content, better secure your online privacy, avoid internet censorship, and browse the internet anonymously.
With growing digital privacy concerns, there’s never been a better time to consider using a VPN, especially when you are subscribed to an IPTV service.
