internet security
Understanding VPN: The Comprehensive Guide
From online frauds, and scams to even hacking sensitive personal information, the Internet these days seems to be a haven for fraudsters. There’s a growing concern about internet security and how it might jeopardize the security of information and finance of people and organizations. VPN or Virtual Private Network can be a solution to such problems. Millions of people around the world are adopting VPNs for their data security and safe online browsing. So here’s a beginner's guide on VPN. Let’s find out how a VPN works, the benefits, and the types of VPNs.
What is a VPN?
VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. Generally, the internet is provided through an ISP which processes all of their user’s traffic simultaneously. This makes them susceptible to malicious attacks which might intercept the net traffic to access personal data.
A VPN works as an intermediary between the computer and the destination to make it untraceable. There are a few complicated steps involved in the process. Let’s have a look.
Read more: How to Protect Your YouTube Channel from Getting Hacked
How Does VPN Work?
VPN creates a secure channel between the computer and the intended destination by developing a private network just for the user. The data gets encrypted and sent directly to the VPN server. There it gets decoded and sent to the intended location. This middle encryption allows the data to be completely untraceable by anyone.
Every device has a unique IP address that can be used to trace all of its activity. VPN essentially masks the IP address and assigns a new IP address from their server. As a result, the data becomes completely untraceable even by the ISP. VPN works not only to maintain anonymity online and protect privacy but also to allow users to access region-specific content.
Benefits of Using a VPN
There are a lot of benefits to using VPN. Here are a mentionable few.
Enhanced Privacy
VPN brings enhanced privacy thanks to the end-to-end encryption between you and the VPN server, making it impossible to be tracked by a third party.
Read More: Bank Account Hacking Protection: How to save financial accounts from hackers?
Secured Data Transmission
The end-to-end computer-to-server extension also allows for secured data transmission. This is especially helpful if a user is in a public network zone like using free wifi. It's impossible to tell who else is signed into the network and what kind of monitoring they might be running. Secured encryption allows for safe data transmission.
Bypassing Geographical Restrictions
VPN helps to bypass geographical restrictions so that a user can access services that might not be available in their location or to evade censorship. For example, Netflix has a host of shows that are available in the UK but not in India. With VPN, a user from India can reroute their IP through the UK and access all the contents regardless of the restrictions.