What Is A VPN and Why Do I Need It?
Student / Remote Worker Edition
The internet is a crucial tool in today’s world. From shopping, looking up the news, checking up on long-distance friends and family, and learning how to cook a new recipe, the endless knowledge at your fingertips comes with some risk. A Virtual Private Network service, or VPN, is a common tool used to protect yourself and increase your Online Security.
What is a VPN? (Simplified)
A VPN is a service that provides a secure protection for your internet traffic (like a toll road only you can use). It hides your IP address and encrypts your data, making it hard for outsiders to find and read.
HOW: When using a VPN, your connection to the internet is routed through an encrypted tunnel between your device and a server hosted by the VPN. To the rest of the internet, it looks like your internet session starts from the VPN server, not your own device.
DID YOU KNOW: When you go to a website, most of them automatically get some of your data so they can “improve your browsing experience”. A VPN not only protects your information on the way to the web pages you visit, but it also protects your data from the websites.
When you browse the internet, your internet traffic travels over public servers. In the same way cars take public highways and expressways to get to and from their destinations, your internet traffic does the same in the digital world. Anyone with a close enough eye and the right tools could intercept your public data, leaving you exposed to problems such as identity theft or stolen passwords (think hacker).
A VPN Analogy
Imagine you write a letter to your close friend who is coming to visit, and you are writing them instructions on how to get into your home while you’re not there. You would send the letter through the mail system, where it changes hands multiple times. This includes the postman who picks up the mail, the postal workers who sort the mail, and the postman who drops off the letter.
If you only provided the letter with no enclosure, anyone with any sense of curiosity could quickly read your letter, which increases the danger of an unintended party showing up inside your house.
To prevent this, you rewrite the letter in a language you and your friend created when you were 9 and you put your letter in an envelope. This protects your personal information from prying eyes until your intended recipient receives it. A VPN is just like an envelope and your secret language. It protects your online traffic information from being easily seen, as well as encrypting the information in the odd case it is seen.
Of course, an envelope isn’t impregnable. If one really wants to, they could tear the envelope open. However, this would bring on serious consequences, so it deters from most curious eyes. Additionally, even if someone opens your letter, they would need to do a substantial amount of work to decrypt a made up language of a 9-year-old. Not impossible, but worth it?
Why Do I Need A VPN?
The main goals of VPNs are to increase your Online Privacy & Security.
By hiding your IP Address, your online activity cannot be seen or traced back to you.
By encrypting your data, anyone that is able to see your online traffic cannot decipher your personal information from it.
Public Wi-Fi
If you use Public Wi-fi, such as in a coffee shop, airport, or study lounge on campus, you expose yourself to getting hacked. Multiple devices connect to a single point in public settings, and it is an easy target for hackers or anyone looking to steal personal data. A VPN provides security and peace-of-mind in any setting.
SECRET Bonus Benefit
A lesser-known benefit of VPNs is that it eliminates geographical restrictions. This is because you can select the location of the servers that the VPN service will use to protect your data. So if you are in a country that doesn’t stream Hulu (only available in the US and Japan), you can use a VPN to stream it by selecting a server in the US.
Our Recommendation To Start
Signing up for a VPN can be an intimidating process, similar to buying a car. There are so many options and models of VPNs that it can be overwhelming. Every VPN claims to be the best and secure you the most.
To start, we’d recommend going with a well-known VPN Service that is reputable and has a good price point.
We recommend NordVPN. It is a common “first” VPN that provides a good service, though most users opt to keep it for years to come.
Bonus: We’ve been able to secure a deal for our readers who sign up with NordVPN. Check it out and start getting peace of mind while you’re online.
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