Do I need a VPN?Staying Safe in the Online World – News

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and the growing reliance on technology, coupled with the growing threat of intrusions and cyber-attacks, demand greater security in the cyber world. One of the sources of security that many turn to is a virtual private network, or VPN.

A VPN is a technology that allows secure communication over the unsecured public internet, essentially extending a user’s workplace network to their home network in a secure way without their internet service provider, ISP Or an intermediate router capable of monitoring the content.

“When we use the Internet to browse websites or send and receive emails, data is divided into small chunks called packets, which are routed through multiple networks and routers to different servers,” said Dr. Ragib Hasan. , Associate Professor University of Alabama at Birminghamof College of Arts and Sciences‘ Department of Computer Science. “A VPN essentially creates an encrypted, secure tunnel between the user and the target server. The VPN software on the user’s computer encrypts the packets so that only the intended target server can decrypt them. No one eavesdropping in the middle can’t See the contents of packets to eavesdrop on communications or monitor the web pages users visit.”

A common use of VPNs is private and anonymous web browsing. In this mode, a web page visitor’s request for a page is first sent to the VPN server over an encrypted connection. The VPN server retrieves the web page, encrypts the page, and sends it back to the user over the VPN. Therefore, the ISP cannot see the web page URL or the individual pages that the user visits.

What additional security measures does a VPN provide compared to a firewall or other antivirus software?

VPNs have many additional security benefits. First, it provides users with a high degree of privacy.

“Without a VPN, an ISP can monitor every website a user visits,” Hassan said. “This information can be used to analyze users and sell to marketers. In countries with authoritarian governments, this kind of surveillance is often used to identify and suppress dissidents.”

Hassan, UAB Director secret laboratory, adding that a VPN can hide a user’s whereabouts or IP address from a website. The website will only see the VPN server’s IP address, not the user’s actual IP address, because traffic is routed through the VPN server.

“When business users use public networks or hotel networks to access their corporate emails, they run the risk that their confidential communications or email content/attachments may be monitored or accessed by malicious parties,” Hassan said. “Using a VPN, users can securely access corporate networks or email through an encrypted tunnel, meaning malicious eavesdroppers cannot log their confidential communications.”

VPNs allow users to evade regional censorship by repressive governments. In many countries, authoritarian regimes prevent access to information. VPNs can allow such blocking, giving people free access to information.

Is a VPN only necessary for businesses? How necessary are they to the average consumer?

According to Hasan, VPNs are not only necessary for businesses, but also useful for those who frequently use untrusted public networks to access their content.

This allows regular users to visit websites or check email without fear that their activity or location will be monitored and their privacy violated. VPNs also reduce the risk of many attacks, such as spoofing and phishing.

Rajib Hassan, Ph.D.,
Photography: Lexie Raccoon“As more users turn to working from home during and after the pandemic, a VPN is essential because it allows users to access corporate networks without confidential work information being stolen and monitored by malicious parties,” Hassan said. “Users working from home must use a secure VPN to access their corporate network.”

What are the limitations of VPNs?

As with any security technology, the security of a VPN-based system rests only on the weakest link.

While VPNs allow users to use untrusted networks, VPN servers do have complete knowledge of users’ activities, including the websites they visit and the content they access.

“It’s usually not a problem with different company internal VPN servers,” Hassan said. “However, many people use commercial VPN services, many of which do log users’ activities.”

Some of these services are even located outside of the United States and therefore do not fall under the legal jurisdiction of the United States.

“The anonymity of a VPN is just that,” he said. “The VPN server can see the user’s IP address and what the user is accessing.”

VPNs can also degrade performance due to complex encryption protocols. Since all communications need to be encrypted and decrypted when using a VPN, it can slow down your connection. Commercial VPN services are not always free. Due to the anti-censorship nature of VPNs, some countries have also banned VPN services altogether.