Several companies out there are advertising VPN apps and services to provide ‘total’ protection for your surfing. We’re going to look at what a VPN is and what kind of protection you really get from it.
A VPN or Virtual Private Network is a network where the traffic is encrypted so that when it passes through another network on the way to it’s destination the actual packets are scrambled and in theory can’t be deciphered. The truth is that with enough horsepower and the right software the packets can be decrypted it’s just very tough and takes a lot of effort to capture all the packets and decipher the traffic.
VPNs are used by companies to form links from one office to another over the internet. The traffic is then decrypted on the other end. This encryption allows sensitive data to go from one place to another without being ‘seen’ by UN-authorized people. It saves companies thousands of dollars by enabling the to use the internet to move traffic from one office to another without having to get dedicated hard-wired connections to each office.
VPNs come in two basic flavors –
VPNs that are routed based on ip addresses and go from one pre-programmed point to another . This is usually done on a router and something you’d find in large Corporations.
Software VPNs that use software on each end and some kind of address mediation to make a connection and then encrypt the traffic.
Just about every VPN app out there is using software VPNs. This makes it easier for them to add more servers and addresses as their subscriber list grows.
What kind of Protection are you getting?
Most VPN apps encrypt your traffic from your device to a server they have connected to the internet that acts as a ‘proxy’ for your traffic. So if you have selected either manually or automatically a server in Atlanta, your traffic to your bank, email server, or web site will look like you are in Atlanta. You can easily check this by going to IP-Chicken
This encryption means that if someone is on the same network with you or a machine has been hacked on your network and is gathering information your traffic will be unreadable for them, to all intents and purposes. This is how most people end up getting hacked. They’re on public wifi somewhere or using hotel wifi and someone is on the network watching all the traffic. Someone could even just attach a computer at the right spot on the network and run an app that watches traffic and grabs passwords.
It is IMPORTANT to remember that this does NOT mean that your traffic is totally protected all the way to your destination. You are protected by the VPN until you come out on the VPN server. In the example above your traffic from Atlanta to wherever you are going would be normal traffic. Maybe encrypted if the site you are on has https but not the heavy encryption that a VPN provides.
This is an important consideration when you decide what sites to look at while you are away from your home network. Remember – with enough computers and equipment basically none of your traffic is 100% secure. It just that there is so much traffic out there that most of us get something called Security-Through-Obscurity, basically meaning it’s too much effort for a normal hacker to single someone out in a high traffic environment. You’re going to end up on the internet at some point and if you’re coming out of a high traffic environment you’ll be a bit more ‘obscure’
VPNs can be a great thing when you’re traveling or if you use a laptop and move from office to office and don’t have any control over the network you’re on or are unsure about who is managing the network.
VPNs aren’t probably providing much benefit if your local network is secure.