Learn how VPN protects and secures your Internet privacy.
What VPN hides
A VPN can help you stay hidden and private when browsing the Internet.
It hides your activities online as well as the information you are sending or sharing over the Internet.
A VPN can hide:
- IP address
- Geographic Location
- Personal data
- Web browsing/activity
- Location for streaming (provides unblocked access to geographical restricted streaming channels)
- Device information
In this manner, VPN lets you download torrents anonymously.
What VPN does
When you connect your device (smartphone or computer) to a VPN, the device will behave as if it is on the same local network as the VPN. In this way, all the network traffic on your device will send a secure connection to the VPN. Your network can securely access the local network of the VPN server even if you are in the other side of the world making it appear that you are at the VPN’s location.
A VPN can also encrypt your Internet traffic to protect its privacy. If someone does look at what you are sending, they only see encrypted information and not the raw data.
What VPN protects
VPN connections are not completely anonymous, but they enhance privacy and security.
To protect private information, a VPN allows authenticated remote access using tunneling protocols and encryption techniques. It provides:
- Confidentiality. When someone attempts to sniff your information in a network traffic, they would only see encrypted data.
- Sender authentication. It prevents unauthorized users from accessing the VPN.
- Message integrity. It notices any instances of damaging of transmitted messages.
How VPN works
Three fundamental features that make VPN security work:
- Tunneling
It is a process by which data is sent privately over the Internet, via VPN. For example, all data transmitted over the Internet is split into small pieces called “packets”. These packets carry additional information like the protocol being used and the sender’s IP address.
In a tunneled connection of VPN, every packet of data is placed inside another packet of data before it is sent over the Internet. The outer packet provides a layer of security that keeps the contents safe from public view.
- Encryption
The next layer of security is encryption. Data is encoded so that the packets cannot be read by the public and can only be read by your VPN client and the server.
It works by encrypting each encapsulated data packets’ contents with an encryption key that is only shared by the VPN client and server.
- Authentication
Tunnel endpoints must be authenticated before secure VPN tunnels can be established.
User-created remote-access VPNs may use passwords, biometrics, two-factor authentication or other cryptographic methods. Network-to-network tunnels often use passwords or digital certificates.