You may have heard about VPN’s (Virtual Private Network) lately. More and more TV ads for VPN service providers pop-up every day. What’s behind the sudden surge of VPN’s and why would you want or need one? For those who use Wi-Fi internet connections at home or work, for shopping, banking, or just plain fun are taking a risk. Wi-Fi has long been a favorite for hackers because there is virtually no online security.
A VPN protects your personal information (and all communications) through encryption from end to end. Without it, every place you go on WI-FI is vulnerable to hacking. By using a VPN, hackers looking to intercept your data find the data is encrypted and can’t be deciphered. It’s a secured highway for your internet content to travel on.
A consumer VPN is different than a business VPN and secures data sent to social media sites, banking, shopping, and other websites you use. To access a VPN, you subscribe to a service provider and download an app onto all your devices, and they take care of the rest. CNET, a technology review website, recently evaluated the best VPN services and is a good source for more information. https://www.cnet.com/news/best-vpn/
