One of the most frequent recommendations regarding privacy and security online is to use a VPN. Indeed, VPNs are becoming increasingly user-friendly, cheap, and available to the general public, so much so that many browsers offer a free VPN connection to protect your browsing. Why is that?
Here is an explanation of a VPN and the many advantages it offers to users’ privacy and security online.
What is a VPN?
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a technology that allows you to create a secure connection over the Internet. It works by encrypting the traffic from and to your computer or devices. The encryption adds a layer of security to protect your data from being intercepted by malicious third parties or legitimate data-gathering software.
How does a VPN work?
When you connect to a VPN, you connect to a server that acts as a proxy. This means your internet traffic appears to be coming from the VPN server rather than your device. This helps to mask your actual IP address and location, providing a level of anonymity and privacy.
Besides providing a proxy through a VPN server, your device creates an encrypted tunnel between your device and the VPN server. This encryption ensures that any data transmitted between your device and the VPN server is secure and cannot be easily intercepted.
This is why using a VPN also helps bypass geographical or censorship restrictions. For example, if some content is only available in some countries, you can use a VPN proxy server from that country. This will provide a local IP, giving you access to the restricted content.
VPNs are also widely used by companies to provide their employees with secure remote access to company resources, regardless of where they might be.
A closer look at your Internet traffic
To better understand how a VPN works, we connected to an unsecured website with our browser and captured the Internet traffic with Wireshark, a tool used worldwide for network analysis. We then made a simple search, first without a VPN and then with a VPN.
In the screenshots below, you can see the search on the website (screenshot #1) and our findings in analyzing the traffic without the VPN (screenshot #2) and with the VPN (screenshot #3).
As you can see in screenshot #2, we have intercepted the following:
- The terms of our search
- The website we were on
- The browser and Operating System we were using
- The language and locale of our computer
- The cookies passed on the page for our search.
If you’re worried about a stranger viewing all your Internet searches… The same happens when you enter your credentials to log into an unsecured website: you leave precious and sensitive information behind for others to collect and exploit.
In screenshot #3, none of these details can be discovered because our VPN has encrypted the data. This works the same way for phishing websites.
Why do we need a VPN if most of the websites are secured?
Nowadays, most websites are secured by SSL/TLS (Secure Socket Layer / Transport Layer Security) encryption. SSL/TLS, like a VPN, encrypts the traffic between the server and the website. When a website has SSL/TLS, its URL will start with HTTPS instead of HTTP.
SSL/TLS started as a protection for websites that handle sensitive information such as payments. However, today, it’s used by default by most modern websites as a standard. The problem with SSL/TLS encryption is that it has a blind spot: it doesn’t protect the traffic from your computer to the server, leaving an opportunity for hackers to intercept unprotected requests to the server.
This type of attack is called SSL stripping.
Understanding an SSL stripping attack
We must understand how SSL/TLS works to understand an SSL stripping attack. In a typical flow (as depicted below):
- The user sends an unsecured request to the server (i.e., an HTTP or unspecified request).
- The server receives the user request and responds with a redirection toward the secured website.
- The user can now reach the secured website.
The important thing to understand about SSL/TLS is that it doesn’t replace the original unsecured (HTTP) website. It still exists and can be accessed.
In an SSL Stripping attack, a hacker can still access the HTTP website by interjecting the user’s original request, as shown below.
The only way to completely protect your Internet traffic is to secure the communication from start to end, including the gap from your computer request to the server.
This is where a VPN can help you keep your information safe.
Downsides of using a VPN
Using a VPN comes with a lot of benefits. However, many resist using them due to a few downsides. Among these are:
Reduced Speed: Using a VPN can sometimes lead to slower internet speeds. This is because your data must travel through the VPN server, which may introduce latency. The farther the server you connect to, the lower the speed.
Cost: While free VPN services are available, many have limitations, such as data caps, slower speeds, or fewer server locations. Premium VPN services typically require a subscription fee.
Complexity: A VPN setup might intimidate non-technical users, even if most VPNs require just a few clicks of effort.
Compatibility Issues: Some websites and online services may block or restrict access to VPN users. Additionally, certain applications or devices may not be compatible with VPNs, which can limit their effectiveness in protecting privacy and security.
Legal and Regulatory Concerns: The use of VPNs may be subject to legal restrictions in some countries.
Where you can find a VPN
Most people primarily use a browser for all online activities. If this is the case, there is an ample choice of browsers offering a free VPN for secure browsing.
Firefox, DuckDuckGo, Opera, Brave, and Epic are only some of the browsers with enhanced security features out there.
Suppose you instead need to protect all your Internet traffic (including email clients, video calls, and other applications reaching out to the Internet). In that case, a VPN service will cover that for you.
If you care about your security and privacy online, a VPN can help you keep your information and your information safe.
