How Secure Is a VPN & Should You Still Use One?

Learn how Adaptive Multi-Factor Authentication combats data breaches, weak passwords, and phishing attacks.

A VPN is a useful tool to hide the data you send and receive online from hackers or other prying eyes. By rerouting your online search history to a different server, VPNs protect your important information, including details regarding your identity. This can protect you from identity theft.

VPN definition

A VPN is a virtual private network, which is a program that can help you establish a relatively secure, protected network for your internet connection. VPNs are particularly helpful when you are using shared or public WiFi. They can also disguise your online identity to a certain extent, which can help you protect yourself from identity theft. When you use a VPN, you essentially create a secure “tunnel” between your device and the worldwide web or another device. Although a VPN diverts your internet traffic to a different server, the process is encrypted more thoroughly than your standard ISP. VPNs will not sell your information to advertising agencies. These ad agencies will try to target online ads to you, but they can also become the focus of data breaches themselves. Identity thieves steal personal information for a lot of reasons. They can take over your accounts and steal money from you, but more often, they open new accounts in your name, which can damage your credit score, file false tax returns in your name and steal money from the government, and commit other types of fraud using your personal information. It can be extremely difficult to prove you are not this thief later. Hackers also use this personal information to break into corporations and steal even more personal information. VPNs are one of the best ways to protect personal and company identity.

How do VPNs work?

Internet traffic is routed through servers that are contracted with your internet service provider (ISP), which generates your IP address. Your ISP uses your IP address to track everything you do online and log it in their servers. However, this can also allow any data you send through the internet to be intercepted and tracked by hackers, even if you are on your personal WiFi at home. Additionally, ISPs often share your information with advertisers. If you have ever noticed changes to targeted advertising on social media and online articles after you search for a product once, this means your ISP has released your data to marketers. When you use a VPN, the program hides your IP address by redirecting your internet use through a remote server, which is managed by your VPN host rather than your ISP. This means the VPN host becomes the source of your data, and both third parties and your ISP cannot see or track data that you send and receive online. Rerouting your data to a different, remote server allows the VPN to turn that data into encrypted “gibberish,” so it is useless to hackers who try to steal it. By sending your data through a different server and then encrypting it, VPNs make your information less appealing to hackers since it is difficult to unencrypt and associate with your identity. This makes important information about you, your company, and others using your computer safer from cyberattacks directed at your ISP.

Types of VPNs

There are different types of VPN to meet different needs. 

  • Site-to-site VPN: Like peer-to-peer sharing, this type of VPN works on intranet, rather than the larger internet, to hide local users’ info but allow them to share resources or data between their specific devices. If you have multiple locations or branches in your company, each with their own local area ne