Secret Internet Tunnels: VPNs, How They Work and The Ones We Recommend
A VPN (virtual private network) is probably your best bet to keep yourself from getting got.
Most of you are doing really important things on public wifi. Coffee shops have become the epicenter for digital nomads and even thinking of that gives me a conniption. There are countless ways an attacker can get into your device but intercepting public wifi is probably the easiest and most convenient. Literally anyone can google: “How to hack public wifi” and boom — a 13 year old is watching you through your webcam.
VPNs keep you pretty safe online, but you should continue to be cognizant and educate yourself on data privacy methods. Especially given the fact that your INTERNET PROVIDERS ARE SELLING YOUR DAMN INTERNET USAGE. And just FYI — that shit happened in 2017.
Ok, so back to VPNs. They’re cool AF. VPNs basically create a secure, incognito, encrypted private tunnel for you as you travel through the internet. It’s like when Wreck it Ralph visits the internet and they sit in those pods to get from one place to another, except these are secret invisible pods no one can see. (Side note: if you haven’t seen Ralph Breaks the Internet, as a security professional, I HIGHLY recommend it, they do a phenomenal job depicting what’s going on behind the screen.)
“BUT BUT BUT, CAN SOMEONE HACK A VPN?”
First off, how is it that ya’ll never change your passwords, connect to secure websites but as soon as something’s recommended for extra security — everyone is all of a sudden an expert on what can and cannot be hacked????????????
Short answer, yes, everything can get got. However, when you’re connected to a VPN, no one, not even your internet service provider can see what you’re doing up until you exit the VPN and face the public internet.
But a VPN isn’t the secret sauce to staying secure all the time, YOU are. Sure, a VPN can protect your internet footprint from being tracked and sold but if you’re willy nilly downloading dumb shit to your laptop without thinking or clicking links from random people, well then your ass will definitely get hacked.
PICKING A VPN
There’s a tremendous amount of information on the internet, people are “fake news”ing their butts off, so be weary of the research you do and the tools you choose. Since congress nixed ISP privacy rules, awareness sky rocketed and the VPN market flourished which consequently lead to some annoying people creating fake VPNs. According to PCMag here are the things to consider: reputation, performance, type of encryption used, transparency, ease of use, support, and extra features. And in addition to features of the VPN (or any product or tool you’re looking it) it’s super fucking important to consider the company’s privacy practices and policies.
Several VPN services now accept anonymous payment methods such Bitcoin, and some even accept retailer gift cards. Both of these transactions is about as close as you can get to paying with cash for something online. That Starbucks gift card may be better spent on secure web browsing than a mediocre-at-best latte.- PCMag
AFTER EXTENSIVE RESEARCH, TALKING TO MANY OF MY SECURITY PEERS, I CAME UP WITH MY LIST OF TOP 5 VPN TOOLS.
1. TUNNEL BEAR
Great for new VPN users. Affordable, user friendly and a super cute UI. Really fucking good privacy policies. Free trial available.
2. NORDVPN
Expensive but SOOOO worth it. NordVPN offers over 5,000 servers in unique locations. Blocks ads, malicious internet threats. Great customer privacy. Can secure 6 devices at once and carries award winning customer service. A bit more complex but they’ll help if you need it with their 24 hour live chat.
3. CYBERGHOST
For general users, CyberGhost is a great option. They have a 45 day money back guarantee and a ton of features. Really great for Windows users, they have dope quick access features for, streaming, torrenting files and finessing censorship. Their subscription based pricing is pretty expensive month to month — you’re better off buying a year up front (you can do it using Bitcoin).
4. IPVANISH
Good for pros and even new users learning about VPN. IPVanish 1,300 servers in 75 countries and 24/7 service. BitTorrenting is available and they’ll automatically cycle your IP address, only thing is that their UI kind of blows and might be harder to understand for people using VPN for the first time.
5. PRIVATE INTERNET ACCESS
Amazing interface with ability to have 10 simultaneous connections — Private Internet Access is incredible for families with teens. Lol. They have built in ad blocking, a ton of advanced security settings and it’s BitTorrent friendly. Their customer privacy policy is super clean and they’re also pretty affordable given what you’re getting.
There you have it, a break down of what VPN is, what you should be looking for as you shop tools and what my top picks are.
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