What Is a VPN? Why do I need one in 2021?
A VPN, or virtual private network, is an application that
creates a secure connection between your device and the internet. A good VPN
will encrypt your web traffic, hide your IP address, and protect your privacy
and security online.
With data theft, geo-blocking, and internet censorship on
the rise globally, more and more people are using a Virtual Private Network
(VPN) to protect themselves.
A VPN allows you to hide your IP address, stay safe on
public WiFi networks, and access region-restricted websites.
Unfortunately, not every VPN is trustworthy or effective.
You need to ensure the service you use does not leak your IP address, log your
data, or put you at risk in any way. Using a bad VPN is often worse than using
no VPN at all.
What Is a VPN?
Short for virtual private network, a VPN is a privacy tool
that secures your internet connection in order to protect your privacy,
anonymity, and freedom online.
Microsoft engineer Gurdeep Singh-Pall originally invented
the technology in 1996 when he created the first VPN protocol, Point-to-Point
Tunneling (PPTP).
Singh-Pall’s original idea was to create a service that
“allowed people to work effectively and securely from home”.
VPNs are now used for much more than just remote working.
Almost a third of internet users worldwide now use a VPN to secure a range of
online activities, such as streaming, torrenting, and internet shopping.
But what is a VPN and what does it do? Simply put, a VPN performs two main functions:
1. Encrypts the data that travels to and from your device
VPN services use encryption to generate a secure tunnel
between your device (e.g. smartphone or laptop) and a remote VPN server. Your
data travels through this tunnel and is then forwarded onto your requested
website or application.
The encrypted tunnel prevents internet service providers
(ISPs), governments, and attackers from spying on your online activity. Any
third party trying to monitor your connection will see nothing more than a
sequence of unintelligible letters and numbers.
An IP (Internet Protocol) address is the unique identifying number given to every individual internet connection. Your physical location and everything you do online is linked to it.
With a VPN, you can hide your IP address from the websites
you visit. Instead of seeing your true IP address, websites see the IP address
of the VPN server that your connection is being routed through.
By masking your IP address, you can keep your physical
location hidden as you browse the web. This helps to prevent advertisers from
tracking and targeting you, and governments from surveilling you.
Using a VPN also lets you spoof your location. VPN providers
offer servers located all around the world. The server location you connect to
determines where websites and applications perceive your physical location to
be.
For instance, you want to access the websites and French content
that is blocked in your region. A France VPN will help
you access that in a matter of few clicks. You can trick websites into thinking
you’re browsing, streaming, or torrenting from a particular city or country by
selecting a server based in that location. This can be useful when it comes to
bypassing internet censorship or unblocking geo-restricted content, such as
another country’s Netflix library.
Using a VPN is crucial for online privacy and freedom, but it won’t protect you against all forms of tracking. For additional protection, you might consider changing to a private browser or using the Tor network.
How Does a VPN Work?
A VPN works by creating an encrypted internet connection
between your device and a private server. This means your data is protected
from your ISP and any other third parties that try to view it. They might see
that data is being transferred, but not what the data is.
The private server then sends your traffic onto the website
or service you want to access, making the request look like it came from the
VPN server’s location and not your device’s location.
VPN Encryption
How your VPN tunnel is constructed and how secure it is
depends on the type of encryption protocol being used.
Encryption is the process of turning a string of plain-text
data into an unintelligible code so that only individuals with the correct
decryption ‘key’ can understand it. Strong and up-to-date VPN encryption is
essential to shield your data from onlookers and improve your online privacy.
What’s more, a VPN is only as secure as the encryption it uses.
Two fundamental features of VPN encryption are VPN protocols and encryption ciphers. We’ll summarise each of these here – for a full explanation of these concepts, you should read our guide to VPN encryption where we cover additional features like handshakes, hash authentications, and perfect forward secrecy.
VPN Protocols
VPN protocols are the rules and processes that a VPN client
follows in order to establish a secure connection between your device and the
VPN server. The VPN protocol determines how your secure tunnel is actually
formed.
Depending on the protocol in use, a VPN might have different
speeds, capabilities, or even vulnerabilities. Most service providers will let
you choose which protocol you’d like to use.
There are several VPN protocols available, but not all of
them are safe to use. We recommend using a service with OpenVPN whenever
possible.
The most common VPN protocols are:
OpenVPN: This is the recommended VPN protocol. It’s
open-source, very secure, and compatible with almost all VPN-capable devices.
IKEv2/IPsec: Used alongside IPsec, IKEv2 is a newer,
closed-source VPN protocol. It is secure, very quick, and handles network
changes with ease. This makes it the ideal protocol for mobile devices that
often switch between WiFi and mobile data.
WireGuard: The newest VPN protocol to date, WireGuard
aims to be fast, secure, and more easily implemented than other protocols by
using far fewer lines of code. While it is still in its early stages, it is
being supported by an increasing number of VPN providers.
SoftEther: SoftEther is another relatively new VPN
protocol. It delivers very fast connection speeds and good security.
Unfortunately, it’s held back by some configuration vulnerabilities and is only
compatible with a small number of VPN providers.
L2TP/IPsec: This protocol is fairly outdated and
comes with some security flaws. There have been some suggestions that the
protocol has been compromised by the NSA.
SSTP: SSTP is another closed-source VPN protocol.
It’s owned by Microsoft and based on SSL 3.0, which is vulnerable to a specific
MITM attack called Poodle. It hasn’t been confirmed whether SSTP is affected by
this attack, but it’s probably not worth the risk.
PPTP: You should avoid PPTP if you can. This outdated protocol is not safe to use and can be hacked in a matter of minutes.
Encryption Ciphers
A cipher is an algorithm that encrypts and decrypts data.
While a VPN protocol creates the VPN tunnel, a cipher is what encrypts your
data before it flows through the tunnel.
When talking about encryption, we usually refer to a mixture
of cipher type and key length. Generally speaking, the shorter the key length
the less secure the encryption is. For example, AES-128 is a less secure cipher
than AES-256.
As is the case with VPN protocols, there are several
different ciphers available to providers. The most popular ciphers used in VPN
software today are:
Advanced Encryption Standard (AES): AES is the VPN
industry’s leading cipher. It provides ‘military-grade’ encryption and is used
by the US government for confidential data. You’ll commonly find two key
lengths: AES-128 and AES-256. Both are considered to be extremely secure.
Blowfish: Blowfish was once the default cipher used
in OpenVPN, but it has mainly been replaced by AES now. Blowfish isn’t as
secure as AES, and is vulnerable to ‘birthday attacks’.
Camellia: Though Camellia is very similar to AES in terms of security and speed, it suffers from not being certified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). It is rarely used in VPN software and hasn’t been as thoroughly tested as AES.
Why Do I Need a VPN?
A VPN allows you to protect your privacy, browse safely on
public WiFi, access blocked content, and hide your online activity from
onlookers.
Here are the five most important reasons why you need a VPN:
1. Avoid Global Mass Surveillance
Without a VPN, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) can see
all of the websites you visit and will almost certainly be recording that
information.
In some countries, authorities pressure ISPs to collect and
store user data for long periods of time. Governments can then access that
information whenever they like. This is the case in the US, UK, Australia, and
much of Europe.
Often, these countries are also members of secret,
international intelligence-sharing alliances, known as Five Eyes, Nine Eyes,
and Fourteen Eyes. The Snowden revelations showed that the countries in these
alliances work together to collect mass surveillance data and share it among
themselves.
With a VPN, your internet traffic is encrypted as it travels from your device to the private server. This makes it much harder for governments, intelligence agencies, and ISPs to spy on your online activity. Unless they know how to decrypt it, the data they collect on you will be very difficult to interpret.
2. Bypass Internet Censorship
National authorities around the world censor online activity
by preventing citizens from accessing certain websites. A 2019 Freedom House
report found that global internet freedom had declined for the ninth
consecutive year.
Using a VPN can help citizens (and tourists) evade
censorship in order to access global media and communicate freely. For
journalists, activists, and whistleblowers, VPNs are a vital resource for
safely speaking out against governments that limit freedom of speech and
freedom of the press.
By encrypting your traffic and masking your IP address, a
good VPN for censorship will hide your true identity and true location from
systems like the Great Firewall of China. You can then bypass website blocks
and access content that is censored in your region.
3. Stay Safe on Public WiFi
Exploiting public WiFi networks to gather data is simple and
incredibly cheap. Criminals can take advantage of open and unencrypted networks
to steal important data like your bank details, credit cards, photos, and other
personal information.
Hackers are increasingly targeting hotels and shopping malls
in pursuit of high-value targets.
This is made easier with tools like the popular ‘WiFi
Pineapple’, which gives almost anyone the ability to take advantage of public
WiFi networks for under $99.
A VPN can be used to protect yourself from this kind of
threat. It will encrypt your internet traffic and make it much harder for
hackers to intercept and steal your data. For this reason, a reliable VPN is
invaluable if you travel frequently and regularly use open WiFi networks. For
more details, read our public WiFi security guide.
Similarly, unprotected WiFi networks at home are also a
risk. With much of the world in lockdown due to COVID-19 and many people
working from home, criminals may turn their attention toward vulnerable home
networks – a practice known as wardriving.
4. Unblock and Stream Geo-Blocked Content
Often, streaming services like Netflix or BBC iPlayer have
different content libraries depending on your physical location. If you access
Netflix from the US, for example, you’ll get the US Netflix library, which has
way more content than any other country.
This can be annoying if you’re traveling or want to stream
something that is only available overseas.
That’s where a VPN comes in.
Streaming services use your IP address to determine your physical location. With a VPN, your true IP address is masked by a VPN server in a location of your choosing. If you select a server in India, the streaming site will think you are located in India.
Using a VPN is therefore a reliable way to bypass
geographical restrictions and unblock ‘hidden’ content from overseas.
Unfortunately, not all VPNs work effectively for streaming. To find one that is
suitable, skip to our streaming section below.
5. Stop ISP Throttling and Torrent Securely
Your ISP almost certainly monitors your online activity. If
you live in a country without strong net neutrality laws, your ISP can even
deliberately slow down your connection. This is called bandwidth throttling.
Typically, ISPs will throttle your connection when you
perform bandwidth-heavy activities like downloading a large file or torrenting.
However, some ISPs have also been accused of throttling connection speeds
purely for their own business interests.
VPN encryption can stop ISPs from throttling your connection
because it prevents them from seeing what you’re doing. Without access to your
activity, it’s harder for them to know when to slow down your connection. This
means you can enjoy fast speeds for downloading, torrenting, gaming, and
streaming.
It also means you can torrent files more securely.
Torrenting without a VPN can be risky: not only is your IP address visible to
peers, but your ISP can also see that you are accessing torrenting sites and
apps, too.
We don’t condone downloading copyrighted material – if
you’re partaking in legal file sharing then a VPN is essential to keep your P2P
activities private.
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