Choose the server (or “endpoint”) you’d like to use (good VPN apps offer several different locations) and after a few seconds, all of your data is encrypted and passing through the virtual network.
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Using them is quite simple: you download and install a VPN app for your phone, tablet, or laptop, then start it up after you’ve connected to the Internet. Until it emerges from the end of the pipe, nobody on the bank can see the dye or knows anything about it. Now, put a small pipe in the river, running from wherever you are to somewhere along its length and dump your dye into that instead. Anyone standing along the riverbank can see that dye: what color and consistency it is, and where it ends up. Drop a load of dye into the river - that’s your (unencrypted) data. To understand how they work, think of the Internet as a river. After all, security matters to everyone, whether they’ve got an expense account or not. VPNs were originally created for business use, but it didn’t take long before consumer versions started appearing from dozens of different companies. This makes them virtually untraceable and prevents would-be thieves from accessing your private information.
With so much potential risk out there, how do you stay safe?Ī VPN (Virtual Private Network) provides privacy and anonymity by creating a private network from a public internet connection. Usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, browser cookies, and other identifying information can be ripe for the picking from your web browser and mobile apps. Yet as we casually surf the web and connect with friends and family back home, we’re opening ourselves up to some serious risks.Īnybody on the same network (which in some cases could be thousands of people) can easily grab your unencrypted data as it flies through the air. But we often overlook ensuring that our data and information are kept safe too.įree Wi-Fi is available pretty much everywhere to travelers, from coffee shops to hostels to airport lounges.
Sure, we’ll buy travel insurance to protect our health. While this technology does make travel easier, it also opens us up to new risks.įrom stolen credit card numbers to governmental spying to hacked emails, cybersecurity is usually something we overlook when we’re planning our trips. Whether it’s a smartphone, tablet, or laptop, we’re all connected when we’re abroad. These days, everyone travels with a computer. In this guest post, he delves deep into Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to explain what they are, how they work, and why you as a traveler should be using them. Dave Dean from Too Many Adapters is a tech expert.