Escapees March-April 2019 Vol 40 Issue 5

Tips

           

                   

doing on the Internet. Having a superior VPN is one of the best ways to secure yourself on public WiFi. Connecting to a VPN encrypts your Internet traffic in both direc- tions so any information coming in or going out will look like gibberish to an attacker. When you sign up for a VPN, the company will give you a program to install on your computer. This program does all the “heavy lifting” for you by connecting and encrypting your data, providing a secure Internet connection. To use a VPN, you must first select a service provider. You can find companies that offer the service for free; however, I personally would avoid them. They are generally free because they log your traffic to sell your information to ad companies. A few popular VPN companies with high ratings include NordVPN,

StrongVPN, ExpressVPN and CyberGhost. When you are shopping for a VPN, it is important to find one that has positive reviews for speed and privacy. I personally use ExpressVPN because of their ease of use and speed. Once I install the app on my phone or computer, all I have to do is press the connect button. In minutes, all of my Internet traffic is private and encrypted whether I’m on park WiFi or using my 4G.   Connecting to a public WiFi puts your digital security at risk. Regardless, if you are using a VPN or not, make sure that any site that you enter sensitive information into has the lock icon in the address bar and the URL that begins with HTTPS:// and not HTTP://.

anyone who intercepts that informa- tion will be able to read it as easily as you are reading this sentence. On the contrary, information sent using HTTPS is encrypted. This means that, even if an attacker intercepts your information, it will appear as gibberish or a series of random letters and numbers. Only the website has the key to decrypt the information you sent.    A VPN or “Virtual Private Network” service allows you, the user, to take control of encrypting all of your Internet traffic. Basically, it prevents anyone from seeing what you are

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  

                                                                                     

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