
They can even intercept your session with your online banking site and transfer your money to their accounts while you have your coffee. Because an open Wi-Fi network is unencrypted and unsecured, attackers may gain access to everything stored on your computer (e.g., important passwords) without any serious effort. If you are not using a VPN, you are especially vulnerable when you connect to the Internet via an open Wi-Fi network in the airport, coffee shop or any other public place. Bots, viruses, trojans and hackers which inhabit the internet simply cannot attack you, because you do not “exist” for them. When you are connected using a VPN, your computer or device becomes invisible to the rest of the internet. Protection is the very essence of the VPN. You do not want various sites that you visit, and programs installed on your computer, to collect and send marketing information about you and about what you are doing on the internet (yes, they do it too!). You do not want various government agencies to track you and your actions on the internet (yes, they do it!). You do not want your ISP (Internet Service Provider) to know and log your internet activity. You do not want anyone to have access to the data you submit to the internet. For example, you may need it in the following cases: That means that ordinary users can buy a membership in such networks. Besides corporations, there are commercial companies that create special VPNs they sell membership plans to those who want to join their VPNs. Corporations connect their computers and servers located in different parts of the world using VPNs for security purposes. Security is the basic function of a VPN, and that is why VPNs were originally created. However, we will talk here only about those virtual networks that allow users to connect to them for a fee, and sometimes even for free. There are myriad Virtual Private Networks on the internet, and they are used for different purposes. Therefore, the VPN is invisible to all other participants of the internet, and it is not possible to intercept and read the data being transmitted within the VPN. This is the “virtuality” of a VPN.Īnother important characteristic of the VPN is that the aforementioned “tunnels” are highly encrypted. They permeate this conventional internet with “tunnels” and are interconnected by these “tunnels” inside the regular internet. They use the same Internet to which they continue to be connected. All the computers and devices are connected to each other in a VPN however, they do not have wires to arrange this connection. This network exists physically, in the form of wires connecting all the computers in this network.Ī virtual private network (VPN) does not have these physical components. In order to begin, let’s imagine the entire Internet–millions of computers, servers, and other various devices combined into one giant network without a single center. Let’s see what it means and how we, ordinary Internet users, may benefit from “virtuality.” We are in no way claiming to provide an academic description of this, but we will try to explain VPN in a language understandable to average users. However, the basic idea of the VPN is that it is not a real network such as the Internet it is a virtual one. What is VPN in simple words? VPN is an acronym that stands for “virtual private network.” Simply put, it’s the number of computers connected by a network.
