What is a VPN? How does it work?

Virtual Private Networks have been increasingly used by users all over the world who need a secure and flexible connection.

VPN (photo credit: Courtesy)
VPN
(photo credit: Courtesy)
VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, which can be translated into Virtual Private Network. Virtual Private Networks have been increasingly used by users all over the world who need a secure and flexible connection.

VPN as a kind of firewall, but instead of protecting your files stored on your computer from external threats, it is in charge of keeping your personal and digital information safe and invisible while you surf the internet and your data travel. (i.e., they are exposed) over the network.

Even if hackers are able to intercept your information (which is already quite a complicated task), it will be basically impossible to break the encryption to access the content.
 

Benefits of using a VPN

The VPN connection is mostly used in the following cases:

- People living in authoritarian countries end up using VPNs to access content censored by the government
- Journalists who need to keep their personal data and information about their sources confidential.
- Political figures or activists for personal security issues

- You need to release access to content from different platforms in other countries without geographic restrictions such as Netflix, Hulu, Youtube, among others

How VPN works
When using a VPN, you have layers of encryption that keep your browsing in total confidentiality. Every time you connect to the internet, your IP address is exposed to traffic openly, and that way you can track your location or even your identity.
With a VPN connection, you use another IP address (which may be located in other countries) and thus keep your device's information protected and can no longer be identified.
Your digital information is encrypted and sent through a '' tunnel '' with just one input and one output, so your data is completely invisible to outsiders. To summarize, it is not possible to penetrate the cryptographic layers to see the information inside the tunnel.
The most reliable security standard in existence is 256-bit AES Encryption, and it is the same technology used to protect sensitive data from the armed forces or governments. To unlock a single key it would be necessary to build supercomputers with processors and technologies that do not yet exist, and it would still be an extremely slow and expensive process.

What are the benefits of using a VPN?

With a VPN you can access the internet with more freedom and flexibility anywhere without taking risks of cyber invasions, accessing remote locations (an option widely used by those working with home offices) among other advantages. There are paid and free VPNs, and not recommended to use a free VPN connection to keep your security protected. The highly recommended VPN is . 

The best advantages of connecting to the internet using a VPN connection:

- Advanced security tools and features included at no additional charge.
- Military-grade, impenetrable 256-bit advanced encryption standard (the best encryption technology ever developed).
- Multiple logins for you to connect 5 or more devices to a VPN network (some companies offer larger numbers) to keep all devices that access the internet secure.
- Remote access to the local network of your choice (widely used by people who work at home and need to access the company's system, for example).
- Access the internet from public Wi-Fi without leaving your device vulnerable to possible cyber-attacks or invasions.
Now you know that VPN networks provide you with several benefits when you are surfing. Just try!