by Astrid Jacobsen on October 30
By having your IP address, third parties can tell your approximate physical location. They may use this information to alter or damage your online experience, especially when they have access to other types of information, such as your SSN (Social Security Number) or ID number.
Just having your IP is nowhere near enough information for a bad actor to hack your device. But knowing your IP and port number might be enough for hackers to try to compromise your home network. If they manage to do so, they might be able to spread malware to your device and take it over.
Once again, it’s highly unlikely that just having your IP will lead to a hacked device, but the chance is always there.
Your IP address : 3.17.164.143 | Your Status: Unprotected
Check out our brief video on this topic below.
Without any protection, your IP address is exposed every time you go online. Imagine that each time you went to a coffee shop, you had to write down your home address and give it to the barista. That’s what happens whenever you visit a website. And it’s just as compromising since bad actors can use your IP address in ways that can seriously harm you.
Once you establish a VPN connection, you hide your real IP and use the one the VPN provides instead. Whenever you’re in a coffee shop, you write “VPN” as your home address. And there’s no way to track it back to your address.
Your IP address : 3.17.164.143
Many free VPNs have been found to contain malware or other malicious software that can harm your device or steal your data. They may also log your activity and sell that information to third parties.
"The data of 21 million users was exposed in early 2021, as well, when account logins for GeckoVPN, SuperVPN and ChatVPN—all free VPNs—were listed for sale on the dark web.
Seven free VPN providers were responsible for 1.2TB of leaks, demonstrating just how safe users aren’t when they may be led to believe they are."
Source: Internet Crime Report
The best VPN in 2024 is ExpressVPN. It stores no logs of your online activities either. It’s been audited by KPMG as well, plus, it’s based in the British Virgin Islands, a jurisdiction that promises the highest level of privacy. We like that the provider supports plenty of devices and platforms.
| 391,012 Customers Reviews
Trusted by millions of users and considered one of the most secure VPN services worldwide. Get fast browsing and secure your Internet connection with this top VPN service.
| 201.023 Customers Reviews
NordVPN's current products match or beat the competition in just about every area. NordVPN is one the best VPNs out there. Headquartered in Panama, this VPN service offers its users a combination of great speeds, unbreakable encryption, and an independently-audited no-logs policy
| 327,863 Customers Reviews
Surfshark's network is smaller than some, but this VPN services makes it up on features. Surfshark made it easy to download movies and TV shows without fear of retribution. With unlimited devices per subscription, this VPN give a different IP address every time.
| 52,864 Customers Reviews
ProtonVPN, a VPN company with more than 1,400 servers in over 60 countries. The company's headquarters are in Switzerland, which means it isn’t under the jurisdiction of any international surveillance alliances, giving you the protection of some of the world’s strongest privacy laws.
| 31,559 Customers Reviews
#1. Avoid Free VPNs
Providing a VPN service is a costly business. There are servers to maintain, software to be developed, people to handle customer support, advertising expenses, to name a few.
All this doesn’t come cheap.
Many free VPN providers have been caught selling customer data, quietly installing malware or injecting advertising. While a free VPN may be tempting, when it comes to choosing this type of service, you have two options. The first is paying a fee. The second is paying with your data by looking at excessive ads or by risking your Internet connection security.
#2. Watch Out For Poor Encryption
The VPN works by sending your data encrypted through a virtual tunnel and decrypting it on the server side. Using a strong encryption protocol and a long encryption key is essential for keeping your data secure while it travels through the Internet.
Although AES encryption with 256-bit key or more should be standard for any VPN, there are still many services that provide only 128-bit keys. Other strong VPN ciphers to look for are Twofish or Camellia. Look out for Perfect Forward Secrecy as well; not many VPN services provide this essential security feature.
#3. Beware Of Snitching
VPN services encrypt your data while it travels through the Internet, but it is still technically possible for the service provider to access it as it is being decrypted on the VPN serve
Most, if not all, VPN companies claim they do not keep logs or track the user activity, but the news often reveals otherwise. Many small VPN services have been known to help law enforcement agencies by providing such logs on user data.
Choosing a VPN service audited by an independent third-party organization ensures that your browsing activity remains secure and untracked.
A very fast VPN from a world-class cybersecurity brand. The largest VPN server network in the world.
Does a VPN protect you on WiFi?
A VPN is one of the most robust and secure methods you can use to protect your devices – it was practically made for use with public/private WiFi. It sends your traffic through an encrypted ‘tunnel’, making it extremely difficult to decipher or intercept. Having an app on the devices you use to connect to a public network will provide you with this encryption on-the-go. We always recommend using a VPN on public/private Wi-Fi hotspots.
What information is at risk when using public/private WiFi?
The main way a hacker can take advantage of the lack of security on public/private WiFi is through stealing your personal information. This can be anything like:
A very fast VPN from a world-class cybersecurity brand. The largest VPN server network in the world.
Check out these Video Exposing Wi-Fi Security Threats!
A VPN masks your online activity by routing your connection through a different server to the one on the network that you’re using. It can encrypt data, which means the VPN converts your data into code that unauthorized sources can't translate. A VPN may also use tunneling, which encapsulates information into a different format. This conceals information you send and receive while you're using the Internet on your private network.
The Internet runs on servers that are constantly sharing and transmitting data between each other. When you hop online to browse, your computer starts sharing data directly with the servers of the sites you're visiting. This means hackers can potentially intercept the communication to see what you're sharing and tell it's coming from you. This isn't great news when you're sending sensitive data, such as banking information which you don't want to get into the wrong hands.
A VPN creates a way station in your data's journey from your computer to other Internet servers. With a VPN service, your data goes to the private network server first, where it's repackaged and concealed. It then moves from the VPN server to its ultimate destination. You're concealing the source of your data, and it looks to hackers like the VPN — not you — is the origin of your traffic and information. Cybercriminals can't tell you're the data source, and they also only see encrypted data.
You can create and use one of these private networks by downloading VPN software or by logging onto a VPN provider's website. The software or website then facilitates all the hidden data transfers you make while browsing the Internet via the VPN.
The primary benefit of a VPN is its added security. When you're at the coffee shop, you may immediately log on to the Web through the free Wi-Fi network with the shop's name in it. But how do you know whether the free network is actually run by the coffee shop or by someone interested in stealing your data?
With a VPN, your data is encrypted for confidentiality on the remote, private server. Even if you're accessing a Wi-Fi network that a cybercriminal has set up, your information still isn't visible to them. You simply need to connect to your VPN program as the first step after logging on to an unsecured Internet server. It's that easy.
Residents of some countries can be blocked from popular websites like Facebook and Google, but people are still able to access these sites if they're using a VPN. That's because VPNs can connect to these services from private servers located in other countries that don't block specific sites. Blocked sites are actually quite common; some small businesses and government agencies only allow traffic from their own countries as a security measure. This can prove problematic if you're overseas on holiday and want to do some work.
By connecting to a VPN immediately upon accessing the Web in a foreign country, you'll be able to browse as if you're at home. Of course, you'll want to be proactive and download or sign up for your VPN service before traveling abroad.
A secure VPN connection offers a powerful way to secure your online activity and safeguard your information. Not all VPN services and providers are created equal, however.
We pick the Best VPN for You, we look at what each service has to offer. We evaluate everything from features and UX to their infrastructure and the protocols they use.
We start with privacy and security as those are the most important benefits a VPN can provide. That’s why we review VPNs that have military-grade encryption and protocols like OpenVPN, L2TP, IKEv2, and more.
There are plenty of VPN companies popping up in the marketplace today, and not all of them can provide the services you need. Because we conduct so much shopping, emailing and business using smartphones, it's smart to find a VPN that can work on your phone as well. It's more difficult for hackers to gather information from phones. But all you have to do is read an article about the Snowden leaks to know the government has no problem accessing your information.
In general, VPNs work similarly for Apple products as they do for Windows or Android operating systems. However, VPN systems for iPhone actually require more robust protocols, providing you with that much more protection.