Do you need a personal VPN service? If you Google around you will see that most people use VPN services to bypass the web restrictions from their countries, like in the centre East or China. But a VPN can perform so much more for you personally.
The VPN works by encrypting all of your Internet traffic and redirecting it with a VPN server, typically situated in the USA. This will have two immediate effects:
1. Your Internet traffic will undoubtedly be obscured from anyone “listening” on the line. Even your ISP or company could have no idea as to what your actual Internet traffic really is.
2. Your real IP address will undoubtedly be hidden from the sites you visit, thus offering you anonymity while online.
So even if you come in Wireless HotSpots, places that hackers often scout to find new victims, you will be protected when using the VPN. Firesheep, the Firefox plugin is really a preferred tool of the trade and is extremely simple to use, even by amateur hackers, or “script-kiddies” because they are called in the underground community. The VPN encryption may also keep you safe from the Firesheep attacks.
The bad part is that it all comes at a cost. Two main issues to be discussed here:
1. When using the VPN you’ll experience a reduction in speed. This is caused by the encryption and the traffic routing. If you are in France and you also are using a VPN server, your traffic will get encrypted, sent from France to the VPN server in USA and from the VPN USA server redirected to it`s original intended destination. From there the traffic flows via the same route all the way back in France… That`s an extended trip right?
2. Most good VPN services are paid. There are several free ones, but folks have had bad reviews before about free VPN service: limits on bandwidth, poor speeds and connection drops some users say. The paid services generally do far better in terms of performance. Be prepared to pay from formula 1 ilmaiseksi netissä – 20$ per month for a good VPN service.
Another important aspect may be the encryption the VPN uses. Currently SSL VPNs are considered to have the safest encryption. The most famous SSL VPN protocols are SSTP and OpenVPN. Unlike other protocols they use certificates through the authentication process, creating a man-in-the-middle hacker attack almost impossible.
So, my advice will be, if you value your privacy and security, get a VPN service and always utilize it in networks you take into account unsecured (like airport or coffee shops public networks).