Do I Really Need A VPN?
It seems ads for VPN services are everywhere nowadays. What is a VPN and should you have one?
VPN is an acronym for Virtual Private Network. The idea is to connect a computer to some other network, besides the one it is on, typically over the Internet.
Why would someone want to do that? The most common reason is to connect to the office from home. This lets a company laptop be "on the network" and access files and network resources. Connecting from an employee's home PC is possible but much more risky, since depending on the access allowed it could be the same as plugging the computer in to the office network. And's let's face it, not all home PCs have the same security standards as those under ITS TeamCare...they more likely have no antivirus, out of date software, and malware/adware installed.
For personal use, VPNs are less useful. Most people probably don't need to access a file at home, when traveling, since they can use a USB stick or personal OneDrive account. Web sites can limit access by country, for instance a video streaming service which only licensed a show for certain countries. Connecting to a VPN provider in the US while on vacation in Europe (or living in Europe) may mask the computer's location. On the other hand, those same sites know that tactic well, so can just outright block known VPN services. Banks or other highly-secured sites might also be more suspicious about VPN addresses since they already know the person connecting is trying to hide their identity.
One of the common reasons advertised for a VPN is to "protect yourself." Most web sites and email connections are encrypted nowadays. So when you're surfing the Internet in your local coffee shop no one can "see" what you're doing anyway, unless they are looking at your screen over your shoulder.
Ultimately, one must trust their VPN provider. If the goal is to hide your network traffic, one must trust the company to which you are intentionally sending all your traffic to not record it or track you. Mostly, a personal always-on VPN service moves the "someone's watching you" risk from your ISP to your VPN company. If you are suspicious of your ISP, consider a different ISP.
February 2022
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