What is a VPN on a phone? You enable the VPN client (software) from the VPN service. This software encrypts your data before your ISP or coffee shop Wi-Fi provider can see it. The data then travels to the VPN, as well as from the VPN server, to the Internet destination – from your bank website to the video sharing website and to the search engine. The online addressee sees your data coming from the VPN server and its location rather than from your computer and your location. While this is standard, there are some disadvantages to this type of connection. All of your data is publicly available and you may view submission by any interested party.
The Internet is a collection of servers responsible for storing websites and making them available to anyone who wants to view them. This means that they are constantly communicating with each other, including sharing your data with each other, which will eventually allow you to view the page. Great for being able to surf you, but not perfect for privacy. Going online is like traveling on a commercial plane. Ticket agents, luggage handlers, security personnel and flight attendants need data components to guide you between cities. Such communication takes place on the Internet. If this is an entertainment website you are browsing, you do not need to worry. It’s okay if someone sees your data. Whether it’s online banking, business email or more personal, that’s a different story.
When you use a VPN on your phone, your data is encrypted (because you are using an application), which is encrypted to your ISP and then to the VPN server. A VPN server is a third party that connects to the network on your behalf. It solves our privacy and security issue in a number of ways:
- The destination site sees the VPN server as the source of traffic, not you.
- No one (easily) can identify you or your computer as a source of data or what you do (what websites you visit, what data you transmit, etc.).
- Your data is encrypted, so if anyone sees what you are sending, they will only see the encrypted information, not the raw data.
As you can see, this view is much more secure than a traditional network connection. But how safe is it? Identify it.
How secure the VPN is
VPN security between IT Pros is controversial and the two services are not identical in offer or security. There are two main factors:
- Limitations on the type of VPN technology used by the provider.
- Legal and policy limitations that affect what can be done with this technology. The laws of the country where the server and VPN provider are located and the company’s own policies affect how the company implements technology in its services.
VPN protocols
VPN protocols define how a service handles data transfers over a VPN. The most common protocols are PPTP, L2TP, SSTP, IKEV2 and OpenVPN.
- PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol) is one of the oldest protocols in use, first developed by Microsoft. Pros: Works on older computers, is part of the Windows operating system and is easy to configure. Cons: By today’s standards it is not very safe. Avoid the seller if this is the only protocol.
- L2TP / IPsec (Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol) is a combination of PPTP and Cisco L2F protocol. The concept of this protocol is smart: it uses keys to establish a secure connection at each end of your data tunnel – but it’s not very secure to implement. The addition of IPsec improves security slightly, but there are allegations that the NSA has the ability to crack the protocol and watch what is being transmitted.
- SSTP (Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol) is another protocol created by Microsoft. Connection established with SSL / TLS encryption (virtual standard for web encryption these days). The security of SSL and TLS is based on symmetric key cryptography. An installation where only the two parties involved in the transmission can decode the data internally. Overall, SSTP is a very secure solution.
- IKEv2 (Internet Key Exchange, version 2) is another protocol created by Microsoft. This is a repeat of previous Microsoft protocols and more secure. It provides better security.
- Takes the best of protocols on OpenVPN and fixes most bugs. It is based on SSL / TLS and is an open source project that is constantly being developed by hundreds of developers. This secures the connection with keys known only to the two parties involved at both ends of the transmission. Overall, this is a very versatile and secure protocol.
In general, most VPNs allow you to select a protocol. The more secure the protocol you connect to (OpenVVPN, IKEV2), the more secure your entire session will be.
Only those who used the original key to encrypt the data can read the encrypted data. Modern encryption algorithms work on this principle and data transfer is a very complex process and deserves research at the doctoral level. What you need to see is that your data is encrypted with at least 128 bit AES encryption. Most good VPNs go one step further and offer AES-256 encryption, including ExpressVPN, NordVPN and Bufferd. Your VPN is very secure, but it all comes down to the connection protocol used to encrypt your information.
