What Vulnerabilities are You Susceptible to While Using a VPN?

How Does a VPN Protect Data? 

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is the perfect solution to many of the issues you may face online, such as hiding your browsing activity and accessing blocked sites. It is also one of the most effective ways of maintaining privacy online as the encryption methods used by VPN make it incredibly difficult for hackers to steal information. However, there are some cyber attacks that are very sophisticated and complex which even a VPN cannot prevent, such as malware and phishing attacks.   

The purpose of a VPN is to protect you from attacks that require your IP address. All online activity can be traced back to you thanks to your IP address. When using a VPN, your real IP address will be hidden. The VPN is able to replace yours with one of its own that will change each time you go online. Even if someone is still able to see what you have been doing online, the anonymity of a VPN will make it difficult to trace the activity back to you.  

Is it Possible to Hack a VPN? 

A VPN is one of the most effective means of maintaining online privacy; nevertheless, it is important to remember that anything can be hacked. If you are a high-value target and a threat actor has the time, money, and resources at their disposal, you could be at risk. However, most users don’t generally fall into the category of “high-value” targets, so are unlikely to be singled out. 

To hack a VPN connection, a cyber criminal will employ one of the following tactics-they can gain access by breaking the encryption through known vulnerabilities or stealing the key via unethical means. It can be time consuming and computationally demanding to break an encryption and can take even the strongest computers years to actually break it, so most attacks tend to involve stealing the keys.  

A prime example of key theft is spy agencies; they generally prefer this method rather than cracking an encryption. Given that the math behind encryption is extremely complex, stealing a key is much easier. The success comes from a combination of technical trickery, computing power, cheating, and coercion.  

With this knowledge in mind, it is still important to remember that you are at a higher risk of hacking without a VPN than you are with one. 

Connection Vulnerability 

VPN’s do not need their encryption compromised to make your connection vulnerable. A VPN leak can reveal your data to an outside party if your IP address is leaked. While transmitting your data, your browser could accidentally leak your real IP address. Access to your data may not be available, but your location could be traced. Also, if your traffic is leaked, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) will know exactly what activities you are conducting online and what you are viewing. 

Depending on what VPN service you use, you could be setting yourself up for more harm than good. Free VPN’s are an example of this because the fact that they are free  likely means that they use other ways to monetize their operations. This could mean collecting your data and selling it to third parties or flooding you with ads. Free VPN’s also tend to have  smaller server infrastructures, which causes congested servers and slower speeds. Besides, they might also have more security holes and weak encryption algorithms-the perfect recipe for data leaks.  

How can Securiwiser Keep your Business Secure? 

Securiwiser will run continuous twenty-four hour scans of your devices, website and network to make sure your security posture is at its most secure. If any suspicious behaviour is detected in your systems, you‘ll be alerted immediately and a report detailing the findings will be sent to you. You’ll be told how to rectify the situation or informed where to get help should you require it. You will also get grades based on how each aspect of your security is performing, so you will know what is most pressing and where security needs tightening.