31-12-2022, 08:35 AM
A VPN has its uses, however it's not a security panacea...
The article you reference is essentially an advert for NordVPN, one of the major commercial VPN providers, and thus should be treated with a pinch of salt. There are several sweeping statements in there that many would take issue with. Kaspersky have a better article but still far from perfect: https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-cente...t-is-a-vpn
VPNs do have a place in providing an extra layer of security if you are using public WiFi - I always use a private VPN in such situations. Note they do not provide 100% protection against MITM attacks - depending on client and server setup, they are potentially still vulnerable to DNS poisoning and other attack vectors.
What VPNs do not do is provide guaranteed anonymity - by doing tricks with DNS etc, it's often possible to tell who is at the client end of a VPN tunnel. Target web sites can also often detect that a site user is actually coming over a VPN to get to them - the BBC is an example that does a lot of checking to ensure that UK-only content is protected - checks include are the timezone and language of the site the same as that of the user's browser; does the alleged IP address' AS number match the language settings etc. To see what a web site can tell about you just from accessing it, have a look at https://whoer.net
Use of a VPN on it's own will not protect you against scams, phishing, viruses, ransomware, trojans stupidity and carelessness. It will help against tracking and various spoofing and intercept attacks.
This is a large and complex subject - VPNs have a place, but they really don't protect you from everything. Common sense is more valuable. The two together, even better.
The article you reference is essentially an advert for NordVPN, one of the major commercial VPN providers, and thus should be treated with a pinch of salt. There are several sweeping statements in there that many would take issue with. Kaspersky have a better article but still far from perfect: https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-cente...t-is-a-vpn
VPNs do have a place in providing an extra layer of security if you are using public WiFi - I always use a private VPN in such situations. Note they do not provide 100% protection against MITM attacks - depending on client and server setup, they are potentially still vulnerable to DNS poisoning and other attack vectors.
What VPNs do not do is provide guaranteed anonymity - by doing tricks with DNS etc, it's often possible to tell who is at the client end of a VPN tunnel. Target web sites can also often detect that a site user is actually coming over a VPN to get to them - the BBC is an example that does a lot of checking to ensure that UK-only content is protected - checks include are the timezone and language of the site the same as that of the user's browser; does the alleged IP address' AS number match the language settings etc. To see what a web site can tell about you just from accessing it, have a look at https://whoer.net
Use of a VPN on it's own will not protect you against scams, phishing, viruses, ransomware, trojans stupidity and carelessness. It will help against tracking and various spoofing and intercept attacks.
This is a large and complex subject - VPNs have a place, but they really don't protect you from everything. Common sense is more valuable. The two together, even better.
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