Most Internet users have heard of malicious software and of how dangerous it can be for your computer and your private information in particular. An average user is aware of the consequences that “malware” can bring in case it penetrates to the computer. So it is necessary to take all the measures to ensure safety while surfing the Net.

So the aim of this article is to explain what VPN is and to prove that it is the most efficient option as far as the protection of your private information and the security of your connection are concerned.

It’s not a secret that the abovementioned functions can be performed by a Web proxy. Still there is a widespread opinion that it lacks efficiency, especially if compared to a VPN. We are not going to discuss this point in detail here, so we’d better go over to the main topic, in particular, to defining the notion of VPN and its significance for protecting your PC from attackers.

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. Whether you just surf web pages, check your e-mail box or share your photos with friends on Facebook, you use a common virtual network for transferring data. All your actions are somehow recorded, so there is always a chance that your personal information might get intercepted and used by attackers for their criminal purposes.

How can a VPN prevent this from happening? First of all, it encrypts all the traffic that is coming from your computer with the help of a special system, so it cannot be read by any other agents, even by your Internet Service Provider. If someone would like to monitor your Internet activity, it will turn out to be impossible, because the encryption key is very complicated, and encryption itself is usually made in compliance with various protocols (IPSec, PPTP, OpenVPN, etc.)

Secondly, a private channel is created that provides a private link between the VPN server and the client applying the VPN. This is the reason why a VPN service always requires interaction between the user and provider: this is the system of exchange and authentication between two agents.

Now let us look closer at how exactly a VPN works. In fact, this is not complicated at all. A VPN service establishes a protected Internet connection so that neither your ISP nor any other website can find out what you are doing at the moment. All they can see is encoded traffic and the VPN’s location. Usually a VPN keeps a number of IP addresses which are used to hide the real location of a computer that uses this service. This means that you can stay absolutely anonymous, as an IP address is the only way to establish the location and identity of transmitter. Using a VPN you’ll be able to hide this information and display only the IP address of the VPN server.

The VPN server is an obstruction on the way of attackers who would like to get access to a particular computer. Nowadays the number of servers that make this useful way of protection available is great. Let us enumerate just a few of them which are the most widespread: VyprVPN, Overplay, Hidemyass, Astrill, StrongVPN, VPN Worldwide and many more.

Drawing a conclusion, let us summarize the main advantages of using a VPN as compared to an unsecured connection:

• It allows us to stay anonymous, and if someone is targeting our computer, it will have serious problems identifying us
• We are able to get an IP address originating from any country (according to the location of a particular VPN server), as a result censorship can be avoided
• The information that we want to transfer stays secure against interception. This is especially helpful to large companies having their branches all around the world: they have to make sure that their communications do not get into wrong hands.