Nigerians are beginning to understand that the internet remains one of the greatest innovations ever. This is why the scramble for information on the web has been so alarming. Most public places like hotels, restaurant, bars etc. have wifi connections.
These are referred to as public wifi because a hacker could easily spot those places and break into the connection. If that is done everyone connected becomes vulnerable.
“There is the proliferation of cyber hacks all over the place and one of the things we want to achieve is to know how these people carry out hacking? And we discover that it is the way a lot of people are connecting to free WiFi and then sending out their critical information, “the Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Digital Encode, Seyi Akindeinde, said during NaijaSecCon’18 conference.
“My advice is that if you log in to free WiFi, only log in to the news website or video website, don’t log into yahoo or Facebook, Google or what have you, because you are definitely going to be sending your username and password, to those hackers.”
He also recommended that having a Virtual Private Network (VPN) will go a long way to salvaging the situation.
However, here are some of the reasons why I agree with him that everybody should start considering using a VPN.
Using a Public Wifi without Vulnerability
The moment you start using a public wifi you become prone to attacks. That is why using an open wifi isn’t just advisable.
However, you can still use that public wifi without being vulnerable to attack by using a VPN software. The VPN makes it impossible for hackers to monitor your online activities.
Access to Limited Contents
The VPN allows you to have unlimited access to certain geographical based contents on the web. Sometimes, you realize that you are not able to download or watch US contents due to your present geo-location.
There are some contents exclusively designed for people residing in certain locations but with VPN you could access to those contents.
Security and Privacy
This is the primary objective of using VPN because it adds an extra layer of security. There are different types of VPN you could use to ensure security and privacy while surfing the internet.
Cybercriminals will always monitor the activities of their target online and VON is the only way to keep them off.
Prevents Advertisers from Knowing you
Advertisers have a way to study the activities and behavioral patterns of online shoppers through their algorithms.
Advertisers use the data of internet users to send targeted ads, but using the VPN throws advertisers off.
Save Costs
Have you realized that some service providers like hotels set prices based on where a prospective customer accesses the web from? In some cases, when you revisit the website the price goes up because they know you are somewhat ready to buy.
When you use VPN, you could revisit the site those websites multiple times without any traces.
Playing Online Games
Online games require a heavy bandwidth or even lags due to location restrictions. VPN prevents such things from happening.
