VPN mail security – things you should know
Last updated on June 6th, 2016 in VPN
Most of you know exactly how VPN works and how and when you should use it. However probably many of you do not realize that there are additional tools you can use together with VPN to make your data even more safe and secured. Today we will talk about VPN mail security.
VPN makes your data secure…
And that is correct, but to a certain point. To understand this, we need to understand how VPN works. This will be quite useful for those of you who are new to whole VPN idea.
So, in normal conditions when your computer or mobile phone connects to a web site or e-mail server this connection is not direct. Your data pass through many different servers on their way from you to target. First there are servers that belong to your own ISP. After that it all depends. Data can go not only through other servers incorporated to the network we know as the Internet, but also through different networks, that belong to different telecoms. The further physically source and target are the more servers that your data will pas through.
This data in most cases is secured with quite standard protocol most of the average users do – so those built in as standard in your systems. That also means that for your ISP, government agencies, hackers or anyone who is truly interested, it will not be a problem to crack them and get to know what they need. Sometimes it might be content of your message, sometimes only your IP will be enough to combine them with other gathered data.
This is where VPN comes in. VPN stands for Virtual Private Tunnel. When you use VPN although your data flow in similar way they are not as easy to sniff. VPN is like an exterritorial highway. On the route between you and VPN server only your ISP (or owner of free, public Wi-Fi) can see this connection – but as it is fully encrypted there is no way to say what sort of data are being exchanged. Past the VPN server… well this is where your mail might not be secured anymore – however your identity and IP address still are.
VPN mail security – are you using right e-mail service?
If you are using one of popular mail services like Gmail, Outlook or many others – including those in your own countries – you need to know, that once your message passes VPN server it is not protected by VPN anymore. Not to mention the fact that quite often we store our messages on the mail servers. Are those servers secure? Will authorities have access to information stored there? And finally what can we do about the route from the mail server to recipient?
The answer is a good VPN service (preferably on both ends – yours and your message recipient [*]) combined with secure e-mail service.
As with everything we advise you to test services yourself, read opinions and make decision. At this moment we think that to get real VPN mail security you could consider combining our VPN service with Proton Mail. As far as we were able to check and read about it, it is one of the most secure services available for free. Of course, as we have mentioned – the best would be for all involved parties to use VPN and such secure e-mail account.
[*] – we have put this mark above for a reason. As we just said it is best if everyone involved is using VPN (if not secure e-mail as well). You already have a knowledge about VPN, most probably you are using the service already. Don’t keep this knowledge for yourself. Make sure your friends and family know both – benefits of VPN and dangers of the internet as well as lack of privacy online.
Especially that it is easy to show them how such services as ours works. Anyone can try VPN for free and get true VPN mail security.
