How Using an Insecure VPN Affects Users

VPN services are widely used by Internet users. Especially in recent times they have gained significant weight. They are used to encrypt connections, improve security and privacy when entering networks that may not be reliable. There are many options that we have at our disposal, both free and paid, for all types of operating systems. Now, at times it could turn against us. In this article we explain how an insecure VPN affects us.

What can happen to us with an insecure VPN

As we say, making use of an insecure VPN can bring significant problems to our day to day. Therefore it is advisable to always choose which tool we are going to use and make sure it is reliable. Let’s see what are the main problems that could happen to us.

How Using an Insecure VPN Affects Users

Data leakage

Certainly one of the biggest problems when using an unsecured VPN is data leakage . All our browsing information, the sites we visit, the services or platforms we use, could be exposed.

Precisely a VPN is designed to hide all this from our operator or any intruder that may be on a network. But if we use an insecure service, all this would come to nothing and could even come back against us.

Malware

Another very important problem is the possibility of malicious software entering . If we use an insecure VPN, it could cause that when we browse we end up in sites that have been maliciously modified and that could damage our security.

One of the most common problems is that when entering a website, it redirects us to a page controlled by the attackers and that we download some type of fraudulent file or it is a phishing site.

Crear o comprar malware

Other users use our connection

This is something that can affect us very negatively when it comes to navigating correctly. A free VPN service may use our connection, the available resources, for other users.

This can damage our privacy as well, beyond poor performance and the potential problems associated with sharing our network. Ultimately these services can sell our bandwidth .

Find out our location

In the same way, they could find out our real location if that insecure VPN does not act correctly. Precisely this type of service can be used to falsify where we are. For example, if we want to access content from another country but it is restricted from abroad, we could pretend that we are in that territory even though we are not physically there.

But using an insecure VPN could all be compromised. The sites we visit would actually know our location and we couldn’t use that mask to hide it.

Monitor network activity

Activity monitoring is another cause behind the use of unsafe VPN services. They can have a record of everything that happens on our network. A problem that logically affects privacy.

Slow down the connection

Internet speed is undoubtedly a very important factor for users. Now, when we use a VPN it could slow down. Especially when using free options and they are not really reliable. We could go back to what we were talking about before they sold our bandwidth.

But more than for this matter, the truth is that insecure VPNs tend to cause stability and connection quality problems. That translates into a significant loss of speed.

Abusive advertising

Abusive advertising , adware, is also behind these types of insecure programs. They could flood our navigation when visiting websites. This, in addition to being annoying, can put the security of the computers at risk, since it would facilitate the entry of malware.

How to know if a VPN is safe

We have seen what can happen if we use an insecure VPN. Now we are going to see how we can know if the tool we are using is really reliable or it could be a problem.

See if it filters the IP

One of the most basic aspects of knowing if a VPN is secure and working properly is to see if it leaks the IP address . There are many pages where we can see what our IP is, as well as the location.

In case our real address appears there it would mean that this VPN is not working as it should. We would have to choose another if we want to guarantee security.

Principales vulnerabilidades

Check DNS leaks

We can achieve something similar by checking for possible DNS leaks . We also have services that help us in this regard. This way we will know if the program we have installed is working well.

See the encryption protocols you use

To know if a VPN is secure, we can also analyze the encryption protocols it uses. We already know that not all have the same and not all protocols are equally reliable when it comes to protecting our information on the network.

Check if you keep records or not

This is very important for privacy . Some VPNs can store logs of our browsing. Especially those that are free usually keep this in mind. A problem that we must avoid.

Inform us on the Internet

Finally, something essential when we are going to install one or another option is to inform us on the Internet . We can read comments from other users before putting our systems at risk and making sure.

Ultimately, a VPN can be a danger to our security. It is important to know the risks involved in installing these types of services, but also to know how to see if they are really reliable or not.