Page 27 - 11Cyber

pear you are still in-country, so normal email and
streaming services still work. If you have a legitimate
need to access foreign-only content, or perhaps a
need to verify that some service is indeed blocked in
a foreign county, then you can deliberately choose to
connect to one of the servers your VPN service pro-
vides that is located in a foreign country. If you are
accessing the Internet in a country under an authori-
tarian government that regards visiting some Internet
sites as unacceptable, a VPN service could be part of
(Continued from page 26) a means to disguise unacceptable behavior; but un-
der those circumstances, more than just a VPN may
Businesses that allow employees to work from re- be required, as any obvious use of a VPN service
mote locations may host their own VPN service to could by itself be regarded as an intent to violate re-
allow employees to access corporate network re- strictions.
sources securely from a remote location. Suitable re-
strictions and conventions must be in place to ensure Available VPN Services
that devices that are not under direct corporate con- A search for "VPN services" will locate the most pop-
trol that connects to the corporate network through ular services. You may even locate some free ser-
VPN are suitably protected so they can't introduce vices, but I would not be inclined to trust them. Re-
malware into the corporate network. member that whoever is running the VPN service is
People who do not use a corporate VPN service to the one who CAN observe all the Internet sites you
work remotely use a VPN service, not to access re- are actually connecting to and any data you might
sources in the remote network, but to use the remote send in un-encrypted form, and they have to fund
network merely as a gateway to connect back to the their service somehow. That would have to be either
Internet. If you choose to utilize insecure public Wi-Fi by data mining for advertisers or restricting service in
connections with your devices, then by default, any- some way to encourage you to move to a paid plan.
one else connected to that same Wi-Fi LAN could Avast currently provides Avast SecureLine VPN ser-
potentially observe your data traffic, see what Internet vice at an introductory rate of $3.99 / month or $47.88
sites you are contacting, and observe any un- for the first year (it looks like their regular price is
encrypted data coming from or to your device. If the $89.99/year). Their service supports Windows, Mac,
Wi-Fi network is compromised or misconfigured and Android, and iOS devices on five devices concurrent-
there are any security flaws in your device vulnerable ly.
to network attacks, your device could also become
compromised by malware. The use of a VPN greatly NordVPN is a very popular service, currently availa-
reduces the risks. If your device immediately enters ble for a 2-year introductory offer of $3.71/month,
VPN mode upon connecting to a public Wi-Fi, then $89.00 /2- years. Their regular price appears to be
attacks from other devices on the same local network $143.40 / year, making them much pricier down the
are blocked, and the most someone else will be able road, but NordVPN also supports Linux operating
to observe locally about your activity is that you are systems and allows use on up to 6 devices concur-
communicating with and sending unknown data to rently.
some specific VPN server. Unlike an email service or an ISP service, which are
If you are planning on traveling to a foreign country, a pain to change, changing a VPN service should be
you will probably discover that your email services simple -- no identity change to communicate to oth-
block direct access from a foreign country to reduce ers. Perhaps the best strategy is to use one VPN ser-
spam abuse and that your favorite streaming services vice provider until their introductory rate expires and
have region-specific content restrictions. If you have then shop for the best offer available at that time.
a VPN Service, you can circumvent those problems Caveat Utilitor
by using a VPN server in this country to make it ap-

Cyber Awareness Bulletin 27 October 2021