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The Center for Intelligence and Security Studies (CISS) would like to remind you that October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

This week we will discuss Virtual Private Networks (VPN). 

Best Practice 3: Always use a VPN 

It is easy for someone to grab your data anywhere you go. There are free software tools available that make it easy for just about anyone to intercept your information as you send it across any network, especially the internet. We cannot prevent that from happening, but we can protect that data by using a VPN. This is because a VPN will encrypt your data. What this means is that even if your data is captured, it will be unreadable by the cybercriminal who captured it.  

There are two main types of VPNs in use today. Professional and Personal. 

Professional VPNs are the kind of used by corporations and institutions to allow secure remote access to their networks. These are known as remote access and site-to-site VPNs.  

The University of Akron uses Fortinet, a server-based VPN, that allows authorized users to connect to the network from anywhere safely and securely. Once you have logged into the network, you have the same level of security as if you were sitting at your desk on campus. 

These types of VPNs have been in use for decades.  

They are great for protecting data between your machine and the institution who is running the server. They will protect your data as long as you remain logged in. But only on that device and only as long as you remain logged in. 

Personal VPNs are the kind that you and I can download and put on our personal devices. You may have seen ads for products like Norton or NORD VPN. These provide an encrypted “tunnel” through which all of your data can travel safely. Some free Wi-Fi uses encryption but many do not, A personal VPN makes it much safer to use free Wi-Fi, meaning you can use your connected devices anywhere securely. 

Research VPNs in your price range, put it on all of your devices and leave it running at all times.  

Dr. John B. Nicholas, professor of Computer Information Systems and co-founder of the CIS Cybersecurity degree track and Faculty Fellow of CISS will be posting cybersecurity best practices in The Digest each week this month. 

Next week, we will discuss Secure Internet Browsing.  

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