However, if you continually leave your door unlocked, or your car doors open with the keys in the ignition, you increase your chances of theft greatly.Įvery time you take your computer outside of the home and access the Internet, you are exposing yourself to a growing number of hackers and cyber criminals. If you are a person who stays inside of your home and keeps your doors locked most of the time, the threat of someone breaking in is relatively small. This can be compared to your private system at home too. Going out onto the Internet is like going out in public. The less a company engages with information outside of the building and the private network, the less risk they exposed to threats. The users within the building can talk to each other, but most often access information outside of the building using something called a firewall.Ī firewall is like a gatekeeper that keeps information from coming in or out of the network that could potentially harm the system or jeopardize private information. You may be aware that large companies and businesses protect their computer systems through a protected network. However, if you are like most, you may not understand why having a VPN is one of the most important steps that you can take to protect your identity online. If you are an experienced computer user, you probably already know what a VPN is and why you need one.
