The home is the primary place of comfort for most people after they have done their daily chores; everybody wants to retire to the family and feel the joy of reunion since leaving them for some time. Our activities out and in the home can put our family members in jeopardy; we must, therefore, ensure the protection of every family member from our daily tasks.
These days, we do a big chunk of our daily tasks online; purchases from eCommerce stores, drop shippers, or planning a family vacation require you to provide some family members’ sensitive information, such as credit card details and demographics. Data you release online can fall into the hands of hackers who will use it to harm the family.
It’s a common practice to believe that a strong password will save you from the menace of hackers and other third parties when browsing online; if you want to protect your family from the nefarious activities of hackers, you need a VPN extension.
How does a VPN extension work?
The main difference between a virtual private network (VPN) app and a VPN extension is that the app provides system-wide protection; a VPN extension, on the other hand, works only on the browser level, such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or Firefox. A family on vacation may lose guard regarding cybersecurity best practices; family members may surf the web with public Wi-Fi.
While browsing the internet with public Wi-Fi is not wrong, it portends danger if you don’t take precautions. Any time a family member logs into the internet, the internet service provider (ISP) assigns an internet protocol (IP) address to the device; with your IP address, your ISP can track your activities online.
Apart from your ISP, a hacker or any other third party who accesses your IP address can equally trace your online activities and use your data for ransom. The VPN extension masks your IP address and encrypts your browsing history; a hacker, third party, or your internet service provider that tries to track your online activities will land on the VPN servers.
Since your browsing activities originate from the VPN servers and are encrypted, it will be impossible to decipher any message you send or receive; even if hackers access the information, it will be useless, worthless, and gibberish. Masking and encrypting family members’ messages ensures that nobody can access your sensitive information, your data and IP address are secure, and implement DNS/IPv6 leak protection.
Strong passwords are good; it takes hackers more time to crack a strong password with a brute force attack; however, that is not enough. A VPN extension will enable multifactor authentication.
For hackers and third parties to log into family members’ networks, they must provide biometric identification, such as fingerprint, facial recognition, or an eye scan. It’s not unusual for your VPN to experience downtime; however, the kill switch feature of your VPN extension will ensure that you can quit some preselected programs that can compromise your network if left for hackers to leverage the opportunity to access your network.
Your vacation with the family should be fun; all cybersecurity measures you need to protect the family while vacating must be in place; you must not allow anyone to lose guard, as that can jeopardize the whole family. Don’t spoil the fun for the family; even if you are at home, you must ensure everyone observes the world’s best standard of cybersecurity measures.
It only needs a hacker to access one entry point from a family member to wreak havoc. Don’t believe that private browsing features that come with modern-day browsers, such as the Incognito mode of Google Chrome, InPrivate Browsing of Microsoft Edge, or Private Browsing of Firefox, will be enough to protect you from your ISP, hackers, or third parties; if your trust your ISP, there can be situations where government agencies will have the upper hand and insist on getting your browsing history.
Your ISP can go rogue and sell off your data to the highest bidder; with your IP address, which the internet service provider assigns, they can track all the online activities of the whole family. Your strong password will not stop your ISP from accessing your browsing history.
Even with your VPN extension, you may need to augment your cybersecurity measures with comprehensive antivirus software; if you visit a phishing site or download a compromised file, your VPN extension will not protect you from Trojans, Bots, malware, spyware, and viruses. Using a VPN extension with comprehensive antivirus software enhances the protection of the family devices even if you are on vacation.
Conclusion
There is every need to prioritize the protection of the family; a hacker that gains an entry point into the network of one family member can do unimaginable harm. You don’t need to consider the financial constraints of protecting and securing the family.
Fortunately, the world is battling the menace of cyber-criminals and developed many free VPN extensions and comprehensive antivirus software packages you can leverage to protect your family at home or on vacation.