VPN for Mobile Phones 2020 – Pros and Cons - ChartAttack

Posted: 21 Feb 2020 05:55 AM PST

If you don't know what a virtual private network is, then you should stick around for this article. VPNs are essentially there to protect your identity and IP address while using the internet, and every device including mobile phones should have them. The service does that by connecting you to a secure and private server that is encrypted.

Virtual private networks can be installed on any device that has access to the internet. That includes every desktop PC, mobile phone, tablet, laptop, etc.

This tool is mostly used when needing to connect to a particular network. Not only that, but this tool hides your identity and protects it. But it isn't only your identity that a VPN protects; it also protects your sensitive data.

In this article, we are going to talk extensively about why you should use a VPN for your mobile phone, and we'll get into the pros and cons of using this service.

Pros – All-Round Protection

We mentioned that the primary role of this service is to provide all-round protection while surfing the World Wide Web. However, the web is made from far more than simply going on Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.

The World Wide Web is essentially a service of the Internet. The internet as a whole is much bigger than what you'd normally expect. For example, another service of the Internet is email. Email is a separate service from the World Wide Web, but can now be easily accessed from it.

So, a VPN will protect you while doing anything on the Internet. That includes browsing webpages, synching emails, exchanging all types of data, your social media platforms, etc.

But with all that said, you still find it hard to grasp what a VPN does. Well, let's give you a clear example of when this service benefits you.

For example, let's say you're browsing the web from an unsecured public Wi-Fi network. You should avoid connecting to public networks because they're unsafe and breeding grounds for hackers.

Without a VPN, you're exposing all of your sensitive information such as passwords, credit cards, etc, to hackers.

So, the question of security should be of utmost importance before doing so.

As it turns out, VPNs are built and equipped to deal with security threats by being encrypted services that make hacking a thing of the past.

Cons

A downside to this is that not every provider is honest and sincere with its audience. Namely, some providers actually gather your data for themselves, while hiding it from others. This is a very real problem that users should always be varying off. Virtual private networks might sell you the idea of protection and anonymity, but they might be the ones stealing and collecting data.

Pros – Helps Unlock Restricted Content

Some websites and services restrict their content for certain demographics or by denying access to users from a specific geographical location.

Some of the most popular services and websites that restrict their content are YouTube, The Wall Street Journal, Netflix, Hulu, BBC, Disney, etc.

This means that people from the areas of restriction cannot view or use their services, platforms, or products. While this might sound stupid, they do it mostly to protect themselves. Some of these decisions might even be politically driven, but the fact remains that users from restricted areas have no access.

So, how would a VPN help you with this problem? Well, a VPN provider has servers all around the world; which should be a deciding factor. This means that a provider can essentially allow you to connect to one of their servers through a series of proxies to effectively change your IP address.

The only way for Netflix, Hulu, BBC, and the rest of the gang to ban users from a specific geographical location is to ban their IP. So, if you happened to live in China (where Netflix isn't available) all you have to do is simply use a VPN on your mobile phone to effectively unlock and unblock Netflix.

For more useful information with everything VPN related, make sure to visit vpnside.com.

Cons

Another downside to VPN services is that Netflix, Hulu, and everyone else has actually grown smarter and have started building databases of known virtual private networks. While this might sound insignificant to you, they actually use those databases to block the virtual private network protocol and make your VPN ineffective.

Pros – It's Safe to Send Private Files

We mentioned safety and protection at the start, but one of the reasons why people use such as service is to safely transfer corporate or sensitive files via email. We cannot stress how important it would be for a corporation to safely transfer sensitive data amongst its employees.

While you wouldn't need a VPN if, at work, you most certainly would need it if you happened to be sent from a remote location. This way, you are effectively preventing any company leaks.

Cons

The company in question might have a specific service that they use for their mobiles. So, this might not really come off as a con, but you would be limited to using a specific service; which is better than not using at all.

Pros – Better Bandwidth

A somewhat unusual benefit, but using a virtual private network actually increases your bandwidth while streaming videos from your smartphone. However, this is only the case with bonding virtual private networks.

But not only that, but these specific services can also lower the latency for international and business calls. This is a great benefit since it eliminates connectivity issues, buffers videos at a better rate, and allows you to watch and stream at a better quality.

Cons

A clear and obvious con is that not everyone provides has this option as a feature. Select few have this unique and distinct feature, and they should be used whenever the time for it comes.

Regardless of why you would need such a service, it's important to use it just for the sake of keeping you anonymous and securing your sensitive information. Using VPNs has become something of a norm with businessmen, and people in the IT industry. Since they know first-hand how important safety on the internet is, we recommend you follow in their footsteps as well.

Someone’s listening: The real reasons you need to encrypt your calls and texts - WTOP

Posted: 01 Apr 2019 12:00 AM PDT

This content is provided by Blackberry

In the movies, it's easy: the federal agent answers his phone and receives a tip, then calls his wife and apologizes for missing dinner, then dials his boss and discusses urgent matters of national security, all with his personal mobile phone. But that's the movies. In real life, there are reports of fake cellphone towers in Washington D.C. scooping up conversations indiscriminately, and easily available $20 thumb drives that can turn a laptop into a listening device. Mobile phone conversations are remarkably easy to capture. It can be dangerous for federal employees and contractors to discuss even unclassified sensitive information via mobile phones, much less nuclear launch codes.

But BlackBerry is trying to change that.

BlackBerry has a phone application called SecuSUITE® for Government that enables government agencies to make highly – encrypted secure phone calls both mobile to mobile, as well as mobile back to a landine within the agency's network. NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency has recently deployed BlackBerry's SecuSUITE® for Government to encrypt the conversations of its technology and cyber leaders on standard iOS and Android devices.

The main issue with secure communications up until now has been complexity. Satellite phones are large, heavy and must have line of sight to the satellite, meaning they can't be used indoors. Other custom systems designed for classified use are expensive and require multiple components to be used in concert with the phone. Some federal executives even have to have special assistants to manage their secure communications when they travel due to the complexity and size of the systems.

But BlackBerry's system is much simpler.

"It's basically an app that looks just like a standard cell phone dialer," said David Wiseman, Vice President of SecuSmart, BlackBerry. "You make your phone call, you have your contacts, you have your call history, you have your text messages, if someone knows how to use a cell phone to make a phone call, they know how to use the system. So it really lowers that barrier in terms of end user adoption."

BlackBerry's system secures a call by running it through a centralized server owned and operated by the agency. It's a completely private, IP-based system, so the message traffic is still secured even if the phone is on WiFi. BlackBerry's system is certified compliant with the National Security Agency's National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP) and Commercial Solutions for Classified (CSFC) program as wells as with the NIST 140-2 standard. And this is done in a manner that allows agencies to remain fully compliant with existing audit and record keeping regulations.

"The way it works is, there is a centralized server, and all of the activation of the client software on people's cell phones, or tablets, is done in conjunction with that server in an out of band manner. So you are able to establish a clear chain of trust," Wiseman said. "And that's how you can be confident when receiving a call or message that it is actually from real trusted member of the network, because they have a properly certified and activated copy of the application on their device. And then whenever you make a phone call, it routes between the phones through that server with fresh encryption keys established for each call. The server's also monitoring for any potential security, voice quality or signal quality issues and addressing them. The server also has the ability to connect the mobile calls securely into the existing office phone networks so you can speak with someone as their desk."

And it was not built just for encryption purposes, but also to protect from phishing and other social engineering attempts, like number spoofing.

"There was recent news about some congressmen receiving texts that they thought came from the Vice President's office based on caller ID, but they didn't," Wiseman said. "We protect you from those types of social engineering attacks. Using our secure app, you can have confidence that who you're talking to is who they're supposed to be, and that what you say, is properly protected."

Wiseman said BlackBerry has a few use-cases in mind for this kind of secure system. For one thing, any U.S. government employees who are stationed or operating overseas, from diplomatic staff to inspectors to law enforcement, needs a secure way to communicate with their coworkers and headquarters, especially if they're dealing with organized crime, adversarial governments or other national security concerns. Similarly, federal employees, even those working domestically, who feel as though their role might cause them to be targeted for information gathering purposes could benefit from this technology. And finally, it could allow federal employees who have to work with classified or sensitive information to telework more easily, without having to have special communications equipment installed in their homes.

"There's a lot of risk right now, in terms of mobile communications, even with the latest, new LTE and 5g networks currently being deployed or planned, even those have published vulnerabilities on a large scale," Wiseman said. "People are aware of that, but they just kind of ignore it. And a lot of the reasons they ignore it is because alternatives are pretty expensive or complex to use, so what we really focused on is providing security that mitigates all of those known risks, but doing it in a way that someone is just using a regular phone, they're making a regular phone call, and they don't have to do anything special in learning how to use the system."

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