Are there any good VPN’s that are free? I’m learning cybersecurity and want to start practicing good security habits but I’m on a budget at the moment.
The VPN companies also could also sell your data to advertise and the free ones are probably super slow
I think there are many, just be aware about the drawbacks – data sales, speed, etc. There is anothe post about the best free vpns, you can check it out for different options.
For Mobile? Go for CodeVPN.io . It’s free and great
You can self host wire guard or tailscale. Most third party free vpns are sketch. This is coming from someone who used to use them on a regular basis. If you are concerned about privacy you can always use tails which may be seen as overkill but it is a really good way to mask your online presence.
Are you trying to hide your traffic from others on the land or from your ISP? Free VPNs are usually sketchy AF since you don’t own either end of encryption and those hosting it could very well be snooping, so I would avoid them like the plague, especially if you’re going in with a security focused mindset. That said, I’ve heard good (as in lesser of many evils) things about protonVPN.
Are you trying to securely connect to your home network? OpenVPN would be the most beneficial since you’re trying to learn cyber security and IT and setting that up spans a few different skills. Tailscale/wireguard is pretty much plug n play.
OpenVPN. I set one up when I was overseas and all the streaming services didn’t like my location. They knew the commercial ones and blocked those as well. Setup an OpenVPN server on my home network remotely and then it looked like I was coming in from my home. Which is what an actual VPN is designed for to give remote access to a network as if you are on it. If you are looking anonymizers or things like that look into TOR, Proxy, and other things like that.
Cant speak as of recently, but I used Proton VPN in the past and it may still be free.
The only free VPN I can recommend is Proton VPN
Good recommendations here. Also will recommend the Brave browser
I used Proton VPN. Still free & works well for me. Servers are limited to about 3 different countries on the free version tho.
What makes you think using a VPN is good security? All these VPN providers are commercial companies who have an interest in making you think you need one to be “secure”. Part of your education should be to analyze what benefits they get you, and then decide if that makes sense.
Learning to setup your own VPN (your own server) is completely separate from signing up with a company, and will help you much more in learning about it. There are many free VPN software: Wireguard, OpenVPN, StrongSwan.
I haven’t thought about them selling my data, thank you for letting me know about that possibility!
Yeah or government spies.
Honestly probably just marketing, it was mentioned in the course I am taking that they can be beneficial. Ive also heard it could to help prevent people from getting my real data, that being said if making a VPN is my vest option I’m going to look into that. My IT and cybersecurity knowledge is basically none, but I’m trying to go ahead and start making good habits like better passwords and ect now so when I’m ready to start looking for jobs I’ll hopefully have those good habits and more knowledge to give a a little less of a bumpy start. Thank you so much for the advice!
Using a VPN services protects your network activity from being monitored by the local ISP you’re using, but allows the VPN provider to see all your network activity instead, so you’re trading one possible spy for another.
However, pretty much all major web sites at this point are encrypted, so neither your local ISP or the VPN provider can see the actual data that’s being transmitted. They’re both be able to see the fact that you used a certain site, and how often.
VPNs can be useful for some things, such as hiding your location (like if you want to use a streaming video service that’s not available in your country.
I’m not a security expert but most websites encrypt data. You’ll start learning about https and so forth. The real issue would be if you have public Wi-Fi like at McDonald’s and you’re trying to use that with no VPN while entering sensitive information. Someone could sniff those packets.
But if you’re at home, closed off internet. You’re fine.