Today we send mountains of information about ourselves online. This includes sensitive financial data. Think of login details for internet banking, correspondence with financial institutions or even medical information. How do you keep this information secure and private?
Protect yourself with a VPN
If your financial data falls into the wrong hands, you can lose a lot of money. Unfortunately, the internet continues to change and nowadays a good antivirus program is no longer sufficient for complete protection. The information you send on websites and via apps can, despite antivirus software, still be intercepted by third parties.
A VPN (Virtual Private Network) offers a solution. With a VPN, your network traffic is encrypted before it is sent. Normally, external parties can monitor your online activities relatively easily. Think of governments or internet providers, but also hackers or online fraudsters. However, if you use a VPN service, all your data is completely unreadable to outsiders.
Which VPN to choose?
It is nice that a VPN service does not cause annoyance. Some VPN services can slow down your internet connection and be unusable. surf shark on the other hand, it is a VPN provider with very easy-to-use software, a good encryption technique and excellent speeds. Currently, Surfshark is offering a discount of up to 82% on a two-year subscription. Taking out a subscription works as follows:
– Go through this link to the Surfshark website to take advantage of the discount. In addition to the discount, you get a 30-day cooling-off period, with a money-back guarantee.
– Create an account and then fill in your details.
– Download Surfshark’s applications on the devices you use online. With one account, all your devices are secured at the same time.
– Open the VPN app and turn on the VPN in it. From that moment on you are protected online.
Tips & tricks
In addition to using a VPN, there are several rules of thumb in arranging financial affairs via the internet. It often happens that criminals use fake e-mails or Whatsapp messages to try to extort money from people. This is also known as phishing and is becoming more and more common.
For example, it regularly happens that criminals build fake websites, which resemble the website of a bank, for example. One minute you think you are safe online banking, and five minutes later you have lost thousands of euros. Therefore, here are some tips to make your online activities as safe as possible:
– Check that the website addresses you visit start with ‘https://’ preceded by a lock in your address bar. This indicates that a secure connection is being used.
– Never provide information to third parties in situations that appear abnormal, such as on WhatsApp or via email messages that appear to come from your bank.
– Criminals often pose as acquaintances or family via WhatsApp and then ask for money. Never transfer money to others without discussing it face-to-face with the person concerned.
