Electronic identity theft, one of the major concerns when it comes to cyber security, can take place in several different ways, and each passing year this crime seems to take an extremely new level, form and technique. Though it is well known to individuals, that theft of one’s personal information is a crime in almost all countries in the world, even before it provokes a fraudulent activity, it still continues to happen. As a result of such rules, those who indulge in such fraudulent activities are seriously punished by the respective governments. This simply means that these criminals perform these activities cogently, plan the same very carefully, which ends up being successful.

Various statistics on online identity theft have brought in results which state that the frequency of those cyber attacks has been dropping in recent years, but the effectiveness of the few attacks that happen is increasing than ever before. The rate of effectiveness is determined by the amount of financial loss encountered by the victim of the cyber attack. One of the prime goals of these cyber criminals happens to be monetary based. May it be a small amount of money they attain from a credit card fraud or text based theft, or huge fraudulent money transfers from one’s online bank account, or the money they receive by selling the victim’s identity to a third party for illegal use, all that they focus on is money.

Types of Cyber Attacks

Cyber attacks are widespread in several different forms, and as an internet user, you should be knowledgeable about these attacks in order to be safer during your access to the internet. The most prominent form of cyber attack is known as phishing. Basically, legitimate websites will be infected by hackers with the help of malicious software, which helps them phish out details of those individuals who access that particular website.

The second form of cyber attack is referred to as sidejacking. In this method, an individual’s active online session will be invaded by hackers to lay hands on the user’s personal or crucial information. Sidejacking usually takes place as a result of more extensive network sniffing, which makes it easy to capture the personal data of users as most of them remain unencrypted. Another method of cyber attack is known as remote keylogging, through which cybercriminals make use of insidious spyware to capture the critical data of victims as and when they type the same on their keyboard.

Most of these cyber attacks happen due to the data interception that enters and exits the user’s system by way of the Wi-Fi internet connection used by him or her. While SSL proxies are found to provide some amount of online security to internet users, their performance still remains inconsistent, and also nowadays several proxy websites themselves happen to serve as sources of phishing activities. Therefore, the best solution on which you can rely to protect your crucial personal or business data happens to be a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

How Does a Personal VPN Work?

A personal VPN basically uses a specific set of tunneling protocols, like PPTP, L2TP and SSTP, to establish a virtual tunnel or channel between your computer and the network through which you access the internet. This channel acts like a private communication bubble between your system and the recipient, whether it is the website you are trying to access or another user to whom you wish to transfer an important file. This process is widely referred to as tunneling.

Why Use a Personal VPN?

A VPN is an effective technology that enables you to stay protected during all your online sessions, thus securing your online identity and preventing data theft. Unlike any other data protection services, a personal VPN protects the security and privacy of all your crucial data even when they leave your system, i.e. when you transfer them over the internet. The service helps you hide your original IP address in order to protect your online identity and location from being captured by frauds and also by others like your Internet Service Provider (ISP), government authorities, office, school, etc.

If you are a frequent traveler, you would probably be spending most of your time traveling to different countries on work or on leisure. In such cases, you only access to the internet would be by way of the public Wi-Fi hotspots that you find in airports, hotels, cafes, etc. But, little will you know that such hotspots serve to be the easiest way to capture information for hackers, snoopers and other cyber frauds. A personal VPN can help you remain safe when accessing the internet through such public networks. This is how it works: cybercriminals gain access to your data by capturing your IP address through the same Wi-Fi network you use.

When you access the same network by way of a VPN connection, your original IP address will be replaced by a one provided by the VPN provider’s server located in a country of your choice. The IP address you receive from that server will be that of that particular country, which makes you anonymous over the internet, thus making it impossible for the criminal to monitor, track or capture your data. In addition, as mentioned earlier, the VPN service will also encrypt your internet completely, making it extremely safe, secure and private for you to exchange information, perform financial transactions, communicate over VoIP services, send and receive emails, and all of your other important activities.

All these uses make a personal VPN the most preferred choice amongst internet users around the world to prevent them from being hacked by cybercriminals, protecting their personal identity throughout their online activities, no matter where they go.

Best Personal VPN Services

If you are planning to get a personal VPN service, following are some of the best you should consider using:

Rank	Provider	Starting Price	MoneyBack	Visit Website
	ExpressVPN	$6.67/month	30 Days
2	VyprVPN	$14.95/month	7 Days
3	IPVanish	$10.00/month	7 Days
4	Hidemyass	$6.55/month	30 Days
5	StrongVPN	$21/ 3 Months	7 Days