Is a VPN Safe for Banking?

Online banking is everywhere in the modern world. Rarely anyone has to visit the bank for a transaction. Most countries have shifted to cashless transactions. There is a growing dependence on online banking, and the push to make it safer is ever so steadfast.

The web today has kept speed with the growing need for security. HTTPS was build to make internet data sharing secure through encryption. HTTP pertains to web traffic, and HTTPS is an evolution that indicates security. It provides encryption to convert data into an undecipherable format that can only be deciphered using the web server’s private passcode—thus ensuring that data remains safe during transmission against theft or surveillance.

But there is another technology more strong in ensuring security, as well as privacy. It’s a VPN.

With that in consideration, here are some of the situations where VPN will help in online banking:

• Common Wi-Fi

Shared Wi-Fi networks are vulnerable to exploits due to weak security. When a public Wi-Fi network is set up, security takes a backseat in courtesy of convenience. Someone with enough knowledge can join the network and sniff the data packets on the network.

HTTPS packages are encrypted. But what if when the attacker has set up his device as a bogus access spot? As the traffic cop for your internet traffic, it can take you to fake login pages. If you visit Facebook, the attacker could redirect you to a webpage fabricated to reflect the original Facebook login page.

• Session Stealing

Webservers use cookies kept on your web browser to identify you and provide a seamless browsing experience. HTTP is not persistent, so it developed cookies to keep the user logged during the session. Otherwise, refreshing the page or loading the following page on the website would require re-authentication.

The user sends cookies to store session IDs fetched by the web server every time a request to load a page.

The hacker can steal the session ID if the entire session is not encrypted or through phishing emails that trick a user into tapping a link with a session ID. With a valid session ID, the attacker can represent you. The hacker can seize a banking session or an e-commerce session.

The Final Thoughts

In both cases, a VPN online will play an important role in assuring that your data is safe. Premium VPN leverages AES 256-bit encryption. It is one of the strongest encryption models available. The next time you want to make an online transaction, open the VPN, connect to any VPN server, log in to your bank account, and proceed with the transaction.