DISPOSABLE EMAIL ADDRESSES
LOCK DOWN YOUR HOME NETWORK
HOW DO VPNs WORK?
The best way to keep your email address private is to surround it with a slew of disposable (or temporary) email addresses.
There’s little point protecting yourself online if you leave your home network unprotected—and that’s doubly true if you plan to dial in using a VPN server. Obviously, you start by ensuring all your devices are secure and fully up to date—also make sure Windows is protected by strong anti-malware software; Windows Security does a good job of covering the basics but consider upgrading to the likes of Bitdefender or Norton for additional layers of protection.
VPNs serve three specific functions: first, they encrypt data over Wi-Fi networks, including insecure public ones. Second, they prevent your ISP from seeing what you’re doing online, and third, they can mask your precise location from any internet services you connect to.
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These addresses pass validity tests for allowing you to sign up for services without revealing your true address because they’re little more than aliases that forward all mail sent through them.
The focus of your attention should be your router, which is your main line of defense against drive-by hackers looking to get into your network. If it’s getting long in the tooth, now is the time to upgrade to one that supports the latest security protocols and receives regular firmware updates to fix security holes. Both Asus and Synology routers fit the bill here.
VPNs do this by creating a ‘secure tunnel’ through which your data passes. Every single packet of data is encapsulated within an encrypted outer layer that masks the data (including what type of data it is) inside. So your ISP knows data is being transmitted, but it can’t identify it—at least until it reaches its own servers where it’s decrypted to connect to whatever online services you’re using.
THESE DAYS your privacy and security have never been under greater threat, particularly when venturing online. Whether you’re worried about malicious individuals, gangs of hackers, or even your own government, there’s never been a better time to take the steps necessary to lock down your data and modify your online behavior to protect yourself and your loved ones from the less salubrious side of the internet.
While you can do this by hand, setting up unique addresses for each online account you sign up to isn’t practical, but thankfully there are plenty of online services offering such throwaway email addresses. First, check if your email provider offers such a feature— Proton Mail (https:// proton.me/mail) is one example of a provider that does.
Regardless of whether you upgrade or not, there’s plenty you can do to tighten security further. Start
To prevent this, VPNs bypass your ISP’s servers and instead connect to their own. The secure tunnel transmits your encapsulated data to the VPN’s server, which is the only part of its journey your ISP can track. Here, the outer packet is decrypted and the original data is sent on its way to its destination. Any data sent back goes through the VPN server, where it’s encapsulated again before being sent back to you.