3 reasons why a VPN kill switch is not optional
Using a VPN dramatically increases your online privacy and security. However, if your VPN doesn’t have a kill switch, then it’s almost as bad as not using a VPN at all. We’ll show you how a kill switch works and give you the top three reasons why you should get a VPN that has one.
If you want to skip this article and get all the benefits of a VPN with an internet kill switch, download Hotspot Shield now.
What is a VPN internet kill switch?
One of the biggest potential security breaches in VPN software occurs when the connection to your VPN service is interrupted. A VPN connection is usually very stable (as long as your internet connection is), but there can be times when it drops for a second or two.
During this time, your computer stops transmitting information via the secure VPN connection and switches to using your real IP address. In addition, your data can become unencrypted, potentially exposing it to hackers and other third parties.
A kill switch will stop your computer from transmitting data until your connection to the VPN server is restored.
Here are three reasons why you must have kill switch protection
You won’t know when your computer is transmitting unsecured information
If your VPN connection drops momentarily, your computer will automatically start transmitting data over an unsecured channel. The problem is that this switch is so seamless that you usually won’t know it happened.
On top of that, technology has become so advanced that a ton of information can be transmitted in just a fraction of a second. You probably won’t know that your data has been intercepted, until it is too late.
Public internet connections are easily hacked
When you use an unsecured public internet connection, like at an airport or coffee shop, you never know who is monitoring the traffic. It could be that guy on his laptop next to you at the airport, or it could be a neighbor living upstairs from the coffee shop.
Small businesses that provide free Wi-Fi access are often too busy running their business to deal with IT support, so they set up their internet access to be as low maintenance as possible. This often means that it also has low security.
No one can blame them. Running a small business is a lot of work and having a dedicated IT person isn’t always in the budget. That is why it is up to you to secure yourself when using public connections.
Hotspot Shield VPN will encrypt your data from your computer through the public router to our servers. If you don’t use a VPN, any unencrypted data that passes between your computer and the public router can easily be intercepted.
It requires zero maintenance
Our kill switch runs in the background so you don’t even know that it’s there. You just turn it on when you setup Hotspot Shield and it protects you whenever it’s running. No configurations are necessary, and there’s no complicated settings to mess with either.
Does your VPN provider have a kill switch? If you’re not sure, or you currently don’t use a VPN, you can get all the benefits of our kill switch technology right now.