Creativity can be unleashed when cyber security is a given
Within the last decade or so, technology has made it possible for budding writers, artists, photographers and entertainers of all kinds to attain the recognition they may seek without having to go through an agent or entrepreneur.
For example, before the internet and platforms such as Substack, if a person wanted to be paid for writing either factual reporting or producing The Great English Novel, they would have to find a publisher. The process was exacting, long-winded, often demoralizing and almost random. You only have to look at the great novelists who were rejected by publishing houses to understand the fact that talent had little to do with landing a book deal. For example, the Harry Potter series author, J K Rowling, was rejected no fewer than 12 times before her first novel, ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ was published in 1997. The rest is history.
But nowadays, almost anyone can get their creative output in front of a huge audience by self-publishing books or writing on online platforms. Quality will rise to the surface without having to pay a publisher, middleman or theatrical agent to get your name ‘out there’.
Some folks become social media influencers, with handsome sponsorship deals from consumer brands and the like. Others sell their written work on Amazon or their art on Etsy. But with all this freedom to spread your message around the internet, you can attract attention from cyber criminals; then you might end up getting a lot more attention than you bargained for.
In order to work safely as an online creative, the quick and easy installation of a free VPN for Windows (Virtual Private Network) onto a PC laptop could protect you from hacking attacks whenever your online presence makes itself known on that infinitely vast World Wide Web.
Let’s take a quick look at how cyber criminals work and why a VPN is such a sensible choice for anyone with an online presence or small business:
Don’t be an obvious target.
Just like any other type of criminal, cyber thieves go after people or companies that are easy to find. For example, if you owned a jeweler’s and watch repair shop in a busy city, you wouldn’t leave all your Rolex watches on display overnight in a window that was down a side alley and not overlooked by CCTV cameras. Neither would you think of not using a tough metal roller-shutter guard in front of that display glass. Just the same, if a social media influencer is running an eCommerce business selling products that they promote online, their presence is obvious, and hackers might try to hijack the technology behind their platform to divert credit card payments to a false server or infect the influencer’s laptop with ransomware.
Using a VPN is like a reinforced roller shutter screen on that shop window. It works by anonymizing the eCommerce shop’s IP address. If hackers can’t find a server to hack, they move on to easier targets.
A VPN works by placing a third-party ‘middleman’ server between the VPN user’s device and / or network, and their internet service provider (ISP). The VPN server is not only encrypted, so that a hacker can’t tell what traffic is emanating from it, but it also sits in a location completely different to where the user’s IP address is located. Thus, an online influencer might be known to live in Malibu, but by using a VPN, they can make their business server cloaked as if it were a domestic internet connection in Michigan.
There are a couple of other advantages to using a VPN, such as creating or avoiding dynamic pricing, dependent on whether you’re a business selling goods online or a customer buying them. Also, a VPN can allow you to sidestep location restrictions when streaming geographically restricted content.
Location, location, location!
Dynamic pricing is the practice of offering or encountering pricing variations dependent upon whether or not the analytics software on any given website ‘thinks’ you can afford to pay a higher or lower price dependent upon value-judgement demographics. If you log on to a travel website to reserve a hotel room somewhere in the Midwest of the USA, and the analytics AI detects that you’re located in Manhattan and using a brand-new MacBook Pro, you might well be offered a higher price than someone who visits that same website for the same hotel room, but they’re living in a suburb of Detroit while using a 10-year-old Windows HP laptop. In short, if the algorithms judge that you can afford to pay more, they bump up the price.
With a VPN, that analytics software can’t tell where you’re located, in fact you can choose to access the web from a server anywhere like Mexico or Mauritius if you wish!
That same location cloaking is great if you’re away on vacation and want to catch up on a favorite TV show. Maybe you’re a US resident taking a break in Europe, and you log onto Netflix from your hotel Wi-Fi in Paris, France. The Netflix platform will block your access for copyright and contractual reasons. But by using your Windows VPN, you just choose a stateside server from which to surf, and Netflix will let you straight in.
There are many other cybersecurity advantages to using VPNs that we haven’t had space to cover here, such as better security on Wi-Fi hotspots and avoidance of data throttling by ISPs.
But the overall message is simple – you can’t be too careful. If you’re an individual shopper, casual internet user or small-to-medium sized enterprise, using a VPN is quick, simple, free and keeps you safe online.
