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\n Internet of Things, as the name would suggest is an internet formed between devices instead of human beings. These devices share data with each other, creating an ecosystem within themselves which in turn makes our lives and day-to-day tasks more simple. This network can also be used to complete more complicated tasks and to execute extremely sophisticated processes. IoT allows for devices in your life to be connected and work together to make your day easier. Just like with most advanced technology though, IoT also comes with its own set of risks. Here’s everything you need to know about how IoT works and what are the uses and potential dangers of introducing IoT into your life.
The idea of IoT has been around since the 1970s but at that time it would often be called the “embedded internet”. The first ever internet appliance was created in the early 1980s and it was a Coke machine at Carnegie Mellon University. Programmers used the web to check the status of the Coke machine remotely to see whether or not there was a cold drink in the machine. But IoT as we know it today came to fruition only after 2010.
IoT or the Internet of Things is now a network of devices. These devices are usually embedded with sensors, software or some other technology that allows them to connect with other devices and exchange data over the internet. There is really no limit to how IoT can be used: you can incorporate it into your household, but it can also work to aid extremely sophisticated tools as well. Technologies like cloud computing platforms, low-cost sensor technology, machine learning and analytics as well as general developments in AI, have made IoT possible and accessible to millions of people.
For an everyday person, IoT means that you can now connect your kitchen appliances, baby monitors, thermostats and other home gadgets to create a system that can be managed through your phone or a computer, even when you are not at home. These complicated gadgets can be controlled with just a few clicks, which is pretty fascinating. IoT is already becoming a necessity across many households. As of right now there are around 10 million devices connected to IoT networks and this number is expected to double over the next 5 years.
Clearly, IoT has great potential to simplify our everyday life, it also has potential to do much more than that. It is very likely that over the next decade IoT will become an essential for most households. But this fascinating technology also comes with a lot of disadvantages so it’s important to be aware of everything that could go wrong with IoT.
IoT has many advantages and applications. Over time it is likely to cover an even more extensive range of processes, but for now, let’s focus on the most popular ways to use IoT.
This is the application of IoT that most of us are familiar with. IoT devices are just one but important aspect of home automation. The most popular way to control automated homes and the IoT within are the apps.
Home automation and IoT have long-term benefits besides just convenience. In the long run, it could help us save energy by automatically ensuring that all the lights and electronics are turned off by communicating with home residents.
This could also help the elderly who live alone by providing assistance through personalized systems that fit the resident’s needs. These systems can prevent accidents and make daily life easier for the residents. These systems also offer other safety features, specifically the ones that can detect falls or seizures and will call for help even if the resident isn't able to.
One of the most promising applications of IoT is the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) or Smart Healthcare, allowing the healthcare industry to create a digitized healthcare system connecting medical resources and other healthcare services. IoT can be used to conduct remote health monitoring or to run emergency notification systems. It has already been used in the clinical laboratory industry and in other areas of healthcare as well as the health insurance industry. IoT could make healthcare more accessible while also saving time and labor, delivering faster results.
IoT has great potential in transportation as well. IoT can help various transportation systems to communicate and work together in harmony. The possibilities include but are not limited to smart traffic control, intra-vehicular communication, smart parking, fleet management, safety and road assistance and much more.
Iot also has a lot of industrial applications including manufacturing, agriculture, maritime and more. IoT can assist in data collection by connecting equipment, operational technology, locations, and people.
The system behind IoT is able to function through Wi-Fi, ethernet or GSM cellular networks. For example, all the devices you want to integrate into your Smart home setup will have of either Wi-Fi, ethernet or GSM. Through these networks, you can connect to all desired devices. The whole system is interconnected and you can access each and every one of these devices through your phone. You can turn off the lights, change the temperature on the thermostat, lock or unlock the door and basically control the majority of your home gadgets through your phone.
But you are not the only one who has access to these devices and the overall system. The company that installed the system will also be able to connect to it remotely via remote management systems. As you can imagine, this means that there are ways to hack into the system and cause great damage. Let’s discuss some of the risks in greater detail
As convenient as IoT devices are, they are also extremely vulnerable to attacks. The whole system could easily get out of control, or worse someone else could get hold of your IoT login information, and get direct access to your home.
Learn more about VPN and how you can use it here.
Hackers could easily break into your smart home ecosystem, turn off the power, spy on you through your monitors, unlock your doors or use some other way to terrorize you at your own home. Sadly, at the current stage of development in IoT’s security systems, these are all very real possibilities that could happen to anyone and at any time.
The picture is looking pretty grim for IoTs but at the same time it seems like they are the future. While we hope to see improvement in IoTs security systems in the near future, there are some steps you can take to make IoTs safer today.
Order BlufVPN and use it for secure your IoT devices.
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It’s hard to imagine our modern life without it but most of us have no real understanding of what the internet really is. We’re here to change that for once and for all. Let’s take a look at the most popular questions people have about the internet and break down one of the world’s greatest inventions, using understandable language.
We use the internet to store and share information between devices. What’s special about it is that it is only useful as long as we, the people, put information on it. The Internet and cyberspace are a combination of devices and people behind them. Everything that we’ve come to love about the internet has been made possible through the involvement of humans and the tools that the internet provides for sharing it. But on a more simplistic level, what is the internet physically?
Most people, even in powerful positions, have a hard time explaining what the internet really is. Some may choose an overly detached and oftentimes misleading way to describe the internet. This was the case with the U.S Senator, Ted Stevens. “It’s not a truck. it’s a series of tubes” - said Stevens. This sentence would haunt him for years to come, because of his overly simplistic understanding of the internet. So even people who should have a very clear idea of what the internet is, often don’t get it. That is partly because It’s hard to define what the internet is exactly. This is a realm of computer networks in which information is stored and exchanged. This is an information environment, the one that has made our understanding of the world much more broad and accessible. But what led to the creation of the Internet as we know it today?
Before the Internet - there was ARPANET- Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. It was initially created to connect computers at Pentagon-funded research institutions over telephone lines. As one would expect, ARPANET came with a lot of the security concerns we are still fighting today. The 1998 attack on ARPANET would push the people behind the technology to start thinking about security, specifically the security concerns that come with having a network connection. But to answer the question ARPANET is a predecessor of the internet as we know it today.
That is a loaded question because it depends on what aspect of the internet you’re curious about. As highlighted in the paragraph about the definition of the internet, it is a complicated system with multiple facets, features, and uses. The CEO of Google has said that the world’s largest index of the internet, estimated to be roughly 5 million terabytes of data - over 5 billion gigabytes of data. But it turns out you can also measure how much the internet weighs, and according to The Guardian it weighs roughly 60 grams or 0.2 millionths of an ounce, depending on which technique you use to measure it out.
As described above, the Internet is a network of computers. This means that for it to do what it is supposed to, you need to have a network. There are two types of computer networks. Local Area Network (LAN), where two or more computers are connected within close proximity. These computers are sharing the data within themselves exclusively. But then there’s also a Wide Area Network (WAN). A WAN is virtually the same as LAN but involves computers that can be further apart and still remain part of the computer network. In the case of WAN, data can be shared via satellite, telephone lines, as well as fiber optics. This network connection is open and is usually associated with the Internet.
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The Internet is information and it is mostly stored in files, specifically in the HTML document program. All our websites are basically HTML files that our computers read and then display as the web pages that we are actually used to seeing.
In order for this network connection to work, they need a server - a computer that will run the software and store the information that it will then share with computers that request it. This is why, when we want to go to a website we type In the URL and request information from that website’s server. Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is basically the address of the website, it’s a place on the internet that is exclusive to that particular website. After you’ve been granted access you will then get to see that webpage on your screen, browse its pages, look up information, and so on.
While we are often tempted to use these two interchangeably, that is not really accurate. The Internet is a network of computers that are connected to each other across the world. Meanwhile, The World Wide Web, while a part of the Internet, is just one aspect of it. It is a collection of all the websites that exist across the Internet.
As wonderful as the internet is, it is not a safe haven. There are a lot of security threats, a lot of risky developments and challenges that we need to watch out for. There is a growing trend of disregard for individual privacy, individual rights online, and what we as users are entitled to in cyberspace. One of the tools you can use to reclaim your rights online is BlufVPN, a Virtual Private Network which provides the anonymity and security that every user should be entitled to. While these conversations are becoming more and more popular, just talking about them won’t fix much. It is every user’s personal responsibility to put up safeguards against the much-too common denominators and ensure that they are not being taken advantage of by the big tech companies.
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Every year billions of dollars are lost due to online shopping scams and this number is rising steadily. Here we’ve compiled 6 tips for the best online security practices that are can protect you from online scammers. But first, let’s talk about why online shopping is still so risky.
We have made great advances in online security over the last decade, and a huge part of this progress has been educating people on online security and the types of fraudulent activities that take place online. But the hackers have also used this time to up their game, finding new ways to scam unassuming users. Identity theft, phishing scams, and account takeovers still happen all the time.
Online security is one of those areas of modern life, where the responsibility is equally shared between the user and whichever website or app you might be using. We’ve seen time and time again that even the biggest and most powerful websites often fall victim to online scams or hacker attacks. In a perfect world, all websites would be fully protected from all cyber crime, but the reality is you have to do your own part as well to protect your identity and personal data on the internet. The best way to get started is by using a VPN when you go online. BlufVPN has rock-solid encryption and the world’s best prices. BlufVPN also has a 30-day money-back guarantee policy, so there’s no reason not to try it out. Meanwhile, here are some of the best online security practices you can implement this Black Friday.
Whenever you visit a website, make sure that it uses HTTPS instead of just HTTP. This is the minimum requirement for secure online shopping. The S here stands for Secure Socket Layer (SSL)/Transport Layer Security(TLS) protocol. This is an authentication and security protocol that encrypts your details. Sadly, HTTPS alone is not enough to ensure secure online shopping but think of it as your starting point in online safety. If a website does not have HTTPS, then it’s probably time to find a new place to shop at. You can easily check whether or not a website uses HTTPS by looking at the URL bar. If the link begins with “HTTPS://”, then you know that the website is relatively safe.
Public Wi-Fi is a nightmare for anyone concerned with online security. Public Wi-Fis are the most vulnerable to attacks and they offer no security whatsoever. If you don’t want your personal information exposed, avoid shopping through public Wi-Fi at all costs.
Hackers can easily scan public networks for any weak connections and then they can easily get away with cybercrime. But we get it, sometimes you don’t really have a choice but to use public Wi-Fi. If it comes to that then do yourself a favor and use a VPN. Using a VPN will encrypt your connection and your data will be secure from nosy hackers and scammers even through public Wifi.
Win a BlufVPN lifetime subscription and enjoy everyday like it's Black Friday! 🖤
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Phishing is one of the oldest techniques scammers use to trick people online. It will usually happen over an email. In this case, you may receive a tempting Black Friday offer that looks professional enough to trick just about anyone. They will usually contain a spoofed URL or an odd request for personal information that most websites don’t ask for. If at any point you are being asked to share your password or financial information, you know that it’s a scam.
Spoofed URLs may be harder to spot because they tend to look very legitimate. A good rule of thumb is to not click any link before checking the URL. You can see the URL by hovering over the link or right-clicking on it. If it does not look right, it’s better to leave it alone.
Another popular way to scam people via emails is using popular company names like Paypal or eBay as the sender name. You have probably received a lot of emails from senders that look legit, but you always have to look at the actual email address. To use the Paypal example, if the email does not end with @paypal.com, it’s not actually from PayPal.
This might seem like an obvious tip, but you should only shop at legitimate online stores. There are plenty of cases of hackers and scammers creating and then directing you towards wrong websites, usually with the name that is supposed to mimic the famous online store but with small, barely-there changes. They are banking on customers who don’t pay extra attention to small details and just like that you could fall victim to online fraud. You can never be too careful when shopping online, so don’t lose focus and double-check the URL before you make a purchase.
Before you hand over your private information to any website, including your email, birthday or more importantly your financial information make sure that you are on the right website that is safe for customers to use. Generally, avoid sharing more than is necessary online.
While ideally, we want to prevent online scams from happening beforehand, sometimes it might slip under our radar, or we might make a small human error and expose our data to scammers. It happens to the best of us. If you have suspicions about the website you made a purchase from, you can check your debit card and credit card statements.
Actually, it’s a good practice to incorporate into your daily life in general. Debit and Credit card fraud is not exclusive to cyberspace and can happen even while you are walking down the street. The best way to prevent this is to regularly check your card statements so that you can report any suspicious activity right away. The sooner you catch the error higher the chances that you will manage to get your money back.
Another tip that will often slip people’s minds is to update their browsers. While some may not see any point in updates or just find them annoying, they actually serve a very important purpose, especially when it comes to security. With each and every update, the browsers are better equipped to handle any cyberattack attempt. As we’ve mentioned already, hackers are becoming more and more advanced every day, so our browsers are constantly being updated to be able to manage potential threats and attacks. So while the update notifications might get annoying, they do serve a purpose, so make sure to take advantage of all the updates and improvements in your favorite browser so you can enjoy online shopping safely.
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But there are still many misconceptions about VPNs that could be keeping people away from actually trying them. Since so much of our daily lives happen on the internet these days, keeping some privacy and protecting your data is crucial. VPNs are still the best way to ensure online security and privacy, even if some people are determined to spread misinformation about this tool.
In this article, we will discuss and disprove the most popular myths regarding VPNs.
One of the myths we hear most often is that when you browse using a VPN, your internet connection slows down. Here’s the truth: using a VPN might slow down the data flow but when you are using a good VPN, you should not be able to tell that your internet speed has dropped. The slow data flow will only become noticeable when you are using a VPN with an overloaded server. This usually happens with free VPNs, which we will discuss in more detail down below. On the other hand, when you use a solid VPN, their servers should cover all of their customers while maintaining the speed. So to conclude, with a good VPN, you won’t notice any change in your internet connection, so choose wisely.
These days there are many options for a free VPN, but unfortunately, they just aren’t nearly as effective as paid options. You might be tempted to save the money and just get a free VPN, but keep in mind - these companies are likely using you and your data to make money. These companies will sell your data to third parties, drown you in ads while providing no security online. These companies are banking on uneducated customers who will believe their false claims.
While that is unfortunate, if you want to keep your online presence anonymous and your data safe, you are better off paying for a VPN. You don’t have to break the bank since there are great affordable options for VPNs these days. The paid services also offer way more features, way more servers, and can accommodate your needs better. So the next time you see a tempting ad for a free VPN, just know that you will be paying in one way or another, even if they don’t charge you for their services. It’s better to pay a small fee and know for a fact that you are protected online.
We all like to think that we have nothing to hide, and hence we don’t need a VPN but that is not something to be proud of. As a society we have become desensitized to privacy breaches, oftentimes forgetting that privacy is our right and there is nothing wrong with wanting online privacy. You don’t have to be a criminal and you don’t have to have something to hide in order to demand online privacy. Unfortunately, when browsing online a lot of times our data is being kept and used without our consent, sold to third parties or used by companies to better target clients with various ads. VPNs prevent just that - unlawful collection of data, nonconsensual collection of data that can later be used against you.
Having a VPN is not about having something to hide or doing something illegal, it’s about preserving your personal data and making sure it stays personal. It’s crucial to choose a VPN that actually does the job and does not keep logs on their customers. BlufVPN is a great example of a company that has a 100% transparent no-log policy.
Using VPN sounds a lot more complicated than it actually is. While you may not be familiar with these terms, all you really need to know is that there is nothing hard about downloading and connecting to a virtual private network. You can choose a VPN, download it and then choose from various servers which one you want to connect with, and that is it. Don’t let the unfamiliar world confuse or scare you, this is a simple tool that was designed for everyday use. It does not take a lot of time to set up, nor does it take special skills. If you have shied away from VPNs because you thought they are for tech-savvy only, feel free to go ahead and download one right now.
This myth is a bit more complicated to discuss or disprove. While VPNs really are illegal in some countries they are completely legal in others. It will depend on how liberal the government is and how seriously they take the issue of personal privacy. This myth is also a part of our perception of online privacy, thinking that we owe it to ISPs or even the government full access to our online browsing history which is not true. It will depend on the country you are located in, whether or not it is illegal to use a VPN. Before you download VPN make sure that it is legal to avoid unnecessary trouble.
While VPNs have been around for a while, for most people they are still relatively new. It is understandable that this tool can often be confusing if you’ve never heard of it before, but as soon as you learn the basics of VPNs, it becomes evident that virtual private networks are easy to use and provide the necessary protection from various online threats. As highlighted in the text above, not all VPNs are the same and not all of them are worth the money. Make sure to look at their policies and features in great detail, to make sure that you are getting your money’s worth back.
"}}}],"title":"Myths about VPN","description":"We will disprove the most popular myths regarding VPNs.","title_image":{"dimensions":{"width":1280,"height":720},"url":"https://images.prismic.io/nitrovpn/a28eab46-a690-4299-afd1-3566ccc66f49_vpn_myths.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=0%2C1%2C1280%2C720&w=1280&h=720","alt":"Myths about VPN","copyright":null,"localFile":{"relativePath":".cache/caches/gatsby-source-prismic/96ee116601d06d7f5f70c6339fa959b4/a28eab46-a690-4299-afd1-3566ccc66f49_vpn_myths.jpg","absolutePath":"/opt/build/repo/.cache/caches/gatsby-source-prismic/96ee116601d06d7f5f70c6339fa959b4/a28eab46-a690-4299-afd1-3566ccc66f49_vpn_myths.jpg","childImageSharp":{"fluid":{"base64":"data:image/jpeg;base64,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","aspectRatio":1.7741935483870968,"src":"/static/39a1e44b0246bf29ddae0e6840513e51/68641/a28eab46-a690-4299-afd1-3566ccc66f49_vpn_myths.jpg","srcSet":"/static/39a1e44b0246bf29ddae0e6840513e51/e7946/a28eab46-a690-4299-afd1-3566ccc66f49_vpn_myths.jpg 275w,\n/static/39a1e44b0246bf29ddae0e6840513e51/4465c/a28eab46-a690-4299-afd1-3566ccc66f49_vpn_myths.jpg 551w,\n/static/39a1e44b0246bf29ddae0e6840513e51/68641/a28eab46-a690-4299-afd1-3566ccc66f49_vpn_myths.jpg 1101w,\n/static/39a1e44b0246bf29ddae0e6840513e51/cd2b2/a28eab46-a690-4299-afd1-3566ccc66f49_vpn_myths.jpg 1280w","sizes":"(max-width: 1101px) 100vw, 1101px"}}}},"title_image_copyright":{"html":""},"meta_description":"There are still many misconceptions about VPNs that could be keeping people away from. 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You follow a TV show, or heard about a new film coming out. So you log on to your streaming service and...it’s not there. Or worse yet, you read the dreaded words “Content not available in your country”.
Licensing companies and TV networks don't want the value of their shows to decrease, so they build clauses into their contracts that force streaming services to secure content by region and country. That means a new sale for every different country they provide it to.
When TV executives hear those words, they hear the sound of cash registers ringing in their ears.
For that reason, streaming services or gaming platforms use geolocation services to provide different content to different locations. Your IP address tells the provider where you are in the world, and that tells them what shows or content they can make available to you.
For a company, geo-blocking restricts certain content to areas that aren't the target market. In that way they can have full control over who gets the content and, most importantly, when they get it.
In plenty of cases, with the most popular series they just make certain countries wait longer to build anticipation amongst viewers, after a new show has gone viral on social media or has had great reviews in the press.
Often the best content is only available in the USA, Canada and the UK, even on the same streaming service. And there is now a trend that most of the new content becomes available in USA first, and it can take a long time, if not forever, for it to appear in your country.
And they really don’t want you to beat the system. Many streaming servers try to prevent clever internet users from getting around their geographical blocks. To do that, they “blacklist” certain products, like VPNs, which can help.
Blacklisting is a control mechanism that prevents users from accessing a particular service if they have a certain piece of software installed; it’s like a block list. Using industry standard technologies to blacklist popular VPNs, streaming platforms ensure that users don’t fool the system by using virtual locations. But - they can’t stop all VPNs. 😉
It is not only streaming services who use the tactic of cutting the digital world up with borders, just like the real one. Plenty of websites suffer the same fate. Geo-blocking can also be used to limit access to internet content based on location overall, and restricts the availability of specific internet content and sites to a geographical location.
That means your favourite online games, gambling websites or just content that your country’s authorities don’t like can be blocked from you, and that your version of the internet is curated by someone other than you. The same strategy of dividing the world into multiple markets, with different paid for products in every one, isn’t just limited to TV and film.
Most of us don’t realise that every time we log on without using a VPN, our Internet Service Provider and the authorities of our country are choosing what we get to see online and what we don’t, because it’s mostly done without us realising that it’s happening.
For example, your country’s authorities might not like a particular social media site, so they block you from reaching it, but have an alternative which they do allow. Your ISP might, if you live in the USA, be throttling your bandwidth when you use one streaming service, but allowing your streams to flow perfectly on another, all because they have a deal with the second one but not the first.
Ultimately, if you don’t hide your IP using a VPN, your location is available information to be abused by whichever corporations want to take advantage of it and limit your view of the online world.
It’s pretty simple really. Use a VPN and be where you need to be. If you have a VPN service, you can choose a server across a number of countries in the world to give you the access you need. If “this content is not available in your country” just connect to a server in the USA, or the UK, and it probably will be.
Having a VPN tears down the imaginary borders which have been created online and allows you to experience the internet as it was meant to be - free, open and unlimited.
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