We have covered a lot of safety tips and best practices recently. The biggest area we have yet to discuss is, your network. Your network refers to the digital web of the devices in your home. Every item you have in your home that connects to the internet, is apart of your network. Your network has an entry point, that is typically just your router. From there the internet signal is dispersed to your devices.
Now, each device you use on this network has a unique identifier known as an IP Address. When you post on a website, any user can in theory, trace your IP address to your physical address. Is it as simple as that? No. They effectively would have to continue to follow the IP address back through the routers in which it came. Which is why businesses and diligent computer users will have digital check points between themselves and the internet.
For businesses they like to employ multiple servers, each with detection for unwanted or unfamiliar data. Taking our google example from the signals article, when you send data to google it tends to go through quite a few servers, even if you are relatively proximity to the server itself. This is because google has proxy servers setup for cyber safety.
For individuals though, that is not feasible. The smarter and more commonly used tactic for individuals is the use of virtual private network or VPN. A VPN is a network that essentially disguises your IP address. Meaning, when you use a VPN and post online, the IP address comes across as the VPN's own IP address, not yours. Typically you sign a privacy agreement with your VPN provider meaning that even if someone were to track down your IP to the VPN's server, the VPN provider would not identify you.
Now, each device you use on this network has a unique identifier known as an IP Address. When you post on a website, any user can in theory, trace your IP address to your physical address. Is it as simple as that? No. They effectively would have to continue to follow the IP address back through the routers in which it came. Which is why businesses and diligent computer users will have digital check points between themselves and the internet.
For businesses they like to employ multiple servers, each with detection for unwanted or unfamiliar data. Taking our google example from the signals article, when you send data to google it tends to go through quite a few servers, even if you are relatively proximity to the server itself. This is because google has proxy servers setup for cyber safety.
For individuals though, that is not feasible. The smarter and more commonly used tactic for individuals is the use of virtual private network or VPN. A VPN is a network that essentially disguises your IP address. Meaning, when you use a VPN and post online, the IP address comes across as the VPN's own IP address, not yours. Typically you sign a privacy agreement with your VPN provider meaning that even if someone were to track down your IP to the VPN's server, the VPN provider would not identify you.
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