How Secure is VPN Software for Online Banking?

With the prevalence of online banking options in many parts of the world, accessing funds and carrying out financial transactions have become easier than ever. 

With a click of your computer or a tap on the phone, you can send money, receive money, make payments, and do all sorts of banking activities. 

However, with this ease comes the cybercrime issue and the probability of losing your funds to cybercriminals. Before the popularity of online banking, criminals needed to go to the bank to steal money. 

But because of the availability of online bank accounts, all they need is to access your bank details, and they can steal your money, even if they are miles away on another continent. This is where the VPN software comes into play. 

In this blog, we will explore what a VPN is and how it remains one of the best ways to protect your financial information and ensure secure banking. 

What is VPN Software?

VPN is an abbreviation for Virtual Private Network. It refers to a system that allows you to create a protection network while interacting with public networks on the internet. 

The VPN software encrypts your internet details and provides a false online identity. Thus by creating private internet access,  third parties and trackers will have a difficult time monitoring your activity on the internet. 

VPN Protection for Online Banking

Accessing your bank and carrying out financial transactions on an internet-enabled device is the hallmark of online banking. 

However, it puts you at the mercy of cybercriminals who possess advanced technology to monitor, track and intercept your bank details. You need a reliable means of securing your activities on the internet.

As we’ve mentioned, VPN software provides the security framework for online banking. It does this by encrypting the users’ data and ensuring that the banking activities are difficult to track. Thus, if cybercriminals can access the users’ information, it becomes useless to them as it is encrypted.

Is VPN Software Safe for Online Banking

Yes! VPN software helps protect your online presence and makes it difficult for cybercriminals to access your bank details. They execute this using key features embedded in the VPN software. 

Note that not all VPN software possess these features. Thus, it is essential to scrutinize the VPN software you decide to choose for your online banking activities and ensure that it has the following features; 

Kill Switch

The kill switch works by disconnecting you from the internet whenever the VPN connection breaks. Sometimes, there could be a hiccup with the network, which can cause the VPN to stop working temporarily. When this happens, the cover and protection provided by the VPN server go away, and you become vulnerable to cybercriminals. 

However, with the kill switch feature, your internet connection gets switched off when the VPN is down, ensuring you do not keep browsing without the VPN connection. 

There are many leading VPN software with this feature; an example is ProtonVPN. With its kill switch feature and other reliable VPN features, ProtonVPN offers some of the best protection for online banking and other internet activities. 

Multiple Installs

The essence of the multiple install feature is to enable you to use a single VPN account on different devices. When you sign up for VPN software, you get an account with your login details. A VPN software with a multiple installs feature allows you to use this account on various devices, such as your phone, laptop, or desktop computer. 

This means that regardless of where you are and the device you decide to use, you get protected when accessing your bank and carrying out transactions online. This feature is quite important for people who use numerous internet-enabled devices to access their banks and carry out financial transactions.

NordVPN is an example of a VPN software that offers a multiple install feature. With NordVPN, you can use a single VPN account on various devices without worrying about security or functionality. 

Split Tunneling

Split tunneling, also known as the bypasser, is a VPN feature that enables you to exclude some apps and services on your device from using the VPN. Ideally, when you use VPN software on a device, it protects and encrypts all the services and applications that use an internet connection. 

It’s understandable if you want to limit the VPN service to certain applications. For instance, you may prefer that only your bank application uses the VPN, or you may wish to exempt your bank app from the use of the VPN (if your bank does not allow it). If this is the case with you, split tunneling is one of the features your VPN software should possess.

Blocking Phishing

Phishing is one of the common ways that cybercriminals access your device and steal your details for criminal activities. Most times, phishing comes in the form of pop-ups and malicious links. The integration of a “blocking phishing” feature automatically blocks these links and pop-ups. 

When to Use VPN Software for Online Banking

The following are some situations when it is particularly important to protect your online banking transactions with a VPN.

1. When Using Public WiFi

Typically, public WiFis lack encryption. As a result of no encryption or other forms of internet security, cybercriminals, through their advanced technologies, can access the network and monitor the files and internet traffic shared between the users on public WiFi. 

This means that hackers and cyber criminals can gain access to your online banking details and hijack your funds when you use a public WiFi. However, you can stay aloof from cyber criminals’ machinations when you use VPN software. 

VPN software protects your data and internet traffic, making it difficult for hackers to access your details and information. While they may be able to monitor the traffic and siphon data, they can only get strings of unbreakable code that end up being useless. 

2. When You are at Home

In contrast to public WiFi, your home WiFi is more secure and better as it has encryption that keeps it secure from cybercriminals. 

However, this does not mean you are safe, as home WiFi is also vulnerable to certain cyber attacks. Besides these cyber attacks, your online activities are also susceptible to monitoring and tracking by malicious or governmental third-party agencies. 

VPN software helps you prevent cyber attacks that could siphon your bank details and other important information. Also, because the VPN software masks your identity, it becomes difficult for third-party agencies to track and monitor your internet activities. 

3. When on the Road

By using VPN software on the road, you may be able to prevent your bank from blocking your account or denying access to your funds. Due to the security risks associated with online banking, many banks also put up strong security apparatus to protect their customers’ funds. 

One security apparatus uses a GPS tracker that tracks your location when you use your bank app. With this tracker, the bank has an idea of the country from which you use the bank app or carry out online banking transactions. 

However, when you travel and try to access your bank online, the GPS tracker sees that you are trying to access funds from a different country and starts to get suspicious. 

The consequence of this suspicion sometimes is to deny access to the bank app and your funds or sometimes limit the amount of money you can access and the type of transaction you can carry out. 

You can prevent all of these consequences by using VPN software. With VPN software, you can choose your home country as your preferred location when accessing your bank while on the road. The VPN software then makes it seem like you are accessing the bank from your home country, and you can carry out your transactions seamlessly.

This is why it is important that you choose VPN software with numerous VPN servers. The more servers, the better the chances of getting one in your home country. One of the VPN software that provides this feature is HMA VPN. 

Although it is based in the UK, HMA VPN provides a reliable network of servers in different parts of the world with fast internet connections. Other features that make HMA VPN stand out among other VPN networks include a kill switch, high internet speed, and geoblocks bypass. 

Things to Avoid When Using VPN for Online Banking

As much as VPN software is the go-to option for safety when banking online, there are certain things that you should avoid. These things include; 

Using Free VPNs

Using a free VPN is not a safe way to access the internet, especially online banking platforms for many reasons. Firstly, free VPNs need more resources to provide adequate protection and security for your internet activities. 

A research that analyzed about 300 free Android VPN apps showed that 18% of these apps do not encrypt data. This means that anybody using these free VPN apps is not actually protected, and their banking details remain open and vulnerable to cyber criminals. 

Another reason is that some of these apps go a step forward to leak user data to malicious agents and hackers. 

The research mentioned above showed that 84% of these free VPN apps leak users’ data. You are probably safer without VPN software than with free VPN apps that leak user data. 

Lastly, free VPNs have slow data connections and ads and may contain malware. The slow data connections and ads frustrate your online banking experience and make it difficult to complete transactions easily. 

The research mentioned above also mentioned that about 38% percent of these free VPN apps contain malware that could steal personal information, including your credit card info. 

Visiting Questionable or Fake Websites

Even while using VPN, you should avoid visiting fake and questionable websites. These websites are a front for scammers and cybercriminals, who may ask for certain financial information. 

If you provide this information, your bank account and funds stored in it may be compromised, even when you use VPN software. This is because you provided the information yourself, and there is no way for the VPN to prevent the information collection. 

This naturally leads to the question, how do you know questionable or fake websites? The answer is simple. Most browsers have been equipped with features that can sense and report fake and questionable websites. 

So if you get a notification from your browser warning you about the safety and security of the website you are about to log on to, it is probably a scam website, and you should go back to safety. 

Other Ways to Protect your Online Banking Activities

Apart from using VPN software, there are other ways to protect yourself and your finances from scammers and criminals targeting online banking activities. They include;

Lock Your Screen

This sounds basic, but it is an important part of personal and internet security. You should have reliable security features for your device and lock the screen. A cybercriminal can turn off or circumvent the VPN software if they have access to your device. 

Turn On Banking Notifications

Notifications are crucial in ensuring that you monitor and track suspicious activities on your phone. By turning on the same feature for your bank, you get notifications when someone uses your account. This way, you get to stay ahead of any suspicious activities on your bank account. 

Use Strong Passwords

Using a strong password for your device and the online banking system is very important. While many systems and platforms do not allow you to set a weak password, you also need to avoid using things people can easily guess about you as a password. 

This is because regardless of the number of security features a VPN software has, once a cybercriminal correctly guesses your password to the online banking platform, the security of your funds is compromised, and you can also say goodbye to the funds. 

Use Two Factor Authentication

Using two-factor authentication helps you confirm login and transactions on the online banking platforms on another device of your choice. 

Thus, you can only log in and carry out transactions on your account when you confirm them on this device. The two-factor authentication makes it difficult for criminals to access your funds and bank details. 

Avoid Repeating Passwords

While it is easy to remember repeated passwords, the danger is that once the password is compromised for one account. All other platforms and accounts that use the same password get compromised. 

Understandably, it is stressful and difficult to remember all your passwords when you use different passwords for different platforms and accounts. Therefore, a solution to that problem is the use of password managers. 

While there are many outstanding password managers, Keeper Password Manager remains among the best in the market. It is easy to use, provides a secure and strong option for storing payment details, and works as a browser extension.  

Use Antivirus

Viruses are one of the things that constitute digital security risks to our devices. Thus with the use of safe and secure antiviruses, your device will become safer, making them difficult targets for cybercriminals. 

Do not Click on Suspicious Links

Suspicious links, regardless of how they come (pop-ups, mail attachments, or links), can only spell trouble for your digital security and overall well-being. It is, therefore, advisable that you avoid and ignore them. 

Conclusion

It’s true VPN software provides adequate security for your banking activities, allowing you to bank online safely without the fear of hackers or cybercriminals accessing your details. 

However, you need to avoid free VPN software while at it as most of them cause more security risks than avert it.