cioreviewindia Team | Monday, 20 September 2021, 07:02 IST
Protecting your digital identity is crucial in today's age. With the significant increase of eCommerce in recent years, your digital wallet is now just as valuable as your physical wallet.
The steps you take to protect yourself online are some of the most significant decisions you can make regarding online safety. Besides updating your software and creating robust firewall rules, how can you protect yourself once data leaves your system?
This article will explain how to protect your crucial data online, reducing the risk of compromise, theft, and malware.
If you've been online for any length of time, you've probably heard of the term "IP address" before. Your IP address is a number that uniquely identifies your device among the many devices on the internet. There are two main versions of an IP address depending on what protocol your ISP and device supports.
An IPv4 address looks like this: 123.456.179.10
IPv6 is longer and looks like this: 1234:5678:9123:4567:8912:3456:7890:1234
Your ISP assigns you an IPv4 and optionally an IPv6 number that is unique to your device for your session. If you have a persistent connection to the internet and aren't using DHCP, your IP address might be more permanent.
In any case, guarding your IP address is critical to your overall internet privacy since the number traces directly to your machine. An open, unguarded IP address is akin to wearing your physical mailing address on your shirt as you walk outside. Obviously, you wouldn't advertise your home address in this manner, yet millions of people are doing that while browsing the internet.
Short of traveling to another location or using public access terminals, there is an easier and more effective way to protect your IP address using a proxy.
You might have heard about proxies before, but not sure what they were. In simple terms, a proxy is an intermediary relay that passes communication between you and the webserver you want to connect with. From the server's perspective, the proxy will appear to be the source, and the proxy's IP address will appear instead of yours.
Masking your IP address via a proxy has obvious security advantages, the primary benefit being that your location is no longer traceable. Since a proxy can theoretically reside in any region worldwide, you can appear to be a random client from any area. Depending on the proxy's configuration, there may be other protections also. For example, some proxies guard against malware and phishing attacks by using blocklists and disabling harmful scripts on web pages.
Most attacks on the internet take advantage of obvious security flaws and oblivious users to attain personal information and access to a system. A proxy mitigates those risks by stopping the attacks before they start, removing script vulnerabilities while hiding your geographical location.
Since proxies are an effective means of identity protection and location obfuscation, this opens up a world of previously unavailable streaming content.
Frequently, less trustworthy internet sites will lure unsuspecting users with promises of watching their favorite shows, only to install malware or collect private information. But now, armed with the appropriate proxy, you can safely stream the hottest media without worrying about scams or computer viruses.
A proxy also frees you from being hindered by geo-blocking or other content restrictions. For example, if you want to view the latest Indian dramas from the comfort of your American couch, simply visit https://iproyal.com/proxies-by-location/asia/india/. After selecting your plan, you're good to go! You can browse and stream as much as you want with the confidence of knowing that you're protected from malicious attacks or region lockouts.
As more of daily life moves into cyberspace, protecting your online data is critical. Users must remain vigilant to safeguard their digital presence as much as their physical homes. In the same way that you would secure your home and car with a keylock, you should also safeguard your most precious digital data.
A good, high-quality proxy is as necessary as a home security system in today's interconnected world. And with cyberattacks, ransomware, and identity theft rising every day, a proxy may be the most important investment you ever make to protect the most valuable asset you possess: your identity.