Five Ways The Use Of VPN Can Affect Nigerians

Five Ways The Use Of VPN Can Affect Nigerians

The Federal Government suspended the use of Twitter in Nigeria on Friday and Nigerians are now using Virtual Private Network (VPN) as a means of bypassing FG restriction of Twitter.

 

The suspension of twitter was made known by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed on Twitter before it was shut down at midnight.

According to the minister, he stated that the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence was one of the reasons why it should be banned in the country.

He also directed the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to immediately commence the process of licensing all OTT and social media operations in Nigeria, it added.

Below are some of the disadvantages Nigerians have to know as they adopt the use of VPN

Five Disadvantages of Using Untrusted VPNs

Viruses and malware threat – Most of the VPNs out there, do not protect your computer from viruses or malware.

You’ll still need to be mindful of downloading suspicious files, especially through torrent and P2P networks.

Downloading the wrong VPN – One of the major dangers of using a VPN is when you download the wrong one.

Free services that advertise on browser extension stores and mobile marketplaces are notorious for claiming fast downloads and anonymized activities when in reality they can be more dangerous than not using a VPN at all.

All your devices arenautomatically protected – If you use VPN software to protect your PC or smartphone, that’s the only device that gets protected.

In order to keep data safe, you must install an app on every device that connects to the internet (or else use a VPN router).

Speed issues – VPN will often slow your connection speed by 10-25% depending on the service, all thanks to encryption overhead.

This can be frustrating if you frequently stream HD movies or do a lot of online gaming.

Fake VPN scams – In an ironic twist, many online hackers rely on scamming those who are working the hardest to avoid scams.

This means that consumers should be wary of free anti-virus installers, fake ‘alert’ pop-ups, and, yes, VPN software.

In the worst case, however, they also sell or supply data to government authorities. Even if the provider promises not to sell the data, it is already a risk that the data is stored at all.

Not a day goes by without a new data leak being reported, whether due to poor security or criminal hacker attacks.

Users Data Privacy – If a VPN service doesn’t charge its customers, the company has to bring in revenue from somewhere else. All your data make a detour via the VPN provider. But do you really know the company and what it’s about? Essentially, you will have to trust your provider to maintain data privacy.

Some of this VPNs are stealing user information and selling it to bigger company.

Five Ways The Use Of VPN Can Affect Nigerians