VPNs guard against hackers on public Wi-Fi

I recently retired and plan to spend time at recreational vehicle parks. Most of these parks have free Wi-Fi, but the passwords are often simple. A friend warned me against using these public Wi-Fi hot spots because of security concerns. I could use my cellphone to create my own private Wi-Fi hot spot, but that gets expensive because it uses up my data plan. What can I do?

Free Wi-Fi hot spots are notoriously unsafe because much of your data can be easily intercepted by hackers, who could snare your personal information and passwords, or put malicious software on your computer. The problem has been lessened by the decision of banks, large retailers and some email systems to encrypt communications with their websites, but much of the internet still doesn’t have that protection.

You can avoid the hazards of public Wi-Fi networks by using a virtual private network, or VPN. It will funnel your internet data through an encrypted (coded) connection to the VPN provider’s server, where it is then passed on to its destination. Any communication from websites is channeled back through the VPN server to your computer. As a result, any hackers lurking on the public Wi-Fi hot spot are shut out.

Experts say that the safest VPNs are those that incorporate a “kill switch.” If the VPN connection fails, the kill switch disconnects your computer from the internet before it can revert to an unprotected connection. Some VPN providers that offer kill-switch capability are PureVPN ($71 a year), IPVanish VPN ($78 a year) and Private internet Access ($40 a year).