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How to secure your internet connection with Proton VPN
From encryption to IP-masking and worldwide server fleets, a VPN’s underlying hardware and technologies make them ideal for all kinds of use cases.
They’re a handy way to dodge ISP bandwidth throttling, bypass dynamic pricing, and indispensable if you're looking to hop over regional restrictions and watch appointment TV like The Traitors from any location.
Most importantly, though? A VPN keeps your web traffic secure every time you connect to the internet, whether at home or using public Wi-Fi, disguising your data so that it’s hidden from prying governments and anyone else lurking on your network.
Interested to know why Proton VPN calls itself the "preferred VPN for millions protecting their privacy and freedom online"? We explore the provider’s security features and how these can help shield your online activity.
How do VPNs secure your internet connection?
At their core? Encryption.
Activate your VPN and transmitted data (emails, financial details, logins) is transformed into unreadable ciphertext thanks to mathematical algorithms like the virtually unbreakable AES-256.
As a result, third parties can no longer spy on your web traffic as it travels through your VPN’s encrypted tunnel, and cyberthreats like Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attacks are dodged as your data arrives at your VPN server.
Once there, it’s decoded using a session key shared only between the VPN client and server, and anonymously forwarded to your intended destination. When the web domain replies, the encryption/decryption process occurs all over again – just in the opposite direction.
In response to the evolution of online threats, however, the best providers apply a plethora of additional safeguards to reinforce the security of your connection.
What is Proton VPN?
A major player in the VPN market, Proton VPN is a Switzerland-based provider – a country known for its robust privacy laws – that launched in 2017.
Proton is known to many as a company prioritizing online privacy, with a toolkit that also includes secure Proton Mail, Proton Drive and Proton Pass among others.
As of 2024 it operates under the oversight of the non-profit Proton Foundation, which has a mission encapsulated by its “people over profits” mantra. It has made combatting internet censorship central to its purpose, and, at the time of writing, has servers in more countries than most other premium VPNs.
8 ways Proton VPN secures your internet connection
Below, we explore a variety of Proton VPN features that seek to grant your VPN connection greater security.
Secure Core VPN
Proton’s Secure Core architecture directs your traffic through two servers. It encases your connection in a second layer of spy-defying encryption, and provides additional IP-obfuscation that it says makes it almost impossible for anyone to link your browsing habits back to you and your actual location.
However, it’s more than just a regular double hop tool, thanks to the strategic location of its three entry servers in either Switzerland, Iceland, or Sweden, and each one governed by favorable privacy laws.
They’re physically sequestered in high-security data centers, too. So, if your exit server is seized or otherwise compromised, a Secure Core connection should keep your VPN use from being uncovered.
Secure protocols
Proton VPN uses both OpenVPN and WireGuard protocols.
Both implement AES-256 encryption, are open source, and feature perfect forward secrecy, which limits exposure from an intercepted key to its associated VPN session but none before or after.
With WireGuard’s streamlined codebase it’s quick to find and fix security vulnerabilities, and Proton’s obfuscation option Stealth lets you camouflage your VPN usage as HTTPS to circumvent network blocks without drawing suspicion.
Strong encryption standards
You’ll find all connections fortified by 256-bit encryption. That’s virtually unbreakable even with today’s most advanced computers and would, it's widely believed, take billions of years to decipher.
The OpenVPN protocol uses the tamper-proof AES-256 GCM, paired with 4096-bit RSA for secure key exchange, while WireGuard employs the equally robust ChaCha20 cipher.
Streaming and P2P support
Proton has lots of servers optimized for streaming and P2P (peer-to-peer) activity. These are high-bandwidth connections, so you should easily be able to stream Netflix in 4K and torrent safely without hitting buffering issues or bottlenecks.
Encryption further supports high performance by masking the URLs you visit from your ISP, and thus avoids ISP-mandated bandwidth throttling. Meanwhile, connecting to a VPN will spoof your IP address and cloak your real location from any peers sharing the same network.
Kill switch
Weak Wi-Fi is just one reason for dropped VPN connections that can expose a plethora of confidential details. Luckily, a kill switch will prevent any unencrypted traffic from exiting your device.
Proton has two modes: 'standard' kicks in after an unexpected disconnection, while with 'advanced' the internet is totally inaccessible unless your VPN is switched on.
DNS leak protection
Misconfigured settings can see your DNS queries booted from your VPN tunnel to a public Domain Name System instead. To stop this from happening, all of Proton’s apps come with DNS leak protection.
By activating IPv6 support, for example, you’ll keep this type of internet traffic within your VPN’s four encrypted walls rather than publicising your web history and location to potential eavesdroppers.
Encrypted DNS resolution
Typically, DNS traffic is sent in plaintext and resolved by your internet provider.
Like many premium VPNs, though, Proton has its own DNS servers, and routes all DNS queries (i.e. requests for a website’s corresponding IP address) through its encrypted tunnel.
How does that help? It means your query and the relevant IP returned by the DNS resolver can't be intercepted and modified (a little thing called DNS spoofing) or monitored by third parties.
Full-disk encryption
100% of Proton’s servers are protected by full-disk encryption (FDE). This is designed to lock their contents with foolproof AES-256 encryption when powered down, meaning they’re unreadable without their decryption keys that are all stored offsite.
Even though Proton VPN claims not to log any user-compromising data, FDE-protected servers provide invaluable contingencies against theft or Man-in-the-Middle attacks that could, theoretically, exploit inadvertent traces of your VPN activity.
We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
