VPN encryption transforms your internet data into code that only your VPN can decipher. When traffic leaves your device, it’s sent through an encrypted tunnel as illegible ciphertext to a VPN server, which converts it back into readable information before forwarding it to its intended destination.
Without VPN encryption, your online activity may be exposed to anyone monitoring your network, including your ISP, hackers on public Wi-Fi, or other third parties. Encryption turns that data into meaningless strings of characters.
How to Encrypt Your Data with PIA VPN
Add a layer of VPN encryption to any browsing session in three easy steps
Browsing the internet without encrypting your connection makes you more vulnerable to digital privacy invasions and cyber attacks – VPN encryption helps to shield you from these threats
Disrupt ISP Tracking and Surveillance
Your ISP can see every website you visit and may selectively throttle certain traffic or sell your browsing history to advertisers. VPN encryption helps prevent your ISP from monitoring your activity and collecting your data.
Shield Your Data on Unknown Networks
Public Wi-Fi networks often lack the security measures needed to keep cybercriminals at bay. With VPN encryption, your data is transformed into meaningless code that’s useless to hackers when intercepted.
Reduce Exposure to Cyber Attacks
Man-in-the-middle and other cyber attacks can occur when a third party intercepts your connection. VPN encryption helps secure your traffic, making it much harder for attackers on the same network to tamper with your data.
How Does VPN Encryption Work?
When you activate a VPN, three encryption mechanisms protect your connection:
A cipher scrambles your data using mathematical algorithms that make it unreadable without the correct key. This prevents anyone intercepting your traffic from seeing what it contains.
Authentication protocols confirm that the encrypted data you receive is genuine and hasn’t been modified by attackers trying to inject malicious code.
Key exchange systems securely establish the encryption keys between your device and the VPN server, even across untrusted networks.
These components create a secure tunnel between your device and the VPN server, which decrypts your data and sends it onwards. The process is invisible, but it shields your traffic from monitoring.
What Are the Best VPN Encryption Protocols?
Encryption protocols for VPNs determine how your data is encrypted and transmitted between your device and the VPN server. PIA gives you the flexibility to select between protocols so you can choose the one that fits your needs.
OpenVPN
OpenVPN has been the gold standard for VPN encryption since 2001. It’s known for its reliability and flexibility, and works on both TCP and UDP connections. PIA uses OpenVPN as its default protocol with AES-128-GCM encryption and RSA-4096 handshake, but you can customize your settings or upgrade to AES-256 for maximum protection.
WireGuardⓇ
WireGuard is a modern protocol designed for speed and simplicity using state-of-the-art cryptography, including ChaCha20 for encryption and Curve25519 for key exchange. Its lightweight codebase delivers faster connection establishment and better speeds, especially on mobile devices and lower-powered hardware. It’s available in every PIA app.
The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) uses a single, symmetric key algorithm to scramble and decrypt your data. This design makes it both exceptionally secure and efficient – which is why so many governments, militaries, and banks trust AES to protect their most sensitive data.
When you connect to a VPN using AES, your internet traffic gets divided into encrypted blocks that can only be reassembled with the correct key in the correct sequence. Once the VPN unlocks the first block, it uses that block to unlock the next one, and so on, creating an encryption chain that’s extremely difficult to break.
The symmetric approach means faster encryption and decryption, so you get strong protection without sacrificing connection speed. That means you can browse, stream, and download more securely with fewer interruptions.
PIA gives you the choice between two AES encryption standards:
Choose Between AES 128- and 256-Bit Encryption
PIA gives you the choice between two AES encryption standards.
AES 128-Bit
AES 256-Bit
128-bit key size
256-bit key size
Highly secure encryption
Maximum-strength encryption
340 undecillion possible combinations
2^128 times more combinations than AES-128
10 encryption rounds
14 encryption rounds
Faster processing speed
Marginally slower performance
Best for balancing speed and security
Best for maximum security
PIA’s default setting
Available in PIA settings
Other Ways PIA VPN Helps to Protect Your Privacy Online
PIA pairs strong encryption with court-proven privacy practices and audited security to give you more peace of mind online
Leak Protection
Browse with more confidence knowing that PIA helps prevent DNS, WebRTC, and IP address leaks.
Multi-hop Encryption
Route your traffic through an additional server to disguise your VPN usage and help you stay private in restrictive environments.
A reputable VPN will always offer encryption as standard. PIA offers top-notch AES encryption (both 128-bit and 256-bit options) combined with secure OpenVPN, WireGuard, and IPSec protocols to help protect your data from ISP, hacker, and other third-party monitoring.
AES-256 is considered to be the strongest commercially available encryption standard. It’s used by governments and militaries worldwide to protect data in transit. That said, AES-128 also provides excellent security while offering better speed and performance. The best encryption protocol will depend on your needs: maximum protection or a balance between security and speed.
PIA defaults to OpenVPN with AES-128-GCM encryption, which provides reliable security across all platforms. You can switch to WireGuard when you need a faster connection, IPSec for iOS devices, and upgrade to AES-256 encryption for stronger protection.
The main types of encryption mechanisms are ciphers (scrambles your data), authentication (verifies data integrity), and key exchange protocols (securely shares encryption keys). PIA uses industry-standard AES ciphers with secure authentication and supports multiple protocols so you can choose what works best.
No VPN can claim to be completely unhackable, but PIA’s security measures make it extremely difficult to compromise. We use top-end encryption, RAM-only servers with no persistent browsing data storage, and a court-proven no-logs policy. Our infrastructure is designed from the ground up to prevent access to your data.
You can verify PIA’s security through independent evidence: multiple Deloitte audits and court rulings confirmed that our server architecture doesn’t track or store browsing data, plus our open-source apps let you or anyone else inspect exactly how we handle your data.
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