Will A VPN Secure My Phone On My Company's WiFi?

[music_man185]

I have zero signal in the building I work in. So I connect to my company's secure wifi network. I don't really browse any webpages while at work, but I use hangouts and use the wifi to send and receive messages. I don't want anyone seeing my conversations or any other data on my phone for that matter. I've read that network admins may possibly be able to read messages, emails, browsing history, view gallery etc. I'm new to all this, so I googled and it seems that a VPN might be what I'm looking for. Will this secure my phone and keep all of my information hidden and safe?

 

[SpookDroid]

This is essentially true. A VPN will 'handle' all the traffic you request through their servers and then rely the data back to you, but your work network will still see there's traffic going back and forth from your device. It doesn't 'hide' you from them, it just hides the type of information and contents from them.

Think of it as being a bunch of letters. If you mail them individually, the mailman knows where each letter comes from, but if you put all the letter in a box and seal that with tape, you still get each letter but now the mailman only knows where the BOX comes from, not the rest of the letter enclosed. The VPN acts as the guys who take your letters for you, package them in the box, and ship them from another location so the snoopy mailman remains in the dark about the contents.

 

[music_man185]

I'm not really worried that they see that there is activity. i just dont want them to see what the activity is. i dont want anyone to read my conversations or be able to go through files or data on my smartphone. i was reading that hangouts messages are encrypted. would that mean that a network admin couldn't see the messages or pictures, even if connected to their secured network?

if a vpn is in fact what i need, i've seen a few in the play store. but my note 3 also has a vpn option in the settings. would the built in vpn suffice? and if so, how is it enabled?

 

[SpookDroid]

AFAIK, Hangouts messages are encrypted.

As for the VPN, like I said, this isn't just an option that magically works. It needs a third party to handle the traffic for you. The free VPN apps you see on the Play Store are mostly meant to 'mask' your IP and making some other services think you're in a different country,and usually limit your bandwidth. Those that are free, also have a tendency to not be reliable or not work well with all apps.

The option in your phone is there and capable, BUT you still need a VPN service to make it work. Just like e-mail, you would configure your VPN server and account information for this to work. But this server and account would need to be provided to you by the VPN service. The really good and reliable ones, of course, are paid services. After all, you are using their servers to process your traffic.

 

[music_man185]

ok, i think i understand now

the company i work for is a small town company. even if they had the capabilities to view data on a phone, i dont think they would. my main concern was hangouts, since that is what i use as my main source of communication during the day without signal, and there is constantly incoming and outgoing data. if hangouts is in fact encrypted to where no one can see my messages or pictures, then a vpn might just be overkill for me. one of the IT guys did tell someone that they could see who connects to the network. but just because he can see that, does that mean he has the capability to view sensitive information on the device?

 

[Dr Rose]

I have zero signal in the building I work in. So I connect to my company's secure wifi network. I don't really browse any webpages while at work, but I use hangouts and use the wifi to send and receive messages. I don't want anyone seeing my conversations or any other data on my phone for that matter. I've read that network admins may possibly be able to read messages, emails, browsing history, view gallery etc. I'm new to all this, so I googled and it seems that a VPN might be what I'm looking for. Will this secure my phone and keep all of my information hidden and safe?

if it's correctly set up and utilizes a secure protocol, all your traffic will get through the VPN and admin won't be able to decipher your online activities and make sense of your internet traffic.

In other words, you may be using the VPN to connect to websites A, B, and C and send all sorts of interesting information to those websites; or send email; or whatever. Admin can see none of that. All they can see is encrypted data that they can't decrypt. So they know you're using a VPN, but they don't know what you're using it for.

 

[SpookDroid]

ok, i think i understand now

the company i work for is a small town company. even if they had the capabilities to view data on a phone, i dont think they would. my main concern was hangouts, since that is what i use as my main source of communication during the day without signal, and there is constantly incoming and outgoing data. if hangouts is in fact encrypted to where no one can see my messages or pictures, then a vpn might just be overkill for me. one of the IT guys did tell someone that they could see who connects to the network. but just because he can see that, does that mean he has the capability to view sensitive information on the device?

Correct. Just because the mailman sees your letters doesn't mean he can see what's in them. Sure, if he gets the proper tools, he can open the envelope and see it's contents, but if on top of that, the letter is written in a language the poor mailman can't read, then it will make it even harder for him to know what's in the letter. Same goes for network admins. Just because they CAN, doesn't mean they DO, especially when doing requires time and effort.

 

[Rukbat]

one of the IT guys did tell someone that they could see who connects to the network. but just because he can see that, does that mean he has the capability to view sensitive information on the device?

Not at this point but remember, just as any phone clls you make on their phones can be modified, they may change policy in the future requiring unencrypted communication through their wifi network. It's theirs, so they can make any rules they like. (They may even require you to use a phone with something like Knox if you want to bring it onto their property.)

I find the best solution is, unless you're using your phone for business purposes, don't use it at work. If you have to make or take a call, step out of the office. (Many business owners feel the same way - they're not paying you to message your friends, no matter how little time it takes.)