Can You Provide Full Protection Against Identity Theft with a VPN? Here’s What It Can (and Can’t) Do

Nowadays, it feels like every click and every login to our email or social networks opens a window for those trying to steal our information. Identity theft has reached levels we couldn’t have imagined just a decade ago. According to the latest official statistics, total fraud and identity theft cases have nearly tripled over the last decade, and it increasingly comes hand in hand with greater financial losses and the deterioration of personal reputation. All in all, it adds constant stress to our digital daily lives—something we can’t easily ignore.

VPN protection services are marketed as the ultimate solution for navigating the internet today, but is that enough? With a VPN, we do gain much greater anonymity, better protection when connecting from public places, and other advantages—true. But there’s more we can do. Let’s dive into all of this with the depth it deserves.

What is identity theft?

In its simplest definition, identity theft is the impersonation of a person using their personal data to carry out fraudulent actions. The nature of these actions varies greatly, ranging from online purchases to credit applications that can damage someone’s credit score or pose serious threats to their financial well-being.

Depending on the scope of the attack and the amount and accuracy of the data stolen, the impersonation may give access to something as seemingly harmless as social networks—from which more advanced attacks can be launched—to something as critical as medical records or bank accounts. These data breaches can occur through password mismanagement, social engineering attacks, or even data leaks from other companies and services.

Common types of identity theft

If we categorize identity theft based on the impact on the victim, we can talk about attacks targeting both physical and personal integrity. Here we find everything from financial fraud to medical identity theft and banking account impersonation. The latter, according to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, caused losses of over $8.8 billion in 2022 alone as you can read in the following link.

In financial fraud, attackers use stolen credit card information to make purchases. In medical theft, they impersonate a medical history to obtain healthcare services or prescriptions in the victim’s name. Lastly, but no less importantly, general account impersonation allows intruders to control emails, social networks, and payment platforms, making it easier for them to move on to even more significant targets.

Consequences of identity theft

The consequences of everything mentioned above can be, quite frankly, significant. Personal wealth, reputation, and most importantly, peace of mind are all placed at risk from multiple fronts. Victims may spend months—or even years—trying to restore their name and prove their innocence to financial institutions tasked with spotting suspicious transactions.

How cybercriminals steal the data

When it comes to stealing personal data that enables identity theft, the methods are numerous. We’re talking about phishing scams, fake Wi-Fi networks, and data breaches. In the first case, attackers use well-crafted emails or messages that mimic legitimate platforms and ask for sensitive information.

In the second case, typically in public environments, fake access points pretend to be official networks, allowing for real-time spying on user activity. Finally, data breaches in companies dump vast amounts of information onto the black market, where it’s at the mercy of anyone willing to exploit it.

How VPNs help protect against identity theft

At this point, a particular word—three letters, in fact—might come to mind as a solution. A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, acts as a secure intermediary that encrypts the data we send and receive. It forms a tunnel between us and our destination, ensuring that data transfers remain safer even on public networks.

By design, it also hides our real connection point, making it much harder to track our browsing activity. With just these two functions, the attack surface is significantly reduced, easing the work of other protection systems like antivirus software and antiphishing platforms. So, what exactly does a VPN do for us?

Encrypting your data to help protect sensitive information

VPN encryption ensures that the data leaving our device and traveling to the VPN server—including the entire local network and internet provider—is inaccessible to others. For that reason, when we handle banking operations, shop online, or exchange personal information, it’s strongly recommended to activate this protection.

Masking your IP address to enhance anonymity

Because it’s the VPN server that connects to websites or services on our behalf—not us directly—those services cannot easily identify or locate us. Masking our IP address increases our anonymity, reduces region-based restrictions, complicates targeted DDoS attacks, and helps minimize  eavesdropping in apps that don’t use HTTPS or other secure protocols.

Reducing Man-in-the-Middle attacks and fake Wi-Fi threats

Going back to encryption, this ensures that no one except the legitimate recipient of our connection can intercept, read, or modify the data. In a Man-in-the-Middle attack, an intruder places themselves between us and our destination, gaining free access to data and even the ability to alter it.

A VPN stops this, as encryption makes it virtually impossible to intercept any data. Whether we’re dealing with an unsecured open network or a more targeted attack, even if someone captures our traffic, they won’t be able to read or tamper with it.

Why VPNs alone are not enough

Now, is a VPN alone enough to keep us safe? No. Clearly not. Does it offer much greater security? Yes, but it works best when paired with other tools. An antivirus that detects malicious software and a good email filter to catch phishing attempts are key elements.

It’s essential to defend against attacks originating from within our own devices—such as keyloggers or screen scrapers, for instance. Equally important is managing our passwords properly to avoid both brute force attacks on simple passwords and credential reuse.

The importance of pairing VPNs with antivirus software

Digital security involves regularly closing potential attack vectors, reducing exposure, and following good practices. In this sense, using our trusted VPN along with good antivirus software is crucial to achieving all three goals.

When used together, the VPN and antivirus complement each other: the antivirus strengthens our defense by blocking malware, ransomware, and malicious scripts before they can compromise our data or credentials. It also provides real-time web protection, warning us about dangerous sites and phishing attempts.

Additional security measures to consider

Alongside choosing a reliable antivirus—such as the one offered by Avast—there are several other precautions we should consider. Strong passwords, two-factor authentication, and regular software updates are the pillars of any expert’s advice, and for good reason. They play a critical role in protecting our security.

Unique passwords of sufficient length keep our accounts safer, while two-factor authentication serves as the last line of defense if a password is compromised. And of course, keeping our devices updated makes them more secure against attacks and ensures they don’t become gateways for attacks on other connected platforms.

Pro tip? Use a code-generation app instead of receiving two-factor authentication codes by SMS. With the growing threat of SIM swapping attacks, a dedicated app is the smarter move.

Back to the recommendation of choosing Avast Antivirus for our protection—its dark web monitoring  alerts us if Avast finds when credentials or personal data are exposed. This gives us a chance to change passwords and check for suspicious activity ideally in time to avoid major damage.

With Avast SecureLine VPN and Avast One, we get a VPN that encrypts our traffic, hides our IP, and strengthens privacy—while combining it with Avast antivirus for the best protection in our daily digital lives.

FAQ: VPN effectiveness in perspective

Can a VPN provide complete protection against identity theft?

A VPN improves our anonymity online and encrypts our connection to prevent eavesdropping or tampering. It reduces many risks, but it still requires complementary measures like strong passwords, two-factor authentication, and an up-to-date antivirus to close additional attack vectors. This combination seals off vulnerabilities that VPNs alone can’t cover, such as downloading malware from unsafe sites or spyware capturing our data.

Can someone steal my identity while I’m using a VPN?

A VPN encrypts our traffic and hides our real location, but that’s not the whole story. It’s vital to avoid suspicious links and verify website certificates before interacting with them or sharing personal data. Adding an antivirus to our setup that inspects downloads and detects trojans and other threats greatly enhances our protection.

What types of personal information should I protect most carefully?

Certain types of data are especially attractive to criminals. Bank and credit card information, social security numbers, and login credentials to other accounts are prime targets, as they allow for financial transactions, loan applications, or identity cloning on other platforms.

We should also pay special attention to protecting biometric data, medical records, and official documents that include birth dates or addresses.

What’s the most effective way to protect my identity from theft?

The most effective approach is to adopt a layered strategy: VPN, antivirus, and password manager, so that each tool covers a different area of our security. Combining encrypted connections with malware detection and strong credentials makes it much harder for an attacker to succeed. We can—and in many cases should—go further with two-factor authentication and dark web monitoring to react quickly to data leaks.

What are we waiting for to protect our digital environment?

With Avast SecureLine VPN, we encrypt our traffic, hide our IP address, and browse with peace of mind on any network—public or private. If we want maximum protection, we’ll combine it with Avast antivirus, which boosts our defenses against malware and phishing attacks.

Avast SecureLine VPN protects us from the very first click, without us even noticing, and supports Avast One in detecting threats and blocking malicious sites. This way, we cover all fronts and ensure our best security.