Cyber crime is on the increase, with 39% of businesses and 26% of charities reporting security breaches or attacks. One well-known security weakness for IT systems is when remote users access company data or applications over public networks.
This is the default situation for many employees working from home, and the good news is that there is a very simple, effective, and low-cost way to minimise this security risk. Using a VPN.
What is a VPN?
A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a piece of hardware, software, or service that creates a secure connection to a business network over the public internet. It uses encryption to create a secure ‘tunnel’ between critical business servers and remote workers, stopping unauthorised access and prying eyes, even on public Wi-Fi networks.
Why are VPNs important for businesses?
With more and more people working remotely, company data rarely stays within office walls. Employees access systems from home networks, shared coworking spaces, or even public Wi-Fi, and every one of those connections creates a potential risk.
VPNs for businesses help close those gaps by securing every data transfer between remote users and your core systems. It means that sensitive company information, from financial data to client records, travels through an encrypted, private connection, rather than the open internet.
Beyond security, VPNs also support business continuity and compliance. They make remote access more reliable, protect intellectual property, and help organisations meet data protection standards such as GDPR or Cyber Essentials.
What protection do VPNs provide?
Using a VPN is all about ensuring that your company data is protected as it crosses global public networks.
There are three main ways in which a VPN protects your data:
1. Encryption
A VPN uses secure encryption to scramble your data, making it unreadable to unauthorised devices. This means that even if the network you were using was attacked, all the hackers would see would be a meaningless stream of ones and zeros. Your company data and information would remain secure.
2. Private tunnel
To add an additional level of protection, all the encrypted data is encased in a layer of secure packets, which create a private tunnel inside the public network. This helps shield even the encrypted data from unwanted interference.
3. Hides location and IP address
When you access the internet from a VPN, you do so via a gateway server, which hides your physical location and IP address. Internet service providers (ISPs) only know that a secure VPN connection was used. They cannot track a user’s activity.
Together, these three measures provide a must-have level of protection for any business that uses public networks to access proprietary data.
VPNs for business: What are the benefits?
A VPN is all about providing a layer of security to protect company data. Let’s look at four ways in which a good VPN will help protect your business.
1. Remote access
In an office environment, a business will have a firewall to help provide data security. There is an internal network to connect printers, share data, and access applications. But what about the remote worker? Home networks, and even worse, public Wi-Fi hotspots in places like coffee shops, are notoriously insecure and a haven for hackers. A VPN provides multiple layers of security to encrypt the connection between the remote worker and your office network, protecting your company data and online assets.
2. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
With smartphones, tablets, MacBooks, and PCs all widely available and able to access the internet, many companies support the use of an employee’s own device for remote working. The good news is that a VPN is device-agnostic. Windows, macOS, Linux? Android or Apple? Employees can connect securely to your network using a VPN, using whichever internet-enabled device they prefer.
3. Controlling access
A good VPN service allows a company to control the access a remote user has once they have securely connected. By identifying and authenticating a specific user as they log into the VPN, appropriate access levels to company data and systems can be granted.
4. Fighting Cyber-attacks
As well as encrypting data, a VPN can be used to block harmful content and only allow access to work-appropriate sites. This is particularly useful in reducing phishing attacks, where harmful program code, known as malware, can be unwittingly downloaded.
How do you get a VPN for your business?
Well, we can help with that.
Mintivo provides managed IT support with exceptional customer service and VPNs are very important to us! We offer help with cyber security as well as all aspects of network connectivity. If you would like to find out more about how we can help your business, including how to implement an appropriate VPN, please get in touch.
