Sponsored post by Lenneke den Hertog
The pandemic has brought about a real shift in how businesses operate. This has, in turn, created new challenges as employees work from home, something that has boosted the need for employee engagement services such as Effectory.
But apart from the need to adapt, the shift in business dynamics has led to more security issues than ever for businesses. The year 2020 broke all records when it comes to the number of breaches, amount of data lost, and the general number of attacks on companies.
This has led to the need to adopt new security measures that not only focus on the corporate network but also on individuals. One of the most popular has been the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).
What is a VPN?
An online security tool that encrypts data and then transmits it through a secure tunnel to a server of choice. This new server then transmits the traffic to the internet, and the traffic assumes the server’s identity. And a result, your public IP address is changed, and you gain a new online identity.
The encryption process is key to data security as it ensures that no hackers, governments, or other snoops can intercept the data in transit.
The change of IP address, on the other hand, provides anonymity.
How your business can benefit from using a VPN?
As social distancing became an everyday word, big businesses had to formulate new policies that allow employees to work remotely, while at the same time trying to improve the employee engagement index.
However, remote work means that employees use public networks to access company resources. These networks are a haven for hackers as they are often insecure, and so company data can be easily intercepted.
A VPN helps prevent this by encrypting all data transmitted from the employee’s device. This encryption means the data can’t be intercepted or snooped on during transmission. Further, it prevents all malicious connections made to the employee’s device.
A boost to corporate security
Corporate security is always expensive, and it can be hard staying up to date, especially if your business runs on many systems. This means that you need to boost your standard security infrastructure by securing all data in transit and preventing malicious external connections.
The encryption provided by a VPN ensures that all data stays within a secure tunnel. And apart from hackers not being able to decrypt your data, they also can’t target the network. This is because most hacks start with network scanning and targeting of IP addresses, which a VPN effectively prevents. You can set up the VPN at the router level to secure the whole network.
Geographic independence
To boost security in your company, you need to set up controlled access through an IP address. A VPN lets you do this through a dedicated IP address. When a user connects to the VPN, they will be assigned the whitelisted IP address, and they can securely access company resources from anywhere in the world.
Low setup and maintenance cost
Unlike security infrastructures that tend to cost a lot to acquire and maintain, you don’t need much to get a VPN up and running. A VPN comes as a service that you can implement on your existing infrastructure, and so all you need is a subscription. You can then set up the VPN on your existing router.
Some VPNs offer business solutions that let you set up your own server, but you still won’t be tasked with the whole setup and maintenance process. This means that you can easily boost your company security without disrupting your security posture or requiring a huge budget increase.
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