Top Business Benefits of VPNs

President Donald Trump’s recent decision to overturn moves by the Obama administration to stop Internet service providers (ISPs) from selling everyone’s browsing data to advertisers and other third parties has re-opened the Internet privacy debate.

The development adds to existing concerns over hackers using fake access points and session hijacking to access sensitive data.

The risk of exposing company data to the hidden dangers of web surfing are enough to make any executive paranoid.

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) provides an encrypted connection for remote network access.

This is a very effective way for businesses and individuals to prevent outsiders from intercepting sensitive data. Below are some top business benefits of VPN.

Most companies routinely send, collect and store personal information relating to their customers.

Often, the first indication of a serious data breach is when personally identifiable information (PII) starts appearing on public websites.

Over the past 12 months, millions of hacked personal records taken from the databases of major online companies such as Yahoo or FriendFinder have shown the threat of cybercriminals stealing PIIs is a very real one.

Companies can help reassure customers their personal data is in safe hands by letting it be known that employees use VPNs every time they connect remotely to the network.

Mobile working is a standard part of modern business life.

As an employer, mobile connectivity to the company network brings such advantages as improved collaboration, faster decision making and greater responsiveness.

A VPN provides peace of mind that even highly sensitive company information can be exchanged securely.

Even if they are out on the road for long periods at a time and have to rely on public Wi-Fi for remote network connectivity, employees can continue to work safe in the knowledge that the VPN is encrypting the communications and hiding the content from any prying eyes that might be watching.

A VPN’s ability to anonymize its IP address enables the user to navigate around any local restrictions that governments may put in place as a way to control access to Internet content.

Therefore, a worker from the U.S. traveling abroad can substitute the local IP address with one from a server in the USA.

This allows employees to continue to work and connect with the office or use locally restricted websites because they appear to be located in the USA and outside local national constraints.

This is also true when working in countries with a bad reputation for cyber attacks or phishing.

For example, some firms have taken a policy decision to treat all communications originating from Nigeria – a country closely associated with email scams - as spam.

Using a VPN, it is possible to ensure emails, web posts, and other communications show the USA as country of origin.

Not many IT security products are as demonstrably versatile as VPNs.

They are equally capable at securing network or mobile communications as well as managing connectivity of complex, hybrid environments running on multiple operating systems.

VPNs are also extremely scalable.

A start-up that only needs basic VPN services need not spend more than $100 a year. However, as a company grows and its employees become more geographically dispersed, most professional VPN software solutions are readily able scale up to meet the most demanding of IT environments.

Topping the list of VPN virtues is its ability to prevent the risk of security breaches resulting from cyber attacks on data as its passes over remote network connections.

Statistics show attacks of this nature continue to grow in frequency. According to a new report, the number of data breaches in the United States jumped 29 percent to 791 in the first half of 2017, exposing about 12 million records that included banking information, credit card numbers, medical files and Social Security numbers.

A VPN shields a company and its workers when using public networks helping to reduce the chances that its data will be the target of a cyber attack.

In summary, recent political decisions have served to increase the likelihood that your ISP will seek to make a profit from business Internet activity – either through targeted advertising or selling the data to third parties.

Taken in conjunction with telecommuting and virtual offices causing more business to be carried out on unsecured public networks, it’s hardly surprising that companies are reviewing their Internet security strategy from a privacy perspective.

The privacy afforded by VPNs, combined with other qualities like flexibility, Internet freedom, productivity and customer reassurance, make VPNs a logical choice for any organization whose employees regularly connect remotely to the company via public networks.

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