Why businesses with remote workers should use VPNs
Posted 8th February 2021
For many businesses over the last 12 months, encouraging staff members to work remotely from home has seemed like the obvious choice to maintain business continuity. Some may have been able to furnish staff members with company laptops and tablets, others relying on team members to use their own devices. We can all agree that the initial decision to work remotely was one taken in an emergency, and as Oliver Cromwell once said, “Desperate situations require desperate remedies”.
However, many months into a crisis where people are still being encouraged to work from home, it’s vital that businesses are adopting VPN technology for all their remote workers.
A VPN is a virtual private network that provides privacy, anonymity, and protects data by creating a private network from a public internet connection. Aside from making online actions almost untraceable by masking IP addresses, VPN services also provide a private, encrypted connection which is safer and more secure than a standard password-protected Wi-Fi connection.
So, why should businesses be investing in a VPN?
For starters, it is the data owner’s responsibility to manage who, how, and when employees and third parties can access business data. A data breach, no matter where it happens can prove costly and can seriously impact on a company’s reputation.
Additionally, while you may have supplied your homeworkers with a laptop or tablet, you will probably not have provided business internet for them. They will undoubtedly be working on their home internet connection, the same one that their children use for their online gaming, the one that probably still has the default passwords and out of date firmware. The cost and time of installing business internet can be prohibitive, but a VPN can provide a cost-effective and secure way of ensuring that your data is safe and secure.
For companies considering Cyber Essentials accreditation or who are looking for public sector contracts, the use of a VPN can help to demonstrate compliance and can be used as evidence that you take cybersecurity seriously.
If your business is currently relying on remote workers or you are considering moving to encouraging your team to work from home, get in touch with us to discuss how a VPN can have a positive impact on your business’ operations.