A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is an excellent tool for securing your company’s data and communications. It offers an end-to-end encryption tunnel that prevents hackers from intercepting and viewing your internet traffic.
When choosing a VPN, you should consider some critical criteria. These factors will help you find a provider that suits your needs and keeps your business safe.
Encryption
A VPN encrypts all data transfers over the internet, providing additional security. This enhanced protection protects data from being intercepted, analyzed, or used in ways that are not intended. It also provides a more secure and private connection for employees who work remotely or use personal mobile devices when on the go.
A business VPN can also be an effective way to secure ePHI (electronically protected health information) that may need to comply with HIPAA regulations. It ensures HIPAA compliance by allowing the business to restrict users from accessing ePHI and monitoring their activity.
In addition, a business VPN can be agnostic to devices and operating systems. It can be accessed from company-owned laptops, workstations, and employees’ mobile phones, ensuring that employee data is always safe and secure.
How to use VPN? Authentication, identification, and authorization are VPNs’ three main security methods. They prevent attackers, ad networks, and Internet service providers from intercepting and reading data. Moreover, data is encrypted in transit, and at rest, so it cannot be read or copied by non-authorized parties.
Another critical feature of business VPNs is the ability to provide responsive and helpful customer service. This can be especially useful if any issues arise with the system. It can help prevent potential problems from turning into disasters and allow you to resolve them quickly.
Privacy
Privacy is crucial for many businesses, as it is constantly under threat. With governments, internet providers, websites, and even your employer trying to figure out more about you, ensuring that the data and communications you share online remain private is essential.
Business VPNs help to keep your data safe by encrypting it before it goes out over the internet. This way, hackers and malware cannot decipher it and access your sensitive information.
A business VPN can be installed on either generic computer equipment or dedicated hardware optimized for the purpose. A small business may have the equipment on-site, while a larger one will outsource its VPN services to an enterprise service provider.
You should choose a business VPN that offers trustworthy no-logs policies and requires two-factor authentication on employee accounts. This is a crucial security aspect, meaning only authorized users can use the VPN.
A good business VPN should offer a fast network, strong encryption, a kill switch, ad and tracker blocking, and more for a fair price. NordLayer, for example, is a feature-packed VPN with huge reconfigurability, plenty of valuable tools and features, and a solid price tag. It also has a central dashboard that allows you to create and manage accounts, assign licenses, enforce policy rules, and browse detailed reports.
Accessibility
Accessibility is the ability to use technology or information in a way that works for everyone. Traditionally, accessibility was associated with people with disabilities. Still, it has become an inclusive design principle that benefits many users across different situations, devices, and environments.
A website that is accessible combines elements such as multisensory and interactive design to ensure that all users can access and benefit from the content presented on the page. This includes providing text alternatives to non-text content, offering alternative time-based media (such as images or audio), and making sure that information is displayed in a manner that all users can perceive.
In addition to ensuring that the content on a website is accessible, businesses should also consider how they can support their customers’ needs for accessible services. For example, businesses can provide a secure VPN that allows remote employees to use company intranets and email accounts from their home computers or mobile phones without compromising the corporate network’s security.
In many countries, governments have implemented various accessibility laws, and businesses need to understand these requirements to comply. For example, the United States has Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, which requires that all government information be accessible to people with disabilities. In addition, the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) has developed guidelines and resources that businesses can use to make their websites and content more accessible to people with disabilities.
Security
A VPN is a security tool that helps to protect your company’s data and communications from hackers. It encrypts all the data transferred through it so that unauthorized parties cannot read it. It also provides audit controls and network security.
It can also help to keep employees secure while they’re traveling. This is particularly important if they use public Wi-Fi networks offering internet access but no security to protect their information.
VPNs are widely used for cybersecurity, with the number of people using them surging by 124% in 2018. However, they have a few limitations.
One major drawback is latency penalties when employees use a cloud-based VPN. Another issue is that many business applications are now hosted in the cloud and must be compatible with most VPNs.
A third issue is that many VPNs are complex and require additional maintenance to stay up-to-date. These issues can create a recurring, ongoing cost for businesses.
While a personal VPN is generally low-maintenance, a business VPN needs a dedicated team to maintain the software and ensure it operates as expected. This could be someone in the IT department or a separate expert.
