Unsettling fact: Data breaches and data loss has become more common than ever. With hackers and cybercriminals becoming more rampant and smooth at how they gain access to confidential data, the need to practice caution to the tenth degree has become even more necessary. Another somewhat off-putting fact is that many companies are completely unprepared for these kinds of attacks—even when they are becoming alarmingly common by the day.
That being said, businesses must invest in professional quality cybersecurity mechanisms and make sure to set up countermeasures for incidents of data breaches, theft, and other cyberattacks. This will protect the integrity of the company’s data and save businesses millions in data recovery and damage management costs.
A VPN service or a Virtual Private Network is an easy yet powerful solution to fill in the gaps for security vulnerabilities and provide a robust framework that prevents data breaches. It does this by completely masking your IP address and routing your internet traffic through a remote, secure server, using a pseudo-IP address.
This helps maintain your anonymity and privacy while at the same time encrypting your communication with the internet to exponentially decrease the chances of hackers finding their way into your data. If you own a small business, a better option is to subscribe to a VPN for small businesses. Let’s talk a little more about what a VPN for small businesses is and does.
What is a business VPN—VPN for small businesses
Traditional consumer-oriented VPNs and VPNs for small businesses work in a very similar fashion; both mask a device’s IP address and encrypt its communication with the internet. What differentiates them is the way that they are used.
A VPN for small businesses or a business VPN connects teams to their company’s internet network. In contrast, a commercial VPN service connects a user to the internet via a remote server with a pseudo-IP address. In a B2B VPN for a small business setup, every person on the team can use a single VPN subscription—these are built for multiple users.
5 Reasons your small business needs a VPN
Now that we know a little about VPN for small businesses let’s move on towards finding out how these work and why your business might need one.
Security
One of the top reasons for using a VPN for small businesses is that it is a great way to secure your data, especially when it comes to confidential files, reports, customer data, and other information that is only meant for authorized eyes. By subscribing to a VPN for small businesses, you essentially add a layer of security around all your business operations because any connected device can use the VPN and become part of a private and secure network.
These devices can range from standard consumer devices like cell phones, laptops, or cameras, to professional operational tools and industrial equipment. By loading up your online security using a VPN, you can keep prying eyes and hackers at bay from sensitive data by forming a private network to facilitate secure business communication.
Remote Teams
In 2020, the business and the corporate world experienced a massive shift where 90% of the business operations, big and small, were moved completely to an online model to adhere to the COVID-19 SOPs and help deal with the health crisis better.
This led to many employees and whole teams working from their homes which even though convenient, leaves a lot of room for security breaches because they are no longer connected to your office network.
Workplaces generally have a private network that is secure to access, transfer data, communicate and connect to IT resources. These benefits no longer apply when you’re working from home because you’re not connected to the network. A business VPN or a VPN for small businesses means that you can now connect to your office network right from the comfort of your home and enjoy the same security.
Network Security and secure file sharing
Sharing confidential files involves some level of risk, especially if this file-sharing it not being done over a private network. Hackers, snoopers, and cybercriminals have devised highly advanced and dubious ways to get into users’ data, access unauthorized information and benefit from exploiting it.
A business VPN, especially a VPN for small businesses, makes it easy and safe to share files with other employees. Most VPN solutions for small businesses come with settings and customizable controls to resist access and files to certain personnel. This feature is called “access control.” Its works by authenticating and authorizing users by evaluating their credentials, such as their usernames, email addresses, and even IP addresses.
Once a user has been confirmed as authorized, access is granted, and the user can then access the necessary files without the risk of them getting hacked.
Bypass Geo-restrictions
If you’ve ever tried to load up a site only to see an error that it is not available in your region, you know what geo-restrictions look like. These are set up to restrict site access to chosen and specified regions only. Anyone living outside these specific regions will be barred from accessing these sites.
This happens for many reasons; sometimes, the website wants to remain exclusive to a particular or audience group. Other times the content of the site starts clashing with the laws and censorship policies of the country, yet other times, these restrictions are placed because of purely legal and political issues.
Since the primary function of a VPN is to mask the IP address of your device and make sure that the entirety of your online activity is anonymous and private, this gives you the added benefit of bypassing geo-restrictions. This means that even if a particular site is blocked in your region, a VPN service for business will let you get around those restrictions by letting you pose as though you’re from a country where the site can give you an unrestricted browsing experience.
Cost-effective VPN solution
Cybersecurity is costly. It takes a lot of money to create and maintain a secure online infrastructure. Creating a secure customized infrastructure from scratch is not only expensive and time-consuming, but it also needs regular maintenance.
One thing that makes business VPNs such a good solution, especially for small businesses, is that it is cost-effective and doesn’t need major maintenance while still promising robust online security. This completely takes the development, network setup and even monitoring off your plate so you can focus on your business thoroughly and trust the VPN to do its job all on its own.
Final words
It’s no secret, and it’s no longer safe to get away with traditional online security methodology, like avoiding certain websites and running regular virus checks. A VPN solution for business, especially a VPN for small businesses, has become a need of the hour to protect against potentially irreversible data losses worth millions of dollars.
If you’re looking to give your team secure remote access, subscribe to a PureVPN business today plan today and enjoy a safe and stress-free remote working methodology.