Here’s Why You Need a Business VPN

Are you aware that the Internet exposes you to millions of risks every time you use it? The Internet is home to many cyber threats and crimes. Cybercriminals lurk in every corner to find and exploit the vulnerabilities of users and corporate networks. With the increase in cloud-based applications which offer their services over the Internet, cyber crimes have increased drastically both in number and advancement. Especially in the last couple of years, data breaches have spiked up – causing corporations to lose millions or even billions of dollars. 

According to Statista, 15 million data breaches occurred with a 167 percent increase in the third quarter of 2022. Statistics also have shown that data breaches were the highest of all time in the last three months of 2020 with a concerning number of 125.74 million cases. This period coincides with the pandemic and the shift to the remote environment. Businesses were forced to shift their workforce to a remote model. And because companies couldn’t properly reinforce their security, cybercrimes directly targeted the new vulnerabilities at the time. That’s why data breaches reached an all-time high. 

Nowadays, the hybrid working model and cloud-based applications and services are the norms for most businesses. So, the network security of businesses incorporates the protection of these areas as well. Most businesses use VPNs and many other cybersecurity solutions to secure their networks and protect their personnel against threats. Business VPNs should be used as a protection layer for all corporations since they mitigate cyber risks. Let’s dive into business VPNs and their benefits in more detail. 

What is a Business VPN?

Before explaining business VPNs, we should understand what a virtual private network (VPN) is. A virtual private network refers to the technology that generates virtual servers and encrypted tunnels to connect endpoints or users to the Internet and public network. It is essentially a private tunneling server for secure data traffic and online browsing. VPNs hide the identity of users and devices and secure data transmission with end-to-end encryption. It routes users’ requests into a virtual server before connecting them to intended public servers, or simply the Internet. The main goal of virtual private networks is to make users’ identities harder to track. 

What a business VPN differs from is its usage purpose.  Business VPNs connect users, employees, and devices to internal corporate networks while commercial VPNs connect users to public networks across the Internet securely. Business VPNs enable employees to access the company resources, applications, and data on the corporate network securely. In other words, business VPNs are a tool for users to transfer data safely within the company network. Also, they enable employees to gain access to the internal network from their own devices remotely. Additionally, corporations can use business VPNs to interlink multiple office locations into a single shared network.

Business VPNs incorporate two types of connections: remote access VPN and site-to-site VPN. Remote access VPNs enable the remote workforce to transfer data and use company resources, data, and applications across the internal corporate network by generating secure tunnels and encrypting the data transmission with VPN protocols. This connection is ensured over public networks and remote access VPNs ensure all traffic is encrypted and sensitive information and data are protected. On the other hand, site-to-site VPNs enable multiple networks to ensure a permanent connection between each other. Site-to-site VPNs are used for unifying multiple office networks to ensure private data traffic over the Internet. With site-to-site VPN, every device can operate as if they are on the same local area network (LAN) while blocking outsiders. 

VPN tunneling protocols and methods can also vary with different solutions. In 2022, VPNs most commonly use tunneling protocols such as OpenVPN, SSTP, L2TP IKEv2, and Wireguard. Additionally, VPN split tunneling or full tunneling is used for ensuring encrypted connections in business VPNs. Businesses should pick or configure VPNs according to their own needs. 

Why Organizations Need a Business VPN 

Business VPNs offer various benefits ranging from reducing costs to improving security and productivity. The main goal of business VPNs is to enhance the security of networks and mask the identities of users. Business VPNs offer secure tunneling to protect your company assets against potential cyber threats over public networks. They encrypt data transmission and secure all connections. Also, companies can scan devices for malware with business VPNs. It reinforces the security of the internal corporate network and its perimeter – mitigating vulnerabilities against data breaches and cybercriminals. Overall security can save you millions of dollars with secured confidential data.  Data breaches extremely damage businesses both financially and reputationally. Data privacy can be a major issue in this case. Business VPNs are a prevention method against damaging cyber threats. Also, it can be used to stay compliant with security regulations. Because remote access VPN can restrict third-party access to private data. 

Virtual private networks are also affordable solutions that are independent of hardware and additional resources. They allow businesses to cut extra expenses and reduce the costs of maintaining a business VPN. 

Business VPNs enable employees to connect company network and transmit data from their devices anywhere with multiple private servers. So, employees working remotely can access company assets and applications anywhere they want — which in turn increases productivity. 

Business VPN can also prevent data throttling. Routing a large number of employee traffic through VPN causes bottlenecks and slow speed due to the amount of encryption needed. This can be solved by split tunneling. But the security of directly routed data traffic should be reinforced with other cybersecurity solutions to ensure protection and privacy. Also, internet service providers might restrain data consumption due to their limitations or certain internet activities. This causes bandwidth throttling and slowed down internet speeds. Business VPNs can bypass these inconveniences by hiding all traffic online even from ISPs.

Additionally, virtual private networks for businesses are highly scalable. Business VPNs enable companies to unify branch office networks and remote workers into a single network infrastructure. Therefore, network expansion is no longer an issue. Business VPNs provide securing network assets and encrypted tunneling no matter the business scale. Companies can quickly adjust and configure business VPNs.  

Final Remarks  

Note that VPNs also have limitations like any other software. But this doesn’t mean that VPNs are incompetent. VPNs are essential tools to secure all data traffic within your network over the Internet and ensure data privacy against potential cyber threats. Corporations must adopt a business VPN to protect their assets, applications, and data. The security of corporate networks should also be reinforced with other cybersecurity solutions and practices for keeping up with constantly improving cyber attacks.