An uncomfortable reality that many businesses have to worry about are data breaches, which are becoming much more frequent, but are also getting much craftier and more sophisticated; and the amount of data being compromised is increasing rapidly. Unfortunately, another uncomfortable reality is that most companies are completely unprepared to handle a data breach if they were to fall victim to one.
As data breaches are becoming more common by the day, it is imperative that businesses be proactive about their cybersecurity posture, and ensure that they are putting protective, and preventative measures in place before disaster strikes. One way of doing this is by using a Virtual Private Network (VPN), a VPN can be one of the most important tools that a company uses to protect itself from, and aid in preventing data breaches.
Think of a VPN as a hidden tunnel that you can take from one place to another
Essentially, a VPN connects two separated computers, or networks securely and privately over the Internet. In more technical terms, by using a suite of security protocols a VPN creates an encrypted tunnel between your device, and a remote server, or network. All your traffic is then routed through this secure tunnel, this allows for both the confidentiality and authenticity of the information that is being passed through the VPN tunnel, away from prying eyes.
Most importantly, all users, whether they are home users, startups, small, medium, and large businesses-stand to benefit from using a VPN. When it comes down to it, a VPN will secure your internet traffic and can minimize, and prevent data theft incidents.
The following are some of the more basic reasons your business can benefit from using a VPN:
- Enhanced Security: You may not think that your company will need a secure, private tunnel or remote access to the internal network. However, given the events of the last year due to the covid-19 pandemic, many businesses have had to resort to having their employees work remotely from home. In order for business operations to run as smoothly as possible, the employees will need to be able to access the same internal data, but from an external location. Or you (as many companies do nowadays) may have resources such as apps, data, or forms hosted externally in a cloud-based environment. Providing VPN access to your employees will guarantee that they not only have a secure way of connecting to your network, but a secure means for accessing internal resources, all the while ensuring that the data or other resources are intercepted in the process.
- Remote Workforce: As stated above, if the last year has proved anything, it’s that more of America’s workforce can do their jobs from home than previously thought. If your employees are working from different locations, how can you be sure that the network they’re using to connect to the company network is secure?
- Access Control: Without proper access control measures in place, the wrong people might get access or too much access to resources they shouldn’t, or on the other side of this, the people who need access to get the job done can’t do so because they lack the proper access. A VPN also acts as a sort of Access Control system by authenticating and authorizing users by evaluating their credentials, then verifying that the person is who they claim to be. Once they are authenticated, and then assigning the appropriate access levels and permissions associated with the users credentials.
SME offers The Nextwall™ Security Suite featuring VPN technology and we also implement and support security solutions from Cisco, Dell, Sophos, and more.
Nextwall™ VPN technology is engineered to provide secure Wide Area Network (WAN) connectivity to public and private enterprises, ensuring that only authorized users can access the network and that data cannot be intercepted.
SME provides fully managed security solutions including Firewalls, Virtual Private Networks, Remote Access and Intrusion Detection Systems. Each customized security solution is monitored 24x7x365 from our Secure Network Operations Center. For any IT/security related questions, please give us a call at 703-378-4110 or email info@smeinc.net.
