How a VPN Enhances Secure and Efficient Remote Work in the Digital Era

In today’s digital era, remote work has become crucial to the relevance and survival of organizations in a highly competitive global market. Deploying software applications, collaboration tools, and other technological innovations, such as artificial intelligence (AI), into business processes has made employees’ productivity seamless and improved customer experience. 

Employees can now work from any location and time; the physical workplace and the 5-9 work model are no longer necessary; employees enjoy flexibility over working schedules. However, there is a catch to the flexibility employees enjoy; cybersecurity challenges have risen due to remote work. 

Organizations must enshrine cybersecurity best practices in their business processes to protect their remote workforce from cyberattacks and data compromise. Enhancing cybersecurity, the world’s best practice, brings the virtual private network (VPN) to the “front burner,” enhancing secure and efficient remote work in the digital era.

How a VPN works 

Collaboration is essential to optimal productivity among remote employees; the digital era leverages the Internet for smooth business operations. Employees constantly need to connect their devices to the internet to communicate with other devices on the organization’s network.

Any time an employee logs into the internet, the internet service provider (ISP) must assign an internet protocol (IP) address to the device to enable communication with other devices on the network. The ISP, hackers, and third parties can track an employee’s browsing history if they access the IP address; a VPN protects your sensitive information. 

VPN service providers abound in the global market; examples are 1Click VPN, Urban VPN, and Proton VPN; some can be free, while others can be paid versions. 1 Click VPN, for instance, enables a secure and encrypted connection between two devices over the internet. 

1 Click VPN routes internet traffic through a secure tunnel to a VPN server, depending on the employee’s location who wants to connect to the VPN. Any tracking by the ISP or any other prying eye ends at the server of the VPN; the VPN masks your original IP address and assigns another one to your device, different from that of the ISP. 

Looking at how a VPN facilitates secure remote work, some remote workers largely recourse to public Wi-Fi networks to access the internet. Public Wi-Fi networks are often unsecured; a hacker or interested third party can intercept the internet traffic between the employee’s device and the public Wi-Fi network. 

Hackers capitalize on the porous nature of the public Wi-Fi network to access the organization’s system and steal sensitive information, such as login credentials, credit card numbers, and personal data, or even compromise documents and files. Connecting to a VPN enables encryption of employees’ internet traffic; the encryption ensures that even if a hacker, government agency, or your ISP intercepts the traffic, it will be worthless and gibberish. 

Log encryption makes it difficult for hackers to steal sensitive information and ensures employees can work securely from any location. Your employees can also leverage a VPN to access company resources securely. 

Employees who work remotely often need to access company resources, such as files, databases, and internal applications. Organizations usually store these resources on their servers and protect them with firewalls or other security measures. 

Employees can access these resources securely once they connect to a VPN, like when they operate from the physical workplace and within the company’s network. Remote employees boost productivity by securely accessing all relevant resources and collaborating with colleagues on the Internet without fear of cyberattacks. 

Aside from enhancing the cybersecurity world’s best standards, a VPN enables efficient remote work; employees who work remotely may encounter slow internet speeds, which can hinder their productivity, as their internet traffic may need to travel a long distance to reach the company’s servers. However, connecting to a VPN with servers scattered in different locations through which they route employees’ internet traffic will eliminate the hiccup and ensure that employees can enjoy faster internet speeds, which can help them work efficiently. 

Another benefit of a VPN is allowing employees to bypass geo-restrictions. Some websites and governments geo-restrict content you can access, such as streaming services, social media platforms, and news websites. If you have employees who work remotely from a country that imposes restrictions on content, it won’t be easy for your employees to access such content without a VPN. 

Employees who connect to a VPN can bypass geo-restrictions and access the same content as their colleagues working from within the country. Bypassing geo-restrictions ensures employees access the same resources, regardless of operational base or region.

Conclusion

A VPN is a vital tool for remote workers in the digital era. It facilitates secure remote work and ensures that employees can work efficiently from any location. 

With the rise of remote work, VPNs have become “a must-have” for organizations that want to remain relevant in the global market and ensure employees are productive and secure.