What is a VPN and What Does it Do? Does My Smart Phone Need One?

Amidst the backdrop of our worldwide health emergency, hackers have increasingly breached the data of thousands of small to midsized businesses. Additionally, the increased remote access work environment has given hackers many new vulnerable endpoints through which to breach SMB networks. As a result, many layers of cyber security are now required to ensure your data is safe from wherever it is accessed. Whether employees are working from home or while traveling, businesses must do all they can to reduce the risk when data is accessed beyond the walls of their home office.

What Is a VPN? Is VPN Secure?

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is your anonymous network within your network. Here's how it works:

• First, your Internet data is encrypted and sent to a VPN server.
• Your IP address, identity, and location are instantly hidden by the VPN server and replaced by a VPN IP address that might be located in another city or another country.
• Upon receiving your data traffic, the VPN server further encrypts your data, creating a secure and practically invisible virtual private network.
• Wherever your employees are working at home, in a train station, airport or on a mountaintop, anywhere they can connect to a WiFi signal, they can hide their online activities by logging in to their secure Virtual Private Network. It is their own private "internet tunnel," allowing them to access your company's private network safely and incognito. All data traffic is encrypted when sent and decrypted when received. Cybercriminals attempting to break into the VPN "tunnel" will not be able to decipher the data and will only see gibberish.

Your Smartphone Needs a VPN

Today's VPNs are all about mobility. An unprotected smartphone (or any connected device) is an invitation to a cyberattack. The privacy and security benefits afforded by a VPN remove much of the risk associated with remote work. Your VPN's virtual anonymity hides your location, IP address, identity and all your online activities. Also, employees can securely share files with confidence, knowing that their data is secure.

Many users now use their smartphones and tablets as minicomputers on the go, performing banking, eCommerce, research and other activities. Beyond the obvious security benefits of a VPN, other novel features include:

• Backdoor Pass – Because a VPN disguises your location and identity, you can access restricted websites, filters, firewalls, and links, while traveling in countries with website restrictions. Your VPN offers the user many blacked-out events and discounts, which might be restricted in other countries. The process is entirely legal and no one can track the user's online activities. For example, your company might show a server "vpn nyc," although you are actually connecting from a hotel lobby in London.
• Secure Streaming – VPN security will not allow anyone to access a user's browsing or streaming history.
• Affordability – A remote-access VPN is cost-effective. Cost control is vital to SMBs. VPN small business packages are relatively inexpensive, especially considering the strong layer of cyber security they afford. VPNs significantly reduce the risk to SMB network data accessed remotely. This factor is particularly important for high compliance companies such as medical and legal practices. Knowing that your network is secure when accessed remotely is well worth the expense.

Case Study

The Sales Manager for a small Pennsylvania tech company was waiting for his flight at the airport. The flight was delayed, so he went to a business lounge to relax and work while waiting. The manager didn't give much thought to the security issues related to using the lounge's public WiFi. After all, it was a small airport and his company had a low profile. So why would anyone try to hack him? In the course of his work, he forwarded, via email, proprietary sales projections and internal updates about new products in the company's R&D pipeline. Unbeknownst to him, a local hacker, waiting for anyone to log on to the airport public WiFi, was alerted to the sales manager's insecure connection and was ready to intercept and hack into it. Much of the proprietary information was leaked to the industry press one month later. Also, several of the company's competitors announced new projects, suspiciously like the new products detailed in the manager's hacked email. One mistake cost the company much of its competitive edge and the sales manager lost his job.

VPNs for Companies

With a more than 400% increase in cybercrimes since the pandemic, small businesses should not wait for a cyberattack to address their network's cyber defenses. Each new device added to a network creates a potentially vulnerable endpoint. Every device you add to your business network widens the target landscape for hackers. Therefore, it has become essential to employ cyber security experts to provide a thorough cyber risk analysis of your entire system and network to ensure you have appropriate protections in place. A secure VPN is just one of the many layers required to reduce the risk of cyberattacks.

DIGIGUARD Cyber Security Specializes in VPNs and Many Other Layers of Cyber Protection

DIGIGUARD, specializing in preventing cyber threats, has a wide array of solutions to protect against cybercrimes. Securing remote access endpoints and VPNs is only part of the cyber protection process. DIGIGUARD works with small and midsized businesses to establish company-wide cyber security best practices to ensure their confidential data has the best protection possible and that all network users are on the same page. Many companies, bound by strict compliance and privacy laws such as law firms, medical practices and financial service institutions, cannot afford data breaches of any kind. But, for any business, cyberattacks can have devastating consequences. DIGIGUARD can assess your cyber risks and collaborate with you to ensure you have the best protection solutions in place that have been customized for your small business.

Call DIGIGUARD CYBER SECURITY at 833-33-CYBER (833-332-9237) and visit www.DIGIGUARDsecurity.com to start protecting your company's data, wherever you or your company employees might be working.