Are you worried about your company’s data being compromised in a cyber attack? If so, having a rock-solid virtual private network (VPN) solution in place has quickly become a business imperative. A VPN creates an encrypted tunnel for your internet traffic, protecting your business from data breaches, hacks, and other online threats. And in a world where cyberattacks are growing year on year, you’re going to need all the help you can get to keep these threats at bay.
In this guide, you’ll learn the importance of using a VPN for your business, how to choose the right one for you, and step-by-step instructions for setting it up properly. By the end, you should know everything you need to secure your devices and drastically minimize the risk of an incident.
Understanding the Importance of a VPN for Business Security
So, what is a business VPN, and why should you care so much about getting one for your company? Let’s break down a few of the biggest benefits.
Safeguarding Sensitive Data
The main objective of a VPN is to protect all of the data that your company handles, such as:
- Customer personal information (names, emails, physical addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, etc.)
- Employee personal information (Social Security numbers, bank account details, medical history, etc.)
- Company financial information
- Intellectual property like proprietary code or unfinished patents
Without a VPN, this kind of sensitive data can potentially be intercepted and accessed when it’s transmitted over public Wi-Fi networks or the open internet. A VPN puts your data inside an encrypted tunnel so hackers can’t read it even if they intercept the transmissions.
Enabling Secure Remote Access
Thanks to the work from home (WFH) revolution, employees today often need to access company databases and shared drives beyond the office walls. A VPN lets traveling or remote employees connect securely into the business network from anywhere using an encrypted connection.
This allows them to safely access internal apps, servers, and files when working remotely. It essentially extends your private work network out over the public internet. Without VPN encryption, these transmissions are vulnerable to hackers who can intercept them through any public wifi that an employee may log in from, such as a cafe, airport, or coworking lounge.
Bypassing Geo-Restrictions
Some websites restrict content based on geographic location, preventing users from accessing them when traveling internationally. A VPN can get around these restrictions by masking your real location and IP address. This is useful for employees who need to access restricted sites and apps necessary for their jobs while working abroad.
Ensuring Compliance
Depending on your industry, you may have regulatory compliance issues to consider around transmitting and storing sensitive data (like HIPAA for healthcare companies or PCI DSS for businesses handling credit cards). Not only does using a business VPN show regulators you’re making a good faith effort to keep data secure, but it gives you an extra layer of protection even if your network transmissions do somehow become compromised.
Choosing the Right VPN for Your Business
The VPN market is crowded with lots of providers and technologies to evaluate. So what factors should you be focusing on when trying to narrow down your search? Here are a few criteria to focus on:
Security Features
This should be priority number one – the entire purpose of a VPN is security and privacy, after all. Here are the key features to look for:
- Military-Grade Encryption: With the rise of more sophisticated cyber attacks, AES 256-bit encryption is essential for securing your data. Anything less than this may leave you exposed.
- VPN Protocols: Look for support of OpenVPN, WireGuard, IKEv2, or IPSec. OpenVPN with UDP is a great combo for speed and security. Encrypted SSTP and L2TP protocols work well for bypassing firewalls, too.
- Advanced Security Features: Leak protection, port forwarding, kill switches, and private DNS. All of these help to boost your protection and privacy – so be sure to highlight the features that are important to you.
- No Connection Logs: To prevent user activity tracking, the VPN must enforce a strict no-logs policy on all servers. They should not record which sites users visit or what data gets transmitted.
- Pricing: As with any service, you usually get what you pay for. While there are some free VPN services available, such as Chrome extensions, they do not provide the level of protection that a business would typically require. Look for a balance of features and affordability.
Server Network Size and Location
The more servers a VPN offers around the world, the faster and more reliable it will be:
- Number of Servers: Look for VPNs with enough servers to route your traffic through. This allows picking geographically close servers for better speeds.
- Number of IP Addresses: An IP address pool in the tens of thousands ensures you get a unique randomized IP to mask your identity during each VPN session.
- Server Locations: For consistent speeds, find a network with servers in across the locations that are most relevant to you.
Simultaneous Connections
See how many devices or connections can use the VPN simultaneously across your organization:
- Per Account Limits: Many VPNs limit the number of active connections you can have to 5-10 devices per user account, which can hamper larger teams. See if the provider offers options for more in their enterprise or custom plans.
- Unlimited Connections: Some VPNs place no caps on simultaneous device connections, making it simpler to roll out organization-wide without needing to track licenses.
Performance Optimization
Make sure the VPN offers tools to optimize speed and reliability:
- Bandwidth Throttling: This feature allows capping VPN download/upload speeds to prevent the VPN from hogging all available bandwidth. Helpful in offices.
- Split Tunneling: Allows routing only select apps through the VPN tunnel while other traffic goes outside the tunnel. Prevents VPN overload.
Step-by-Step Guide to Implementing a VPN for Your Business
With attention to those areas around security, network footprint, device support, speeds, and features, you can zero in on the top VPN providers, like VPNLY, suitable for your business use case. Once you’ve selected a reputable VPN service that fits your criteria, here is the implementation process to securely set it up:
Install the VPN Software
First, download and install the desktop and mobile apps for the VPN service on all company devices and computers that employees use to access internal systems, data, or intranet resources remotely. This includes laptops, desktops, smartphones, and tablets.
Most reputable providers have native apps for all major platforms like Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. Once installed, the VPN software is ready to use on each device with employee credentials at any time secure remote connections are needed.
Configure the VPN Settings
Diving into the app’s settings is essential because you can customize and tweak various security configurations to your particular needs and preferences. While the apps typically auto-configure suitable default settings, it’s recommended you adjust the following based on best practices.
The first thing you need to do is choose the fastest and most secure protocol for your connections. Second, verify that AES 256-bit encryption is selected since this cryptography is strong enough to prevent data transmission from being compromised even by state-level attackers.
After that, ensure any leak protection features in the app are enabled – at minimum, having DNS, IPv6, and kill switch leak protection turned on prevents some known vectors for VPN leaks. Finally, add in a selection of VPN server locations around the world to connect through based on where your offices and remote employees are located. Having multiple geographically diverse options reduces latency.
The goal with the settings is to maximize both speed and security globally for all your connections. Tweaking these configuration details only takes a few minutes and can meaningfully enhance performance and protection once applied across all the VPN installs business-wide.
Connect to the VPN
Now it’s time to actually connect to the VPN. Just follow the instructions through the app, select your server, and connect to the one you prefer. Most apps indicate an encrypted VPN connection has been established and can display the new virtual IP address assigned from the service provider’s servers to replace your public IP address.
The changeover of IP address is key – this is how you know your traffic is now being routed through the encrypted VPN tunnel, and all communications are secured end-to-end. As long as employees only access company data and systems when connected via the VPN app with credentials entered, everything remains protected by the encryption protocols you set up.
Educate Your Employees
Okay, those are the technical details taken care of. Next, the important part – making sure your employees actually use the VPN. Take time to create a short and simple how-to guide, cheat sheet, or internal wiki page for employees clearly explaining:
- What a VPN is
- Why it’s important for them to use it
- Instructions for installing and connecting to the VPN app on all devices they use for work
- Recommendations for when to connect to the VPN (any time they access internal systems or data remotely)
- Troubleshooting tips in case of problems connecting
This VPN usage guide should be integrated into onboarding training for new hires as well, so from day one, they understand the policies around remote access and the importance of staying secure. Periodic refreshers on the VPN policies are another good idea, as well as in company meetings or internal newsletters.
You want the entire workforce to instinctively connect to the VPN whenever they access company data rather than cutting corners for convenience. This is especially important when using public WiFi networks. Otherwise, you undermine all the effort put into setting up the VPN in the first place.
Regularly Update the VPN Software
Staying current on software updates is good IT practice in general, but particularly important for your business VPN apps on all devices. There can be crucial security fixes and enhancements in newer versions that keep your connections hardened against the latest threats.
Fortunately, most quality VPN providers automatically push app updates in the background by default. But double-check this is enabled for your company’s VPN apps across all platforms. If not, enable auto-updates centrally, however possible, through your device management solution.
As a backup, have your IT administrator intermittently check that all devices are running the latest VPN app releases and manually trigger any lagging installs to update. Keeping the VPN software regularly refreshed helps maximize security.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this guide gave you clarity on the importance of protecting your business with a virtual private network. Following the seven implementation steps and security best practices covered will help securely connect your company’s distributed workforce.
Research providers, find the right VPN plan for your budget and user count, install the apps across devices, configure settings appropriately, train employees, monitor usage, and stay vigilant. That’s the formula for reducing the risk of damaging data breaches.
Your business data and systems contain highly sensitive information entrusted to you by customers and employees. It’s your responsibility to handle it securely in today’s era of constant threats. A properly configured VPN provides the encryption and access controls you need to lock things down.
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