What Is a VPN and Should Your Small Business Be Using One?
The Question Worth Taking Seriously
If you have employees who work remotely, connect to your business systems from outside the office, or use public wifi at any point during their workday, the question of whether your business should be using a VPN is worth answering deliberately. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, and while the term gets thrown around a lot, the practical question for a small business is straightforward: are you protecting the connection between your employees and your business data when they’re not in the office?
What a VPN Actually Does
A VPN creates an encrypted tunnel between a device and a destination network. When an employee connects to your business network through a VPN, the data traveling back and forth is encrypted so that anyone intercepting that traffic sees scrambled information they can’t use. Without a VPN, data sent over an unprotected network connection, like a hotel wifi or a coffee shop hotspot, can potentially be intercepted by someone else on the same network. A business VPN also means that when an employee connects remotely, they appear to be on your internal network even though they’re physically somewhere else, allowing them to access shared drives and internal applications without those resources being exposed directly to the internet.
Consumer VPNs vs Business VPNs
Consumer VPN services like the ones advertised for personal privacy online are designed to mask your internet traffic and change your apparent location. They’re not designed to give remote employees secure access to your business network, and using one for that purpose creates security gaps rather than closing them. A business VPN solution is configured to connect remote users specifically to your business network with appropriate access controls, logging, and authentication requirements. It’s managed by your IT environment rather than a third-party service, and it gives you visibility into who is connecting, when, and from where.
When a VPN Is Necessary
If all of your employees work exclusively in the office and none of your business systems are accessed remotely, your need for a VPN is minimal. But for most businesses today, some degree of remote access has become a normal part of operations, and in those situations a VPN is a basic security requirement. VPNs are also important if your business handles sensitive data including client information, financial records, health information, or any data subject to regulatory requirements, since transmitting that data over unprotected connections creates liability that a properly configured VPN eliminates.
What Can Go Wrong With a Poorly Configured VPN
A VPN that was set up in a hurry, configured incorrectly, or never maintained can create a false sense of security. If the VPN doesn’t require multi-factor authentication, a stolen password is all an attacker needs to connect to your internal network through it. If the VPN software is outdated and unpatched, it becomes a known vulnerability that attackers actively look for and exploit. This is why a VPN isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it solution. It needs to be maintained, monitored, and reviewed regularly. If you’re not sure how your employees are currently accessing your systems remotely or whether that access is appropriately secured, a free assessment is a good starting point.
Securing remote access to your business systems is one of the things we handle so you don’t have to think about it. Glitch Technology provides managed IT services and computer support in Jacksonville, IL. We take full ownership of IT environments for small businesses and municipal organizations through proactive monitoring, preventative maintenance, and strategic planning.