If you or your employees work remotely, use a VPN to keep sensitive work information confidential.
Cybersecurity is a crucial part of any modern work environment. But if you’re a remote worker, you’re probably responsible for your own web connection.
Read ahead to learn how a VPN can secure everything you do online, increase your connection speed and even get you deals on things like flights to the central office!
The Dawn of Remote Working
Our parents and grandparents all clocked in at brick-and-mortar offices, but our generation is increasingly working from home. A recent CNN article revealed that 3.9 million Americans worked remotely at least half the time in 2015. That’s a huge increase over 2005, when only about 1.1 million members of the U.S. workforce worked outside a physical office.
The trend is clear: remote work is the future. And really, with near-universal and easy access to laptops, smartphones, videoconferencing, cloud storage and the like, is it any wonder more people are working from home?
However, remote work still comes with its own set of hurdles. It’s not just about clear communication and keeping your team on track. Because remote work relies almost entirely on the Internet, it’s crucial to keep your connection secured – which is where a VPN comes in handy.
Four Important Reasons to Use a VPN
Here are a few problems you might encounter as a remote worker – and how a VPN can help resolve them.
1. Secure Your Home Internet Connection
At the office, you probably have a CTO or other cybersecurity professional managing your company’s online defenses. But when you’re working from home, you might not be under your company’s security umbrella. Without support from your central office, you may in fact be operating over an unencrypted connection or via unencrypted sites and mail clients.
If you are operating over an unsecured connection, all of your online activity – your emails, your uploads/downloads and your search history – may be visible to outsiders. Those outsiders could include business competitors, government agencies or anyone else looking to get inside information about you or your company.
To prevent this kind of snooping, activate a VPN when you’re working remotely. It will encrypt all of your online activity, no matter what sites you visit and what apps you use.
2. Stay Safe on Public Wi-Fi
One of the great things about remote work is that you can clock in from anywhere – the world is your home office if you want it to be! And it’s all thanks to the public Wi-Fi networks you can find everywhere from coffee lounges to train stations to hotel rooms to libraries.
The problem with these public Wi-Fi networks is that they’re almost always unsecured. That means any of your unencrypted online activity – communications, uploads and downloads, purchases – is visible to anyone else on the network who cares to look.
And unfortunately, monitoring public Wi-Fi is the easiest way for snoopers to track what you’re doing online – they might as well be standing over your shoulder.
Snoopers can even set up fake Wi-Fi hotspots that look like legitimate public networks but are really under their full control – meaning they can track your browsing history, your web searches, your emails and your downloads while you’re connected.
Fortunately, once you’ve activated your VPN account, everything you do online is completely encrypted, keeping anyone from snooping in on your company’s private business on any network.
3. Prevent ISP Throttling
One thing that makes remote work possible is VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) apps and video conferencing. However, these forms of communication – especially video chats like Skype or Hangouts – can be very data-intensive. On low-bandwidth connections, it can be a challenge to keep up with the conversation.
If you’re experiencing these troubles, it might be because of the mischievous ISP practice known as “bandwidth throttling.” In short, ISPs often choke off the bandwidth of customers who are using what they view as “too much” Internet at once. This is because it’s much easier for ISPs to restrict users if, for instance, they detect they’re streaming video than to invest in their own bandwidth capacity.
With the complete encryption that a VPN like SaferVPN provides, your ISP won’t have any idea what you’re doing online. That means they won’t be able to limit your bandwidth based on the type of activity you’re doing – e.g., videoconferencing, streaming movies, etc.
4. Get Cheaper Flight Tickets and Rental Cars
Let’s face it: Sometimes your team will need to get together face-to-face. Whether it’s for a conference, a strategy session or a meeting with a client, you might need to make travel arrangements.
Needless to say, that can be expensive. So, if you are making cross-country or international travel plans, it’s worth using a VPN to search for better deals on flights.
Essentially, the trick is taking advantage of “price discrimination.” Travel companies frequently offer different prices to different people based on their assessment of their ability to pay big bucks. For example, if their online profile of you says you’re wealthy, they might jack up the price. But if you’re from what they view as a “poorer” country, those same airlines might offer you a lower fare.
To take advantage of price discrimination, all you have to do is change your IP address so you’re located in one of these “poorer” countries. Here’s how easy it is to do:
This trick can also work to get you deals on hotels and even rental cars – and if you can find them, they’re well worth the small cost of using a VPN!
How to Get Started with a VPN
We’ve touched on these benefits above, but just so you have them in one place, here are some of the things a VPN does for you as a remote worker:
- It encrypts all of your online activity.
- It shields your private web activity on public Wi-Fi connections.
- It prevents your ISP from spying on you or throttling your connection.
- It helps you get deals on flights, hotels and rental cars.
To take advantage of all these benefits and more, you can get started with a VPN today either by signing up for a SaferVPN trial or subscription. Just download our app and secure your work Internet connection today!
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