Throughout this quarantine, many organizations have enabled remote work strategies. Along with this transition, most of our customers have been enabled with a Virtual Private Network or VPN.
These VPNs have been set up for users to access your internal resources. For many, there is still some confusion as to what exactly a VPN is and why they are so important for an organization to safely and securely enable remote workers.
In this article, we will focus on the basics of VPNs and why they are so critical to keeping your business safe.
But first, this week’s “deep thought” which was shared with us by one of our customers: “Turning up the volume on your TV is like ‘zooming in’… but with sound.”
Now for this week’s article: VPN Basics
What is a VPN?
A VPN is a private network that uses a public network (usually the internet) to connect remotes sites or users together.
The VPN uses virtual connections that are routed from a personal computer through the internet to connect a business’s IP subnets located on the company firewall. Any time a user in your organization is working remotely and has secure access to the company’s shared folders, a VPN is usually used.
What makes a VPN secure?
Security is a top priority for businesses that have remote employees.
Transferring data that is not over a VPN tunnel can be subject to hackers obtaining that information.
A VPN works by encrypting the data so that information cannot be intercepted while transmitting, especially over something like public wifi.
It also makes the data impossible to read without the encryption key, even if your data happens to be stolen.
What is split tunneling?
Split tunneling is when a personal computer is using both an encrypted VPN Tunnel and an Unsecured Network Connection. The advantage of having set up a connection this way is to limit the bottleneck that can occur when running all traffic through a VPN.
Most of the VPN tunnels set up by a managed service provider are only for connections within your organization. The unsecured network connection is used for personal tasks such as browsing the web or streaming online video service.
Even with a VPN, it is important to always practice safe browsing habits. A VPN does not always protect your web browsing traffic.
For questions or help establishing a VPN, please contact servicerequest@amdataservice.com. If you have your own Deep Thoughts you would like to share, let us know.