The acronym VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. It is a network technology that uses the internet to connect computers and keep the data between them secure.
In a typical scenario, when you connect to the internet and browse websites, download materials and send documents by email, your device is identified by its IP number, and much of your data (excluding the most sensitive) travel openly and can be intercepted by providers or malicious software. With a private network, data is encrypted, the user is protected, and cannot be easily identified.
This technology is used by people who mainly want to ensure navigation privacy and restricted access content.
How does a VPN work?
Surfing the internet without a VPN connects you to your ISP (Internet Service Provider) server, which in turn connects you to the website of your choice. This means that all your internet traffic activity goes through the provider, and the provider may or may not apply to monitor your actions. However, when you browse through a VPN, your traffic uses an encrypted “tunnel.” This means it is not accessible to anyone but you and the VPN server.
Examples of VPN Uses
By itself, a VPN only helps to increase data security and access resources on a network that you are not physically connected to. However, let’s list here some usage examples of how a user typically uses it:
- Collaborator/Employee: uses the VPN provided by the company when at home or traveling to access resources on the local network;
- To maintain privacy: This type of user always thinks they are reading what he sends or receives. Therefore, to have a secure and encrypted communication, away from prying eyes, this profile uses a VPN connection;
- Streaming: services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime provide different content for each country, according to their language and customs. Therefore, this traveling user has a VPN connection with the country of origin to access their preferred content.
Advantages and Benefits of VPN
Information security
The main advantage for a user who uses VPN is undoubtedly the increase in information security when there is a need to travel sensitive data between branches or employees who work remotely and access data on the local network.
Increased Privacy of Virtual Meetings
By using streaming solutions through a VPN, users gain more performance and speed while ensuring the privacy of accessed and transmitted content.
In other words, during a virtual meeting, for example, the VPN encrypts the transmission, which prevents unauthorized people from accessing it. This also helps to decongest traffic, preventing crashes or slow sending of images and sounds.
Increased productivity
The peace of mind to work without worrying about so many security issues makes employees/users focus only on what matters, and consequently, their productivity increases. For this reason, VPN can be a great ally in corporate environments.
Mobility
With VPN, a user/company can secure access to internal network resources, such as documents or software, to any employee or customer anywhere in the world. With this mobility benefit, we proved previous advantages such as safety, reduced travel costs, and increased productivity.
Protection against attacks and ransomware
Today, there are many ways to access corporate data and systems. It is possible, for example, to operate solutions on the web. However, some techniques need to release a port to the internet, which happens to be one of the vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit.
When using a VPN, users have numerous security criteria associated with authentication and encryption. Thus, they increase the guarantees that malicious people and machines do not monitor, steal and damage important business information.
Conclusion
We hope that with this article, you can understand how VPN works and how it can be helpful for you. There is still a lot of information that can complement your study on this subject. However, this technology becomes more and more necessary today, where we face security and productivity problems.
What are the most valuable benefits for you using VPN services? Let us know in the comment section below!