Saturday, June 29, 2013

VPN...Keeping Us Secure


Wk 4 Blog

This week’s blog may seem a little different, but when it pertains to information security it’s always important.  This week is going to discuss a little about Virtual Private Networks or VPN’s as its commonly known as.

With the ever increasing expansion of the Internet and global business, accessing data remotely has also increased.  Consequently, the risk associated with accessing sensitive data has therefore increased, and the potential for stealing the data has risen as well.  One solution to help with protecting the data from remote locations is the use of VPN’s.  VPN’s are a secure way to exchange data over the Internet between the user and the system they are connected to.  Because the data exchanged is encrypted through a virtual tunnel, it’s nearly impossible to penetrate the tunnel and steal the data.  Furthermore, even if the tunnel is somehow compromised, the data is still encrypted.

VPN’s are a must for business travelers or anyone who works remotely, especially those that are using a public Wi-Fi connection.  In most cases these types of people need to have the capability to download large amounts of data and therefore need to have the confidence and assurance of knowing the data is protected from point to point; VPN’s offer the right type of protection at an affordable cost.

Keep in mind, as stated earlier, VPN’s are nearly impossible to penetrate, but they are not 100%.  For instance, they can’t protect a user from downloading malicious malware, opening an e-mail with a virus attached, or clicking on a fraudulent link.  Therefore, use VPN’s as another layer of security, as part of a bundled security suite.  Just like anything else, common sense and thinking before clicking are always good habits to learn and practice. 

So the next time you head out on a business trip or need to download business data to one of your many devices, think of VPN.  It may be the one thing that protects traversing data between you and your businesses’ greatest asset, and keeps the bad people at bay.

 

 

 

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