Why American Businesses Need US VPNs

Modern businesses use tons of online services nowadays – SEO and market analysis tools, analytics, automated surveys, email marketing platforms. The list goes on and on.

But should they also start using VPNs?

Our answer is a resounding yes since VPNs are important business tools. They started out like that, after all – back when big companies used to create and run their own corporate VPNs. Doing that is pretty expensive, though. If you’re a smaller business, a commercial VPN works just as well (here’s a list of the best ones from ProPrivacy).

Want to know why they’re so important?

One word – cybersecurity. VPNs can protect your company from serious cyber threats. We’ll tell you all about them (and answer some relevant questions) in this quick article.

What Kind of Cyber Threats Are We Talking About?

Cyber attacks have really been ramping up since the COVID-19 pandemic started. Security experts estimate that around 4,000 attacks happen each day.

Out of them, we’ll focus on two types VPNs can protect you from: DDoS and MITM attacks.

1. DDoS Attacks

A DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack is when your company network gets flooded with unwanted traffic and requests. The goal is to overload the network until it’s completely overwhelmed, leaving your business without Internet access and your online services offline.

While they are pretty complex attacks, pretty much any wannabe hacker can run them nowadays. They can actually buy them for as little as $10 per hour on the dark web.

And DDoS attacks are not something you can take lightly by just saying “that won’t happen to me.” According to data, nine in ten businesses in North America are hit with DDoS attacks.

And the damage is very serious – most companies experienced an average of 30 minutes of downtime, with a few unlucky ones experiencing over four hours. Also, each business reported losing approximately $218,339 on average because of that. It might seem exaggerated, but it really isn’t. Don’t forget – Gartner reported that the average cost of downtime is around $5,600 per minute.

So the few companies that experienced over four hours of downtime probably lost well over $1 million.

2. MITM Attacks

A MITM (Man-in-the-Middle) attack is when a cybercriminal manages to intercept, alter, or read someone’s web traffic. Hackers often use MITM attacks to redirect people to malicious sites. But, sometimes, they use them to monitor people’s online communications.

What does that mean for you?

That a cybercriminal could spy on your employees’ connections when they access the company’s network at home or on public WiFi (like when they check customer data during their lunch break at a coffee shop).

Here’s the thing – most public networks don’t use encryption. So hackers can easily use packet sniffers to decrypt people’s traffic and steal sensitive information (like login credentials). Even worse, they might set up fake networks, and trick your employees into using them to access company data.

And your employees’ connections aren’t safe even if they use encrypted WiFi. Right now, WPA2 is still the most widespread encryption standard. Unfortunately, it has a huge vulnerability which cybercriminals can exploit.

How Does a US VPN Help?

If you’re not familiar with VPNs, all you need to know is that they’re online tools that hide your IP address and encrypt your traffic.

Now, here’s how they can protect your business from cyber attacks:

• DDoS Attacks – To target your network, hackers need to know your IP address. When you browse the web with a VPN, you communicate with it through a VPN server. So you’ll go online using the server’s IP address, meaning your original IP is hidden. Cybercriminals would only be able to DDoS the VPN server. But that’d be pointless since VPN servers are equipped with anti-DDoS protection.
• MITM Attacks – Cybercriminals abuse weak or nonexistent encryption to run them. VPNs solve that problem by encrypting your traffic end-to-end. Only the VPN client and server can decrypt your data. If hackers spy on your employees’ traffic, they will only see gibberish (like “3Ffesnfh4324FDJ”).

All in all, VPNs are essential business tools. Just make sure you pick a really good service since not all of them can offer top-notch security. The easiest way to find the right VPN for your business is to check this list from ProPrivacy. It’s a comprehensive guide to the best US VPNs.

Can VPNs Protect Your Business from Malware?

Cybercriminals often use malware when targeting businesses, so can VPNs protect you from it?

Unfortunately, no. VPNs aren’t programmed to protect devices from malware infections. They can only encrypt your online data. Other than that, the best they can do is offer a firewall-like feature that blocks your employees’ connections to malicious sites (like NordVPN’s CyberSec feature).

That’s why we really recommend using antivirus protection (like Norton Small Business or McAfee Total Protection) alongside a VPN. Keep the software running and updated at all times, and run regular scans.

Can VPNs Protect Your Business from Phishing?

Phishing attacks are also widely used, but VPNs can’t do much against them. They’re not designed to protect your employees from fake emails and phone calls. The only thing a VPN can do is block employee connections to phishing domains.

To protect your company from phishing attacks, you need antimalware protection, and you have to train your employees. They need to learn about phishing, what the most common tactics are, how they can spot phishing attacks, and how to deal with them.

It’d also be a good idea to educate your customers about phishing too. Luckily, that’s easily done through regular email newsletters. For example, you could send them a quick article that teaches them how to avoid phishing emails that claim to be from you.

Do You Also Think VPNs Are Essential Business Tools?

Or do you believe they’re an unnecessary expense since there are other, better alternatives?

Please let us know in the comments below.