Virtual Private Network (VPN)

With the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic many employees are now home working on a temporary basis for the first time. As a result of this VPN’s are essential however selecting one for your business can be complicated. At The Cloud Consultancy we have conducted our own research on VPN’s; below are our findings and product recommendation.

What is a Virtual Private Network (VPN)?

In summary a VPN creates a secure connection with another network point and then encrypts all the traffic between those two points.

VPN’s are a core requirement for employees working from home or travelling.

Reasons for using a VPN

To access work related websites, files and services
To protect privacy whilst on public Wi-fi networks
To communicate more securely
To avoid bandwidth throttling (Service providers limiting internet speeds)
To browse the web anonymously

To access better entertainment content
To hide browsing activity from the government
To get deals and discounts when buying online
To access restricted download, streaming and torrent sites
To access a Tor browser

Which VPN to use for employees working from home or travelling?

Having reviewed multiple products, The Cloud Consultancy recommend, market and support NordVPN Teams to protect a company’s network. Employees should use this when working from home or whilst travelling.

Benefits

Protect desktops, laptops, tablets and mobiles connected to your network. NordVPN Teams apps are available for Windows, Android, macOS and iOS devices.
Whether working from home, a shared workspace, whilst travelling or at a conference, NordVPN Teams ensures secure access to your business data
Reach content in 31 countries
NordVPN Teams encrypts all internet traffic with AES 256-bit encryption with one click

Get an additional layer of security on NordVPN Teams with two-factor authentication. Access the app using Google Authenticator, Authy, or phone-based authentication (Note: April 2020 – this is coming very soon)
If your connection drops for a second a kill switch will cut off all the internet traffic on your device, ensuring none of your information ever gets exposed online (Note: April 2020 – this is coming very soon)
No need to create yet another online account. Use your existing credentials to log in to NordVPN Teams with Azure AD, GSuite, Okta, Sami and OneLogin.

Reasons not to use a free VPN?

As ever nothing is free in life and this is particularly the case when selecting a VPN.

We strongly recommend avoiding free VPN’s. Why you may ask? Some of the downsides include:

The report revealed nearly 60% of popular free VPN apps were secretly Chinese-owned and that nearly 90% had serious privacy flaws
The report showed 85% of 150 Android apps tested to have unsafe permissions or functions; 25% exposed users via DNS, WebRTC or IP leaks
Many free providers contain malware

A major reason you use a VPN is to protect your privacy while browsing the internet. Its therefore ironic that the same study found 72% of free VPNs embed third-party trackers in their software
Netflix, along with all major streaming sites, use the toughest ‘geoblocks’ ( when content is not available due to your geographic location) in the world. Even premium VPNs struggle to break through them. Only a few succeed
Some of the most popular free VPNs limit the amount of data you can use. They do this to entice you, then push you into upgrading to a paid plan out of sheer frustration
Your privacy can be impacted more by using a free VPN than by using nothing at all

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