UK Firms Prioritise Online Privacy Tools to Safeguard Sensitive Information

Not long ago, the majority of employees performed all their duties from a single, fixed office location, using a local network protected by a perimeter firewall. Today, however, your workforce might be spread across multiple continents, accessing proprietary information and critical services hosted in the cloud.

The technological foundations of business are currently undergoing a dramatic transformation, driven primarily by the shift towards hybrid and remote workforces and the widespread adoption of cloud services. This new reality presents both opportunities and significant challenges, especially given the relentless growth of the cyber-threat landscape.

Secure remote access and workforce flexibility

As businesses increasingly operate with remote or hybrid teams, you must enable employees to access internal systems and cloud resources seamlessly and securely. A business VPN provides an encrypted tunnel for this traffic, safeguarding data as it travels over public internet connections.

Without this critical layer of defence, an unsecured connection exposes your proprietary data to potential interception by threat actors. As the trend of remote work accelerated significantly a few years ago, many companies have maintained these arrangements, cementing the VPN as a vital tool for connectivity. 

Protecting data and mitigating cyber-threats

Cyber-threats, including phishing, are rising in frequency and complexity. A VPN contributes significantly to your defence by encrypting all data in transit, thereby limiting the exposure of your business-critical information, even if a threat actor manages to compromise the initial connection point. While it’s true that VPNs are not a silver bullet that eliminates all risks, they undeniably form a fundamental, necessary layer of your overall security architecture.

Regulatory compliance, customer trust and reputational risk

Choosing secure network access solutions like VPNs helps you meet the minimum reasonable-security expectations mandated by regulatory frameworks. Beyond mere compliance, a security breach or data leak can cause irreversible damage to your brand reputation and severely erode customer trust. Demonstrating a commitment to security by implementing robust access controls reassures your clients and partners.

Choosing the right solution and future-proofing your architecture

You should recognise that not all VPNs are created equal; you will encounter different types, such as site-to-site versus remote-access VPNs, and varying technical protocols like TLS versus IPsec. You also need to consider crucial factors such as a provider’s logging policies and the potential performance impact on your network.

To future-proof your security, you must evaluate key criteria like scalability and integration with Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). Introduce the VPN not as a standalone tool but as a foundational component within a broader, modern security architecture.