The days of commuting to the office and work seem like a mirage given the situation across the world. The pandemic surely has changed our perspective about productivity. Given the current situation, the concept of remote working is here to stay for a long time – becoming the new normal.
In the publishing industry, the editorial community is striving hard to write about the stories and vital information that is need of the hour. The editors are mature enough and trustworthy about what they pen down. The staff members too are there to support and get the data live on the website in time. But however, in the digital world connected by the internet web, they could be exposed to unintentional data threats while working from home.
When working from the office, your systems are installed with the required security. But the remote editors and staff PC’s or laptops may be deprived of the same security. In the face of recent global crises, 2020 will prove to be a watershed year, especially in terms of public focus on data privacy issues. This is where you need to bank upon VPN.
What is a VPN?
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) creates a secure connection between you and the internet. When you connect to the internet through a VPN, all your data traffic is sent through an encrypted virtual tunnel. It sort of extends the private network of your office, as well as giving remote users the ability to send and receive data across the internet as if their devices were directly connected to the office network.
The publishing employees can work on their office’s server space with VPN on their own local laptop or desktop storage. The editors and staff members can access shared folders through the office server securely. This gives leverage to follow the office network policies of proper backup and storage issues.
It comes as no surprise to see VPN downloads growing in popularity in 2020, with half the world in lockdown looking for extra online security to seamlessly work from home with the required data security.
Types of VPN
Below are the ways you can implement a VPN for your remote office:
Office Hardware
The most affordable option would be to check if your networking equipment – particularly your office firewall – already offers VPN support. Most firewalls do have this capability, with some license fees. However, there are free open-source software options like OpenVPN that can be used as the client.
Cloud-based
There are some very robust enterprise-grade VPN providers that are completely cloud-based but integrate with your office network and provide the single sign-on capability. If you have multiple locations or lots of users, this is a great solution to consider.
Third-party services
You can always use an enterprise VPN provider, which provides separate offerings for businesses. The benefit here is that for a low monthly cost you get a scalable solution that supports all devices. It is even relatively easy to adopt in your organization.
How to Choose the Best VPN Services
Strong encryption
Make sure the VPN you select has at least AES-256-bit encryption to keep you safe from hackers, government surveillance, and other prying eyes.
Proven ability to bypass geo-blocks
Before downloading a VPN, it’s important to know if you want to stream on Netflix or other sites. This is because not all VPNs can get around the geo-blocks used by platforms like Netflix — only the best VPN services like ExpressVPN can do that.
Strict privacy policies
Many free VPNs track and sell user data. That’s why it’s important that you find a service that will keep your information private from advertisers and other prying eyes.
Reliable connections
VPNs may slow down your connection speeds. Even if it doesn’t have many server options, make sure your VPN offers fast speeds to let you access the services you want.
Affordable and Best VPN services you can opt for
Express VPN
ExpressVPN is one of the best VPN service providers. With 256-bit encryption and a strict no-logs policy, they offer several thousand fast and stable servers, applications for all devices, and great customer service. With more than 3,000 servers in 160 locations across 94 countries, ExpressVPN could just be the widest platform support you’ll find anywhere.
If your VPN connection fails, ExpressVPN’s automatic kill switch kicks in to protect your data. It supports Windows, Mac, Linux, plus iOS, Android, and even BlackBerry. It doubles up to be an excellent support website, stuffed with detailed guides and teaching materials to get you up and running.
NordVPN
NordVPN is equally popular with its amazing speed, powerful encryption, automated kill switch, and a malware blocker. NordVPN has easy installation and quick connection features that allows you to automatically connect to the best of its thousands of servers in seconds.
For the quality they offer, they’re very affordable. Moreover, the applications are user-friendly and well-structured. NordVPN also offers more advanced options. These are great when you’ve gotten used to VPNs and are looking for specific features to help you out. For instance, NordVPN offers dedicated IP addresses and obfuscated servers, which make circumventing geo-restrictions easier. Similarly, NordVPN also offers double VPN connections for extra privacy and security.
CyberGhost
With a fine blend of power and ease of use, CyberGhost is also a preferred VPN with over more than ten million users. It has a strict no-logs policy, a kill switch feature, and even some self-managed servers based outside the 14-eyes countries that have over 5900 servers. This provider’s strong suit is its user-friendliness. CyberGhost’s software is incredibly easy to install and navigate.
It has the reputation to be known as one of the most generous of any VPN providers in the market. it can block ads, trackers, and malicious websites. It is known to make the most secure connection with automated HTTPS redirection.
Windscribe
Windscribe is a capable VPN service that delivers more than you might expect in many areas.it is for the ones who have Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and Linux and has extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera.
Windscribe also takes security seriously. Having military-grade encryption, it comes with a detailed privacy policy, ad-blocking features, and no-logs policy. These features plus the data allowance make this free VPN a great option for light torrenting and the occasional stream.
Final Thoughts
Choosing the right VPN for your editors and staff is really not as complicated as it seems. The editors and staff members’ devices – be it a desktop, laptop, or mobile – contains a lot of data. VPNs provide you with better overall security, improved performance, remote access, anonymity, and in some cases, cheaper tickets and rentals. Plus, they’re blatantly affordable. Work from home is here to stay and for good. And the use of a VPN is going to be utterly fruitful in the long run. It is time we accept the new normal and if you don’t adapt and accommodate yourself to these changes, you will miss the bus.
