Employees Working From Home Turn To VPN During COVID

It's no secret that the global pandemic we're all living through has changed a great many things about both work and home life. For one thing, work and home life are often the same now, with large numbers of people sheltering in place and working from home.

Unfortunately, home networks aren't anywhere near as secure as corporate networks, so people have been innovating, adapting and adjusting.

One of the biggest recent changes in the home computing landscape has been the recent, massive surge in VPN use, which is up by 165 percent since March 11th. That is, based on figures collected by NordVPN.

This is not a surprising turn of events. Governments around the world and respected groups in the industry have been encouraging greater use of VPNs as a means of providing an added layer of security when connecting to business networks from remote locations.

Thankfully, it seems that the advice is being heeded. Hopefully, the newly formed habit will continue long after the current crisis abates. Using a VPN any time you get online is a great way to protect yourself and make your online experience more secure, no matter what you're doing.

While this is unmistakably good news, it's also true that not all VPNs are created equally, and some are more secure than others. Your company may not currently have a policy in place regarding VPN usage, and honestly, you may have never needed one until now. Given the current reality though, it may be a good idea to do some research and offer guidance to the legions of people who are working from home now and for the foreseeable future.

Odds are that most of your employees aren't IT professionals. They don't know a lot about digital security. Any tips, pointers and guidelines you can provide them will only make their connections to your network more secure.