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With work-from-home and remote work becoming more common, employers realise that secure out-of-office access for employees is crucial. VPNs have typically provided a cost-effective solution to network security issues, but as security threats change and evolve, so must network security.

What is a traditional VPN?

Before we go further, it’s worth discussing how tracking occurs whilst browsing the internet. This will help you understand why a VPN helps increase security and keeps you secure online.

When you connect to the internet, you are allocated an IP Address. This IP address is unique to you for the duration of that connection. As a result, what you browse and what you do can be directly associated with you. (In reality, it is a little more complicated than this, but that is all you need to know for this article).

Therefore, a VPN becomes the solution to prevent you from being tracked, including companies like Google.

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network and provides a mechanism to connect to the internet via an encrypted server. Once connected, your movements reference the IP address of the encrypted server and not your IP address.

So why choose a zero-trust VPN over a traditional one? Here are some of the key benefits of using zero-trust VPNs:

Encryption

Zero-trust VPNs improve security by ensuring that all traffic submitted across your network is encrypted. This means that even if someone were to gain access to your network, they would not be able to read any of the data passing through it.

Anonymity

Zero-trust VPNs also offer a degree of anonymity. By encrypting all traffic, it becomes much more difficult for anyone to track the activity of your employees.

Permissions

Zero-trust VPNs, as the name implies, work from the starting point that nothing and nobody can be trusted until proven trustworthy. All users in your network must be authenticated before being granted access, ensuring that nobody can slip in unannounced.

Freedom

Zero-trust VPNs can help you bypass censorship and other restrictions. Routing your traffic through a zero-trust VPN server can often circumvent government-imposed firewalls and other annoying filters, giving your employees greater freedom of information.

Security

With zero-trust models, employees connect to apps directly rather than through networks. User-to-app and app-to-app connections prevent infection of compromised machines and devices – and as they are invisible to the broader internet, they cannot be discovered.

Conclusion

Zero-trust VPNs offer several advantages that make them an attractive option for individuals and businesses. A zero-trust VPN may be the right solution if you want to improve your security and privacy online.