The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has us all in a situation where we need to practice social distancing at all times. Since its advent in China, the virus has quickly spread all over the globe and has affected tens of thousands of people.
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To reduce the spread of coronavirus, governments and health-care organizations are advising ways to “flatten the curve.” Because the virus is highly contagious, it is advised that people should limit all social activities and spend as much time at home as they can.
Countries like China and Italy have already enforced curfew situations in their countries. People are not allowed to head out and are forced to spend all of their time at home. This has managed to control the spread of the virus. The number of people affected each day are actually reducing in China. Similar reductions are expected in other countries too.
Working from Home is now necessary
While the global scenario is highly affected by the ongoing pandemic, companies are now advising their staff to start working from home. Decisions like these are being taken in order to ensure the safety of the workforce, as the virus is less likely to affect people when they are home.
But is it possible to stay productive while working from home? And what does this mean for workplace security since much of the work is now being done away from offices?
While the productivity levels are likely to go into decline since most people are not accustomed to working from their homes. However, it is still possible to ensure the safety of workplace files and documents even when most people are working from home.
How to ensure safety while working from home?
An easy way to ensure the safety of your data is to use security apps on your system. Using apps like anti-viruses and VPNs are always helpful to ensure protection against hacking and surveillance attempts.
Anti-viruses, for instance, keep your systems safe from malware. This way, your data shall remain safe even if someone tries to steal it by using a notorious program.
Similarly, VPNs are highly necessary for people who want to keep their data anonymous and secure on the internet. Secure VPN services offer end-to-end encryption to their audience that keeps their online traffic safe under all circumstances.
PureVPN is also helpful for people who want to access servers remotely from their homes. Companies in these instances can buy a dedicated IP address from PureVPN that can be used to access a particular server or website even when people access them from their homes.
VPNs are pretty safe
Statistics show that one in four people use VPN servers, which is a pretty surprising fact.
However, there is some misconception about VPN providers keeping certain logs to hand them over to government authorities. The truth is, data is used to determine possible problems in the network or to improve its services.
In several ways, a VPN is similar to a firewall, only it cannot be located. While firewalls are like a strainer that checks the data going in and out of a network or a computer ––and they protect from virus–– VPNs use tunnel encryption to secure information that travels between servers and make it harder for viruses and other things to reach your network or computer.
So, VPNs protect networks by being untraceable, like a WAN (Wide Area Network); they alter users’ IP addresses and geographic location, offering secure access to any website.
VPN special perks
One of VPNs’ key add-ons is that they can save you money on subscriptions to streaming services or other websites, as the latter adjust their prices depending on your location. Using a VPN to change your IP address can lower the price of an online subscription.
Also, while working from home, VPNs allow you to access blocked content when ISPs (Internet Service Providers) block user access to certain websites. For instance, if you would like to access a juicy market report for a work task, and the website has blocked access from users outside a specific region, you can use the VPN to “fool” the ISP and allow you to download the content and carry on with your project.
There is also no denying that VPNs can sometimes give you faster internet speeds, as around the world, ISPs slow down and limit users' web traffic providing an internet speed lower than the one they offer.
This is common for activities that require high bandwidth, such as watching high-quality streaming videos. So, using a VPN with strong encryption prevents any ISP from limiting any particular website and prevents your ISP from separating your traffic into high- and low-speed tunnels, forcing it to direct all web traffic at the speed offered.
Still, with all these advantages and perks, 30 out of 196 countries have banned VPNs.
This is the case in countries with authoritative laws that censor websites that promote opinions different from those of the status quo on the grounds of national security, imposing social values, and maintaining political stability in the country.
North Korea, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Syria, and Russia are some of the 30 countries where VPNs are banned.
Still, it is evident that you can work safely from home with the use of these security programs, which are highly effective in ensuring the safety of your data even when you are not at the office.
