The history of almost all of the largest and most famous technology brands began with a startup. Can you imagine that Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft were invented by a couple of people? And this is indeed true. Perseverance and self-confidence are enough to turn the garage business into a world-famous and popular brand. Today, the total return of these companies reaches trillions of dollars, and the number of users of their services amounts to billions of people.
In 2018, about $ 100 billion was invested in new startups in the early stages, since in the future the projects will be requited and bring stable income. What will replace Airbnb? Now it costs $ 31 billion, and this is twice the amount of Hilton Hotels International capitalization. Or maybe the popular online taxi service Uber, which is estimated at $ 120 billion, will soon have a competitor. If you have an interesting business idea matured in your head and you want to implement it in the form of a startup, think first of all about protection of all your data.
And it’s best to do it all using a virtual private network (VPN) service. Let’s talk about it in more detail below.
Make acquaintance with VPN and its security features
VPN is a virtual private network forming a secure communication channel for transferring data between devices and servers in order to exclude access to files from third parties. The connection is encrypted, so you can safely access the Internet and not be afraid that hackers or a provider will follow you.
Today the service is available in various variations, and the easiest and most convenient way is the free VPN extension for Chrome. You install the utility in your browser and provide yourself with completely confidential and secure surfing on the network. For global protection, you may consider the option of installing a program for your router. Alternatively you may search for the best tiers of VPNs and find a suitable VPN for your system.
There are several key aspects determining the importance and need of using a VPN when creating startups:
IP address protection – this is about your intellectual property protection. The value of a startup lies in the idea itself, and there is no patent or copyright in early stages. So there is a great risk of data being stolen and appropriated by third parties. If you connect a VPN, your address is hidden and nobody can track the location of your computer, thus, attackers will not be able to get unauthorised access to files for their public transfer;
Promoting secure remote access – today a great many people work remotely, and this is very convenient taking into account the availability of cloud technologies. If you are far from your home PC, but need access to it, then you need to think about how to make it safely. For example, when you connect to Wi-Fi in a restaurant, shopping center, cafe or other public place, there is always a risk that you can be followed, your data can be read and they even can try to steal your private information. VPN solves this problem and ensures a secure connection when you remotely connect to your startup data;
High security of file exchange – this aspect is similar to the previous one. For example, you are working on developing an application, and your programmer has created an important patch. So why not share it, but how to do it safely? To realize the idea, it is enough to connect to the remote server via VPN, and it will be convenient, without the risk of hacking;
Bypassing blockings and restrictions – an association with China immediately emerges, where many filters and Internet bans are in force. However, this problem is also relevant in other regions of the world. Without using necessary services, your startup will not be successful. That’s why working through a VPN solves all problems and opens the way to a free Internet;
Minimization of downtime – such a phenomenon as downtime is a key enemy of productivity and provokes large financial losses. If hackers do not hack you by entering the network, then they will attack your site, mailbox, social networks and other important accounts. It will be enough if these profiles don’t function for some time, and then you suffer massive losses, because people will not be able to work due to panic and disorder. This is extremely important for startups, because everything starts with a reputation. If an interested investor sees the 404 Error on your website, and perhaps even catches a virus, there can be no question of any trust or subsequent investment. It’s another matter entirely when you connected to a Top rated VPN and all the listed problems disappear automatically;
Wide access to geodata – geo-restrictions that ordinary users face when wanting to visit Netflix, YouTube, Hulu and others exist on the Internet for a long time already. And all this is argued for by copyright protection. But what to do if, for example, one of your employees, while in the UK, found a useful video that will be helpful for your startup development, but in Ukraine, where the whole team works, you will not be able to watch it? A VPN comes to the rescue, with which you can change the country of connection and get access to any geo-content.
How to start a VPN in a browser
Not every startup can afford to engage a whole team of IT specialists; rather, these are isolated cases. But if you start using a virtual private network, you can take care of your startup security on your own. You can start by installing the extension into your browser and familiarization with all its parameters. Then configure protection for the router. So you cannot be afraid of theft and attack from penetrators.