A VPN connection has long been a stand-by of the corporate network security plan. Having one can protect your remote workers whenever they turn on a computer with company sensitive data on it. While VPNs are powerful tools, they are not 100% foolproof – as you’ll find nothing in business or life is.

A tool that can help protect your remote workers is known as a VPN kill switch. This piece of software can help increase your network security every time your remote workers use a VPN provider. This tool is particularly useful to business as it will offer 100% protection whenever a VPN connection is dropped.

What do business’ use a VPN kill switch for?

A VPN kill switch, or Internet kill switch, is a piece of software that is either included as part of the software package from your VPN provider, or a piece of software that you add to an existing software package.

A VPN kill switch is designed to make sure that the IP address you want to hide, and all other data you’re encrypting behind the VPN connection, is not exposed when the connection drops between your remote worker and the VPN server. It does this is by immediately cutting off the internet connection when this drop occurs.

Without a VPN kill switch, your remote worker’s computer will connect up to the Internet automatically with their actual IP address and other data unencrypted. They’ll often be unsuspecting victims of data theft when this happens.

This potential data breach will expose your remote worker’s location, and all other sensitive company information that your VPN provider is suppose to be hiding. With the connection killed by the kill switch the moment the connection between VPN server and remote worker is compromised, there can be no potential for leakage of any information.

What does a VPN kill switch do to protect you?

A VPN kill switch doesn’t monitor the connection to the VPN provider, it monitors a change in the IP address. A sudden IP address change is just what you’d expect from a VPN server connection dropping.

data theftWith the Internet connection automatically shutdown, the information that your remote workers are trying to send or receive is not exposed. This great piece of software is sure to offer you just one more layer of security online as you will know that your employees are always encrypting your data.

Examples of VPN kill switches from providers

Nearly every VPN provider has some sort of VPN kill switch built into their software. A careful reading of their software descriptions will show you that some of them have slightly different names for the VPN kill switch. Here are three of the best providers, a brief description of their service, and links to learn more:

  • Private Internet Access overview: PIA is a leader in online anonymity, encryption, and service. They are also credited with having one of the first VPN kill switch’s in the industry. They have added DNS leak protection to their impressive list of useful VPN features as well.
  • Hide My Ass overview: HMA are well known for their innovative software. The name that they use for their VPN kill switch is Secure IP-Bind Technology. It’s essential that they have this in their own software as users are still able to take advantage of their random IP address switching technology.
  • CyberGhostVPN overview: The kill switch offered by CyberGhost is as effective as any VPN provider, but they don’t talk about as much. Your connection will automatically lock once your connection is lost to the VPN server.

These well regarded VPN providers have made their service all the more well known thanks to their exceptional kill switch that is part of their software. You don’t have to do anything but make sure that they’re enabled to protect your business’ communications.

Every VPN service can have an Internet kill switch built for it, commonly called ‘rolling your own,’ by using a bit of coding. If you click over you’ll see that it can be a bit of a complicated process. This shows the value of a VPN service that has already created a VPN kill switch for you.

Feature image from pixabay.