A little less than half of U.S. companies have continued to expand their remote and hybrid work options — all while threat actors have used the years following the pandemic to fine-tune their attack methods.
The stakes for small and midsize businesses are high, and the threat is never far. In fact, you’re more likely to be the victim of a cyberattack than you are to be in a car accident or to experience a physical break-in. Criminals know cybercrime has a much higher ROI — which means it poses a much higher risk for you. Global cybercrime is expected to reach costs upwards of $10.5 trillion USD annually by 2025.
If you don't protect your company's network, you’re putting your employees and customers at risk of these attacks. Fortunately, there is a very simple solution in the form of a reputable business VPN, allowing your employees easy access to company resources and mitigating many risks posed by cybercriminals.
The evolving VPN landscape for remote work
For a refresher: A Virtual Private Network (VPN) provides your business with a securely encrypted connection to your network over the public Internet. It adds an important piece of layered security, which is essential to protect your data and sensitive information. Using a VPN to create a secure connection gives you the ability to remotely access important network resources and connect your company's branches and employees from anywhere. Flexibility is crucial for success, especially for a VPN for work from home, and a VPN can provide the exact flexibility needed so that organizations around the world can continue to operate under any circumstances.
Current trends in VPN usage
VPN trends change on a nearly monthly basis — geopolitical conflicts, laws and regulations, and even health trends can impact VPN usage overall. But one thing is certain: VPNs are going strong, with 1.6 billion VPN users globally and 31% of all internet users on a VPN, according to Forbes.
However, business VPN usage has seen a few notable trends that persisted in 2024 — and will continue into 2025.
The shift towards user-centric VPN solutions
User-centricity has always been important for personal VPN users. But for business or enterprise VPN users, there is often the idea of functionality over form. As long as it connects when it should, why does it need to be user-centric?
What companies have found is that when users can easily connect (or disconnect, if needed) to their VPN portal at work, they’re more likely to actually use it. That means remote desktop VPN providers must also offer a remote or mobile app and focus on the user experience.
Next-gen VPNs with advanced features
The VPN of 2025 is not your grandfather’s VPN. By that, we mean that not everything has to be tunneled through the VPN anymore. Instead, you can take advantage of advanced features like split tunneling, cybersecurity protection, and blocking malicious or unproductive websites.
For example, OpenVPN Cyber Shield gives you the ability to automatically block or allow websites based on over 40 categories, including malware — all without tunneling everything through the VPN and impacting overall site speeds.
Cloud compatibility for remote access
With the rise in SaaS and cloud applications, VPNs for business must now protect against a wider range of threats and must be prepared to protect assets that reside outside of the traditional corporate perimeter. Secure access for cloud-based applications allows you to treat SaaS apps the same as private applications and apply all the same zero trust checks. In order to treat SaaS apps as private, the SaaS app can be configured to block logins from the internet and only allow logins that come from the VPN's IP address. This restriction forces users to use the VPN when logging into SaaS, giving you the ability to protect your employees and private data, even when SaaS providers don’t use strong identity protection or multi-factor authentication.
Emerging cyber security threats and vulnerabilities
The evolution of cyberthreats has resulted in major changes in how VPN companies, including OpenVPN, protect and respond to these threats. A trend we will continue to see in 2025 and beyond is a sharpening of skilled attacks and increasing speed in trying new attack methods — and an increase in secure remote access VPN providers swiftly responding to, and preventing, these attacks and reducing the risk of unauthorized access.
|
VPN security issue |
Statistics |
How OpenVPN addresses this |
|
False sense of security |
54% of respondents feel secure when using a VPN, but this can be misleading. |
OpenVPN provides robust encryption and security protocols, ensuring that users have a genuine sense of security. |
|
Experiencing cyberattacks |
57% of respondents experienced a cyberattack while using a VPN, with significant financial losses. |
OpenVPN’s advanced security features, including strong encryption and authentication methods, help mitigate risks. |
|
Data breaches and exposed records |
25 million VPN user records were exposed in 2022 due to vulnerabilities in free VPNs. |
OpenVPN is SOC 2 certified and HIPAA compliant and offers a secure solution with regular updates and support, reducing the risk of data exposure whether you are on our paid or free plan. |
|
Increasing number of VPN vulnerabilities |
133 VPN vulnerabilities were reported in 2023, a 47% increase from previous years. |
OpenVPN continually monitors for vulnerabilities, including through third-party testing, and provides updates to patch any potential vulnerabilities. |
|
Concerns about third-party access |
92% of respondents are concerned about third-party risks with VPN access. |
OpenVPN allows for granular access control, enabling companies to limit access based on user roles and needs. |
|
Ransomware and malware threats |
Ransomware (42%) and malware (35%) are top threats exploiting VPN vulnerabilities. |
OpenVPN’s encryption and secure connection protocols help protect against unauthorized access and data breaches. |
|
Lateral movement risks |
53% of enterprises breached via VPN vulnerabilities reported lateral movement by attackers. |
OpenVPN’s strong authentication and logging features help detect and prevent lateral movement within networks. |
Statistics source: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/vpn-statistics/
Benefits of using OpenVPN for remote work
There are a few basic benefits of VPNs in general, especially when it comes to remote and hybrid work.
- Remote access: A remote-access VPN means your employees can log on to your company network from anywhere that has access to the Internet. Whether they are in a coffee shop, traveling, or working from a partner’s office, a VPN allows your employees to access all the resources they need to get the job done.
- Access control: A VPN should allow you to determine who has access to your network and its resources. You will obviously want to limit who can log in, and from there, you will want to limit what they can access. Not all employees need access to all the same resources. Your marketing team probably doesn’t need access to supply chain management tools, and your HR team doesn’t need access to the system infrastructure. Access control allows you to set those limits every step of the way.
- Cybersecurity: When you need to access your private network, you can create an encrypted, private communication session using a Virtual Private Network. A VPN session allows you to safely send data across public networks thanks to the use of encrypted tunnels. The only way in is through a device with VPN client software installed and configured to connect to your VPN server(s).
There are some additional features you can realize through OpenVPN, including:
Enhanced security features
Your distributed workforce regularly accesses the internet from various devices, including personal mobile devices. All of these devices need to be consistently protected because they also connect to your corporate applications. For example, something as innocent as checking personal email and simple web browsing increases the risk of phishing and malware attacks. This can make internet policy and content enforcement more complex, while remaining critical to ensuring security with all devices accessing your network.
Cyber Shield, a built-in feature of CloudConnexa, delivers DNS-based content filtering so organizations can avoid malware infections and excessive bandwidth use by controlling employee access to potentially harmful external websites.
Scalability for growing remote teams
Whether you need 10 connections or 100 connections, OpenVPN gives you the ability to scale up and down from the admin portal without having to talk to a sales person (unless you’d like to). You can also change your subscription any time, with the ability to scale up immediately. Further, you will only ever pay for the number of concurrent connections you need — NOT the number of total users. That means you have flexibility if users work a variety of shifts or in different time zones, and you can scale up any time without a waiting period.
Simplified management and user experience
We mentioned the trend of user-centric VPNs earlier in this post, in part because the user experience has been a main focus of the OpenVPN team. Both OpenVPN products, cloud-delivered CloudConnexa and self-hosted Access Server, have a simple user interface for both admins and users. Users can connect to the OpenVPN Connect App from any device to get started, and administrators can do everything they need right in the web-based portal.
Addressing common VPN challenges for remote work
A VPN for secure remote work doesn’t come without challenges. However, with the right VPN, you can address or avoid these challenges before you get started.
Performance and connectivity issues
If all network traffic is tunneled through the VPN, you may experience latency issues in the name of preventing packet loss. However, with split tunneling, you can ensure that performance does not suffer while avoiding connectivity issues and putting guardrails on potentially dangerous online activities through features like Cyber Shield IDS/IPS content filtering.
Balancing security and user productivity
Secure remote access, especially when coupled with ZTNA, requires multi-factor authentication and continual verification. However, this does not have to interfere with productivity. With the use of SSO and your VPN, you can ensure the login process does not interfere with productivity. You can also increase productivity by blocking specific websites and online activities, such as social media sites, with Cyber Shield.
Frequently asked questions
Are all VPNs the same?
No, the first notable difference is between consumer and business VPNs.
A consumer VPN is useful for individuals needing an extra layer of security; for example, when you are at a coffee shop and need to remain secure while you are using public WiFi.
A business VPN has so much more to offer, specifically for teams. It’s a scalable solution for accessing your network when employees are working from home. (Plus many other benefits; find them here.)
What is the difference between a Proxy Server and a VPN?
A proxy server is similar to a VPN in that it is a type of gateway to the Internet. However, proxy servers can bypass geo-restrictions, provide simple IP masking for specific tasks, and conduct web scraping or access region-locked content. Businesses set up proxy servers to protect their network from the dangers of the open Internet. A proxy server can provide anonymity, protect against malicious traffic, block outgoing traffic to known malicious sites, and facilitate Internet logging, which could help you track down something like a malware infection. While a proxy can provide these safeguards, it does not protect data being transmitted. VPNs provide secure remote access to corporate networks and protect sensitive data on public WiFi. Many businesses combine VPNs and proxy servers, and you can read details here about layering network security.
What is encryption?
Encryption is the conversion of information into a cryptographic encoding that can't be read without a key. Encrypted data looks meaningless and is extremely difficult for unauthorized parties to decrypt without the correct key.
What is tunneling?
IP tunneling is a networking technique that allows the transmission of data between networks by encapsulating packets of one protocol inside packets of another protocol.
Split tunneling is the process of allowing a remote VPN user to access a public network, such as the Internet, at the same time that the user is allowed to access resources on the VPN. Their data is split. Requests for network resources travel over the VPN. Requests for internet sites travel over their own ISP. This helps businesses avoid overwhelming their bandwidth with increased VPN connections.
How does someone run a VPN?
Just install Access Server on the network, and then connect your device with our Connect client.
What is needed? What hardware/software?
It depends on the VPN. Access Server is completely virtual in the sense that it's purely a software solution. You won't need modems or routers or cables to get started; it's software-based. However, you will need a computer with the Linux operating system to run Access Server.
Why can't I just run my own VPN?
You can. If you want a totally free VPN and are tech savvy, you can run our community edition. OpenVPN is open source, so we have an entire community of people who build their own VPNs using our OS code. You can also run your own VPN using Access Server.
Does a VPN use data?
The short answer is yes — even though the data is encrypted, it still uses bandwidth.
What is a VPN app?
The OpenVPN Connect App enables mobile users to have access to Enterprise-grade security, reliability, and scalability features offered by Access Server software or their OpenVPN-compatible VPN provider.
What is a VPN client?
A VPN client is the Virtual Private Network software that is installed on your device to establish a connection between it and the VPN server and offer access to VPN services. Our official VPN client is the Connect application.
What is a VPN server?
A VPN server is a virtual or physical server that is configured to host and deliver VPN services to users worldwide.
OpenVPN's role in securing remote work
With over 60 million downloads of the OpenVPN open source protocol and over 20,000 customers, OpenVPN has been a pioneer in the remote and hybrid work space. We can help you secure your workforce, wherever they are in the world, without adding complicated setup and maintenance to your team’s workload. Whether you prefer to self-host your VPN on hardware or virtual hardware with Access Server or would rather use a cloud-delivered platform like CloudConnexa, OpenVPN has your back.
Want to see how we do it? Check out OpenVPN’s platforms without any commitment with our interactive demos. Once you’ve seen how easy it is to use, sign up for free to get started.
