If you or your people have used remote work at any point since 2020, you’re part of a permanent shift in how business gets done. I’ve watched that shift unfold firsthand with scores of clients, and one thing’s clear: remote work isn’t a temporary workaround anymore. It’s the new baseline.
Millions of people now log in from home offices, airports, hotel rooms, coffee shops, and sometimes minivans parked outside a soccer field. Many of them use personally owned devices to connect to their company’s systems, often without realizing that convenience has replaced security as their default setting.
And that’s where the risk begins.
The Problem Isn’t Just Hackers. It’s Humans Just Like Us.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: most cybersecurity breakdowns start with regular, responsible people making reasonable decisions under pressure.
I’ve seen it more times than I can count: a good employee + a tight deadline + a bad connection = a hacker’s winning hand.
Picture this:
A manager is at a weeklong conference. It’s late, she’s tired, and she’s got one last task before calling it a night: submitting a confidential report that’s due before morning. Her company doesn’t require a VPN. Her hotel’s Wi-Fi is free, fast, and unsecured.
So she finishes the report, logs in, sends the file, and heads to bed thinking, Crisis averted.
Except she just opened a door.
That report, her credentials, maybe even parts of the company network, could now be visible to someone else connected to that same Wi-Fi. She didn’t mean to take a risk. She meant to meet a deadline. And that’s the point: human nature doesn’t mix well with unprotected connections.
Speaking of human nature, I talk to business owners every week who think their risk stops with the people on their payroll. It doesn’t.
Beyond Employees: The Overlooked Connections
When you think about your company’s security, think beyond your payroll.
Plenty of businesses rely on freelancers, consultants, or vendors who connect to their systems to do their jobs.
For instance, say you’ve hired a freelance marketing specialist. He regularly logs in to pull performance data, update email lists, or collaborate on a campaign. If he’s connecting from his home network without a VPN, that’s an open door to your business.
You can’t control his Wi-Fi or his router security, but you can control your own exposure. Make a plan to safeguard that connection:
- Incentivize him to use a VPN your tech team recommends, or
- Provide him one yourself as part of your standard toolkit for outside partners.
Otherwise, you’ve just made your company’s data protection dependent on someone else’s household budget, and that’s never a sound security strategy.
The Hidden Household Risk
Even when your employees follow every security guideline at work, they still connect from home networks that include devices you can’t control.
And that’s where things get messy.
I’ve seen the most responsible managers working on a company laptop in the same household where their kids’ computers are packed with games, downloads, and browser extensions that are prime hunting grounds for hackers. All it takes is one infected device on the same home Wi-Fi to give a cybercriminal a doorway into the rest of the network… sometimes even the one your employee uses for work.
Smart Devices Matter, Too
Every connected gadget in a household (not just computers) talks to the internet through the same home router. That means your employee’s company laptop shares a network with things like:
- Smart TVs that run outdated operating systems
- Game consoles and tablets used by kids
- Voice assistants that constantly listen for commands
- Cheap Wi-Fi cameras, smart plugs, and doorbells built without strong security
Many of these devices never receive software updates and use default or weak passwords that family members — including children — can remember (“Wilsons”), which makes them easy targets.
When one of them is compromised, a hacker can use it as a jumping point to map or probe other devices on the same Wi-Fi, including the work laptop that connects to company systems.
It’s not that the hacker cares about the thermostat or the baby monitor. They just need a foothold.
Realistically, you can’t expect your people to police every gadget in their house, but you can protect your company from what’s on the other side of their router. A managed VPN makes their laptop connection safe by creating an isolated, encrypted tunnel that shields company data from everything else happening on that home network.
Okay, you get the picture. As a business leader, you need to be concerned about risk beyond the confines of your office. Let me show you some data that cuts through the guesswork about what’s happening “out there.”
The Numbers Tell the Story
– More than 60% of employees now work remotely at least part-time.
– Over half use their own laptops or phones for business tasks.
– One in three say they regularly connect to public Wi-Fi for work.
– 4 in 10 small businesses use independent freelancers, consultants, or other outside contractors for part of their business. That grows to more than 50% in companies with fewer than 50 employees.
– The average US household now has more than 20 internet-connected devices, from kids’ computers to family members’ phones, TVs, game consoles, cameras, and smart speakers. In most homes, all of them share the same Wi-Fi network that employees use for work.
Combine that with a modern hacker’s AI-powered phishing and credential-theft tools, and you’ve got a perfect storm. Attackers don’t need to target your company directly; they just need to target someone who works for you while they’re connected somewhere else.
I’ve seen companies spend ten times more cleaning up a breach like this than they would have spent securing access in the first place. And it kills me when they say, “I wish I had known…”
Well, now you do. So why not skip the insecurity and trauma by starting with the solution?
What a VPN Actually Does
A VPN (Virtual Private Network) creates a secure, encrypted tunnel between your employee’s device and your company’s network. That means even if they are using hotel Wi-Fi or their cousin’s guest network, their data is scrambled in transit. Anyone trying to intercept it sees nothing useful.
In practical terms:
- You and your people can work securely from anywhere.
- Their login credentials are protected.
- Sensitive client or company information stays inside the tunnel, not floating across public airwaves.
How Much Protection Really Costs
Most business owners assume “secure remote access” is expensive, but a managed VPN isn’t. There is a cost for initial installation (which can vary by company), but once the system is in place, the monthly per-user cost is usually less than buying each employee a latte.
That small expense buys peace of mind, which is a far better investment than paying for recovery after an attack.
And once it’s set up, you rarely have to think about it again. There’s no extra management, no new hires, and no daily upkeep. It just runs quietly in the background, doing its job so your team can do theirs.
Why This Matters More Than Ever
Remote work has blurred the line between personal and professional devices, but hackers don’t see that line at all. All they see is opportunity. A single unsecured connection can undo years of IT effort and damage a company’s reputation overnight.
This isn’t about paranoia — it’s about prevention. After all, you lock your car doors. You password-protect your phone. You double-check who’s knocking before you open the door. A VPN is the digital equivalent: quiet protection that works while your staff focuses on their responsibilities.
The Bottom Line
The truth is, most employees don’t take cybersecurity risks because they’re careless. They take them because they’re trying to get the job done. That’s what makes this a leadership issue, not a user issue.
If your team ever connects from home, hotels, airports, or anywhere outside your office network, you owe it to them (and to your business) to make sure they can do it safely.
A managed VPN gives your people a secure path to work from anywhere without leaving the company’s data exposed. It protects not only your systems but also your reputation, your contracts, and the trust your clients place in you.
And there’s another reason not to wait. Hackers ramp up activity during the holiday shopping season and again during tax season. Those are the busiest months for most businesses, and the worst possible time to deal with a breach. Setting up a managed VPN now means your people can work confidently through the year-end rush and into Q1 without disruption.
Since this is already the time of year when owners revisit budgets and policies, it’s the perfect moment to make sure your team and outside partners are protected. Once it’s set up, you’ll have one less thing to worry about in the new year.
If you’re not sure where to start, and you’re in the Greater Philadelphia area, let’s talk. We set up VPNs for small businesses every day, and the best part is, once it’s in place, you’ll hardly have to think about it again.
Or maybe this is the best part: Your people will have the freedom to meet any deadline you throw at them while protecting the company that relies on them.
