Recruiting & Cybersecurity: How VPNs Can Help You with Online Recruitment

Introduction

Businesses that use online recruiting work with tons of confidential data.

Any sort of data leak or breach of this recruiting data could lose the confidence of many employees, applicants, and consumers.

These leaks should be a cause for concern for all online recruiting firms, or departments of larger companies. About two-thirds of SMBs claimed that their data was attacked in just 2018. The risks from digital threats only spread when recruiting companies allow their employees to bring-your-own-device (BYOD), and allow them to work remotely.

Many large businesses can easily afford to work with a range of IT cybersecurity measures and technologies, whereas SMBs may only be able to afford a limited amount of these solutions.

Whether small, medium, or large, online recruiting companies should use a virtual private network (VPN), as a basic means of securing information stored and used in their recruiting activities and operations.

The purpose of a VPN is to make many types of online actions more secure through encryption methods, covering up the identity of the source of data transmission.

What are VPNs?

A VPN is a pathway for secure data transmissions, involving various sorts of online activities. VPNs provide this pathway by creating and sustaining encryption over an internet connection.

More specifically, the VPN protects the data transmissions between a computer or device, and the server that interacts with the relevant data.

Through these encryption methods, the identity of a user’s PC or device is masked, as they send data across the internet.

This prevents hackers, or one of their malicious software, from interfering and interpreting a company’s data.

There is a lot of information about different VPNs online.

And, I know from my personal experience, it can be very frustrating to choose the right one. Nevertheless, while I'm writing this article, my good-to-go provider is VeePN. Why? I won't go into the details, better check here.

Benefits for Online Recruiters Using VPNs

There are several benefits that online recruiting firms or teams can gain, from incorporating VPN technology into their operations. Four of these benefits are:

1. Enhanced Security and Privacy
2. Give Clients Peace of Mind
3. Bypass Geo-blocking
4. Affordability

Enhanced Security and Privacy

It’s important to note that VPNs offer enhanced privacy, but cannot guarantee complete privacy. The VPN does not make any user completely anonymous, but it does encrypt any ongoing internet requests.

Without one, someone with questionable motives may attempt to intercept it, or interfere with it. When using a VPN, coworkers or others on the same network will see just encrypted data that’s being masked to military-grade levels, if any part of the connection is inspected.

This enhancement applies to ISPs, as well as to sneaky intruders of internet traffic. ISPs are allowed to gather, distribute, and sell company browsing data without the user’s consent. The amount of information that the ISPs collect can be significantly reduced, once the VPN starts its service.

Essentially, the ISP will receive packets from the user, but it won’t be able to follow the directions that the packets take afterward. It will also allow the ISP to see the packets being received by the user, but there will be no way to tell who or what originally sent these packets.

Without a VPN, Zapier notes that a person with harmful intentions could be intruding into a company’s open networks, allowing them to know what devices the company is using to access the internet, the devices’ operating systems, IP addresses, and possibly, physical location(s).

These individuals may even gain knowledge of the domains a company’s employees have visited, and even the individual web pages of sites that are not protected by HTTPS.

Non-encrypted sites are so unprotected that a hacker or intruder to a company’s internet traffic may even be able to see everything that an employee types into a web page.

Give Clients Peace of Mind

VPNs can give the applicants of companies that use online recruiting a sense of security.

It’s a good idea to discuss with candidates how their application data is being encrypted, and securely stored and transmitted, with a reliable VPN service.

According to Computerworld, some clients may not know much about VPNs or their functions, but providing information about the service could resolve any lingering concerns about sending sensitive, personal data to a company.

Bypass Geo-blocking

Certain online recruiting databases or web pages that are used by a company’s operations are sometimes not directly accessible from a given country. A VPN is capable of bypassing geo-blocking measures, by making a company’s data request appear to come from an IP address that originates in a location that is not geo-blocked.

vpnAlert mentions that certain customers and clients may be unsure of sending their personal or financial data to a company email, that seems to originate from a foreign country.

VPNs allow an online recruiting company to make all of its communications methods, including web page chats, posts and emails, represent the company’s home country.

Affordability

For companies that do not have deep reserves of revenue for advanced IT security measures, purchasing a VPN service that employees can use can be a very affordable and practical decision.

PC Magazine remarks that most VPN packages can be delivered well below $10 per user account per month, through business licensing plans.

This will ensure that each online recruiter’s session will be secured with military-grade data encryption, including access to web services, authentication methods, and data transmissions.