Over the past 10 years, the VPN market has grown exponentially as consumers and businesses alike seek new innovative ways to protect their data and secure their privacy. In fact, the entire VPN industry generated over $15 billion in revenue in 2016. But what happens next? Well, the answer is that the industry will continue expanding, generating more revenue than previously estimated. VPNs have come to the public sector in just two decades ago, and they are already becoming the next hot topic in today’s cybersecurity economy.
First, wifi networks that are vulnerable with unsecured hotspots are a hacker’s best friend. They can exploit these networks within seconds to steal user information, since connecting to a wifi network can be programmed to automatically expose private information to the router’s owner. Consequently, hackers set up fake wifi to fool users into connecting with a network a hacker has complete control of. This issue is very prevalent, but VPNs may help prevent the risk. VPN technology is promising to prevent malicious networks from seeing your data through an encryption process. This breakthrough could present a new era of VPNs, expanding its market even further.
Second, the most popular use of the VPN is to avoid internet censorship in certain countries. Many times, you may travel to a foreign country only to realize that Facebook isn’t loading. These countries have created laws against visiting certain websites they deem unfit. However, millions of users bypass this limitation yearly by simply connecting a VPN to their network. Since VPNs encrypt their data, governments can no longer censor blocked connections. The governments are fighting back by outmaneuvering some technical restrictions, but VPNs are finding new and improved encryption methods simultaneously. More and more countries are restricting internet access, expanding the VPN market to more visitors and citizens in the future.