Even though there are only 3,802 confirmed coronavirus cases in the US, VPN usage has already increased by 53%, and professionals from Atlas VPN expect it to increase over 150% very soon.

The dream of working from home is now not a choice but something imposed on many, due to a nightmare. Suddenly, working from home becomes mandatory – if and when that’s possible. As some countries go into lockdown or travel restrictions are implemented, companies allow or encourage employees to work from home. To connect to the office network remotely, people have to use a VPN. This way, companies can ensure complete protection, from hacking their sensitive files.

My wife is staying home now, working upstairs, and we got her VPN working during the weekend, as she prepares for a two-week period staying home, maybe more. While that’s something new for her, somehow a frightening experience, because there are so many change involved, working from home has been my reality since before the Internet (I was a CompuServe user in the late 80), when I used a modem and the telephone line to send my articles to newspapers and magazines.

VPN for leisure and work

We’re staying home these days, my younger son having university classes online, my wife on her virtual office, connected through a VPN, which is a virtual private network that creates a safe link directly to her workplace servers. She is one more person adding to the numbers of those for whom the term VPN is new.

The COVID-19 outbreak has changed the world drastically and people forced to stay home due to quarantine or lockdown spend more of their time on the internet than usual. Some will want a VPN for leisure, because it allows them to overcome geographical restrictions and to enjoy their favorite content from all over the world. Others will need it because working from home, in a virtual office that extends to the house of each employee, a VPN is essential.

Independently of the reasons why VPNs are used, what the research  from Atlas VPN reveals is that VPN usage in the US has already increased by 53%. According to Atlas VPN user data, VPN usage in Italy increased by 112% in the last week. Interestingly, even though there are only 63 confirmed coronavirus cases in Russia, the VPN usage shot up by 36%, reveals the research conducted by Atlas VPN.

VPN usage could increase over 150% in US

Since December 31, 2019, when the first reports of the previously-unknown coronavirus form were reported to the World Health Organisation, VPN usage has increased in almost every single country with significant coronavirus cases. Over 53% of US citizens started using a VPN more often, which is a higher number than in countries as UK or Germany, as the chart shows.

Rachel Welch, Chief Operating Officer of Atlas VPN, shares her VPN usage estimation for the upcoming weeks: “We estimate that VPN usage in the US could increase over 150% by the end of the month. Overall, the usage of VPNs should continue to surge if the coronavirus pandemic worsens.”

The Atlas VPN research now published derives data from the company’s 50,000 weekly users. Atlas VPN measured how much traffic traveled through its servers last week (March 9-15) compared to the week before (March 2-8). The number of customers remained relatively the same during the two weeks.

Atlas VPN is a company started with one goal in mind: to bring a free VPN service to the market. The company aims to provide high quality VPN service that helps you stay private and access all the content you want in a most easy way possible. Atlas VPN provides VPN service absolutely free of charge. However, the free version only gives access to slower servers. To enjoy the full speed of Atlas VPN, users are  encouraged to upgrade to Premium.