While VPNs by their very nature are a more secure means of connecting to vital company servers through public networks, vulnerabilities remain. Hackers and cyber criminals are always looking for ways to penetrate protections around VPN servers in order to gain access to the wealth of data and information that lies within a business.
Because VPN servers were not traditionally viewed as a vital connection, frequently used primarily by a small number of business travelers and people looking to access company resources during off hours, applying the latest security patches simply wasn’t seen as a top priority. But as the workforce has largely shifted to remote access, with traffic spiking, the need for IT security professionals to stay on top of security patches to VPN servers has become urgent.
In addition to VPN servers, security teams should also patch all firewalls and routers. It would also be prudent for IT to regularly monitor the network for any indications of unauthorized activity that could indicate a breach has occurred. At the same time, monitoring VPN usage, looking at important parameters such as which users are logging in, where are they logging in from, and how long are they on the network, can provide insight in suspicious VPN usage patterns that might indicate an attack or penetration by hackers.