Many organizations still feel that remote-access VPNs are necessary. And, in some cases, they may very well be. But, more often, VPNs are opening the network to the internet and, as a result, the business to increased risk. VPN Disadvantages are:
Patching is often slow or forgotten – Remembering, and even finding time to patch VPN servers, is plain difficult. Teams are asked to do more with less, often creating a human challenge that leads to security vulnerabilities.
Placing users on the network – Perhaps the genesis of all the issues related to remote-access VPNs. For VPNs to work, networks must be discoverable. This exposure opens the organization to attack.
Lateral risk at exponential scale – Once on the network, malware can spread laterally, despite efforts to perform network segmentation (which is a complex process in itself). As mentioned above, this can also lead to the takedown of other security technologies, such as MFA and endpoint security.
The business’ reputation – Your customers trust that you will protect their information and provide the best level of service to them. To do this, businesses must be able to protect themselves. News of a ransomware attack has a detrimental impact on your brand reputation.
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