When the Shield Gets Breached: How VPN Vulnerabilities Highlight the Need for Everywhere Security

With the dust of the remote work revolution finally settling, it’s evident that many businesses have adopted a more hybrid approach, offering their teams the option to work from home—or any place of their choice—several times a week.

This shift places a significant demand on organisations to ensure their employees have secure and smooth remote access to essential business resources without sacrificing security or productivity. To meet this demand, VPNs have become a crucial tool.

VPNs are designed to create a secure, encrypted tunnel for data transmission, shielding it from prying eyes. Yet, it is somewhat ironic that this very “shield” has become paradoxical. As VPN usage has expanded to accommodate a more distributed workforce, the true limitations of VPNs are beginning to show.

Initially used to just connect a few remote users to corporate networks for short periods, the performance and security issues associated with VPNs have multiplied as remote work becomes the norm.

Users now often experience sluggish performance due to the VPN’s inability to handle increased traffic and concurrent connections. Not to mention, VPNs typically use a “castle-and-moat” model, granting users unfettered access to corporate resources once connected. This outdated model lacks granular access controls, making it easier for attackers to move laterally within a network and potentially causing data breaches​.

Exploiting the Weaknesses

The vulnerabilities in VPNs are not just theoretical. Sophisticated cybercriminals have developed methods to exploit these weaknesses. For example, the widespread use of VPNs has made them a prime target for attacks like credential stuffing, where attackers use stolen credentials to gain unauthorised access to networks. Moreover, the lack of visibility into user activity within a VPN tunnel makes it difficult to detect and respond to malicious behaviour, further compounding the risks.

Plus, in addition to these security concerns, the inability to scale VPNs provides another headache. As previously mentioned, VPNs were not designed to support the large-scale, continuous connectivity required by today’s remote workforces. This limitation forces organisations to either invest in expensive, complex infrastructure to scale their VPNs or risk leaving their networks vulnerable to attack​s.

Never Trust, Always Verify

As the limitations of VPNs become more apparent, organisations are increasingly turning to Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) as a much more secure and scalable alternative. Unlike VPNs, which implicitly trust users once they are connected, ZTNA operates on the principle of “never trust, always verify.” Every access request is authenticated and logged, and access is granted based on strict verification of the user’s identity and context.

ZTNA also limits the information that users and devices can access, reducing the risk of lateral movement within a network. By isolating applications and data within the network and adding end-to-end encryption, ZTNA provides a higher level of security than traditional VPNs.

Everywhere Security Model

Recognising the shortcomings of VPNs, Cloudflare has developed its Everywhere Security model, which extends the principles of Zero Trust to every connection, no matter where users are located. This approach eliminates the need for traditional VPNs, offering a more secure, scalable, and manageable solution for remote access.

Cloudflare’s solution includes a global edge network that provides fast and secure connections, regardless of the user’s location. It also integrates industry-leading DDoS protection and a secure web gateway, offering fine-grained control over user and device access rights. When you move away from the outdated VPN model and adopt Cloudflare’s Everywhere Security, your organisation can be better protected against today’s sophisticated and growing cyber threats​.

Can ZTNA Truly Replace VPNs?

The vulnerabilities of VPNs highlight the need to use ZTNA.

When you transition to a zero-trust approach, such as Cloudflare’s Everywhere Security, your organisation can ensure that your data and networks are protected, no matter where your users are located.

If you’re still not sure whether ZTNA can really replace VPNs, go ahead and download this detailed white paper that explains in depth how you can reduce reliance on your VPN and eventually replace it.