Four reasons to kill the VPN: security, speed, simplicity and savings
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VPNs were designed to protect the network perimeter at a time when that perimeter was still defined and finite. When only a handful of “doors” into a network existed, they could be monitored and maintained. But the expanding network means doors – and attack vectors – have grown exponentially.
The enterprise network has moved from tightly-bound to boundless
Zero Trust security and virtual private networks
The network perimeter is changing. IT environments encompass multiple topologies, including on-premise hardware, private clouds, and public clouds. Companies share applications and data with dozens of partners and vendors. Businesses are extending their operational reach and access to a remote workforce that is itself dynamic and elastic in nature. Employees, vendors, partners, customers, and other stakeholders are constantly logging in from different devices, using different connections, and working from different locations. CISOs, CIOs, and CSOs are being asked to secure identities and devices across unknown and untrusted shared common infrastructure.
In such a world, the enterprise network has moved from tightly-bound to boundless. Consequently, whatever protection Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) afforded to an enterprise’s data and critical assets has been completely destroyed. Businesses need a new and better way to secure their “crown jewels.” That is found in a Zero Trust security approach which controls access to resources based on user identity, continuously verifying users and limiting network access based on the concept of least-privilege.
While the Zero Trust concept emerged in the last decade or so, Unisys has been deploying Zero Trust since 2006 with the inception of the Unisys Stealth® solution. Stealth was originally developed to satisfy a U.S. government need to share sensitive and classified information over untrusted networks. Today, Stealth is used to power the Unisys Always-On Access solution, which provides users secure, scalable access only to the data and applications they need - not the entire network.
Security: eliminating VPN vulnerabilities
To better understand why Zero Trust calls for the eliminations of VPNs, visualize your enterprise’s network as a house and a VPN as a door. That door opens for anyone who has a key – or who can jimmy the lock. Obviously, the door is where burglars are going to concentrate their efforts. Practically speaking, it is not that hard to break in. Plus, once they get through the door, there are no further barriers to navigate. They are “home-free” to move where they want and steal what they want.