VPN Security - How Secure is a VPN?

As remote and hybrid work arrangements have become more common in recent years, companies need to offer secure remote access to employees working from outside of the office. A remote access virtual private network (VPN) provides this access by encrypting traffic between a remote worker and the corporate network.

However, most VPNs have significant security limitations and issues. When selecting a VPN solution, it is important to ensure that it can meet the needs of the organization and its employees, including the ability to verify that traffic flowing over the VPN is free of potential threats.

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How Secure is a VPN?

A VPN is designed to provide secure connectivity between two systems over an untrusted network. The VPN creates a secure tunnel between the two systems so that no one can eavesdrop on the traffic between them. VPNs accomplish this using encryption. During the setup phase, the two communicating parties establish a shared secret key that they will use during their session. All traffic flowing between the two sites is encrypted by the sender and decrypted by the recipient.

A modern VPN security protocol using strong cryptographic algorithms is very secure against potential threats to confidentiality and integrity. An attacker can’t read the traffic flowing over the VPN tunnel or modify it without being detected. However, providing a secure connection is all that a VPN does. It doesn’t perform any security inspection to ensure that the traffic flowing over the VPN doesn’t have malicious content.

Why Free VPNs Are Not Safe

Free VPNs provide an encrypted tunnel between the user’s computer and the VPN provider’s servers. This helps to protect against eavesdropping and other threats that could exist on the local network or the ISP. After the traffic reaches the VPN provider, it is decrypted and allowed to continue on to its destination.

VPN providers — like any other company — are in business to make money. In general, if a service is provided for “free”, the reason is that someone else is paying for access to data regarding the users of that service. With a free VPN, the VPN provider decrypts the VPN traffic, providing them with access to the original network traffic. Additionally, all of a user’s network traffic travels through the VPN and the VPN provider’s systems.

This gives the VPN provider the ability to inspect their users’ network traffic and extract useful and valuable information. By monitoring the sites that a user visits, a VPN provider could build a profile of its users that it can sell to marketers, political campaigns, and similar organizations. These companies that purchase the datasets can then use this information to better target their ads to users and increase the probability of a successful conversion.

Free VPNs provide a cost-free way to evade geofencing and protect against eavesdropping by an ISP or a potentially malicious public Wi-Fi connection. However, this comes at the cost of allowing the VPN provider to eavesdrop on network traffic and mine it for information that it can sell to its partners and customers.

Limitations and Security Risks of VPNs

Some of the significant limitations and VPN security risks include the following:

  • Decreased Visibility: VPNs provide secure point-to-point connectivity. If an organization has multiple locations to connect, the corporate network can be complex and the security team may lack converged network visibility.
  • Inefficient Routing: The point-to-point nature of VPNs means that they are often deployed under a hub-and-spoke model where VPNs connect remote sites to the headquarters network and traffic can be routed out from there. This means that traffic from a remote worker or site to the cloud detours through the headquarters network, worsening performance and network latency.
  • No Integrated Security: VPNs provide a secure network connection but don’t inspect the traffic flowing over them. This means that they offer no protection against data exfiltration, malware, and other threats unless an organization has a full network security stack deployed alongside each VPN endpoint.

VPN Security with Quantum VPN

Secure VPN provide organizations with the ability to effectively and securely support remote work. Remote workers and sites can connect to the headquarters network or other corporate resources via a secure, encrypted tunnel that protects against eavesdropping and tampering with network traffic. However, while a VPN protects the network communications, it does nothing to ensure that the traffic doesn’t contain malicious content.

Check Point Quantum VPN is a remote access VPN that enables organizations to support a remote workforce without the security risks of traditional VPNs. With Quantum VPN security, users have a seamless experience, and organizations can take advantage of a VPN that is integrated with and secured by Check Point’s enterprise-grade network security solutions. To learn more about how Quantum VPN can enhance the performance and security of your remote work infrastructure, sign up for a free trial today.

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