Old habits die hard. Even in 2025, legacy systems like fax machines, PBX phone systems and filing cabinets remain in use in many offices. Another surprising holdover is the traditional VPN (Virtual Private Network.) VPN technology had a nice run, serving as the default choice for remote access for decades. But many organizations continue to rely on legacy VPN solutions, despite significant advancements in secure remote access technologies.
Indeed, in the modern threat landscape, VPN services bring more risk than benefit. Let’s look at five reasons why it is time to say goodbye to VPN infrastructure and what to use instead.
VP of Product Strategy at Netwrix.
Workloads have moved to the cloud
In recent years, businesses have steadily migrated their operations to cloud computing environments. Consider how many Teams or Zoom meetings you’ve attended this week and how many of your daily applications now operate in the cloud.
This shift has made VPN solutions less and less necessary. As cloud usage increases, the need to remotely access on-premises resources diminishes. Nevertheless, many companies still maintain VPN solutions to provide access to a dwindling number of legacy resources, much like individuals holding onto Blu-ray players solely to watch a couple of dusty discs tucked in an old cabinet.
But is it worth maintaining a complex, outdated VPN infrastructure for a few remaining items, such as a designated machine or a legacy file storage repository? Today, businesses have a multitude of alternative solutions to choose from. These cloud-centric solutions improve efficiency and productivity because they eliminate the need for constant maintenance, patching and monitoring. They can also easily scale up or down to accommodate fluctuating numbers of remote users. But perhaps the most important benefit is stronger security.
Blocking lateral movement and privilege escalation is critical
Traditional VPNs provide broad network access to everything — which can expose sensitive data and critical systems unnecessarily. Indeed, this expansion of your attack surface is what enables threat actors to steadily escalate their privileges and compromise multiple systems across the network. What’s more, VPN-enabled accounts sit dormant when not in use, ready for takeover by attackers at their convenience. Compounding this risk, organizations have limited control over the off-premises devices running VPN clients, which further increases the potential for malware infiltration and unauthorized access.
Secure access solutions, on the other hand, provide access to the specific resources that the user currently needs, nothing more. Strictly enforcing the principle of least privilege restricts lateral movement, which in turn significantly reduces the potential impact of a breach. These modern solutions also dynamically create access privileges that last only for the duration of a session and are then removed; this just-in-time approach dramatically reduces the risk of dormant accounts being exploited while maintaining productivity for remote users.
You need better visibility and control
Traditional VPN configurations are static which means they need to grant broad access to each user. This lack of granular control exposes organizations to significant security risks and potential data breaches – once connected, those users can engage in risky activities such as launching RDP sessions or accessing malicious websites without oversight.
In contrast, today’s advanced secure access systems can dynamically modify users’ access rights based on real-time factors such as user behavior, device status and threat intelligence. For example, if an account begins attempting to delete or encrypt sensitive files, its access rights can be cut off immediately.
In addition, live monitoring and session recording capabilities empower security teams to carefully observe and analyze user activity. This comprehensive visibility enables prompt threat detection and rapid incident response. Moreover, enabling deep visibility and accountability discourages users from engaging in risky behavior in the first place.
VPNs are a gateway for multiple threats
An active VPN connection is one more open door to your network. If a user is surfing the web while connected, they can inadvertently download malicious code onto their system. As a result, threat actors can gain remote control of the device, enabling them to compromise MFA tokens, redirect text messages, implement man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks and more.
A modern secure access solution significantly reduces the risk of these threats because it creates isolated, application-specific connections rather than broad network-wide access. In addition, it enforces least privilege access and applies real-time security controls to detect and block suspicious activity. This proactive approach helps safeguard sensitive data and systems and, therefore, core business operations.
Compliance regulations are becoming stricter
There is no legislative mandate today that dictates that companies cannot use a VPN. However, the goal of compliance isn’t to check boxes; it is to strengthen your security posture. Ask yourself: are you truly meeting your due diligence obligations if you continue to rely on VPN solutions?
Moreover, compliance standards are rapidly changing in response to advances in both technology and the threat landscape. In particular, regulations increasingly emphasize the importance of proactive risk management and adaptive security solutions. Soon enough, regulatory bodies are likely to recommend more robust security measures than VPNs — just as they already discourage the use of old encryption and authentication protocols.
Conclusion
As cyber threats evolve, businesses must rethink their approach to remote access. It’s time to retire VPNs and embrace modern, identity management security solutions that provide far better protection for critical assets while improving efficiency and scalability. Although saying goodbye can be tough, the benefits of contemporary access solutions far outweigh the comfort of maintaining outdated systems.
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