- VPN security concerns rise as 91% of respondents express concerns about VPNs leading to a compromising breach
- The survey identifies the top threats exploiting VPN vulnerabilities to be ransomware (42%), other types of malware (35%), and DDoS attacks (30%)
- Lateral movement is a top concern, as reported by a majority of enterprises breached by VPN, demonstrating significant containment failures
This shift to
- Ivanti (CVE-2023-46805 and CVE-2024-21887) - Remote attackers were able to perform authentication bypass and remote command injection exploits.
- Palo Alto Networks OS vulnerability (CVE-2024-3400) - Unauthenticated users exploited the security vendor’s operating system to infiltrate the network. As a result, the vulnerability received the maximum severity score of 10.0.
The Ivanti zero-day vulnerabilities even led the
VPN security challenges
VPNs have traditionally facilitated remote enterprise access to networks, yet the growing scale and complexity of cyber threats targeting these networks remain a significant concern for security teams. Among those surveyed, 91% voiced apprehension regarding VPNs as weak entry points in their IT infrastructure, highlighted by recent breaches that exposed the dangers of relying on outdated or unpatched VPN infrastructure.
“Over the past year, numerous critical VPN vulnerabilities have served as successful entry points for attacks on large enterprises and federal entities,” said Deepen Desai, CSO at
Key VPN vulnerability exploits
The report identifies ransomware attacks (42%), malware infections (35%), and DDoS attacks (30%), as the top threats exploiting VPN vulnerabilities. These statistics emphasize the extensive risks organizations face due to the inherent weaknesses in traditional VPN architectures, reinforcing the need for a shift to
Stop the spread
Among enterprises who were breached via VPN vulnerabilities, a majority of impacted enterprises say threat actors moved laterally on the network, demonstrating significant containment failures after the initial point of compromise. To help minimize the blast radius and mitigate risk from VPN vulnerabilities,
- Minimize the attack surface by making apps invisible to the internet, making them more difficult for attackers to discover and target
- Prevent compromise with inline traffic and content inspection to detect and block malicious activity and shield resources from unauthorized access or data exfiltration
- Eliminate lateral movement by segmenting and connecting users directly to applications instead of the network, thus limiting an attackers’ opportunities for unauthorized access and lateral spread
To learn more about the risks VPNs pose to the enterprise, download the Zscaler ThreatLabz 2024 VPN Risk Report with Cybersecurity Insiders at: www.zscaler.com/campaign/threatlabz-vpn-risk-report
Methodology
The VPN Risk Report surveyed more than 600 security, IT, and networking professionals.
About
Media Contact:
Zscaler PR
press@zscaler.com
Source:
2024 GlobeNewswire, Inc., source