According to TheRegister.com, cyber-insurer At-Bay’s 2025 InsurSec Report reveals that organizations using Cisco and Citrix VPN devices were 6.8 times more likely to suffer ransomware infections between January 2024 and March 2025. The analysis of over 100,000 policy years of cyber claims data showed SonicWall VPN users at 5.8 times higher risk, Palo Alto Global Protect at 5.5 times, and Fortinet at 5.3 times higher likelihood of attack. At-Bay CISO Adam Tyra emphasized that while these products aren’t inherently insecure, their complexity leads to maintenance challenges, with 80% of ransomware attacks starting through remote access tools and 83% involving VPN devices. This alarming data suggests a fundamental shift in remote access security strategy is urgently needed.
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Table of Contents
The Legacy VPN Security Paradox
The core issue isn’t that Cisco and Citrix produce insecure products, but rather that their traditional on-premises VPN architectures create operational complexity that most organizations struggle to manage effectively. These systems evolved from simple tunneling protocols into complex multifunction appliances combining firewall, routing, and remote access capabilities. The pandemic-driven remote work explosion accelerated deployment of these next-generation firewalls without corresponding investment in the specialized expertise needed to maintain them. What makes this particularly dangerous is that VPNs provide direct network access—once compromised, attackers gain immediate internal network presence without needing to bypass perimeter defenses.
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The Maintenance Gap Crisis
Most concerning is the revelation that organizations can initially deploy these systems securely but fail to maintain them over time. The cybersecurity industry has long understood that complexity is the enemy of security, yet we continue building increasingly complex systems while underinvesting in operational security practices. The report’s findings about missed patches and outdated configurations point to a systemic failure in security operations rather than product design flaws. This creates a dangerous asymmetry: attackers need to find only one vulnerability while defenders must secure every possible attack vector across complex, interconnected systems.
Cloud Security Transition Imperative
The dramatic risk reduction with cloud-based solutions highlights a fundamental architectural advantage. Modern Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) platforms distribute security functions across cloud infrastructure rather than concentrating them in single on-premises appliances. This eliminates the “all-or-nothing” network access model of traditional VPNs, implementing zero-trust principles where users only access specific applications rather than entire networks. The cloud model also shifts patching and maintenance burdens to vendors with dedicated security teams, addressing the operational gap that plagues on-premises deployments.
SonicWall: A Case Study in Cumulative Risk
The SonicWall situation exemplifies how vulnerability accumulation creates systemic risk. With multiple high-severity vulnerabilities like CVE-2024-40766 and recent breaches affecting configuration backup systems, organizations face an overwhelming patching burden. The 300% increase in Akira ransomware attacks against SonicWall devices demonstrates how attackers systematically target systems with known maintenance challenges. This creates a vicious cycle where each new vulnerability increases the attack surface while draining limited security resources, making comprehensive protection increasingly difficult over time.
Broader Industry Implications
These findings should trigger a fundamental reassessment of remote access security across multiple industries. Organizations relying on traditional VPNs face not only technical risk but potential insurance coverage challenges as underwriters incorporate these risk factors into pricing models. The insurance data provides objective evidence that what many considered “standard” security practices may actually increase organizational risk. This could accelerate the shift toward managed security services and cloud-based zero-trust architectures, particularly for mid-market organizations lacking specialized security expertise.
Practical Security Recommendations
For organizations currently dependent on traditional VPNs, immediate focus should include implementing strict configuration management, automated patch deployment, and comprehensive monitoring of remote access systems. Multi-factor authentication should be considered mandatory, not optional, for all remote access scenarios. Organizations should also conduct urgent risk assessments of their VPN infrastructure and develop migration plans to modern architectures. The insurance industry’s validation of these risks means that continued reliance on vulnerable legacy systems could soon impact both security posture and insurance affordability.
