You might not need VPNs in 2021, but that doesn’t mean you’re safe.
I was surprised to see @josephfcox write on vice.com, “the internet is much safer than it was in 2010” in his recent Vice.com article, You Probably Don’t Need a VPN. This was especially surprising in the context of all the high profile ransomware attacks recently (Colonial Pipeline, Kaseya, Kia . . . ) and the FBI’s own report about the rise in cybercrime in 2020.
But his points about the proliferation of SSL and secure browsing is valid and does offset the main benefit touted by the VPN providers. That said, don’t become complacent about the online threats still out there. The Internet is still a very dangerous place for the unprotected. Secure browsing may protect you from third parties monitoring your data in transit between you and your bank. But it doesn’t protect you from clicking a malicious link an a phishing email and turning over your credentials directly to cybercriminals.
VPNs definitely filled the gap before the wide-spread adoption of SSL and HTTPS. And yes, your data is much more secure in transit than it was in 2010. But threats abound. Good antivirus software, which you should definitely have, still only protects your PC after the threat has already been brought into your network. A good firewall will (hopefully) stop inbound threats from breaching your perimeter. You should definitely have that too. But only DNS filtering will stop your users from unintentionally requesting malicious content in the first place.
As Joseph points out in the article, “at-risk groups will likely still want to use a VPN. I use one when researching people or companies who may later become adversarial before or after publishing an article about them, for example.” If state-level surveillance is a concern VPNs may also make sense. But when it comes to online data security in transit, VPNs may no longer be the only game in town. But, as the article points out, there may still be other considerations. It’s definitely worth a read (in case you made it this far without checking it out ;)
No single layer of protection will stop all threats. But putting together an effective cybersecurity protection stack will best position you to protect your employees, your company, and yourself.
