Remote work is no longer growing at the pace seen during the pandemic. But it has not disappeared either.
It has become a normal part of working life.
Research from Stanford University estimates that, as of 2025, about one-quarter of paid workdays among Americans aged 20 to 64 were worked from home. Separate Stanford research has also found that work-from-home levels have largely stabilized after falling from their pandemic-era highs.
That creates a lasting security challenge for employers and workers. People now connect to company accounts, cloud services and internal systems from homes, hotels, airports, co-working spaces and other locations outside a traditional office network.
VPNs, or virtual private networks, remain one way to protect those connections.
They are not a complete security solution, and newer technologies are changing how companies manage remote access. But in 2026, VPNs still have a practical role for many remote workers.
What a VPN Actually Does
A VPN creates an encrypted connection between a device and a VPN server.
That can prevent people on the same local network from easily viewing the traffic moving between the device and the VPN endpoint. It can also allow employees to connect securely to private company resources that are not open to the public internet.
For businesses, the exact purpose of a VPN depends on how the network is set up. Some organizations use VPNs mainly to give employees access to internal systems. Others use them as one part of a wider security system that may also include multi-factor authentication, endpoint protection, and identity controls.
For individual workers, a VPN can provide an extra layer of protection when using networks they do not fully control.
Public Wi-Fi Remains a Reason for Caution
Remote workers do not always work from home.
A laptop may be connected from a café one morning, an airport in the afternoon and a hotel later that evening. Those networks are outside the worker’s control.
Modern websites increasingly use HTTPS encryption, which already protects much of the data sent between a browser and a website. That means public Wi-Fi is not automatically unsafe simply because it is public.
However, risks can still exist.
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency advises users working on public networks to use a VPN or another authorized secure-access solution, along with protections such as firewalls, malware defenses and device encryption.
A VPN therefore works best as an additional security layer rather than a replacement for other protections.
Remote Workers Often Need Access to Private Systems
For many employees, VPN use is not optional.
Businesses may keep internal applications, databases, development environments or shared resources behind a private network. Employees outside the office then need an approved way to reach them.
A corporate VPN can create that route.
Instead of exposing an internal system directly to the internet, an organization can require an authenticated connection before an employee is allowed to access it.
This approach has been widely used for years. It remains common, although many organizations are now adopting more targeted forms of remote access.
Stolen Credentials Are a Bigger Concern Than the Network Alone
VPN discussions sometimes focus too heavily on Wi-Fi security.
In reality, many cyberattacks begin with something much simpler: a compromised account.
Verizon’s 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report analyzed more than 22,000 security incidents, including 12,195 confirmed breaches. Credential abuse was the leading known initial access method, accounting for 22%, while exploitation of vulnerabilities accounted for 20%.
This is an important distinction.
A VPN may secure a connection, but it cannot protect an account after an attacker has obtained valid login credentials. It also cannot fix malware on a laptop, a weak password or an unpatched application.
That is why organizations increasingly combine secure remote access with multi-factor authentication, device management and tighter identity controls.
VPN Infrastructure Can Also Become a Target
VPNs should not be treated as automatically secure simply because they are security products.
Verizon’s 2025 research also found a sharp increase in attacks that exploited vulnerabilities in edge devices and VPN infrastructure. Edge devices and VPNs accounted for 22% of vulnerability-exploitation targets examined in that part of the report, up significantly from the previous year.
The lesson is straightforward: VPN software and appliances need to be maintained like any other critical system.
Updates matter. Patches matter. Configuration matters.
An outdated VPN gateway can create risk instead of reducing it.
The Cost of Poor Security Keeps Rising
The financial stakes are also increasing.
IBM’s 2026 Cost of a Data Breach Report puts the global average cost of a data breach at $4.99 million, up 12% from the previous year.
That figure is not specific to remote work or VPNs. But it shows why businesses continue to invest in stronger access controls.
Remote employees may connect from many locations and devices. Each connection has to be authenticated and protected appropriately.
A VPN can help with part of that problem. It cannot solve all of it.
VPNs Are No Longer the Only Option
The biggest change in remote-access security is the growth of Zero Trust Network Access, or ZTNA.
Traditional remote-access VPNs can give a user access to a wider network after authentication. ZTNA takes a more limited approach. Access can be granted to specific applications or resources based on factors such as identity, device status and company policy.
Gartner describes ZTNA as a scalable alternative to traditional VPN technology and notes that it can reduce some of the security and performance problems associated with older VPN architectures.
This does not mean VPNs are disappearing overnight.
Large organizations often have older applications and network systems that still depend on VPN access. Moving to zero-trust systems can also require new infrastructure, policies and operational changes.
As a result, many companies are likely to use a mix of technologies during the transition.
A VPN Is One Layer, Not a Security Strategy
For remote workers, the most useful way to think about a VPN is as one part of a larger security setup.
A VPN can encrypt a connection and provide controlled access to private resources. It cannot protect against every threat.
Remote workers should still use strong, unique passwords and multi-factor authentication. Devices should receive security updates promptly. Company information should only be accessed through approved services, and sensitive work should be done on properly managed devices whenever possible.
Employers also need to decide how much access each user actually needs.
That question is becoming increasingly important as security moves away from simply trusting someone because they have connected to the company network.
Why VPNs Still Matter in 2026
Remote work appears to have moved from a temporary shift to a lasting part of the labor market.
Stanford researchers found that work-from-home levels stabilized after 2023, while more recent U.S. business research suggests employers expect meaningful levels of remote work to continue.
That means secure remote access will remain necessary.
For some organizations, the answer will increasingly be zero-trust systems and cloud-based security platforms. For others, VPNs will remain part of the infrastructure for years.
And for workers who regularly connect outside a controlled office environment, a VPN can still provide a useful layer of protection.
The important point is not that everyone needs a VPN all the time.
It is that remote work has changed where people connect from, while security has changed how those connections should be trusted.
