Your VPN is supposed to keep secrets safe, but what happens when the VPN itself becomes the leak? CISA—America’s cybersecurity watchdog—issued an emergency directive forcing all federal agencies to immediately disconnect their Ivanti Connect Secure VPN software after Chinese hackers turned it into their personal backdoor. The brutal irony? CISA’s own databases got compromised despite applying the company’s security patches. When the cybersecurity experts get owned by the very threats they’re fighting, you know something’s fundamentally broken.
A Pattern of Penetration
This wasn’t a one-off breach—it’s become a recurring nightmare spanning multiple years and sophisticated attack campaigns.
Chinese state-sponsored groups have repeatedly exploited Ivanti’s code since 2021, compromising everything from Air Force networks to NASA systems. The latest round involved sophisticated zero-day exploits like CVE-2025-0282, a buffer overflow that handed attackers remote control. These weren’t script kiddies—they deployed anti-forensics tools, cleared logs, and used custom malware called DRYHOOK to harvest credentials. Your average ransomware crew could only dream of this level of operational security.
The Private Equity Problem
Clearlake Capital’s 2020 acquisition loaded Ivanti with $2.8 billion in debt while gutting the engineering teams that kept systems secure.
Here’s where the story gets predictably depressing. After Clearlake Capital bought Pulse Secure in 2020, it immediately cut 11% of staff and eventually slashed the engineering team in half. Key security developers in California and the UK got pink slips while replacements in cheaper markets struggled with legacy code that desperately needed expert attention.
Former officials like NASA’s ex-CIO Rob Leahy called out the private equity playbook: prioritize debt payments over R&D investments, exactly when Chinese hackers are targeting VPN infrastructure. The math is simple—you can’t maintain fortress-level security with discount-store budgets.
Widespread system failures compound these computer problems that organizations face daily.
Government Exodus
When the Pentagon, the Navy, and the FAA all abandon your security software, the writing’s on the digital wall.
The government’s response was swift and damning. Pentagon, Navy, FAA, Treasury, and MITRE all ripped out Ivanti systems. Laura Galante, former ODNI cyber chief, delivered the kill shot: “You should not be using it.” Customer base dropped by a third to 34,000 as revenue collapsed. Even banks like Wells Fargo started looking for exits. Ivanti’s debt restructuring in May 2025 tells the real story—when your security product becomes a liability, financial engineering can’t save you.
The lesson extends beyond one compromised VPN. When evaluating enterprise security tools, scrutinize the ownership structure. Private equity firms optimize for quarterly returns, not decade-long security investments. Your network’s only as strong as its weakest vendor’s balance sheet.
