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200-201 Practice Question: A company's security policy states that all…
A company's security policy states that all remote access must be through a VPN. An employee complains that the VPN is too slow and asks for an exception to access a specific internal server directly over the internet. What should the security analyst recommend?
⚠ Common exam trap
Cisco often tests the principle that security policies must be enforced consistently, and the trap here is that candidates think a temporary or IP-based exception is acceptable, when in fact any direct access bypasses the VPN's encryption and authentication, violating the core security requirement.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Investigate the VPN performance issue and optimize if possible.
The security policy mandates VPN for all remote access, and bypassing it would violate the principle of least privilege and expose the internal server directly to the internet. The analyst should first investigate the VPN performance issue—common causes include MTU mismatch, high latency, or encryption overhead—and optimize it (e.g., adjusting MTU, using split tunneling, or upgrading hardware) rather than granting an exception that undermines security.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Configure a separate VPN profile with lower encryption.
Why it's wrong here
Weakening encryption on a separate profile still routes traffic through the VPN, but it degrades the confidentiality the policy requires and does not address the throughput complaint. Lower-encryption profiles suit legacy clients that cannot negotiate modern ciphers, not performance tuning.
- ✗
Allow direct access but only from the employee's home IP.
Why it's wrong here
Restricting direct access to one home IP still bypasses the VPN, breaching the policy, and residential addresses are dynamic and spoofable. IP allowlisting suits published services with static addresses, not confidential internal servers reached by roaming employees.
- ✗
Grant the exception temporarily and monitor the connection.
Why it's wrong here
A temporary exception still exposes the internal server directly to the internet, violating the policy's mandate that all remote access traverse the VPN. Exceptions suit documented, compensating-control scenarios such as vendor support windows, not routine performance complaints from an employee.
- ✓
Investigate the VPN performance issue and optimize if possible.
Why this is correct
Investigating VPN performance directly addresses the employee's complaint while preserving the mandated remote-access control. Optimising throughput, MTU or split tunnelling resolves the slowness without breaching policy, unlike granting direct internet exposure to an internal server. This satisfies the constraint that all remote access must traverse the VPN.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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