# Leaving Port 8088 Open **URL:** \ **Category:** Ignition\ **Created:** [October 2, 2019, 2:13pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/leaving-port-8088-open/28742 "2019-10-02T14:13:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 5
**Author:** ![paul-griffith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/paul-griffith/32/37249_2.png) [@paul-griffith](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/paul-griffith)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 7:15pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/leaving-port-8088-open/28742/5 "2019-10-02T19:15:39Z")
If you’re properly using HTTPS/TLS, and have appropriate firewalls in place, then yes, you’re correct - the risk is significantly reduced. At that point, it basically comes down to your preference: is the additional maintenance burden of a VPN worth the reduced risk of some unknown exploit in Ignition compromising things. In pretty much all respects, the VPN is the “safer” option - I can’t make the decision for you, but if you don’t have a compelling reason to, I would be pretty cagey about exposing a gateway to the internet. As for Ignition itself - we have conducted (and passed) external security audits before, but there’s still a matter of attack surfaces. Something like OpenVPN has gone through hundreds of times more testing than Ignition itself, so the theoretical probability of a vulnerability is therefore probably lower. --- _[View the full topic](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/leaving-port-8088-open/28742)._