Today, the internet has become an integral part of many business organizations. However, the transmission of sensitive information over the internet has proven to be a major challenge for most companies due to privacy and security issues. Nevertheless, the development of a Private Virtual Network (PVN) within the network infrastructure has addressed privacy and safety concerns. The core aim of the paper is to elaborate how VPN enhances the security of the information that is sent via the internet (Zúquete & Frade, 2010).
There are two types of VPNs that include Remote-Access and site-to-site. Remote access is a user-to-LAN connection that is mostly embraced by a company whose employees are working at different remote locations but need to connect to the private network (Saucez et al., 2012). Primarily, an organization that sets up a remote-access VPN facilitates internet dial accounts to its employees working in various locations using an ISP. On the other hand, a site-to-site VPN is a case where a company utilizes dedicated equipment, large scale encryption, and the Internet or any other public network to connect to various fixed sites. Regardless of the type, VPNs employ one of the following three protocols to provide encryptions for purposes of data confidentiality.
Internet Protocol Security Protocol (IPsec) is one of the protocols that are used to facilitate encryption. IPsec enhances the security and privacy of the information that is sent through the internet by using a comprehensive authentication and robust encryption algorithm. It employs two encryption modes that include tunnel and transportation (Saucez et al., 2012). The purpose of the tunnel mode is to encrypt the header and the payload of each packet of information that is being sent through the network. On the other hand, however, the transportation mode encrypts only the payload. Nevertheless, the IPsec protocol can only be used by systems that are IPsec-compliant. Moreover, all devices that use the protocol have a common key or certification as well as similar security policies. There are some forms of third-party software packages that provide connections and encryptions on users PCs for remote-access VPN users (Zúquete & Frade, 2010).
Another protocol used to enhance the security and privacy of VPNs is PPTP/MPPE. The PPRTP forum is responsible for the creation of PPTP. The PPTP Forum is a consortium that includes Microsoft, US Robotics, Ascend, ECI Telematics and 3COM. PPTP employs the Microsoft point-to-point encryption (MPPE) protocol that is a multiprotocol VPN that contains encodings of 40-bit and 128-bit. As such, PPTP does not provide encryption itself but rather through MPPE (Saucez et al., 2012).
The third encryption protocol is known as L2TP/IPsec. Usually, L2TP/IPsec protocol is referred to as LT2P over IPsec. Its core purpose is to enhance the security of the IPsec protocol that is above the tunneling of Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP). The L2TP protocol is a creation of a partnership of members of Cisco, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and PPTP forum. L2TP/IPsec protocol is majorly used for remote-access VPNs that have Windows 2000 operating systems since it has both the IPsec and the L2TP clients. On the other hand, ISP can facilitate L2TP with connections for dial-in users. The traffic will then be encrypted with IPsec between a company’s remote office network server and its access point (Saucez et al., 2012).
Apparently, the security of the information sent over a network is an issue that deserves due attention. However, it is important to note that increasing the safety of the information that is transmitted over a network usually comes with additional costs. VPNs come up with logical connections to either layer 2 or 3 of the OSI model to enhance the security of the information. Through IPsec, PPTP/MPPE and L2TP/IPsec protocols, however, the privacy and security of packets of information are enhanced (Zúquete & Frade, 2010).
- Saucez, D., Iannone, L., Bonaventure, O., & Farinacci, D. (2012). Designing a deployable internet: The locator/identifier separation protocol. IEEE Internet Computing, 16(6), 14-21.
- Zúquete, A., & Frade, C. (2010, May). Fast VPN mobility across Wi-Fi hotspots. In Security and Communication Networks (IWSCN), 2010 2nd International Workshop on (pp. 1-7). IEEE.
