VPN (English version)

VPN (Virtual Private Network)

A VPN or Virtual Private Network enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to a private network. It is a method used to add security and privacy to private and public networks, like WiFi Hotspots and the Internet. VPNs are most often used by corporations to protect sensitive data.

Individual Internet users may secure their wireless transactions with a VPN, to circumvent geo-restrictions and censorship, or to connect to proxy servers for the purpose of protecting personal identity and location. However, some Internet sites block access to known VPN technology to prevent the circumvention of their geo-restrictions.

A VPN is created by establishing a virtual point-to-point connection through the use of dedicated connections, virtual tunneling protocols, or traffic encryption. A VPN available from the public Internet can provide some of the benefits of a wide area network (WAN). From a user perspective, the resources available within the private network can be accessed remotely.[1]

VPN solution Benefits

Users or business partners in a secure network and information exchange is crucial for many organizations. Some VPN advantages are:

• can be used to transfer data between different public networks, being independent of the data transmission protocol;
• ensure the data is supported by many VPN solutions for a variety of encryption and authentication protocol;
• remote users can connect from across the organization's network;
• can also be ordered from the relevant service providers. However it is important to make sure the reliability of the service.

References

[1] Microsoft Technet. "Virtual Private Networking: An Overview".

Author: Christian Cataldo

Curriculum: Cyber Security Engineering

Group: C11

Date created: April 9, 2017

Last modification: April 9, 2017