what is a VPN?
Full form of VPN is virtual private network.
A virtual private network, or VPN, is an encrypted connection over the Internet from a device to a network. The encrypted connection helps ensure that sensitive data is safely transmitted. It prevents unauthorized people from eavesdropping on the traffic and allows the user to conduct work remotely. VPN technology is widely used in corporate environments.
How A VPN Works—and Why Experts Think You Should Use One
When it comes to protecting your online privacy and security, one of the recommendations that every expert will make is to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
A VPN is a secure network that is created on top of another network (usually the internet) that might be frequented by malicious actors. Although a VPN might not be the perfect solution to all your privacy woes, it certainly protects your internet traffic against the prying eyes of hackers, spies, oppressive regimes, and data-hungry internet service providers (ISPs).
How does a VPN work?
Most VPN providers come with an app that you install on your phone or computer and use to connect to the service.
The technical aspects of VPN functionality are complicated and probably include more detail than you’re looking for. So, here’s a quick rundown of how VPNs work, in plain English: Normally, when you connect to the internet, your ISP handles all of your requests, such as visiting websites, sending emails, and logging into your social media accounts. As such, this puts your ISP in a favourable position to make use of this information for its own ends, such as selling it to advertising companies or making it accessible to government agencies.
However, when you use a VPN, all of your incoming and outgoing internet traffic is channelled through an encrypted “tunnel” between you and the VPN server. Your ISP merely becomes the facilitator of the connection between you and the VPN service. This means your internet provider will have no knowledge of the content of your communications, such as which websites you’re visiting or which apps you’re using.
Your ISP will still, however, be able to know you’re connected to a VPN and will know when you’re accessing the internet.
Who uses a VPN?
Pretty much anyone who cares about their privacy should use a VPN, especially after the repeal of the Federal Communication Commission’s privacy rules. But there are several use cases where the use of a VPN is crucial:
Using public Wi-Fi networks safely:
Public Wi-Fi is known for its vulnerabilities. Using a VPN on a Wi-Fi network protects you against attacks that might steal your information or inject malicious content into your internet traffic.
Circumventing censorship:
In countries ruled by oppressive regimes, access to social media and certain websites are either banned or limited by ISPs. With a VPN, you can bypass the filtering of your ISP and freely browse any website you want.
Spoofing your IP address and geographical location:
Sometimes, you don’t want your traffic to be traced back to your real location. When you use a VPN, websites you visit and services you use will see the address of your VPN service instead of that of your computer or phone. This can also be useful to access services that are restricted to specific countries or regions.
Corporate networks:
Corporate networks that want to limit outside access to their servers set up their own custom VPN. In fact, VPNs were initially created to give remote workers access corporate networks from the internet, and they continue to be used that way today.
How far can you trust a VPN?
One thing you should know about VPNs is that once you entrust your internet traffic to them, they’ll be able to see everything that your ISP previously did. They’ll also be able to log your information for future use.
Most ISPs are for-profit organizations, which means they might have commercial uses for your data. Free VPN services, in particular, have a history of monetizing user data and serving up their own ads. Paid services are less incentivized to do so, but you should nonetheless look for one that advocates for user privacy and explicitly promises to not log your internet traffic.
Also, VPNs might incur a speed penalty, and some services block IP addresses originating from VPN services. However, all in all, VPN is one of your best options to enhance your internet security and privacy and to avoid getting hacked or spied on.
NEED OF VPN:-
With more and more employees working remotely, either from home or on the go, enterprises need a way to secure their communications with the corporate network. One solution is a virtual private network (VPN), which enables employees to securely send data between computers across a shared or public network.
VPNs were developed to solve two challenges:
the high cost of leased lines for branch offices, and the growing need to enable remote workers to access the corporate network securely.
Of course, it is not just employees working remotely who could endanger the security of corporate data and networks. Third parties, such as vendors, contractors and suppliers, could pose risks by accessing corporate resources in an insecure manner. A VPN is just one way to reduce security risks from third parties.
VPN risks – and must-have security features
Are VPNs safe, you may ask? Admittedly, there are security risks associated with VPNs. These include VPN hijacking, in which an unauthorized user takes over a VPN connection from a remote client, man-in-the-middle attacks, in which the attacker is able to intercept data, weak user authentication, split tunneling, in which a user is accessing an insecure Internet connection while also accessing the VPN connection to a private network, malware infection of a client machine, granting too many network access rights, and DNS leak in which the computer uses its default DNS connection rather than the VPN's secure DNS server.
To address these risks, enterprises should consider additional VPN security features when choosing a VPN product. These include must-have security features include:
support for strong authentication
strong encryption algorithms
support for anti-virus software and intrusion detection and prevention tools
strong default security for administration and maintenance ports
digital certificate support
logging and auditing support
and the ability to assign addresses to clients on a private network while ensuring all addresses are kept private.
Also, having a kill switch is an important VPN security precaution. The kill switch ensures that if the computer loses the VPN connection, either the Internet connection is shut down or the apps that are using the connection are shut down. This prevents the Internet address from being exposed.
In addition, training should be conducted for network and security administrators and support staff, as well as remote users, to ensure that they follow security best practices during VPN implementation and ongoing use.
Another way to improve VPN security is through perfect forward secrecy (PFS). If PFS is used, encrypted communications and sessions recorded in the past cannot be retrieved and decrypted should long-term secret keys or passwords be compromised.
With PFS, each VPN session uses a different encryption key combination, so even if attackers steal one key, they will not be able to decrypt any other VPN sessions.
Types of VPNs:-
There are basically four types of VPNs:
1. A firewall-based VPN is equipped with both a firewall and VPN capabilities. This type uses the security provided by firewalls to restrict access to an internal network and provides address translation, user authentication, alarms and logging.
2. A hardware-based VPN provides high network throughput as well as improved performance and reliability but is also expensive.
3. A software-based VPN provides flexibility in terms of how traffic is managed. This is best for when endpoints are not controlled by the same party and when different firewalls and routers are used.
4. A secure socket layer (SSL) VPN enables users to connect to VPN devices using a web browser. SSL is used to encrypt traffic between the web browser and the VPN device.
VPN tunnelling protocols
VPN tunnelling protocols offer different features and levels of security, and there are benefits and disadvantages to each. There are five main VPN tunnelling protocols: Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol (SSTP), Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP), Layer Two Tunneling Protocol (L2TP), OpenVPN, and Internet Key Exchange version 2 (IKEv2).
SSTP uses the HTTPS protocol to pass traffic through firewalls and Web proxies that might block other protocols. SSTP provides a mechanism to wrap point-to-point protocol (PPP) traffic over the SSL channel. The use of PPP allows support for strong authentication methods, and SSL provides transport-level security with enhanced key negotiation, encryption and integrity checking.
PPTP allows multiprotocol traffic to be encrypted and then wrapped in a header to be sent across an Internet protocol (IP) network. PPTP can be used for remote access and site-to-site VPN connections. When using the Internet, the PPTP server is a PPTP-enabled VPN server with one interface on the Internet and a second interface on the corporate intranet. PPTP uses a transmission control protocol connection for tunnel management and generic routing encapsulation to wrap PPP frames for tunnelled data.
L2TP enables multiprotocol traffic to be encrypted and then sent over any medium that supports PPP data delivery, such as IP or asynchronous transfer mode. L2TP is a combination of PPTP and Layer 2 Forwarding (L2F). L2TP represents the best features of PPTP and L2F. Unlike PPTP, L2TP relies on IP Security (IPsec) in transport mode for encryption services. The combination of L2TP and IPsec is known as L2TP/IPsec. Both L2TP and IPsec must be supported by both the VPN client and the VPN server. L2TP/IPsec is perfect forward secrecy capable.
OpenVPN is an open-source software application that implements VPN techniques for creating secure point-to-point or site-to-site connections in routed or bridged configurations and remote access facilities. It uses a custom security protocol that uses SSL/TLS for key exchange. It is capable of traversing network address translators and firewalls. OpenVPN allows peers to authenticate each other using a secret key, certificate, or username and password. Most VPN providers using OpenVPN employ perfect forward secrecy.
IKEv2 is an IPSec-based protocol that is baked into Windows 7 and above. IKEv2 is the next-generation standard for secure key exchange between peer VPN devices. IKEv2 is particularly good at automatically re-establishing a VPN connection when users temporarily lose their Internet connections.
Choosing the most secure VPN for your organization
So how do you choose the most secure VPN? Even though it is open source-based, many view OpenVPN as the most secure VPN protocol. It is stable and reliable, easily configured to run on any port, supports hardware acceleration for improved speeds, is able to traverse firewalls and network address translation (NAT), and uses OpenSSL libraries for encryption. However, it requires client software and cannot be used on iPhones and only on a limited number of Android phones.
Another secure VPN protocol is L2TP/IPSec. It has strong encryption, no additional software for devices, is built into most desktop operating systems and mobile devices, is fairly easy to implement, and has no known major vulnerabilities. However, it does have trouble with firewalls, it is challenging to configure on a Linux server, and it is relatively easy to block by Internet service providers.
SSTP provides strong encryption, is very hard to detect and block, and is supported on all Microsoft Windows computers. At the same time, it is not supported by all VPN providers, and there is limited support for non-Windows devices.
The least secure VPN protocol is PPTP. Its benefits include easy setup, wide support for most devices, and low overhead. Because it has been around for a long time, it has known security issues that could be exploited by hackers (or government agencies). It has weak encryption and is relatively easy to block by ISPs.
IKEv2 is supported as part of IPSec implementation in Windows, easy to use, shorter negotiation period, and essential features standard. However, the bugs are still being worked out, and interoperability between different vendors is an issue.
Which VPN protocol is best depends on the enterprise and the individual? For those looking for the most secure, OpenVPN is the best. For those looking for support for many devices, PPTP may be the way to go.
A VPN provides a means of accessing a secure corporate network over insecure public networks. While a VPN is an improvement over transmitting unencrypted data over public networks, the potential security flaws should be considered by enterprises considering deploying a VPN or those that have already deployed one. Choosing the most appropriate VPN is vital for improved security in the enterprise.
How To Protect Your Company Privacy With A VPN
Your company’s information should be well-protected! Read up on how to ensure your company privacy is top-notch with a VPN.
With the average cost of a data breach now approaching $4 million, there are few companies on the planet built to withstand such a hit without problems. A business VPN can protect company privacy by delivering a secured connection to every company device, whether on-site or off-site. This allows users to avoid hacks from phishing schemes, nefarious international actors, or even competitors.
Here are a few ways that a VPN can protect your company.
Improve Cybersecurity
Secured internet connections and firewalls haven’t done enough to protect the millions of users that have been hit by attacks in recent years. Antivirus protection is only as good as the people who write it and the users who update it. A vast percentage of malware and viruses can through antivirus software without issue.
Most internet connections aren’t secure or encrypted unless data is sent through a VPN.
Using a VPN allows every user to have their data encrypted from end to end. By protecting sensitive customer and client information, internal documents, and communication between employees, VPNs can save companies money. That improved security ensures that information doesn’t leak and that companies keep company secrets intact.
Lost trade secrets can cost millions in lost revenue. Just ask Sony.
Data Sharing is Safe and Secure
Whether between colleagues or B2B, data gets shared between cohorts all the time. Without a business VPN, data is up for grabs from even the most amateur of hackers.
Files uploaded to email, storage services, or any network outside the company’s own control need to be encrypted. Using a business VPN, you can have your entire internet connection encrypted. In these cases, only the intended user with the right encryption key can decrypt and use the data.
Business VPNs help to avoid the kinds of catastrophic data breaches that have taken over the news in recent years.
International Censorship Can Hurt Productivity
If you or your staff members travel to or work from countries with internet censorship, it can make it challenging to get work done. Employees need to have every roadblock removed to ensure their work can progress and they succeed at what they do best. VPN providers not only allow for a fast connection, but users can choose locations from where their connection will appear that it’s coming from.
For companies making products or producing services banned in a certain country, this allows for smooth and easy access.
Some countries limit access to Google, email, or even YouTube. Connecting to a U.S. or European VPN location allows for access and full functionality without triggering censorship.
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