These days VPNs are really popular, as most of the companies started working from homes, all over the world due to the covid-19 pandemic.
Significant hike in work from home introduced an exploitable opportunity for attackers as there is a spike in remote login credentials to organization internal application & resources.
And to ensure secure connectivity, confidentially transmission of sensitive information and overall encrypted communication with companies resources VPNs are widely in use.
What is a VPN?
A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is private network constructed within a public network infrastructure, like Internet.
Through vpn we can ensure a encrypted connection over the internet between the device and the network. It allows remote users and branch offices to securely access corporate applications and other resources.
By encrypted connection we mean safe communication and safely transmission of sensitive data. VPN not only provides secure channel to communicate it also prevents unauthorized actors from eavesdropping on the traffic.
To securely gain the access to private network via VPN , and to validate user/ device strong authentication methods should be used like passwords, tokens or other unique identification procedures .
Types of VPNs
There are two different types of VPNs:
1. Remote Access VPN
A remote access vpn allows individual users, device to establish secure connections with a remote network.
A VPN client on a remote user’s device connects to a VPN gateway on the organization’s network. These gateway generally requires the device to authenticate its identity.
This is especially important when employees are using a public Wi-Fi, hotspot or other methods to access the internet and connect to their corporate network.
After validation of device it creates a network link back to the device that allows it to reach internal network resources
2. Site-to-site Access VPN
A site-to-site VPN uses a gateway device to connect an entire network in one location to a network in another location.
Example multiple branches connecting to main branch or a branch connecting to data center.
Here End-node devices(laptop, tablets, smartphones) in the remote location do not need VPN clients as the gateway handles the connection.
Most site-to-site VPNs connecting over the internet use IPsec.
How VPNs plays an important role ?
- Except providing a secure transmissions, encrypted tunnels VPNs helps us to protect our identity over the internet, by keeping our actual ip, geo locations as secret.
- VPN also helps to protect our device (laptops, smartphones) as they are the prime targets for attackers and allows you maintain online privacy .
- It becames more important to encrypt data and hide device id, browsing web histories when we are using public wi-fi.
As primary objective of VPN is to protect our privacy, so it is expected that our VPN provider respects our privacy, too.
Always make sure that your VPN provider provides the secure protocols and is globally known and trusted.
In case of any help or query, please contact us or raise a ticket.