Like an actual tunnel, no one outside it can see what’s inside.Ī VPN is a like a tunnel that makes traffic invisible from point to point. The effect of this is to create a “tunnel”, a common term for the secure connection the VPN creates, through the Internet between the computer and the network resource. The “network” term in the acronym refers to the fact that the VPN, in effect, securely extends your company’s private network into the internet by rerouting all your traffic. The “virtual private” here does not mean “nearly private”, just that the system does not exist on hardware. In this sense, the term “virtual” means that the system is an artefact of software and how the system is configured. You may already know this, but it bears repeating, if only so we can unpack the terms. “VPN” itself stands for Virtual Private Network. It would, however, still be some years before the VPNs became (somewhat) commonplace. Originally, it was a purely in-house idea, but soon enough broader applications for solutions like PPTP came to the fore. The protocol that powered the original VPN concept, Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP), dates from 1996 when a Microsoft employee invented a way to maintain security for remote employees. If it has been a little while since you thought about your firewall or VPN, now is the time to spare a few moments getting back to grips with them, and to find out why they’re so often referred to as a “barrier” and a “tunnel”, respectively. If they get in, that’s your business in trouble, and your head on a proverbial pike. Every day, cybercriminals case your website, portals, and accounts in a process known as “footprinting”. If you aren’t across it, you’re vulnerable. When the security of your “cyber” is what’s keeping your business going, you have to have a crystal clear view of what you’ve got and how it’s working. People know they should probably have them, but if the people running cybersecurity are doing their “security stuff”, then the users down the line don’t need to think about it. To the layperson – or lay-office-worker – VPNs and firewalls are just “security stuff”. Yes, both of these are among the fundamentals of cybersecurity, but that doesn’t mean you’re above a refresher on what they are and what they do – and, crucially, what they don’t do. The difference between a VPN and a firewall is an important thing to know when you’re either partly or wholly responsible for securing the systems that keep a business running.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |