VPN: enabling secure and efficient technological solutions

Discover the fascinating history of virtual private networks (VPNs), which have become essential for secure and reliable remote access in modern companies. In the early days of the Internet, communication over public networks had little to no protection. However, around 30 years ago, researchers developed new protocols that now serve as the foundation for secure and advanced VPN solutions. You need to know more about technology with VPN in order to understand the technical intricacies of how the service works.

History of VPN

Back in December 1993, two scientists had a groundbreaking idea: to secure unencrypted data packets on the Internet not just for confidentiality, integrity, and authentication, but for end-to-end security. This was a big deal because, at that time, very few people were thinking about securing network traffic. While their experiment, Swipe, didn’t progress very far, it paved the way for secure communication as we know it today.

Wei Xu, a security expert from Trusted Information Systems, which was later owned by Network Associates and then by McAfee, achieved impressive progress. He aimed to enhance the speed of transmitting encrypted data through T1 lines, commonly used for high-speed connections at that time. These lines accommodated up to 24 channels for data or voice and could reach a maximum speed of 1.540 Mbps. The drawback was that the DES and triple DES encryption algorithms accessible at that time were not fast enough to optimize these lines. In response, Wei Xu created a new driver that was implemented into a system solution to solve the issue.

The Naval Research Laboratory collaborated on research to enhance the security of IP packets, with funding from DARPA. This federal agency, known for its crucial role in creating the precursor to the Internet, is a well-resourced arm of the US Department of Defense.

Where do the roots of an encrypted connection come from?

Back in 1995, a group called the IPsec Working Group was formed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to create a set of protocols that would be freely available. This resulted in the creation of IPsec, which was developed in collaboration with the National Security Agency (NSA). The team created Security Protocol Layer 3 (SP3), which was the foundation for the Network Layer Security Protocol (NLSP). Additionally, they also developed the Key Management Protocol (KMP) to manage encryption keys.

Microsoft employee Gurdeep Singh Pall created the first version of the Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) in 1996, named “Innovation of the Year” by PC Magazine. This milestone in advanced VPN products was released at the perfect time as Internet usage sharply increased for the first time in the 1990s, following its release for general use by the U.S. military in the previous decade.

PPTP – the first encryption system to establish secure tunnels over public networks like the Internet. With just the destination address and credentials, PPTP makes establishing secure connections a breeze. Though the system has evolved over the years to include additional authentication procedures, the basic foundation remains a key player in online security. Unfortunately, its use has declined since the revelation that the NSA can decrypt PPTP connections.

Why is secure technology IPsec so important?

While IKEv1 has now been surpassed by IKEv2, IPsec presents a different story. The Internet Key Exchange protocol was first introduced in 1998, followed by the release of IKEv2 7 years later. With new features like MOBIKE, it successfully eliminated many of its predecessor’s vulnerabilities.

L2TP, the Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol, was previously released to the public. It’s based on L2F from Cisco Systems and PPTP but doesn’t offer encryption. As such, it’s usually combined with IPsec.

Back in 2001, James Yonan brought OpenVPN, the first-ever free VPN protocol, into the world. With OpenVPN, users can confirm each other’s identities using shared keys, certificates, or even a combination of usernames and passwords. Meanwhile, Wireguard is slowly gaining traction despite its youth. This protocol is optimized for performance and can be used on less powerful hardware. However, it may not be the best choice for commercial settings since it currently lacks the extendability and configuration options needed for such environments.

Conclusion

The Internet has come a long way since its inception. In the early days, data wasn’t encrypted and communication was vulnerable to snooping or other forms of attack. Thanks to groundbreaking research in the mid-1990s, researchers were able to develop protocols that revolutionized secure communication as we know it today, laying the foundation for what’s now known as VPN technology.