Virtual Private Network

A private communications network usually used within a company, or by several different companies or organizations, to communicate over a public network. VPN message traffic is carried on public networking infrastructure (e.g. the Internet) using standard (often insecure) protocols, or over a service provider's network providing VPN service guarded by well-defined Service Level Agreement (SLA) between the VPN customer and the VPN service provider.

VPN involves two parts: the protected or "inside" network that provides physical security and administrative security sufficing to protect transmission (sometimes it is not always the case), and a less trustworthy or "outside" network or segment (the internet is the biggest "jungle"). Generally, a firewall sits between a remote user's workstation or client and the host network or server. As the user's client establishes the communication with the firewall, the client may pass authentication data to an authentication service inside the perimeter. A known trusted person, sometimes only when using trusted devices, can be provided with appropriate security privileges to access resources not available to general users.

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