Network Security First-Step, Second Edition

Overview of IPsec VPNs

IPsec has become the de facto standard for creating VPNs in the networking industry providing excellent security. Several vendors have implemented it and, because the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has defined IPsec in an RFC, interoperability between vendors makes IPsec the best option for building VPNs. IPsec offers a standard means of establishing authentication and encryption services between peers. IPsec is an IETF standard; furthermore, it is FIPS-compliant when used with AES encryption making it the best option for deploying VPNs. IPsec acts at the network layer of the OSI model, protecting and authenticating IP packets between participating IPsec devices (peers), such as Cisco routers or firewalls. IPsec ...