What is Internet Protocol Security (IPsec)?
Q: What is Internet Protocol Security (IPsec)?
A: IPsec is a way of making Internet communications more secure and private by authenticating and optionally encrypting each IP packet of a data stream.
Q: How does IPsec work?
A: IPsec includes protocols for establishing mutual authentication between agents at the beginning of the session, negotiating cryptographic keys to be used during the session, and protecting data flows between two hosts or security gateways. It operates at the Internet Layer of the Internet Protocol Suite, comparable to Layer 3 in the OSI model.
Q: What are some other popular internet security protocols?
A: Other popular internet security protocols include SSL, TLS and SSH which operate in the upper layers of these models.
Q: How does this make IPsec more flexible?
A: This makes IPsec more flexible as it can be used for protecting all higher level protocols since applications do not need to be designed specifically to use it, unlike TLS/SSL or other higher-layer protocols which must be built into an application.
Q: Who defines what "IPsec" means?
A: The term "IPsec" is officially defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
Q: Is there an incorrect spelling for "IPsec"? A: Yes, it is often incorrectly spelled as IPSec.
