Tachyon Protocol Simulation Scheme v/s Traditional Protocols
Brief Story
The first ever Virtual Private Network (VPN) has its roots in Microsoft back in 1996 when Gurdeep Singh Pall started working on something called PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol) which would allow Microsoft employees to work securely from their homes. Over time VPNs have evolved both in terms of technology and scale, but the core ethos of security and privacy continues to be a mainstay. Nearly 1 in 4 internet users have accessed VPN services at some point. The reasons for using a VPN can be varied — bypassing geo-restrictions, avoiding surveillance or ensuring data privacy etc.
The earliest form of private networks were leased lines which would connect various offices of an organisation to create a wide-area network (WAN). However, these leased lines were expensive and were dependent on physical distances. The next stage in private secure access was the intranet which was an internal network simulating the internet. Thereafter, VPNs were developed for large corporations so that their employees could connect to company networks remotely. They also allowed work to be done from outside office premises with secure access to corporate repositories. They weren’t meant for use by the average internet user though. But it became fairly clear over time that this technology was here to stay and would be hugely beneficial for outside corporate use as well. This is when third party VPN solutions came into the picture with their iterations of personal VPNs. In their current form, VPNs are dead simple to use and are available easily for access by the average Joe.
How does VPN work?
If we were to explain it simply, a VPN sets up a private secure channel over a public network so that connections between devices using the VPN are peer-to-peer with no one able to snoop into it. In this article, we will look at traditional VPN tech and see how Tachyon Protocol’s VPN, especially its Protocol Simulation Scheme, stands out from the rest.
VPNs typically receive data from a client machine, secures it through encryption and sends them through tunneling protocols which adds another layer of security through encapsulation. At the other end, the VPN point decrypts the data and sends it to the recipient. Encryption is the process of encoding data in a way that obfuscates the nature and content of that data from outside eyes. Decryption refers to decoding of encrypted data (usually by specific entities or through permissioned access) to make it understandable again. Encapsulation refers to the repackaging of data packets to further hide the nature and content of data. This is achieved through what is referred to as tunneling protocols.
Encryption and encapsulation protects data integrity and avoids the threats of network sniffing and man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks. Network sniffing involves intercepting data packets to steal information and analysing data traffic. In an MITM attack, a rogue entity impersonates a legitimate end point to intercept data and possibly alter it before relaying it to the actual recipient. And to add to this, some jurisdictions impose VPN blocking in order to censor the internet and restrict free access. They are able to do this through packet sniffing which identifies traffic through VPN.
Traditional VPN Protocols
The most common encryption techniques used by traditional VPNs include symmetric key, public key, handshake encryption and secure hash algorithm. A combination of different encryption schemes and tunneling protocols are used in different VPN technology stacks:
1. PPTP
As mentioned earlier, this is one of the earliest iterations of a working VPN. Consequently, it is also one of the least secure and is easily blocked by a firewall. PPTP doesn’t have encryption by default but does encapsulation.
2. Internet Protocol Security (IPSec)
IPSec is comparatively more secure than PPTP and does both encryption and encapsulation. However, IPSec (Internet Key Exchange version 2 or, IKEv2) has been found to have been compromised by the NSA during the Edward Snowden whistleblowing incident.
3. Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP)
A level up over IKEv2, this protocol provides additional security. It is a proprietary Microsoft protocol and is dependent on IPsec for encryption and encapsulation. Since it encapsulates data twice, this is comparatively slower.
4. Secure Shell (SSH)
Provides both tunneling and encryption over a VPN network.
5. SSL (Secure Socket Layer) / TLS (Transport Layer Security)
Uses a combination of symmetric and public-key encryption. During the Edward Snowden leaks, it was also revealed that NSA did break into the SSL / TLS protocol because of a non-unique private key vulnerability. This is now being resolved with ephemeral keys.
6. OpenVPN
This is the most commonly used protocol by most VPN solutions because of its customizable stack and open source code. It uses SSL / TLS protocols to operate. Because it works on TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) port which is used by normal HTTPS traffic, it is difficult to block OpenVPN.
7. SSTP (Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol)
This is similar to OpenVPN but proprietary to Microsoft.
8. WireGuard
This is the latest among the VPN protocols and lighter in terms of codebase. While it is comparatively faster, it is still early days for WireGuard.
Tachyon Protocol Simulation
When we compare all these traditional VPN technology stacks, how does Tachyon VPN match up?
For encryption, Tachyon VPN uses the state-of-the-art ECDHE-ECDSA Asymmetric end-to-end Encryption which is a class of algorithms using elliptic curve cryptography. This is just one half of the famed Tachyon Security Protocol (TSP). The major half of TSP is its unique Protocol Simulation Scheme which Tachyon developed to circumvent any threats from sniffing, MITM and VPN blocking.
The Tachyon Protocol Simulation Scheme simulates communication protocols like UDP, TCP, HTTP, HTTPS, FTP and SMTP. So, in addition to being encrypted, the data packets are simulated to look like something different from what it actually is. This could mean that an instagram.com request could be made to look like a google.com request (HTTPS simulation). In this manner, SMTP simulation can be used to make internet traffic look like e-mail exchanges. Similarly, FTP simulation can be used to make internet traffic look like file transfers happening. Because of the obfuscated nature of data packets, common means of VPN blocking will fail from stopping Tachyon VPN traffic. Protocol Simulation is a landmark technology that will pave the way for other VPN providers to follow. Encryption, encapsulation and finally simulation — the three pillars of VPN security, pioneered by Tachyon Protocol.
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