virtual private network

[mccollummarvin]

VPN is short for virtual private network and is pronounced as separate letters.
A virtual private network (VPN) is a network that is constructed using public wires — usually the Internet — to connect to a private network, such as a company's internal network. There are a number of systems that enable you to create networks using the Internet as the medium for transporting data. It secures the private network as these systems use encryption and other security mechanisms to ensure that only authorized users can access the network and that the data cannot be intercepted. A VPN is designed to provides a secure, encrypted tunnel in which to transmit the data between the remote user and the company network. The information transmitted between the two locations via the encrypted tunnel cannot be read by anyone else because the system contains several elements to secure both the company's private network and the outside network through which the remote user connects through.