A brief explanation of each term is as follows:
- VPN: in action, it takes your Internet connection and makes it more secure, helps you stay anonymous and helps you get around blocks and access censored sites. The key to a VPN is that it lends you a temporary IP address and hides your true IP address from every website or email you connect with
- RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service): is a networking protocol, operating on port 1812, that provides centralized Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA or Triple A) management for users who connect and use a network service. RADIUS is a client/server protocol that runs in the application layer, and can use either TCP or UDP as transport. Network access servers, the gateways that control access to a network, usually contain a RADIUS client component that communicates with the RADIUS server
- Two-Factor Authentication for VPN Login: If you are using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to allow your users to connect over a public network, enhancing the security becomes a concern since users gain access to sensitive digital assets. OTP can be one of great value by providing 2-factor Authentication on top of VPN Authentication. This secures the access to protected resources instead of relying on only the VPN username / password.
OTP can be integrated with most devices and systems that support RADIUS for authentication. RADIUS compatibility has been verified with a wide variety of vendors and devices, including but not limited to:
- Cisco ACS / ISE / ISR / Catalyst / SSH Network Device Access / IPSec VPN / ASA
- Juniper and Pulse Secure SSL VPN
- F5 BIG-IP VPN
- Citrix NetScaler Gateway (XenDesktop/XenApp)
- Palo Alto IPSEC and SSL VPN
- WatchGuard Firebox SSL VPN
- SonicWALL TZ, NSA, SMA, SRA, and Aventail series
- Fortinet FortiGate SSL VPN
- VMware View
- …...
We'll be digging into each one of them in more depth.