You have probably heard about the use of VPN, a popular tool allowing you to encrypt your data online, and that is useful for remote connections. Such tools are becoming increasingly important and are becoming a security standard for server management. Why? Let’s see what it is.
What is a VPN?
If you are self-employed and work from home, or have ever worked outside your office and needed to connect to your company’s network, you probably had to connect to a VPN. A VPN is, as its name suggests, a virtual private network made up of a set of computers, devices, and servers, connected through a public network, as if they were on the same LAN. By establishing an encrypted and secure connection between the device and the server, a VPN makes all the users and computers connected to it work as if they were side by side, without the data sent and received going directly through the Internet, but through a tunnel.
How does a VPN work?
A VPN works as an excellent working tool, as it protects your communications and guarantees the privacy of your data. This service uses tunnel protocols to create a virtual network between the VPN server and your device, both a computer and your mobile functioning as a temporary direct session and using a unique encryption code to protect the transmitted information. Find more on VPNs and security on the Tackk website!
All traffic exchanged between devices connected to this tunnel is invisible to those attempting to intercept the communication. The content is only decrypted when the information reaches the receiver, who also holds the encryption key. In this way, a VPN protects the privacy and data of users, such as sensitive files, passwords, and conversations, during the transmission of data on “unsecured” public networks. The same is true if you are managing a server.
Manage your server using a VPN
Let’s go now to the case study about why you must use a VPN to manage your server. It doesn’t matter if you manage an application server, a web server, a file server or a mail server, nor if it is a physical server or a Cloud Server.
Encrypt the connection to your server
Security and privacy are the points in your favor, especially if you need to send or receive sensitive information over the network. By using a VPN to administer your server you are choosing to establish a secure connection between yourself and your computer.
Allows you to publish only your services and applications
Using a VPN, you will be able to separate your traffic between public and private networks. This way, it will allow you to open specific ports from the firewall installed on your server. Your visitors and anyone who enters the Internet can access the services you are providing on it and make use of them without any risk to your security.
Administration of your server as a restricted area
Just as you will publish your production services to the Internet, you will be able to restrict all your administration ports to the public and allow them only when you are connected to your VPN. It is done mainly to prevent login attempts or brute force access to your server from its SSH console, RDP, or even control panels. As we told you a little above, the information you send and receive from and to your server will travel encrypted and will not be interceptable by any scanner or network monitor.
Secure connection in mobile networks and public Wifi
Using a VPN is very useful to protect the traffic between you and him in places that provide free Wifi hotspots, with or without a password. Mainly in public places, with so many strangers in one place, makes it a hot spot for stealing or intercepting data. The data you send or receive from your server will become indecipherable for possible intruders.
How do I connect via VPN to my server?
The first thing you will need is to have a VPN service installed on your server and then configure your local computer or device as a client. While this can be a challenge and cause you to lose connectivity to it if something goes wrong by choosing to install it yourself, fortunately, cloud service providers have solutions ready to implement.
