Data Protection and Security

VIII

Standards and Protocols

VIII.V

IPsec

IPsec is an IETF standard for real-time security on the network layer. Despite the common belief, it can work with both IP version 4 and IP version 6. It is composed of two main pieces:

1. AH (Authentication Header) and ESP (Encapsulating Security Payload): Protocols desribing IP header extensions for carrying cryptographically protected data.
2. IKE (Internet Key Exchange): Protocol for authenticating and establishing a session key.