CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     BACKGROUND OF STUDY

In today’s interconnected world it is irrational to believe a computer network system is immune from an attack or think of it as too small to be considered as a predator by intruders to gain whatever advantage they need. Sometimes home or office users deceived by thinking that some resources are not highly valued and hence they are not worth to be targeted. The reality is even at this moment homes, companies are losing a significant amount money, wealth, been socially engineered, privacy invaded online and bullied online because of negligence or lack of awareness about the internet security (Pradip, 2017).

There is an increasing demand nowadays to connect to internal networks from distant locations. Users often need to connect to internal private networks over the Internet (which is by nature insecure) from home, hotels, airports or from other external networks. Security becomes a major consideration when home users, staff or business partners have constant access to internal networks from insecure external locations. (Bett, 2016)

VPN (Virtual Private Network) technology provides a way of protecting information being transmitted over the Internet, by allowing users to establish a virtual private “tunnel” to securely enter an internal network, accessing resources, data and communications via an insecure network such as the Internet between pair of hosts. Virtual Private network framework provides services such as: confidentiality, integrity, availability, accounting and authentication services to the packets travelling through the shared medium like the internet.

1.2     STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Internet security becomes an important issue in this internet era in other to secure internet connected devices from security threats such as cyber-attacks that can lead to invasion of online privacy, having access to individual vital and personal information online, like: Credit card information, company files, social security number etc. With that being said people also tend to travel often and sometimes people will like to access some of their files and resources stored on their home network securely but people can’t access such files if they can’t connect to their home network remotely.

A number of works such as Young J. et al., (2018) developed a SOHO (Small Office Home Office) VPN server using SSTP (Secure socket tunnel protocol). Using SSTP for the development of the VPN server makes the VPN server more secured due to the fact that SSTP offers a very high level of security, i.e., 256-bit AES encryption. However SSTP is prone to a very slow speed due to the high level of encryption and also it is Microsoft owned standard, which is why it cannot be audited by any third-party for vulnerabilities.

Furthermore Mustapha et al., (2018) developed a VPN server using IPsec (Internet Protocol Security). The Proposed System uses the security protocols of IPsec to exemplify a number of security principles and technology which include crypto and public key infrastructure during remote accessing and connecting N-to-N sites. The Proposed System is equally as appropriate for securing real-time traffic for large enterprises. However IPsec is not a suitable choice for a home VPN server because it was mainly designed for enterprises and companies. Another Limitation of IPsec technology when it comes to remote-access approach is that once a computer is attached to the IPSec-based network, all of the additional devices attached to that local network might also be able to gain access across the WAN (Wide Area Network) to the corporate network, meaning a worm could spread to shared drives on the network and this is because IPsec doesn't have access restriction. Also IPsec is very expensive to implement.

In order to have a very secured, fast, potable and robust home VPN server and to bridge the limitation of the two systems developed above, a technology with fast speed, high security encryption and same time able to handle access restriction are need in designing a home VPN server using OpenVPN protocol. The researcher believe that using OpenVPN technology to develop the system can Increase speed of data transmission, increase the level of security, cost less and also increase reliability.

1.3     AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The aim of this project is to simplify and have a high level of security on a home VPN server as well as a fast network speed when tunneling with the following objectives:

a)     To explore technologies used for home VPN server.

b)    To design a prototype of a home VPN server.

c)     To develop and deploy a Linux software application that implement I & II above into a single board computer (Raspberry PI 3) making it serve as a potable openVPN server.

1.4     SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The proposed system will enable home users to have a more secured home network, to have their online privacy protected and to be able to have access to their home network anywhere in the part of the universe. Home users will not have to worry about cyber theft when performing online transactions or accessing their important documents online at the comfort of their homes. The proposed system will also enable home users to not have to worry about their ISP (Internet Service Providers), the government or advertisers snooping or looking into their online activities giving users total online privacy and security.

1.5     SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of this work is to develop an executable script using Bash (UNIX) programing language that will turn a Raspberry PI 3 into an openVPN server implementing all features of openVPN protocol on to the sever. The front-end of the server will be developed using PHP and JavaScript.

1.6     DEFINITION OF OPERATIONAL TERMS

Virtual Private Network (VPN): is a secure tunnel between two or more devices. A virtual private network (VPN) extends a private network across a public network, and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network.

OpenVPN: OpenVPN is an open-source commercial software that implements virtual private network techniques to create secure point-to-point or site-to-site connections in routed or bridged configurations and remote access facilities. It uses a custom security protocol that utilizes SSL/TLS for key exchange. (OpenVPN 2018)

Server: In computing, a server is a computer program or a device that provides functionality for other programs or devices, called "clients". According to Techopedia (2017) a server is a computer, a device or a program that is dedicated to managing network resources.

Raspberry pi 3: The Raspberry Pi3 Model B is the latest version of the Raspberry Pi, a tiny credit card size computer. Just add a keyboard, mouse, display, power supply, micro SD card with installed Linux Distribution and you’ll have a fully-fledged computer that can run applications from word processors and spreadsheets to games.

VPN Protocols: The VPN protocols are the rules set on how your VPN will secure the transferring of data.

Encryption: Encryption is the process of encoding a message or information in such a way that only authorized parties can access it and those who are not authorized cannot.

Secure Shell (SSH): is a cryptographic network protocol for operating network services securely over an unsecured network.

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