The history of Virtual Private Networks starts back in the 1960s when the internet was launched. U.S. Department of Defense started researching secure ways to share military and government information and implementing electronic methods of remote communication.

Another important date in VPN history is 1996 year when Microsoft developed PPTP (Peer-to-Peer Tunneling) and IPSec (Internet Protocol Security) protocols.

Let’s move on. In 1998, IKEv1, or Internet Key Exchange protocol, was developed. This protocol was used for secure encryption keys exchanging and establishing private communication between two devices.

The 2000 year brought the Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol, also known as L2TP. According to the statement, this protocol supported, and still supports, virtual private connections and helps ISPs deliver their services. However, L2TP provided zero encryption. So, L2TP was always (and continues to be) used with IPSec.

A turning point in VPN history was in 2001 when the OpenVPN® protocol was developed. It was the first open-source virtual protocol that offered great security achieved by mixing TLS and SSL protocols.

In 2005, IKEv1 was officially updated to IKEv2 with fixed security vulnerabilities and resistance to network changes. From now on, the VPN connection wouldn't go down if you switched from a WiFi network to cellular data and vice versa.

10 years of Virtual Private Network popularization among private users, and in 2019, the WireGuard® protocol was presented.

For now, Virtual Private Networks keep growing and becoming even more secure. Today 1 in 4 people use a VPN in countries around the world. So do you! Get VPN Unlimited on your device and ensure your internet traffic is protected from the prying eyes!