Kemp | Glossary of Terms and Phrases

Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) is a protocol suite for securing Internet Protocol (IP) communications over a network. It does this via various methods, including using techniques to authenticate details about each network packet. Encryption is also used to secure network packets as they transverse the network. IPsec has protocols to set up a mutual authentication scheme between agents that wish to communicate over the network. It also allows for the negotiating of cryptographic keys that can then be used to encrypt traffic between the nodes during the session. Each session gets its own set of authentication and encryption keys.