Many reports have been written about the techniques behind Virtual Private Networks (VPN) and Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS). They usually deal with the low level design of the software implementing a specific technique. The initial products are usually not mature enough to run in a large network or have to be adjusted in some way to fit. This report investigates the different ways of implementing strict layer 2 Virtual Private Networks in an existing nation-wide Gigabit Ethernet. The infrastructure in use, as well as the hardware, has to be used without major changes. Since 1998/1999, when MPLS first started in the laboratories, development has continued. Today it is possible to introduce MPLS or tunneled national virtual local area network into an existing network. This requires high speed, fault tolerant, and stable hardware and software. Going beyond the separation of traffic at layer 3 using Virtual Private Networks, i.e., IPSec, we can tunnel layer 2 traffic through a network. Although the first layer 3 VPN products are already in use, layer 2 VPNs still need to be evaluated and brought into regular use. There are currently two ways of tunneling VLANs in a core network: tunneled VLANs (or as Extreme Networks calls them, VMANs) and MPLS. This project showed that it is possible to start with a VLAN-only solution, and then upgrade to MPLS to solve scalability issues. The VMAN solution can not be used at Arrowhead, since there are too many disadvantages in the way Extreme Networks has implemented it. However, a mix of tunneling VMAN in a VLAN core is possible, and enables customer tagging of VLANs in a Layer 2 VPN. Furthermore, the testing of EAPS and per-VLAN Spanning Tree Protocol turned out well, and showed that EAPS should not be used when there is more than one loop.

Tor and VPNs are used by many to be anonymous and circumvent censorship on the Internet. Therefore, traffic analysis attacks that enable adversaries to link users to their online activities are a severe threat. One such attack is Website Fingerprinting (WF), which analyses patterns in the encrypted traffic from and to users to identify website visits. To better understand to which extent WF can identify patterns in VPN traffic, there needs to be a deeper exploration into which extent background traffic in VPNs impacts WF attacks, which is traffic in the stream that the adversary does not wish to classify. This thesis explores how different background traffic types affect WF on VPN traffic. It is done by using existing VPN datasets and combining them into datasets which simulate a VPN tunnel where both foreground and background traffic is sent simultaneously. This is to explore how different kinds of background traffic affect known state-of-the-art WF attacks using Deep Learning (DL). Background traffic does affect DL-based WF attacks, but the impact on accuracy is relatively small compared to the bandwidth overhead: 200 % overhead reduces the accuracy from roughly 95 % to 70 %. WF attacks can be trained without any background traffic, as long as the overhead of the background traffic is smaller than 2 %, without any impact on accuracy. WF attacks can also be trained with background traffic from other applications than what it is tested on, as long as the applications produce similar traffic patterns. For example, traffic from different pre-recorded streaming applications like Netflix and YouTube is similar enough, but not traffic from pre-recorded and live streaming applications such as Twitch. Also, having access to the size of the packets makes WF attacks better than if the size is obscured, making VPNs probably more vulnerable than Tor to WF attacks. Thesis artefacts are available at: https://github.com/gustavRehnholm/wf-vpn-bg / Tor och VPN:er används av många för att ge anonymitet och kringgå censurera i Internet. Därför är trafikanalysattacker som gör det möjligt för angripare att länka användaren till sina onlineaktiviteter ett allvarligt hot. En sådan attack är Website Fingerprinting (WF), som analyserar mönster i den krypterade trafiken mellan användaren och reläet med målet att identifiera webbplatsbesök. För att bättre förstå i vilken ut-sträckning WF kan identifiera mönster i VPN-tunnlar måste det finnas en djupare undersökning i vilken utsträckning bakgrundstrafik i VPN-tunnlar påverkar WF-attacker, trafik i VPN-tuneln som WF-attackeraren inte försöker klassificera. Målet med denna avhandling är att undersöka hur bakgrundstrafik, i olika kombinationer, påverkar WF på VPN-tunnlar. Det görs genom att använda befintliga VPN-datauppsättningar och kombinera dem till datauppsättningar som simulerar en VPN-tunnel där både förgrunds- och bakgrundstrafik skickas samtidigt. Detta är att utforska hur olika typer av bakgrundstrafik påverkar kända WF-attacker med hjälp av djupinlärning. Bakgrundstrafik har en påverkan på djupinlärnings baserade WF-attacker, men påverkan på WF noggrannheten är relativt liten jämfört med overheaden som behövs: 200 %overhead minskar noggrannheten från ungefär 95 % till 70 %. WF-attacker kan tränas utan bakgrundstrafik, så länge bakgrundstrafikens overhead är mindre än 2 %, utan att det påverkar noggrannheten. WF-attacker kan också tränas med bakgrundstrafik från andra applikationer än vad den testas på, så länge applikationerna producerar liknande trafikmönster. Till exempel är trafik från olika förinspelade streamingapplikationer som Netflix och YouTube tillräckligt lik, men inte trafik från förinspelade och livestreamingapplikationer som Twitch. Det är också tydligt att ha tillgång till paketstorlek gör klassificeraren bättre, vilket gör VPN:er förmodligen mer sårbar än Tor. Avhandlingsartefakter finns på följande hemsida: https://github.com/gustavRehnholm/wf-vpn-bg

Containerization is widely recognized as a form of lightweight virtualization in the cloud. Due to its reliability, maturity, and rich capabilities, kubernetes has established itself as the de-facto standard for deployments and maintenance of containers. The availability of a kubernetes cluster for a cloud-native application would depend on the availability of the zone or region where the nodes are running. In general, the kubernetes cluster is deployed in a single shared network, but for higher availability, the nodes of the kubernetes cluster can be deployed in multiple regions. Deploying a multi-region kubernetes cluster aids in providing high availability for the service, allowing the data to be located closer to users, even when they are dispersed globally. However, with greater benefits come greater challenges, and networking in multi-region kubernetes clusters has proven to be a complex issue. Usually, kubernetes in a multi-region environment can be achieved by using tunneling across the worker nodes that are located in multiple regions and by using the VPN protocols as an overlay network. In this thesis, I investigated the performance of different VPN solutions in a multi-region kubernetes cluster and examine how these VPN solutions support kubernetes deployment. A literature review is conducted to identify the most common factors influencing VPN performance and to gather information on the differences between VPN solutions. I compared the response times of the multi-region Kubernetes cluster deployed with VPN solutions to the response times of the single shared region Kubernetes cluster also deployed with VPN solutions. This comparison allowed me to evaluate the performance of the VPN solution in a multi-region Kubernetes cluster. The aim of this thesis is to present the most influential factors, an overview of proposed VPN solutions, and performance comparisons of different VPN solutions in a multi-region kubernetes cluster.

The activity based workplace model is becoming more and more com- mon and the Swedish Insurance Agency is an authority that has em- braced this model. The new way of working means that more employ- ees work from home or another place than the office. The new working model needs IT solutions that can handle communication and secure document management. This has caused two problems at the Swedish Insurance Agency. The first problem is concerning confusion about how employees should connect correctly to the authority’s conference room equipment. The solution proposal should be able to evaluate if the correct equipment has been connected and present connection status information. The second is for connection to the authority’s Private Network (VPN). The problem is that users often lose or not get proper connection to the network devices when they connect through VPN. A technical solution for each problem were developed. The application for connection against conference room equipment evaluates that the user has a USB dock (with more components connected to it) connected, that the user has network connection and that the USB dock driver has installed correctly. Usability test showed that the application works as intended, except some confusion about the navigation, which was corrected. The application for VPN connection visually shows the user through an icon in the taskbar if the user is properly connected to VPN or not. The application also got the option of calling a connection script if the user loses connection. Evaluation based on Requirements Specifi- cation showed that both applications could meet their requirements and the applications were packaged and distributed to employees at the Swedish Insurance Agency. / Aktivitetsbaserad arbetsmodell blir mer och mer vanligt och Försäkringskassan är en myndighet som anammat detta arbetssätt. Det nya sättet att jobba innebär att fler anställda jobbar hemifrån eller annan plats. Arbetssättet medför att det behövs IT-lösningar som kan hantera bland annat kommunikation och säker dokumenthantering. Det har gett upphov till två problem på Försäkringskassan. Det första problemet är förvirring kring hur anställda skall koppla upp sig korrekt mot Försäkringskassans konferensrumsutrustning. Lösningsförslaget skall kunna utvärdera ifall korrekt utrustning har kopplats in och presentera information gällande anslutningsstatus. Det andra gäller uppkoppling mot Försäkringskassans Virtuella Privata Nätverk (VPN). Problemet gäller att användare ofta tappar eller inte får korrekt anslutning till nätverksenheterna då de ansluter sig via VPN. Ett tekniskt lösningsförslag för respektive problem utvecklades. Applikationen gällande uppkoppling mot konferensrumsutrustning utvärderar att användaren har USB-docka (med fler komponenter ansluten till den) ansluten, att användaren har nätverksuppkoppling samt att drivrutin för USB-docka har hunnit installerats. Användbarhetstest visade på att applikationen fungerar som tänkt, förutom lite förvirring kring navigation, vilket korrigerades. Applikationen gällande VPN- uppkoppling visar visuellt för användaren genom en ikon i aktivitetsfältet om användaren är korrekt ansluten till VPN eller inte. Applikationen fick också inbyggt alternativet att ropa på ett uppkopplingsskript om användaren tappar anslutning. Utvärdering utifrån Kravspecifikation visade att båda applikationerna kunde uppnå sina krav och applikationerna har paketerats och distribuerats till anställda på Försäkringskassan.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T14:48:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Nadja Rodrigues da Silva.pdf: 2091688 bytes, checksum: 3f8fc51b9ee6e8e4743f9b9b6f8fc472 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-10-01 / This study investigated the practices of literary and evaluation from the first two years of the elementary school level I teachers. The intent is to reveal how these practices are established in the classroom context, in order to evaluate the children passing through the literacy process. The research is developed in a qualitative perspective using as methodological procedures a semi-structured interview, a questionnaire, and observations in the classroom. The subjects of the research consisted of three female teachers that act in the early years of the elementary school level I in a private school of the São Paulo city. From the qualitative approach, the participant observation was the main strategy used in order to collect the data, which included recordings of situations experienced by the teachers and the schoolchildren. The descriptions arise from the literacy and evaluation events observed and from the interviews with the teachers, which consisted of speaking, reading, and writing skills. To discuss the literacy theme, we used the psychogenesis studies of Ferreiro and Telberosky (1999), and Soares (2003) as references. The theme evaluation was discussed using the works of Hoffmann (2009) and Luckesi (2011). Based on data analysis, the study evinced that the literacy and evaluations conceptions existent in the teachers practices resulted from different didactics pedagogical approaches / O presente estudo investigou as práticas de alfabetização e avaliação de professoras dos dois primeiros anos do ensino fundamental I. A pesquisa se desenvolveu numa perspectiva qualitativa e os procedimentos metodológicos foram entrevista semiestruturada, questionário e observação de aula, com registros de situações vivenciadas entre professoras e alunos. Os sujeitos da pesquisa são três professoras que atuavam nos primeiros anos do ensino fundamental I, em escola privada do município de São Paulo. No que se refere à alfabetização, tomamos como referência os estudos da psicogênese de Ferreiro e Teberosky (1999) e Soares (2013) e, para a avaliação as discussões apontadas por Hoffmann (2009) e Luckesi (2011). A partir das análises dos dados, o estudo evidenciou que as práticas de alfabetização e avaliação analisadas são decorrentes da apropriação e articulação de diferentes abordagens didático-pedagógicas

Inledning: Personer i det utökade privata nätverket (PUPN) bjuds in till nätverksmöten runt en individ eller familj i syfte att vara till hjälp i en svår situation. Studier som undersöker hur PUPN själva påverkas av deltagande i nätverksmöten saknas i hög grad. Frågeställningar: Hur upplever PUPN att de har påverkats av deltagande i närståendes nätverksmöten? Hur upplever PUPN att deltagande i nätverksmöten påverkar möjligheten att vara till hjälp för närstående? Hur upplever PUPN sig som belastade av huvudpersonens/ernas problematik? Metod: Studien har gjorts med kvalitativ undersökningsmetod. Intervjuer med 6 PUPN har genomförts. Resultat: Resultaten visar att PUPN fungerar som både praktiskt och känslomässigt stöd till närstående. Samtidigt upplever de sig själva som känslomässigt belastade av närståendes problematik. Deltagande i närståendes nätverksmöten har lett till minskad känslomässig belastning för egen del, men det förekommer också till viss del oförändrad och delvis ökad belastning. I några fall har deltagande i nätverksmöten gett effekter mer fristående från de närståendes problem i form av känsla av ökad status, ökad självkänsla och förändrad upplevelse av relationen till den närstående. Det finns upplevelser hos intervjupersonerna av att ha kunnat vara till bättre hjälp för sina närstående efter deltagande i nätverksmöten. Några olika typer av hjälparidentitet har kunnat urskiljas bland intervjupersonerna. De mest kontrasterande typerna skiljer sig markant åt vad gäller upplevelse av egen belastning, möjlighet att vara till stöd och hjälp och inställning till nätverksmöten. Diskussion: PUPN med position mellan direkt berörda och yrkeshjälpare diskuteras som möjlig brobyggare mellan mikronivåer runt nätverksmötets huvudperson. Att nätverksmöten kan ge minskad belastning hos PUPN lyfts fram som en positiv bieffekt av arbete med nätverksmöten. / Introduction: Members of the extended private network (MEPNs) are invited to network meetings around an individual or a family in order to help in a difficult situation. There are very few studies that investigates how MEPN themselves are affected by their participation in network meetings. Research questions: How does participation in a closely related person’s (CRP’s) network meetings affect the MEPN? How does participation in network meetings influence how the MEPN can be of help for the CRP? In what ways do the MEPN experience burden of care related to the CRP’s problematic situation? Method: A qualitative research method has been used, and the study is based on interviews with 6 MEPNs. Results: The results shows that MEPNs give both practical and emotional support to their CRPs. At the same time MEPNs experience emotional burden related to the problematic situation of their friend or relative. Participation in the CRP’s network meetings has led to emotional relief, but there are also examples of partly unchanged or partly increased burden. In some cases participation in network meetings has given effects not directly related to the CRP’s problems, in the forms of feelings of increased social status, increased self confidence and changed relations to the CRP. There are experiences among the interviewed persons that they can be of better help for their friends and relatives after participation in network meetings. Different types of helpers have been identified among the interview persons. The most contrasting ones show differences in terms of experienced burden, ability to be of help and support and attitude towards network meetings. Discussion: The MEPN’s position between the suffering person/family and the professional network is discussed as possible bridges between microlevels around the CRP. The potential to bring relief to the MEPN is considered as a positive side effect of participation in network meetings.

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This project is about how free, open-source tools can create reasonable, secure and flexible remote access solutions for smaller companies with a limited budget.  Secure remote access to a working environment is a solution for its time, as last year Covid-19 change the working environment for millions of employers and employees. The importance of secure remote access to a working environment became noticeable as offices closed down and employers started working from home. Still, the need for secure access to the company's infrastructure remains. This is where Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) enter the picture, as it has a broad application scope and is particularly useful for secure remote access. My project was subdivided into three parts: How to implement secure remote access to a working environment within the requirements of the chosen company, which are an inexpensive solution with high-security features.  Automate the creation and distribution of all the necessary parts that their employees will need in a VPN structure. Research about the future direction regarding VPN and the importance of cybersecurity to help ensure security preparedness for the company. The chosen solution was OpenVPN and Google authenticator, together with a written bash script. It became a solution that was free, flexible, secure and scalable. But why the need and what about the future?  Research shows that a high percentage of small and medium-sized enterprises are vulnerable to cyberattacks. It also shows that these companies have the lowest cybersecurity. "It wouldn't happen to us" is dangerous but, sadly, a typical mindset throughout the S&M companies. It's primarily because of this S&M's are more exposed than larger companies. The future of VPN's has become more important than ever before, and it's something that during Covid-19 has risen in use all over the world, the research and development of VPNs has accelerated. The research objectives of this project are of high interest to many other organizations in the same position, and the presented work has helped answer the question: "Where will we stand in a few years regarding secure remote work, cybersecurity andencrypted networks?"

This study aimed to identify the differences between state-of-the-art VPN solutions on different operating systems. It was done because a novel VPN protocol is in the early stages of release and a comparison of it, to other current VPN solutions is interesting. It is interesting because current VPN solutions are well established and have existed for a while and the new protocol stirs the pot in the VPN field. Therefore a contemporary comparison between them could aid system administrators when choosing which VPN to implement. To choose the right VPN solution for the occasion could increase performance for the users and save costs for organizations who wish to deploy VPNs. With the remote workforce increasing issues of network reliability also increases, due to wireless connections and networks beyond the control of companies. This demands an answer to the question how do VPN solutions differ in performance with stable and unstable networks? This work attempted to answer this question. This study is generally concerning VPN performance but mainly how the specific solutions perform under unreliable network conditions.It was achieved by researching past comparisons of VPN solutions to identify what metrics to analyze and which VPN solutions have been recommended. Then a test bed was created in a lab network to control the network when testing, so the different VPN implementations and operating systems have the same premise. To establish baseline results, performance testing was done on the network without VPNs, then the VPNs were tested under reliable network conditions and then with unreliable network conditions. The results of that were compared and analyzed. The results show a difference in the performance of the different VPNs, also there is a difference on what operating system is used and there are also differences between the VPNs with the unreliability aspects switched on. The novel VPN protocol looks promising as it has overall good results, but it is not conclusive as the current VPN solutions can be configured based on what operating system and settings are chosen. With this set-up, VPNs on Linux performed much better under unreliable network conditions when compared to setups using other operating systems. The outcome of this work is that there is a possibility that the novel VPN protocol is performing better and that certain combinations of VPN implementation and OS are better performing than others when using the default configuration. This works also pointed out how to improve the testing and what aspects to consider when comparing VPN implementations.

En la presente tesina se realiza una descripción de la tecnología de Conmutación Multi-Protocolo mediante etiquetas usando una red privada virtual para la comunicación de una entidad empresarial. Se realizó una descripción de la tecnología MPLS con VPN mostrando sus cualidades, ventajas y desventajas, se promueve la esta tecnología a la red de comunicación de datos de la empresa tenga un performance y confidencialidad en los datos transmitidos, diseñando un esquema así como la infraestructura que podría ser usada en esta implementación, con características modulares las cuales permitirá a la empresa ir creciendo a la medida de que su tráfico o demanda de transporte vaya aumentando al igual que la integración de las demás extensiones se amerita el caso; para el diseño nos ayudaremos del programa de simulación “GNS3” el mismo que se hará un bosquejo de la configuración y modelo para la transmisión de sucursal a matriz y viceversa. This thesis is a description of MPLS VPN using a communication from the business entity. Was a description of MPLS VPN showing his qualities, advantages and disadvantages, promotes the introduction of this technology to the data communication network of the company to have a performance traffic and confidentiality of the data transmitted, designing scheme as well as the infrastructure that could be used in this implementation, modular features which allow the company to grow to the extent that their traffic and transport demand will increase as the integration of other extensions are merited case, to help us design simulation program "GNS3" the same to be made a sketch of the model configuration and transmission branch to parent and vice versa.