A packet layer security standard consisting of Authentication Header (AH) and Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) elements, defined in RFC 2402 and RFC 2406 respectively. Useful for Virtual Private Networks.

(a) the IETF working society which is specifying a security architecture (RFC 2401) and protocols in order to provide services of security for Internet Protocol traffic. (b) a collective name for that architecture and set of protocols, specifying security protocols (AH and ESP, the Authentication Header and Encapsulating Security Payload), Security associations, PKI key management, and Algorithms for authentication and encryption. Besides SSL encryption and also 128-bit encryption and SSL digital certificates or 128-bit certificates, the set of security services include access control service, connectionless data integrity, data origin authentication for secure authentication or secure SSL authentication, protection against replays, data confidentiality service and limited traffic flow confidentiality.

A collection of Internet standards for protecting IP packets with encryption and authentication.