Why isn all network data encrypted by default?
As with the above analogy, it takes a lot of processing power to encrypt data and as a result, data transfer may be slow. Most trusted local area networks do not need encryption – The Maths Institute network is one of them. All network connections made from the Institute workstations to the servers (inside the Institute or DH) go through a series of Network Switches which only allow a single route to the server. The result of this is that nobody can ‘sniff’ your network traffic. The Internet is not a trusted network. When you connect to your ISP, it can go through many routers before it gets to our servers, and many people can view your data. For this reason, it’s useful to have an encrypted tunnel to protect your sensitive data when it crosses over the dangerous Internet.
