Frequently Asked Questions

about our product and technology
  • . What is this device?
  • . The Prolaag Hardware VPL (Virtual Private Link) provides an ultra-secure point-to-point connection between separately located networks, using features typically found only in government and military-grade VPNs. Simply put, a pair of these devices can communicate with each other in a way that can't be hacked.
  • . What is it used for?
  • . Connecting two air-gapped networks together, over the Internet, without compromising their security.
  • . What's a VPL? How is it different from a VPN?
  • . VPL stands for Virtual Private Link, and it refers to an encrypted link between private, air-gapped networks. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, and is used generically to describe any encrypted tunnel between computers or networks, whether they're public or private. Short answer: a VPL is a type of VPN (the most secure kind).
  • . Can this encrypt my Internet traffic like E-Mail, cell phone calls, etc?
  • . In general, no. Our VPL provides a secure link between networks. It does not provide security for general Internet use like email or phone calls.
  • . Can this encrypt internal-network-only VoIP calls?
  • . Yes! The Prolaag VPL natively supports Cisco SPA-30x model VoIP phones, which means you can easily place ultra-secure point-to-point calls between two internal networks. Or you may set up your own VoIP infrastructure and use this device as a VPN only.
  • . What's your VoIP call quality like?
  • . Like this:
  • . Can this encrypt internal-network-only E-Mail?
  • . Yes! Our device connects separate networks and will pass any traffic between them. This includes any internal services you run, like E-Mail, FTP, etc. In general, any traffic that can pass over a TCP/IP network can pass over the Prolaag Hardware VPL.
  • . How can you guys offer a product that competes with military network encryptors at such a lower price? What did you sacrifice to get the costs down?
  • . A few things - For one, our product isn't physically hardened; it isn't designed to survive IED blasts. It's also designed to protect smaller networks (tens of hosts rather than hundreds) at correspondingly lower bandwidths. We also don't build in remote administration interfaces (which is a good thing apart from keeping costs down). But the main reason we're less expensive is that, since we're not selling to militaries, we have to be competitive on price. At no point did we compromise on security.
  • . I use TOR, so my communications are safe, right?
  • . TOR offers anonymity, not confidentiality, so your communications might be a certain kind of safe. TOR is an excellent protocol, but you still need endpoint protection. Bruce Schneier provides a great explanation why.
  • . How is this different from the multitude of VPN services I already know about?
  • . The VPN services with which most home users are familiar are anonymizing VPNs. Anonymizing VPNs provide the service of obscuring where you actually are when accessing the internet. These VPNs provide a degree of anonymity. The Prolaag Hardware VPL, on the other hand, provides confidentiality and device protection through network isolation.
  • . If my network is air-gapped, how do I keep my internal systems patched?
  • . You don't need to! That's the beauty of network isolation. Even if a vulnerability is discovered in the software you're running within your private network, you're still 100% protected because that device is not accessible from the Internet.
  • . Why do you tout "no 3rd party libraries" as a feature?
  • . We hold our software to a much higher testing standard than the authors of other libraries. It also means we have zero extraneous code and a correspondingly infinitesimal surface area.
  • . Does that mean you guys rolled your own crypto?
  • . No, we only use existing, public, well-understood encryption algorithms. Specifically, our box uses two: AES and OTP. Both have been around for a long time and have been extremely well-vetted.

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