Comparison of Network Communication Security Levels Using DNSSEC and VPN on Public Network Infrastructure
Keywords:
DNSSEC, Virtual Private Network, Public Wi-Fi, Network Security, DNS Spoofing, Data EncryptionAbstract
The use of public Wi-Fi networks presents various security risks, such as Domain Name System (DNS) spoofing, network traffic eavesdropping, and man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks. DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are two security mechanisms that can be employed to mitigate these risks; however, they serve different functions and offer different scopes of protection. This study aims to analyze and compare the roles of DNSSEC and VPNs in addressing security threats on public Wi-Fi networks. A qualitative descriptive approach was adopted, utilizing a literature review and an analysis of the characteristics and protective scope of each mechanism. The analysis indicates that DNSSEC focuses on the authentication and integrity of DNS data through cryptographic signatures, whereas a VPN protects the confidentiality of network traffic via an encrypted tunnel. DNSSEC does not directly protect all network traffic from eavesdropping, while a VPN does not, by itself, guarantee the authenticity of DNS data. Consequently, these two mechanisms serve complementary functions and cannot fully replace one another. Using them in tandem can provide more comprehensive protection against specific threats on public Wi-Fi networks, provided that the configuration and implementation of each mechanism are carefully considered.
Downloads
References
F. P. E. Putra, A. B. Tamam, R. W. Efendi, and M. Z. Muim, “Optimasi keamanan DNS: Eksplorasi optimal dengan implementasi DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC),” Remik: Riset dan E-Jurnal Manajemen Informatika Komputer, vol. 8, no. 1, 2024, doi: 10.33395/remik.v8i1.13398.
[2] F. P. E. Putra, Y. Setiawan, S. Arifin, and W. Hidayatullah, “Peran VPN dalam menjaga privasi pengguna jaringan publik,” Jurnal Informatika dan Teknologi Komputer, vol. 5, no. 1, 2025, doi: 10.55606/jitek.v5i1.5834.
[3] F. P. E. Putra, K. R. A. Khofikur, Ridho, and Huda, “Analisis kinerja dan keamanan protokol PPTP dan L2TP/IPSec VPN pada jaringan MikroTik,” Infotek: Jurnal Informatika dan Teknologi, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 334–344, 2025, doi: 10.29408/jit.v8i2.30230.
[4] F. P. E. Putra, S. Dewi, Maugfiroh, and Hamzah, “Privasi dan keamanan penerapan IoT dalam kehidupan sehari-hari: Tantangan dan implikasi,” Jurnal Sistim Informasi dan Teknologi, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 26–32, 2023, doi: 10.37034/jsisfotek.v5i1.232.
[5] F. P. E. Putra, Khusaini, Amsori, and Anam, “Pengembangan sistem keamanan berbasis cloud dengan analisis efek avalanche pada jaringan perusahaan yang mengadopsi infrastruktur cloud,” Jurnal Informatika dan Teknologi Komputer, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 111–118, 2025, doi: 10.55606/jitek.v5i2.6913.
[6] F. P. E. Putra, Suhdi, Ramadhani, and Marzuq, “Integrasi teknologi kuantum dan fiber optik untuk meningkatkan keamanan dan efisiensi jaringan masa depan,” Jurnal Ilmiah ILKOMINFO: Jurnal Ilmu Komputer dan Informatika, vol. 8, no. 2, 2025.
[7] F. P. E. Putra, M. Dafid, and I. Syafi’i, “Firewall implementation as a computer network security strategy for data protection,” Brilliance: Research of Artificial Intelligence, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 291–297, 2025, doi: 10.47709/brilliance.v5i1.6162.
[8] I. Hidayatullah, M. H. Khairi, I. Maulana, and F. P. E. Putra, “Analisis protokol keamanan jaringan dalam era Internet of Things (IoT),” Infotek: Jurnal Informatika dan Teknologi, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 356–366, 2025, doi: 10.29408/jit.v8i2.30257.
[9] F. P. E. Putra, D. A. Siswoyo, M. I. A. Yaqin, and R. Oktavia, “Tinjauan regulasi siber dan kebijakan keamanan jaringan 5G: Perspektif nasional dan internasional,” Jurnal Ilmu Teknik dan Komputer (JITEK), vol. 5, no. 1, 2025, doi: 10.55606/jitek.v5i1.6141.
[10] F. Prasetyo, A. B. Tamam, R. W. Efendi, and M. Z. Mu’nim, “Pertahanan tingkat server terhadap serangan DNS spoofing di jaringan modern,” Jurnal Sistem Informasi, Teknologi Informatika dan Komputer, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 139–149, 2024, doi: 10.24853/justit.14.2.139-149.
[11] V. S. K. Rajak, Secure Remote Network: A Comprehensive Study to Secure Organization’s Remote Network and Setup Secure VPN. Doctoral dissertation, National College of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland, 2025.
[12] S. Khare and N. K. Walia, “Fortifying the cosmos: Advancing satellite communication security through cybersecurity protocols,” Cuestiones de Fisioterapia, vol. 54, no. 2, pp. 3459–3488, 2025, doi: 10.48047/0xz56f13.
[13] T. Mallick, A. Kundu, and R. Kompella, “Study of post quantum status of widely used protocols,” arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.28728, 2026, doi: 10.48550/arXiv.2603.28728.
[14] M. J. C. da Encarnacao, “InterNet: Packet interception for military networks,” 2025.
[15] S. Swain, S. Saha, R. Poddar, S. Bera, A. Bandyopadhyay, and V. Chouhan, “Quantum threat analysis of TLS, IPsec, and DNSSEC protocols using STRIDE and PASTA models,” F1000Research, vol. 15, Art. no. 881, 2026, first published Jun. 6, 2026, doi: 10.12688/f1000research.168473.1.
[16] K. Brandigampola, “Exploring security risks in cloud computing hosting and VPN: A systematic literature review,” 2026.
[17] V. Sharov, N. Tashatov, A. Shaikhanova, and V. Likhachev, “Securing CISCO DMVPN with IPSEC: Comparison of authentication methods and assessment of their security level,” in Cybersecurity, Digital Forensics, and AI Applications, p. 67.
[18] M. V. Malmalabaduge, A. Ahmed, M. Adeppady, and A. Da Silva, “The cost of zero trust: A comparative analysis of MACsec and IPsec architectures for secure open fronthaul,” in Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks, Jun. 2026, pp. 40–50, doi: 10.1145/3765613.3811686.
[19] D. Negi, V. Paruchuru, A. Dokania, M. Rallabandi, F. Antara, and A. Jain, “Optimizing cyber security measures against MITM attacks: A comparative analysis,” in Proceedings of the 2025 International Conference on Engineering, Technology & Management (ICETM), May 2025, pp. 1–6. IEEE.
[20] H. Weissteiner, R. Czerny, S. Franza, S. Gast, J. Ullrich, and D. Gruss, “Continuous user behavior monitoring using DNS cache timing attacks,” in Proceedings of the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS), Feb. 2026.
[21] Z. Čekerevac, “Firewall-based defense strategies against man-in-the-middle attacks,” MEST Journal, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 106–132, 2026.
[22] S. Latif, D. Djenouri, Z. Idrees, J. Ahmad, Q. U. A. Mastoi, and Z. Zou, “Hardware security modules for secure communications in the Industrial Internet of Things,” IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, vol. 28, pp. 64–108, 2025, doi: 10.1109/COMST.2025.3600161.
[23] M. Johnson, S. Singanamalla, N. Durand, E. H. B. Jang, S. Sevilla, and K. Heimerl, “dAuth: A resilient authentication architecture for federated private cellular networks,” in Proceedings of the ACM SIGCOMM 2024 Conference, Aug. 2024, pp. 373–391, doi: 10.1145/3651890.3672263.
[24] A. M. Shah and A. Gor, “Comprehensive survey of symmetric and public-key cryptographic algorithms: Foundations, attacks, and applications,” International Journal of Information and Future Research, vol. 12, pp. 20–38, 2025.
[25] M. A. M. Chowdhary, Financial Network Infrastructure: Scalability, Security and Optimization, 2025.
[26] S. E. V. S. Pillai and S. A. Vaddadi, “Secure communication protocols for enhancing privacy in 5G mobile networks,” in Proceedings of the 2024 IEEE 13th International Conference on Communication Systems and Network Technologies (CSNT), Apr. 2024, pp. 347–353. IEEE.
[27] A. Ablove, J. Walker, B. Wolin, N. Niere, F. Lange, A. Ortwein, et al., “Technical analysis of the Geedge Networks firewall source code leak,” in Proceedings of the 35th USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security ’26), 2026, pp. 3123–3141.
[28] I. Benhabbour and M. Dacier, “Endemic: End-to-end network disruptions—examining middleboxes, issues, and countermeasures: A survey,” ACM Computing Surveys, vol. 57, no. 7, pp. 1–42, 2025, doi: 10.1145/3716372.
[29] M. A. Salari, A. Kumar, F. Rinaudi, R. Tourani, A. Sacco, and F. Esposito, “Privacy analysis of oblivious DNS over HTTPS: A website fingerprinting study,” in Proceedings of the 2025 55th Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN), Jun. 2025, pp. 415–428. IEEE.
[30] S. Said, J. E. Hajlaoui, and M. N. Omri, “A survey on the optimization of security components placement in Internet of Things,” Journal of Network and Systems Management, vol. 32, no. 4, Art. no. 77, 2024.
[31] Y. M. Malgwi, F. K. George, C. Markus, and O. L. Chikaodiri, “An efficient security routing protocol for cloud-based networks using Cisco Packet Tracer,” Information Technology, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 49–67, 2024.
[32] Z. Wang, C. An, and J. Wang, “Argus Lens: Innovating Internet measurement infrastructure via relay services,” in Proceedings of Networking, 2025.
[33] S. Seidenberger, M. Beret, R. Wijewickrama, M. Jadliwala, and A. Maiti, “NinjaDoH: A censorship-resistant moving target DoH server using hyperscalers and IPNS,” arXiv preprint arXiv:2411.02805, 2024, doi: 10.48550/arXiv.2411.02805.
[34] G. C. BV, “RFC 9526: Simple provisioning of public names for residential networks,” 2024.
[35] J. Krawiec, P. Górny, and M. Kiedrowicz, “Security comparison of messaging protocols for Internet of Things.”
[36] S. Mohammad, A. Sajid, U. S. A. Abbasi, H. Razzaq, S. Yadav, and S. Khademizadeh, “A review on analyzing cloud computing and network cyber security threats: Issues and challenges with solutions,” Iraqi Journal of Information and Communication Technology, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 38–49, 2025, doi: 10.31987/ijict.8.1.288.
[37] S. Fenn and S. Parkinson, “Securing the eAIP: A cross-national assessment of web security controls in safety-critical aeronautical information infrastructure.”
[38] H. El-Taj and L. Miralam, “Network sniffing and its consequences: A comprehensive survey,” International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security (IJCSIS), vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 1–6, 2024.
[39] B. Halak, C. S. Csete, E. Joyce, J. Papaioannou, A. Pires, J. Soma, et al., “A security assessment tool for quantum threat analysis,” arXiv preprint arXiv:2407.13523, 2024, doi: 10.48550/arXiv.2407.13523.
[40] G. Leopizzi and A. Romanovs, “Development of a new server-to-server communication security approach,” in Proceedings of the 2024 IEEE 11th Workshop on Advances in Information, Electronic and Electrical Engineering (AIEEE), May 2024, pp. 1–6. IEEE.
[41] A. Ntib and P. Katrakazas, “Man-in-the-middle exploitation and grid-level impact quantification of OCPP telemetry falsification in EV charging infrastructure,” Available at SSRN, no. 6721328.
[42] P. F. Tehrani, E. Osterweil, T. C. Schmidt, and M. Wählisch, “A security model for web-based communication,” Communications of the ACM, vol. 67, no. 10, pp. 83–90, 2024, doi: 10.1145/3623292.
[43] N. K. Bamfo, C. Avornu, A. N. Otchill, H. C. Ibrahim, and R. N. Sai, “A systematic review of the impact of DNS-layer security mechanisms on internet network performance and threat mitigation,” International Journal of Innovative Research in Computer Science and Technology, vol. 13, no. 5, 2025, doi: 10.55524/ijircst.2025.13.5.1.
[44] A. Alexei and A. Alexei, “Towards more protected medical data: Assessing the security of web and email infrastructures in SMEs in the Republic of Moldova,” in Proceedings of the International Conference on Nanotechnologies and Biomedical Engineering. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature Switzerland, Sep. 2025, pp. 304–315.
[45] M. Raavi, S. Wuthier, and S. Y. Chang, “Securing post-quantum DNSSEC against fragmentation mis-association threat,” in Proceedings of the 2024 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), Jun. 2024, pp. 97–102. IEEE.
[46] M. Tawfik and N. Ahmed, “Security analysis of Internet protocols in modern network environments,” AlQalam Journal of Medical and Applied Sciences, pp. 1903–1915, 2026, doi: 10.54361/ajmas.269711.
[47] M. Dawood, S. Tu, C. Xiao, M. Haris, H. Alasmary, M. Waqas, and S. U. Rehman, “The impact of Domain Name Server (DNS) over Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) on cyber security: Limitations, challenges, and detection techniques,” Computers, Materials & Continua, vol. 80, no. 3, pp. 4513–4542, 2024.
[48] F. B. Wala and S. Bohacek, “Zone-hopping: Sensitive information leakage prevention for DNSSEC-NSEC,” in Proceedings of the 2024 54th Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks—Supplemental Volume (DSN-S), Jun. 2024, pp. 104–110. IEEE.
[49] T. Nal and M. Niemiec, “Analysis and evaluation of post-quantum cryptography for DNSSEC,” Quantum Information & Computation, vol. 25, no. 5, pp. 438–452, 2025.
[50] D. Diaz-Sanchez, F. Almenarez, C. Campo, C. García-Rubio, and S. Sherratt, “Beyond PKI: A DNSSEC delegation approach for scalable dynamic credential management in IoT,” IEEE Internet of Things Journal, 2025.
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 rizky maulidi (Penulis); abbad (Penerjemah)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
