Mobile VPN.

A virtual private network designed for smartphones and tablets, tunnelling traffic from a mobile device to a corporate gateway or a privacy-focused provider over cellular and Wi-Fi links. It belongs to the Mobile Security category of cybersecurity.

A virtual private network designed for smartphones and tablets, tunnelling traffic from a mobile device to a corporate gateway or a privacy-focused provider over cellular and Wi-Fi links.

Mobile VPNs use protocols such as IKEv2/IPsec, WireGuard, and OpenVPN, with platform features like iOS Per-App VPN and Always-On VPN on Android Enterprise allowing fine-grained control. Enterprises deploy them through MDM to gate access to internal apps and pair them with conditional access; consumers use them to encrypt traffic on untrusted Wi-Fi and to mask their IP. Risk areas include malicious or low-trust VPN apps in app stores that log and sell user traffic, DNS leaks, kill-switch failures that expose traffic when the tunnel drops, and split-tunnel misconfigurations. For high-risk users, Mobile VPNs are increasingly being replaced or complemented by ZTNA solutions that authenticate per request rather than tunnelling all traffic to one perimeter.

Defences for Mobile VPN typically combine technical controls and operational practices, as detailed in the full definition above.

Common alternative names include: Mobile virtual private network, Phone VPN.