When it comes the time to choose a terminal emulation solution to access your host, the most important consideration is the scope of security features that will cover the connection, authentication, and cryptographic protocols.
The present blog post will focus on the main reasons to adopt the newest Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol with z/Scope Terminal Emulator and our Host Integration Pack.
From Wikipedia:
- Transport Layer Security (TLS), and its now-deprecated predecessor, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), are cryptographic protocols designed to provide communications security over a computer network. Several versions of the protocols find widespread use in applications such as web browsing, email, instant messaging, and voice over IP (VoIP). Websites can use TLS to secure all communications between their servers and web browsers.
The TLS protocol has two layers: the TLS Record Protocol and the TLS Handshake Protocol. TLS Record Protocol provides connection security and grants that the connection is private and reliable.
On the other hand, the TLS Handshake Protocol allows the server and client to authenticate each other and to negotiate an encryption algorithm and cryptographic keys before the application protocol (such as HTTP) transmits or receives its first byte of data. When the TLS Handshake Protocol is solid enough, the negotiation is reliable and you can be sure that no attacker can modify the negotiation communication. For more technical details about TLS, click here.
TLS 1.1 end of life
Formerly, TLS was also known as “SSL” or “SSL 1.1” (instead of “TLS 1.1”).
TLS/SSL protocol was supported since we released the first z/Scope version, and up to this year, it was a highly secure standard accepted by most hosts.
Recent updates deprecated SSL and TLS 1.1, making TLS 1.2 & TLS 1.3 the new security standards for highly secure websites. So it’s now being advised an upgrade to these protocols for all terminal emulator users.
All our terminal emulation software solutions support TLS 1.2 & TLS 1.3 on its latest builds (v6.5 and v6.6, respectively):
Contact our technical support team to check the software build you are running and get assistance with the update is this is required in your case.