SSH Communications Security, a developer of Internet security
technologies, today announced SSH Secure Shell 3.0, the
next-generation of its leading encryption software product designed
to protect end-users, businesses and developers from the most
common break-in method used by hackers — stealing passwords from
the Internet.
SSH Secure Shell 3.0 will be available in June for Linux, UNIX,
Sun Solaris, and Windows platforms. Exact pricing depends on
customer deployment.
SSH Secure Shell 3.0’s new functionality includes support for
PKI (Public Key Infrastructure), smart cards and the Rijndael
(proposed AES — Advanced Encryption Standard) algorithm. The SSH
Secure Shell 3.0 product provides transparent, strong security over
any IP-based connection for both client and server applications by
authenticating and encrypting terminal connections and file
transfers over the Internet.
According to Tatu Ylonen, founder, chairman and CTO of SSH, “The
integration of PKI and smart card functionality increases the
security of Internet communications for both corporate and end
users. Today’s Web-based applications such as e-commerce and mobile
computing require more than simple passwords or personal ID numbers
to ensure that Internet transactions remain confidential. SSH
Secure Shell 3.0 uses the latest authentication standards to expand
the security that users need to secure all remote log-ins, while
still delivering the ease-of-deployment and ease-of-use features
that SSH Secure Shell has become known for.”
SSH Secure Shell 3.0 new features include:
- PKI Support — With support for X.509 digital certificates, SSH
Secure Shell 3.0 easily integrates into a PKI environment,
enhancing the security in the login and authentication
processes. - Smart Card Support — Smart cards are becoming increasingly
popular as a token for safe storage of users’ credentials. Through
a PKCS#15 interface, SSH Secure Shell supports a variety of smart
cards that comply with this standard. - Rijndael (proposed AES) Support — SSH Secure Shell 3.0
supports this newly proposed encryption algorithm, originally
designed to protect sensitive government information but now widely
accepted as the next-generation standard for corporate and private
use. Once approved, AES will replace the aging DES (Data Encryption
Standard) and offer higher levels of performance, efficiency, ease
of implementation, and flexibility. - PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) — SSH Secure Shell 3.0
adds Windows support for PAM, the de facto standard for single
sign-on authentication services previously available only for Linux
and Solaris platforms. PAM allows system administrators to maintain
a flexible security policy management. - Kerberos 5 Enhancement — SSH Secure Shell adds flexibility for
system administrators by expanding the options for user
authentication on Unix-based client/server systems with support for
Kerberos. Kerberos is a popular network authentication protocol
developed by MIT.
About SSH Secure Shell
Invented in 1995 by Tatu Ylonen, Secure Shell is a program to log
into another computer over the Internet. Secure Shell secures the
connection over the Internet by encrypting passwords and other
data. Once launched, it transparently provides strong
authentication and secure communications over insecure networks.
Benefits of the Secure Shell technology include ease-of-use, strong
security and flexibility. With several million users in over 80
countries, it is the de-facto standard for remote logins, and
increasingly many organizations are completely prohibiting any
other form of access to their networks from the public
Internet.
Secure Shell protects terminal connections, file transfers,
e-mail access, graphical X11 (X Window System) applications, and
TCP/IP connections. Its main applications include Unix computers,
system administration, Web site administration, and remote access
to corporate resources over the Internet by employees or business
partners. SSH Secure Shell has been adopted by major
telecommunications suppliers (e.g., MCI), government agencies
(e.g., NASA), universities (e.g. Harvard), networking vendors
(e.g., Cisco), and numerous corporations.