SSH Pioneers Internet Security; SSH Communications Security to Announce Version 2.0 of the Famous SSH Cryptography Program

Business Wire, August 24, 1998

ESPOO, Finland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--August 24, 1998--SSH Communications Security Ltd., the developer of the popular SSH (Secure Shell) secure remote login program, now offers radical improvements in security for internet users. The newly announced SSH 2.0 version includes new routines, which are based on the new and innovative SSH2 protocol.

"The first version of SSH helped computer users work over networks with confidential data and made cryptography a common method for this. SSH2 now responds to the increasing cryptography demands of the users. It provides a possibility to transmit all confidential files securely, not just logins, all the way from their own personal computers", says Tatu Ylonen, the inventor of SSH, and CTO, SSH Communications Security.

SSH2 code is totally rewritten to optimize security and speed. It is compatible with the old SSH program and new servers can serve both SSH version one and SSH2 protocols. The updated SSH 2.0 now includes new routines for cryptography, which makes the program much faster. The new SSH2 protocol provides more security and allows future integration into public key infrastructures.

New secure FTP breaks through

Now users can take secure terminal sessions and also transmit files over the internet by using a protocol similar to the popular ftp (File Transfer Protocol) protocol. Secure ftp (sftp) is a part of SSH 2.0 product and supports all standard ftp functionality.

To enable the use of certificates, SSH 2.0 standards track supports Public Key Infrastructures (PKIs). SSH 2.0 works well without a certificate infrastructure for fast deployment, and support for X.509 certificates is possible for maximum security.

No unencrypted passwords in the network

TCP/IP environment has primitive security measures and everybody with a little bit of knowledge can break it. SSH protocol can automatically encrypt, authenticate and compress transmitted data. It provides support for secure remote logins, secure file transfer, and secure TCP/IP. It requires a minimum or no manual interaction from users and it is very easy to deploy and take into use.

SSH is especially suitable of remote administration of computing systems. The high security passwords of the system administrators and the commands are never transmitted in clear text, which would give an attacker the chance to attack the whole computing system of a corporation.

Data Fellows, the leading security software company, markets the commercial version of SSH program under their F-Secure product line.

SSH Communications Security Ltd. is an international software company specialized in demanding network security solutions. SSH provides cutting-edge, military strength cryptographic solutions for securing internet communications. The company's SSH (Secure Shell) application has become the de-facto standard for secure logins, and is being used by hundreds of thousands of people in more than 50 countries. SSH IPSEC Express toolkit is the market leader in providing IPSEC (Internet Protocol Security) and IKE (Internet Key Exchange) technology to OEM customers.

For more information, please see http://www.ipsec.com.

    CONTACT: SSH Communications Security Ltd.
              Arlinda Sipila, 011-358-94354-3221
              E-mail: sata@ssh.fi