What is TLS?
Transport Layer Security, more commonly known as TLS, is a security protocol for establishing encryption channels in order to provide secure communications over computer networks. Currently, MSP360 supports TLS 1.2, which is far more secure than TLS 1.0 and 1.1.
TLS 1.0 was released in 1999, making it a nearly 20-year-old security protocol. For several years now, it has been known to be vulnerable to attacks in addition to using weak cryptographic algorithms. TLS 1.0 does not keep a connection sufficiently secure.
TLS 1.1 was released in 2006, in order to protect against vulnerabilities seen in version 1.0. However, it was soon superseded by TLS 1.2, which was released two years later in 2008.
Most modern operating systems and browsers use TLS 1.2 by default, because it provides the highest level of encryption and security. Only very old browsers and older operating systems like Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 still use TLS 1.0 or TLS 1.1, which are no longer considered to be secure. Note: if you are using Windows 8 or Windows 2012 and higher, this will not affect you.
Why is MSP360 deprecating TLS 1.0 and 1.1?
The continued support of TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 poses a significant security risk for our customers. MSP360 has always practiced a security-first approach to developing solutions for MSPs and IT teams worldwide. We have supported these older TLS protocols for more than 10 years in order to serve our customers using older Windows operating systems as best as possible. However, because of evolving regulatory requirements and new security vulnerabilities in TLS 1.0 and 1.1, MSP360 will be deprecating support for transport layer security 1.0 and 1.1 on July 1st, 2022.
What to do if you’re still using TLS 1.0 and 1.1
We recommend that all customers remove TLS 1.0 and 1.1 dependencies in their technology environments and disable TLS 1.0 and 1.1 at the operating system level wherever possible.
If you have Windows XP/Vista or Windows Server 2003/2008 (not R2) machines in your environment running our backup agent, we recommend performing migration to newer operating systems that are supported by Microsoft, such as Windows 10/11 and Windows Server 2016 or higher.
If you're running Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (SP2) or Windows 7/Windows Server 2008 R2, please check our TLS Operating Systems Instructions for steps to take.
For additional resources and information, please visit the links below:
