New Secure Shell sFTP in IBM i 7.1 (V7R1)

We have been talking a lot recently about the benefits of FIELDPROC as being the main reason to upgrade to IBM i 7.1 (V7R1). Since IBM recently announced the end of support date for IBM i 5.4 (V5R4), we are seeing many shops planning upgrade projects and discussing whether to move their systems to V6R1 or V7R1. Without a doubt, V7R1 is the correct choice – it is even a fully supported V5R4 upgrade  path from IBM.  So, aside from FIELDPROC, what other security reason is there to skip V6R1?  Simply, the updates to Secure Shell sFTP.  I recently sat down with Patrick Townsend, Founder & CEO, to discuss how these updates can help further secure your data.

Another key security feature in V7R1 is a new version of the Secure Shell sFTP application. How is it different and better?

IBM has been making Open SSH available on the IBM i for quite some time. We had the ability to install it back on V5R3. It has become a very popular secure file transfer mechanism, especially for financial institutions. We are seeing large commercial banks across the board moving to Secure Shell sFTP for encrypted file transfers. IBM brings the latest version of SSH to each new release and V7R1 is no exception. The latest version has picked up new security features since the V5R4 release, some of which are quite important. I think moving to V7R1 and getting the latest version of Secure File Transfer (sFTP) is really important. We are learning from security professionals at the NSA, NIST, and SANS just how important it is to make sure the patches to our systems are up-to-date. So again, having the latest version of any security technology is imperative, which re-emphasizes skipping V6R1 when upgrading from V5R4.

Download our podcast “IBM i Security: Skip V6R1 and Upgrade to V7R1” for more information on the security reasons that you should go straight to V7R1. Additionally, we will discuss how Townsend Security can help you take advantage of FIELDPROC, a new addition to V7R1, which allows companies to encrypt their sensitive data without changing their applications.